The cinema as a graphic art : on a theory of representation in the cinema (1959)

THE CINEMA AS A GRAPHIC ART This is essentially the same process which is to be observed in pictorial art, when the, impressionists' pictures first appeared to replace the studies in the nude that filled the exhibitions. The impressionists exhibited not so much the object which was the main one in the particular picture, as the atmosphere around that object. And this Moskvin; introduced into photography. Our chief error consisted in the fact that we sought tor style in the pictorial material of the given epoch, and not as the result of an analysis of the reality of that epoch. This is a very serious problem, one which affects the general problems of cinematography. But I wish here to concentrate attention only on the problem of photography. Hence arose our over-estimate of the pictorial legacy, hence all the traditions, all the knowledge which we could gain from the pictorial arts hung, perhaps as a very light, but later as a very heavy burden around the neck of our camera art.1 This transition to exploitation of pictorial experience, with the aid of which the camera-man endeavoured to manifest the character of the epoch, partially determined the representational treatment of the film " New Babylon ", which in respect to its purely formal achievements is one of the most perfect examples of the camera-man's art (Figs. 118, 119). In the film " Alone ", and in Moskvin's latest work, " The Youth of Maxim ", a transition to new creative positions on the part of the camera-man is to be discerned. These films provide examples of deeper work on natural material, on manifesting the characteristics of the actor's image. They reveal his endeavour to make the dramaturgy of the scenario and the study of the real setting in which the action of the film develops the starting-point in his work. These features are especially manifested in the later of these two works of Moskvin, "The Youth of Maxim", where they receive their most advanced development. (Fig. 120.) Moskvin's creative road and the course of his evolution are characteristic of the main motive tendencies in the Soviet camera-man's art. They are a departure from the influence of Western cinematography, a departure from the mechanical imitation of pictorial art, towards the study of living reality and the definite circumstances and style of the epoch finding reflection in the given film. The same tendencies are to be noted in the work of the camera-man I. Martov, in the films " Golden Mountains " and " Counterplan ". These are particularly interesting from the aspect of creative movements in the camera-man's work. Martov is trying to approximate to a realistic transmission of the images of the film without superficial aestheticisation and ' decorative formulation ' of individual shots. The heightened tone in " Counterplan ", the harsh optical treatment, the absence of compositional pretentiousness and false stylisation are all manifestations of the latest tendencies in the camera-man's art (Figs. 121, 122). In 1927-8 a school of camera-men emerged in the Ukraine which found outstanding expression in the works of the great master A. Dovzhenko. This school is one which also has its basis in pictorial tendencies, especially strongly manifested in cinematographic ' paysages '. In the films " Arsenal ", " Earth ", and " Ivan " the light-plastic treatment of the material is the predominant one, which still further witnesses to the pictorial resources of this tendency. The films of the most recent period, the work of Feldman, L. Kosmatov, V. Gordanov, V. Pronin, Shelenkov, A. Galperin, A. Kaltsaty, M. Gindin, B. Volchek and many others mark the general growth of artistic culture among the ranks of the camera-men. They are no longer content with reproduction of individual pictorial compositions and the methods of pictorial art ; they are consciously applying all that can help them expressively to reveal the content 1 Shorthand report of the Leningrad Conference of Cinema Camera-men, 1933. 202