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

CREATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE ART OF THE CAMERA-MAN lepends primarily on the motivation which we deduce from the ideological and artistic ask of the various scenes. . . . The waters of the Baltic are very different material in texture from those of the Black Sea. Kronstadt is not Sevastopol. The Baltic coast is not the Black Sea shore. The ;ky of the Gulf of Finland is not the cloud of the Black Sea coast. This determines the iifference in the optical treatment of the various episodes which develop with the Baltic ind not the Black Sea as background. . . . In the picture " We from Kronstadt " the specific features of the local colouration jhould be transmitted in plastic images. The mist, wind, dusk, granite, iron, the industrial night of the vessels of war are the typical Kronstadt colouration, which to some extent is in contrast to the sunlit surroundings of the Black Sea coast. In the first part of the film the main emphasis is laid on the exposition of the setting, which predetermines the sharp exposition of the texture of the material. But later on these elements must be thrust into the background, since the emphasis is transferred to the development of the narrative action. . . . We shall strive for composition in numerous distantial planes, which will enable as to reveal the space in the shot in all its variety, and to avoid impoverishing it with flat constructions of two-plane composition, etc. We shall not stop to analyse the essence of the foregoing excerpt, for we only wish to emphasise the new conception of style which characterises the recognised creative method of a Soviet camera-man artist. This new conception of their creative tasks can be illustrated by another example from work by the same camera-man. In the picture " Woman " there is a scene in which a kulak attempts to persuade a collective farmer to leave the collective farm. He tells him of the joys of pre-revolutionary life, of the fruitfulness of having one's own land, of the satisfaction and rewards from ' genuine farm labour ', and so on. The kulak's speech, which is given in sub-titles, is illustrated by a number of shots which, edited on the principle of contrast, refute the whole argument, and show the heavy, servile labour, the hunger and death of the poor villager, working for the kulak, who exploits the fruitfulness of the earth. These scenes were shot in a style of specially emphasised aestheticism, softly, decoratively, exuberantly, with a certain sugary stylisation. Thus the methods of shooting were in sharp contradiction to the content of the shots, and this contrast disclosed the hypocrisy of the kulak philosophy, which adorns reality and represents it in rosy, captivating hues. Thus the methods of shooting were on the one hand in organic connection with the character of the kulak's speech, and on the other in sharp contradiction to the content of the shots taken. By force of this contradiction, intelligent application of camera-man's methods succeeded in emphasising the gloom and oppression of the village poor simultaneously with the hypocrisy of the kulak. For us, we repeat, the conception of style in camera-man's art acquires quite a different significance from the mechanical schematism of choosing representational resources homogeneous in their character. The style of Soviet art, the style of socialist realism, involving a just revelation and reflection of reality in all its variety, dictates that the camera-man must have a new understanding of his creative tasks and an active relationship to the thematics and content of the filmed picture. This primarily connotes that he must be actively included in the cognising process with which a genuine artistic creation is inevitably associated. The task of the Soviet camera-man consists in finding the guiding element in the aggregate of phenomena, in isolating the essential from the unessential, in approaching his analysis of the content of the scenario and the material of the film on a social basis, in generalising and expressing in 219