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

CREATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE ART OF THE CAMERA-MAN imbodiment of an artistic conception involves a compositional comprehension of :very detail, accenting certain factors, suppressing others and excluding them rom the field of vision. In certain cases compositional generalisation presupposes listortion of the object filmed, and this also does not contradict the conception )f realism. From the following example one can judge of the importance that nethods of deliberate distortion of the object can have in achieving greater expressiveness. ^ Suppose we have to shoot the scene describing Tchitchikov's visit to sobakevitch. We quote the whole of Gogol's text of this scene. Tchitchikov gave Sobakevitch a sidelong glance, and thought at that moment that he jeemed very like an average-sized bear. . . . . . . Tchitchikov looked around the room once more, and all that was in it : everything was stable, clumsy to the highest degree, and had a strange resemblance to the master of the house. In one corner of the reception-room stood a bellied walnut bureau 3n four extremely absurd legs — a perfect bear. The table, armchairs, chairs — all was of the heaviest and of disturbing quality ; in a word every chair said : ' And I'm also Sobakevitch ', or, ' And I'm also very like Sobakevitch ! ' In treating the foregoing scene we could observe the simplest principle of clear transmission of the texture of the furniture. But a deeper understanding of the physiognomy of the objects, arising out of the characteristics of Sobakevitch 's image, dictates quite a special treatment of those objects. It would be advisable to choose a lower viewpoint, so giving them monumentalism and great ponderousness. It would be advisable to use an extremely short-focus lens, so giving the objects a sharply distorted twist. It would be advisable to seek a similar method of lighting for the close-ups of Sobakevitch and for the details of the furniture superficially resembling him. Would all this be ' distortion of reality ', would it contradict the principle of realism ? By no means. It would be a correct generalisation of the individual features, intended to emphasise the whole with the greatest completeness and expressiveness. It would be an active demonstration of artistic visualisation with the aid of the representational resources of camera-man's technique. So that, when it is directed towards the expressive exposition of the artistic intention, the deliberate distortion of the object shot does not necessarily contradict the principle of realistic representation. But deliberate distortion of the object also has its limits. In cases where the specific quality of the. material masters the camera-man, where a clear subject motivation yields place to an aesthetic delight in dimensions and texture, the bounds of real perception are obliterated, and we come up against formalistic treatment of the shot. By way of example we may adduce certain works of Dziga Vertov, in which, despite the presence of thematics which closely approximate to the views we entertain, the exposition of industrial might grows into the formalism of the exhibition of the machine as an end in itself, its aesthetic triumph. To many shots in his pictures the words of Buzzi, the poet of machinism, are applicable : " Glory to thee, machine — polished steel. . . . You force millions of people to live. Like an apparition you are set above the ant-heaps. Create machines which in their turn will create new machines — the sole heroines in the drama of the future." The loss of real motivation for the content of the shot, the surpassing of the bounds of real subject perception of the material lead to the method as such acquiring self-sufficing importance, and then the composition becomes a purely 221