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

THE CINEMA AS A GRAPHIC ART formalistic combination of dimensions, planes, and light and shade, void of all intrinsic content. In isolated cases formalism in representational treatment also arises when the camera-man completely neglects the specific features of the concrete material, and is guided only by his own subjective perceptions. Dead compositional allegories and the juxtaposition of details, symbolism which emasculates a definitely sensitive relationship to the artistic image, are the result of such a method of work. In the camera-man's decision of the compositional task his startingpoint must be a vital, picturesque idea of real things in their variety of associations and relationships, and not a geometrical juxtaposition of dimensions and planes, introduced from outside as a rational scheme. Thus, the creative method of the Soviet camera-man presupposes an active, socially informed relationship to the ideological conception of the scenario, and an analysis of the definite material of the film from the aspect of the governing criterion of realistic selection and organisation of the expressive elements. This governing criterion is socialist reality with its philosophy and stylistic system. The Soviet camera-man may not construct his compositional generalisations only on the basis of his own subjective and isolated superficial perceptions, for such a method of cognising reality limits his understanding of the artistic purpose and images of the film. Neither may he construct his work on the simple borrow' ing of the styles of someone else's artistic school, for that would mean introducing organically alien elements from outside. Does all this mean that we at all deny the importance to the camera-man's ' craft of a definite visual culture, understood as an individual ability of perception and estimation of what is seen ? Not at all. The specific features of the cameraman's art demand that he should possess a highly developed visual culture, an educated perception of form, dimension, space and light and shade. An uneducated eye [says the painter Ferdinand Hodler] sees the form and light of things not as does an experienced eye. It does not understand all the value of the phenomenon, the rhythm of the form, engendered by movement, pose, and gesture. Most difficult of all is to trace the tempo of movement. One may recognise a man's face, even though one has completely forgotten the shape of his head. Looking at a tree, you know it is a maple, and so on, that the tree is large or small. And that is all. Anyone who wishes to represent that tree must in addition have a perception of the proportion of each individual part of it. But the unprepared eye never can capture the proportion of an object distributed on a plane. It is not easy to discriminate the special role essential to each thing in a general vital arrangement. . . . To see, means ' to know.' Deprived of an artistic perception of the form of an object, the rhythm of movement, the play of light and shade, the camera-man can never raise himself to the level of producing an aesthetically perfect composition, combining the ideological content with representational craftsmanship. A visually effective interpretation of the content is possible only provided there is an innate or educated perception of formal elements, and that is one of the necessary qualities of the camera-man artist. In exactly the same way our understanding of the tasks of the Soviet cameraman's creative method in no way denies the importance of the artistic legacy of contiguous spheres of art. For example, can the camera-man exploit various methods of impressionist painting ? In our view there is a fundamental difference between the critical exploitation of the experience of impressionist painting within the limits of a 222