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

CREATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE ART OF THE CAMERA-MAN We have already said that the camera-man must not be limited in his choice >f representational resources and methods of shooting. He has the right to xploit all expressive resources without exception in order to reveal the content jid the artistic function of the film, treated from the standpoint of our socialist eality. But this raises a fundamental problem. Will not such an attitude lead n practice to compositional eclecticism, to the violation of the aesthetic integrity if the shot-editing system ? The question is highly important not only in principle, but in practice. Think of a film in which the various episodes and even shots are taken in very lifferent styles. Let us suppose that there are action sections given sharp optical reatment, then editing cut-ins consisting of optically softened landscape shots, iven a primitive editing assembly of these shots, so sharply different from one mother in texture, will reveal the lack of compositional harmony. In technical anguage, these shots cannot be cut together, and that means that the style of the :diting ' phrase ', which has its own special laws, has been violated. It means hat the cutting transition from one shot to another becomes visible to the audience, and the continuity of the visual perception of the film is broken. Here the visual factors of the cutting-joins follow the line not of a functional sequence, but )f a representational one. And this highly essential factor demands that the camera-man should possess remendous creative sensitiveness, for the maximum intensification of the imageinks of all the shots in a representational system is one of the most important asks of composition. In a film the editing-join ought to exist only technically, ind should never be perceptible to the spectator. When the camera-man begins o film a single episode or scene he must have a clear idea of all the consequences )f logical transition from one method to another. Where the editing compositional scheme is worked out in advance, fortuitously cut-in editing interruptions, aken with methods fundamentally inapplicable in the limits of the given scene, :annot occur. While the method must be theoretically conceived from the aspect )f the general conception of the film, it is also necessary to determine what iignificance that method will have in the stylistic system of the particular episode )f the film. Otherwise the rhythmic and image link of the episode is violated, vhich leads to an eclectic assembly of shots heterogeneous and forcibly divorced from one another. Thus the method should be conceived not only from the standpoint of the itylistic construction of the film as a whole, but also from that of the stylistics of the ndividual episodes. However, even that is not sufficient. When making a film 3ased on a scenario written up from material of a literary classic the camera-man is Confronted with a new demand. In the representational treatment of such a ilm he must catch and manifest the characteristic peculiarities of the literary Composition, and the style which will distinguish it from a ' free screen adaptation \ We recall Pushkin's " Postmaster " and compare this work with the film of the same name. What space does Pushkin give to landscape, what is the character )f his description of it, and how are the landscape shots reproduced in the film ? We can find not only no compositional correspondence whatever, but not even .he minimum of approximation to the original. Although from the aspect of :he social treatment of the theme and narrative such a contradiction is sometimes quite suitable, on the representational plane such a contempt for the original material can hardly be regarded as desirable. This example testifies to the importance of the camera-man having acquaintance not only with the scenario of the film but also with the literary sources which 225