French Impressionist Cinema: Film Culture, Film Theory, and Film Style (December 1974)

Record Details:

Title:
French Impressionist Cinema: Film Culture, Film Theory, and Film Style
Date:
December 1974
Publisher:
University of Iowa
Volume:
French Impressionist Cinema: Film Culture, Film Theory, and Film Style (Dissertation, 1974)
Leaf #:
00049
Language:
English
Collection:
Global Cinema
Format:
dissertations
Contributor:
Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Doctoral dissertation entitled, "French Impressionist Cinema: Film Culture, Film Theory, and Film Style," by film scholar David Bordwell. Submitted to the University of Iowa in 1974. Document is scanned from the David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson papers, archived at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.
Date Added:
May 23, 2024
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36 outnumbered the French product by a ratio of four ito ane: out of 1132 films distributed in 1919, 839 were American and only 208 were French, while in 1921, 651 American films overwhelmed 163 French films.4/ By the early 1920's, it was obvious to many French cinéastes that the American cinema had virtually taken over France. 28 Contemporary records of the following decade present an even more astonishing picture, with American films dominating Freneh releases by a ratio of eight to one.?? Although America's margin was cut Slightly by German releases after 1927, America still ruled the French market through the 1920's. That the American films were popular is evident not only from the extent to which they overran the market, but also from the French industry's frantic attempt to imitate the Yankee product. What Charles Pathé called "la crise du scénario" was essentially the inability of French producers to create as appealing films as the Americans had. Convinced that study of Hollywood produection methods would revivify the French industry, Pathé urged French film-makers to write scenarios which leave nothing to improvisation, and which specify the length of the scene, the mise-en-scéne, and the locales; to take advantage of the perfections which the Americans had made in technique; and to specialize production duties