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

Page scan 000133 from French Impressionist Cinema: Film Culture, Film Theory, and Film Style

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 #:
000133
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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120. of mise-en-scéne the in German Expressionism) is intrinSically cinematic. Epstein writes of Caligari's "hypertrophy" of decor, while Cendrars denies that Caligari 1s cinematic because it ignores the transforming powers of the camera: "Les déformations ne sont pas agken un et ne dependent pas de l'angle unique de l'appareil de prise de vues, ni de l'objectif, ni du diaphragme, ni de la mise au point. Aucune purification du métier, tous les effets obtenus a l'aide de moyens appartenant 4 la peinture, a la musique, a la littérature, etc. On ne voit nulle part l'appareil de prise de vues."80 ‘Thus the role of the camera--what Epstein later called "l'intelligence d'un machine"--remains greater than that of mise-en-scéne. According to the Impressionists, then, the film image's mystery comes from the fact that photogénie Simultaneously reveals a hidden meaning in material reality and subjectively transforms that reality through film technique. But doesn't every film do this to at least Some degree? Impressionists would answer yes, and at this point the normative emphasis reappears. Given the image's basic capacities, it is foolish to try to bend the image to a purely recording function. The film-maker should Swim with the current, so to speak; the film-maker should capitalize on the cinema's natural expressive potential.