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 #:
000194
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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18] conveying of dream-states, while Impressionist films badd’ to avoid dream-situations and use mental images to indieate waking states of memory and fantasy. Consider now a shot which occurs in Epstein's Coeur Fidele. A young barmaid has just watched her lover leave her. A close-up of her dissolves Slowly to a shot of boats dumping garbage into the sea. The following image is of the flotsam superimposed over her face. By such an optical effect, Epstein has suggested the character's wistful resignation to her sordid life. This shot exemplifies what Mitry calls the semi-subjective image, in which a character is included within the frame but optical distortions and stylization suggest the character's mood or psychological attitude. Unlike the purely mental image, the semi-subjective shot is not completely imaginary, since the character is seen in his or her real surroundings; the image has an imaginary component. Seventeen Impressionist films contain examples of optical devices used in such semi-subjective fashion. For example, L'Inhumaine and La Glace 4 Trois Faces’ both contain shots of the hero driving his car down the highway; although the angle is from behind his back, several images of moving roads are superimposed over him, thus signifying the ride's speed as he experiences it. In El Dorado,