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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 #:
000196
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% characteristic of Impressionism are attempts to render physiologically confused or inadequate modes of perception by optical devices, this occurs in eleven Impressionist films examined. In L'Argent, for example, when Jacques realizes that he has gone blind, he stares at his hand, and a subjective close-up shows it blurring from his viewpoint. La Roue contains many instances: the half-blinded Sisif sees multiple superimpositions of trains passing; when he gets spectacles, subjective close-ups show a glass of wine and his pipe from his now-focused vantage point; later, as his sight fails again, subjective shots show his blurred vision of the distant mountains. Terror renders..a, witness confused in. Le Diable' dans la Ville, and he sees the crowd in triple-exposed and distorted images. In L'Auberge Rouge, a weeping thief sees the magistrate as a blurry shape... Such optically subjective distortions occur in only one non-Impressionist film, making them highly characteristic of Impressionist style. To summarize: apart from conventional uses of optical devices, Impressionist films contain several characteristic. functions. of such devices. .First, optical work may simply stylize an image, bringing out pictorial qualities. Second, optical images may function as comment, indicating symbolic meanings. Both of: these. functions,