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 #:
000223
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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210 film is built on such patterns. Both films make extensive use of optical devices (prismatic images, masks, etc.) for magical and pictorial effect, but only La Roue uses them to indicate various Subjective states (fantasy, memory , mood, and near-blindness). Both filns rely heavily on editing, but only La Roue uses editing to indicate flashbacks or fantasy. The editing in La Roue often links glances and objects, whereas in Ballet Mécanique, the repeated image of a woman's eye opening and closing becomes a graphic element in its own right and has no spatial or temporal relation to the objects shown in adjacent shots. Finally, whereas both films use rhythmic editing, Ballet Mécanique juxtaposes objects, figures, and actions for purely graphic effect, while La Roue uses accelerated rhythm to suggest the pace of the characters' experiences. In sum, La Roue and Ballet Mécanique belong to different Styles, the one Impressionist and the other "abstract." Both Kean and Nana share a common subject--the life and loves of a famous Stage performer--but the style paradigm permits us to see the former as owing more to ImpresSlonism than the latter does. First, Kean contains many extreme close-ups of people (Kean, his admirers, his servants) and especially of dramatically significant ob jects (a side drum, a bouquet, carriage wheels), but Nana