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 #:
000234
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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, eT relies wholly on mise-en-scéne to structure our setention within each scene. Neither camera angle and distance nor editing gives the slightest clue to the workings of the characters' minds; we have only their overt behavior to go on. Feuillade's style is perfectly suited to his mystery plot, which hinges on the permanent possibility of deception: if a hero may turn out to be really a villain; :Feuillade's style must not Spoil the surprise by revealing the hero's villainous thoughts before the Villainy is enacted. Similarly, Feuillade'ts style abstains from any overt comment , drawing no parallels between the film's. situations and; say, mythological or historical situations. In contrast, Gance's style in J'Accuse is at pains to mediate, explain, and interpret. We are in no doubt as to the mental lives of the characters: characters! fears and imaginings are pictorialized by means of Superimpositions; memories and. fantasies interrupt the narrative; vivid point-of-view shots Fr aoe down the barrel of a gun) present us with characters' optical vantage points on events. The perceptual, emotional, and mental activity of the characters is presented. not. only in their behavior but also through camerawork, editing, and optical devices. Similarly, the style draws symbolic parallels, likening a war parade to a danse macabre and a battle to classical war paintings. In sum, J'Accuse,