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MOVIE MAKERS
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stances which create that situation.
Another unity to aim at is that of character. What happens, as the picture progresses, to the person or object or event which has been selected as the main theme? Is the development consistent? Is it "in character?" Is it credible? Are the bounds of possibility respected?
An effort to introduce striking contrasts and dramatic surprises (excusable if the picture is so poor that the audience must be stabbed awake from time to time ! ) may ruin the picture by violating the unity of character. It is human to be interested in situations as they develop, so long as the development is credible. The story as told in the picture must start from what really exists and must not lead the audience out of the real world of probability.
Does this sound like a commendation of the movie that presents from moment to moment only what we felt sure would happen once we saw the beginning? That is not what we mean. The point simply is that surprises which appear from around the corner, unpredictable developments, growth, changes of purpose in the characters, should not be portrayed in a way which suggests that we have been watching an alchemist or a miracle worker. (Mystification of the audience would be appropriate in a specialized mystery thriller, but even there the solution of the mystery, when it appears, must not seem far fetched or wholly out of character.)
We have so far imagined ourselves asking what we want to say. and whether the way we propose to say it would make it valid or credible. We must also ask ourselves why we want to say it at all! There is a third unity we must respect, the unity of purpose.
Is our purpose to entertain? Then selection of scenes, control of details and creation of atmosphere must contribute to the entertainment value of the completed picture. Or is it our purpose to inform and instruct? Then some definite standards are applicable which it would be unsuitable to impose on a picture meant to amuse. ( Exactness and truth of statement, for instance.)
Or is our intention to express, as appropriately as the medium of film art permits, a personal reaction to and appreciation of some experience of beauty? Then the picture is essentially a work of art, and various considerations enter in which we should have to exclude if we were content to give momentary pleasure or were anxious only to convey exact knowledge.
What we ask of a good movie, in this connection, is that between its beginning and its end there be a unity of purpose. The product must not seem to us like a series of things said by a series of people. A characteristic accent should be noticeable throughout. The picture will
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