The soul of the moving picture (1924)

The Setting 79 decoration, always easily changed and varied, must adapt itself to the form and figure of the actor, which is unvariable and cannot be changed. This being the case, the following basic law compels formulation and observance : Setting dare not distort reality. This law has a meaning of its own: it applies to the whole business of art as this is exploited in the interests of caricatured and twisted expressionism. That expressionism has about fought its last fight and displayed its ultimate lunacy, is a safe and reasoned assumption. The "deformation" of nature as an aid to the inadequate ability of the artist is a hopelessly unsatisfactory emergency aid invoked on behalf of a foul and decayed naturalism in its desperate attempt to conjure up a new style — un coin de la nature, vu a travers dyun temperament. One saw an irrationally perverse and eccentric, painted and plotted picture of a city (the surface in the background of illustration No. i). Two insane people stood before it, one of whom pointed at the singular picture and said : "My native city I" Of the feeling of art there was not a trace. The spectator, going at the thing in a purely rational way, figured it out as follows : the lunatic was born in a little hilly city. The magic of the words "native city" was not even hinted at, to say noth