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STYLE AND STYLIZATION 271
and often do not even notice the unnatural gestures of the actors. The same applies to the film if we see the figures as on the stage, that is in a long shot, from a distance. Strangely enough it becomes intolerable, however, if a human being whom we see in close-up isolated from the environment, moves unnaturally. An exception to this rule is a dance when the unnaturalness of movement is motivated. In a long shot the figure is fitted into the visible setting and its stylized movements are in keeping with the style of the whole picture. We accept an unnatural line if it is balanced by a similar line on the other side of the frame. But if a figure or a face is so near to us that it is no longer merely a component of a larger composition, and we see the smallest detail in the play of features, the curve of lip, the narrowing of an eye, that whole natural picture of the microphysiognomy which is not amenable to stylization, then an unnatural stylization of the poise of the head, the gesture of the hands, the movement of the feet will make an unpleasant impression on the spectator or strike him as funny. The stylization of outline contradicts the natural truth of the inner details.
This explains why the film is difficult to stylize. The microphysiognomy of the close-up, the intimate play of features, is not susceptible to stylization, and yet it is the very soul of the film. The most beautiful stylized long shots are unmasked by the intimate life of the close-up. The mask slips and the human being peeps out from behind it. It is for this reason, too, that we have no films in verse. Tied speech seems to contradict the natural movement of even a stylized film.
The question does not arise, of course, in the case of the animated cartoon. There, on the contrary, it is complete naturalness that is almost unattainable and the stylization which is a necessary corollary of the animating technique determines the whole style of the film. If drawings talk in verse, no one is shocked.
How is it possible then that we accept the singing film, the certainly unnatural film operetta and opera? The reason is that singing is a natural function of human beings. Thank goodness we can see and hear people singing everywhere, and very rarely may we even hear someone reciting a poem. But