Universal Filmlexikon (1932)

BERNHARD DIEBOLD: THE FILM AND THE DRAMA FORMULAE AND RECIPES Main difference before the talking film was introdiiced : The film described in pictures, while the drama made use of words. Main difference since the beginning of the talking film era : The film rolates an action, while in the drama the action is performed. The film relates something that has happened, a Story that has been photographed. This remains so in spite of direct speech. In a novel, too, the characters are made to speak. The film teils of people, animals, and things, i. e. of a visible World. But the stage drama does not relate. The living actors speak as though they were improvising out of their personal present, and to them the only important thing is their own articulate presence, the person that speaks. Scenery, animals or objects of any kind are of no significance. Even their own make-up and their own movements are of less importance than the words relating to those actions, the consideration, explanation and justification of those actions. The drama is made iij) of words and thought, it is a world of thought. The film teils of and pictures actions and things. The drama speaks and acts in words. The film is epic, like the novel. The drama is — dramatic. Appearance v. Speech. On the screen the players are represented by images. On the stage the actors appear in person. The former are photogi'aphs, artificial figures that are, so to speak, being related. The latter are living beings that "relate'" themselves. Nature within an artistic medium. Casting for the screen is mainly based on appearance. There the body is more important than speech. The body is the beginning of "art"; speech is only secondary. On the other band, casting for the drama is based on the art of expressive speech. Speech is more important than the body. for the body is there as a matter of course, proving its own existence by its very presence. Here "art"' begins with speech. Appearance occupies a secondary Position as raw material. The screen actors appeal to the eye. Speech is only incidental. an explanatory Supplement to appearance. The film players adjust themselves entirely to the sense of vision. On the other band, the stage players' appeal is to the ear and speech is their very raison d'etre. As in the Novel. The drama only takes into account the speaking person. Environment is only a background, an appendix to character. The film presents a whole World and places the individual, with or without character, into the circumstances of that World. The individual and his or her environment have an equal statiis. Like the novel. the film teils about scenery. factories, traffic and everyday life as the circumstances in which the individual lives and moves. \^ hat is background in the drama is the foreground in the film, just as in the novel. Short Scenes. The film is not pressed for time. Its terrific pace enables it to present countless tiny scenes of the details of existence. The epic thread of the film winds its way slowly to the culmination of the Störy. Points are illuminated in a second. The instrument of the film is the short scene and that is the secret of why its "epic bieadth"* does not bore. Speech retards. but pictures flit past in seconds. Thus the film has plenty of time. Long thoughts. The drama has little time. It must allow the characters to have their say. Speech is thought. and the longer the thought. the greater is the depth of the drama. Here the characters have no time for the mute actions of everyday life. for taking walks, working silently in a factory or mine or for making excursions. ^ ithovit speech the drama is lost. \V ithout movement, rapid contrasts and variety the film is lost. The instrument of true drama is the long scene. J ide Sophokles, Moliere. Ibsen. None but man is capable of speech. His surroundings are mute scenerv, decorations and accessories of no intrinsic worth. Inthe conflict of ideas man must relv on speech. That is his intellectual exercise. Art in Seconds. The drama proceeds in long thought-strides towards the culmination of the action. The few giant strides of the drama demand the most intense concentration of the speeches and thoughts. For thoughts. and more particulai-ly dramatic thoughts. are long. But seconds are short. The film requires no long tlioughts and therefore no long speeches. 62