Formal Traits of French Impressionism - Part 4-6 films
Repeating the important preface:
These assumptions about the nature of cinema shaped the Impressionist films’ style and narrative structure.
Most important, filmic techniques often function to convey character subjectivity.
This subjectivity includes mental images,
such as visions,
dreams, or
memories;
optical point-of-view (POV) shots;
and characters’ perceptions of events rendered without POV shots.
Though films in all countries had used such devices as superimpositions and flashbacks to show characters’ thoughts or feelings,
the Impressionists went much further in this direction.
This section is called Devices of the Camera - part 2 of it
Repeat of intro to this section:
The Impressionists were concerned about enhancing the photogénie of their films. Because of this, and because of their interest in character subjectivity, many of the Impressionists’ innovations involve camerawork. Most obviously, Impressionist films frequently contain optical devices that affect the look of the photographic image.
Such optical devices might be present to enhance the image by making it more striking or beautiful. More often, though, optical tricks convey characters’ impressions. Superimpositions may convey a character’s thought or memories. A filter placed over the lens may function to suggest subjectivity, usually without the shot’s being taken from the character’s optical point of view.
PART 2 EXAMPLES
In Abel Gance’s Napoléon,
1)the passion of Napoléon and Josephine
2)as they kiss on their wedding night
3)is conveyed by a series of gauze filters that drop one by one
4)between the couple and the lens,
5)gradually blurring the screen to gray.
Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927)
In this next picture she is looking a photograph and then at herself in the mirror. She's pretty.
Intertitle: And the Violine was also married that evening.
Looking in the mirror - or at the camera?
She's smiling and walking around the room twirling her long bridal veil.
She's now on her bed praying up at a picture i think of Napoleon and his army.
She opens up a cupboard above her bed and there is a full shrine to Napoleon.
She is praying to a statue of him.
Aha - first use of a filter.
They're facing each other in front of the marriage bed.
Close up to her face. Midshot to napoleon as above.
OMG his close up - he looks terrible
She coyishly touches the leaves on the garland. He comes around to
the other side of the bed.
She holds up a flower to smell it.
Screen fogging with gauze filters - can kind of see the motion
Screen changes totally purple.
Was it a dream? now she's back in her wedding gown.
Yes, she smiles to herself - now she dreams an outline of him.
Now a doll size Napoleon shows up on the bottom left. It's an
animation.
I guess not - it's a cut out wooden figure that is on a side table.
She reaches for it. Sticking a hand from under the scrim.
That's what was making the Napoleon figure on the wall
She leans in to kiss the shape on the wall.
End of scene.
Curved mirror distortion
1)Occasionally the Impressionists would shoot into a curved mirror to
distort the image.
2)Such distortions could create a POV shot,
as in Dulac’s The Smiling Madame Beudet;
3)this film contains many optical devices that convey the heroine’s
unhappiness with her boorish husband.
Throwing the lens out of focus
1)could also convey subjectivity, whether we see the characters or see
through their eyes.
2)In Le Brasier Ardent, the heroine and her husband have just agreed to
divorce,
3)and she sadly stands thinking.
Le Brasier Ardent (Ivan Mosjoukine & Alexandre Volkoff, 1923)
POV shot
1)After the hero of Jean Renoir’s La Fille de L’eau
has been in a fight,
2)he sits groggily as a POV shot conveys his mental state.
3)Similarly, the framing of a shot may suggest characters’ points of view
or inner states.
La Fille de L’eau (Jean Renoir, 1925)
Setting up the action - two guys fighting
He sees blurry - then in three
Blurry - then in focus.
He tosses the guy in the river.
Low camera height/Low angle
1)In Jacques Feyder’s Visages d’enfants,
2)a low camera height and slightly low angle show
3)the optical point of view of a child being scolded.
Visages d’enfants (Jacques Feyder, 1925)
Girl tiptoeing up the stairs naughtily
Caught by mom - good catching music
two more naughty kids caught
I like this outside shot of the cabin
Oui es su chapaut - where's your hat.
The little girl feels the back of her head.
High angle looking down from mother's POV
Now low angle low camera height showing kids POV
1)In Napoléon, Gance divided the frame into a grid of smaller,
distinct images.
2)He also used three cameras side by side to create an extremely wide
format called a triptych.
3)This functioned to create
a)wide vistas,
b)symbolic juxtapositions of images,
c)and occasional subjective effects.
Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927)
Intertitle:
My life is a nightmare without you. A hideous presentiment stops me breathing. I am no longer living. I have lost more than life, more than happiness, more than repose. I am almost without hope. I beg you to answer me.
Close up of just him writing the letter.
view from the backside of the troops watching him write.
Intertitle:
First contact with the Army of Italy.
cool triple screen shot
cool shot below of horse running in front of the three cameras
cool way to put an intertitle in the middle
Intertitle: One hour later
Look at troops in formation
Intertitle: Within a few hours, Bonaparte would find a sudden almost unparalleled enthusiasm growing around him. Miraculously, order was restored.
Close up of Napoleon's face
Intertitle: "At ease!"
Troops descending from hillside.
Single frame, then expanded frame.
Troops waving their hats on the guns
Camera Movements by Impressionists1)Impressionist films also feature camera movements that convey
subjectivity and enhance photogénie.
2)Moving shots could suggest the character’s optical point of view.
3)The moving camera could also convey subjectivity without optical
point of view,
4)as in the carnival scene in Jean Epstein’s Coeur Fidèle.
5)Here the heroine sits miserably on a carnival ride
with the fiancé her parents have forced on her.
Coeur Fidèle (Jean Epstein, 1923)
The figure in the middle is a moving figure - next they show it close up.
the hand on the left moves and hits the toy.
The music matches with a little tinkling sound.
Close up on the one on the left doing the same thing.
Close up on the one on the right waving a little flag.
Beautiful fairground statues
Her flag and her head turn.
First there is a shot of the carnival ride with just the shadows swirling on the dirt. Nice intro.
Now from low up high to the ride of little planes
Now laying down and looking at the top inside of the ride.
Someone having fun on the ride. I like this shot
Here we go - picture of her being miserable.
Now a clever shot pov of someone on the ride being spun around
and seeing the people go by.
At first they were going slow establishing the shots now they are cutting
shorter and faster in between the various above shots.
They keep closing in on the couple and she's miserable almost sick and
he's having fun and cuddles up to her - she recoils.
Different of her angle angry on the ride and clueless boyfriend hugging her.
POV again of someone looking out to see scenery go by. Kind of giving motion sickness.
NOTE: THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CLIPS
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