The End of French Impressionism

 The End of French Impressionism

Germaine Dulac - She

The End

1)In the late 1910s and the first half of the 1920s,
2)the Impressionists formed a tightly knit group, supporting each other in their mission to
   establish an alternative, artistic cinema.
3)By mid-decade, they had succeeded to a considerable extent.
4)Although few of their films attracted large audiences, they often received favorable
   reviews and were appreciated by the audiences of the ciné-clubs and art theaters.
5)In 1925, Léon Moussinac, a leftist critic sympathetic to the Impressionists,
  published La Naissance du Cinéma (“The Birth of the Cinema”);
6)there he summed up the movement’s stylistic traits and the theoretical views of its
   filmmakers.
7)Largely based on Delluc’s writings,
8)Moussinac’s account stressed
   a)expressive techniques like
   b)slow motion and
   c)superimpositions,
9) and it singled out the Impressionist group as the most interesting French filmmakers.

Copycats

1)As more filmmakers copied Impressionist techniques,
   the style lost its impact.
2)In 1927, Epstein remarked,
“Original devices such as rapid montage or the tracking or
   panning camera are now vulgarized.
3)They are old hat, and it is necessary to eliminate visibly obvious style in order
   to create a simple film.”
4) Indeed, Epstein increasingly presented simple stories in a quasi-documentary style,
   using nonactors and eliminating flashy Impressionist camerawork and editing.
5)His last Impressionist film, Finis Terrae, portrays two young lighthouse keepers on a
    rugged island;
6)subjective camera techniques appear mainly when one youth falls ill.
7)Epstein’s early sound film, Mor-Vran (1931),
8)eschews Impressionist style altogether in a restrained,
    poetic narrative of villagers on a desolate island.

Impressionist began experimental techniques

1)Perhaps because the style’s techniques were becoming somewhat commonplace,
    other Impressionist filmmakers began to experiment in different directions.

 

If the era from 1918 to 1922 can be said to have been characterized primarily by
   pictorialism, 

and the period from 1923 to 1925 by the addition of rhythmic cutting,

 
then the later years, 1926 to 1929, saw a greater diffusion in the movement.

By 1926, 

1)some Impressionist directors had achieved considerable independence
   by forming their own small producing companies.
2)Moreover, the support provided by the ciné-clubs and small cinemas now allowed the
    production of low-budget experimental films.
3)As a result of both these factors, the late Impressionist period saw a proliferation of short
    films, such as Kirsanoff’s Menilmontant
4)and the four films produced by Les Films Jean Epstein.

Experimental Films

1)Another factor diversifying the Impressionist movement was the impact of experimental
    films.
2)Surrealist, Dadaist, and abstract films often shared the programs of the ciné-clubs
    and art cinemas with Impressionist films in the mid-to-late 1920s.
3)These tendencies were lumped in the category of cinéma pur.
4)Dulac wrote and lectured extensively in favor of cinéma pur, and
5)in 1928 she abandoned commercial filmmaking to direct
6)a Surrealist film, The Seashell and the Clergyman.
7)Thereafter she concentrated on abstract short films.

A short clip of The Seashell and the Clergyman