Characteristics found in French
Impressionists’ films
French Impressionism has used several
techniques to display the emotional impressionism sense in film. French
Impressionism gives emphasis on exploring psychological causes and often shows
what the character is experiencing or thinking. This movement had definitely
impacted Hollywood Cinema from several aspects.
The Impressionists regarded cinema
as a symbolic language and set about trying to build up its visual vocabulary.
(Blumer, 1970, p.32). Their desire were to make films that were less tied to
literal realities but using visual images to reveal and strip down to the
external realities. They tried placing subjective feelings into screens. While
normal narrative cinema tells the story of events, this cinema did the
opposite. Abel Gance once said “Why are people making films which are about
nothing but events, when they have at their disposal such a marvellous medium
for psychological stories? They go on making films about people chasing each
other, killing each other, or trying to commit suicide, but why not films which
show feelings instead of just action?” Techniques were then discovered to
expose the internal psychological state of characters.
Based
on the film form of French Impressionism, the basis of film should be the idea of
the visual rhythm which is the core from the impressionists’ belief that
emotions rather than stories (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010). Visual rhythm is
an idea that the impressionists believes in which is by emphasizing the human
emotion rather than the narrative of film. Rhythm can be formed within the attentive
juxtaposition of the movements and the length of shots. But in classical
Hollywood editing, shots are not dramatically juxtaposed together. For instance,
a close-up shot would not appear right after a long shot. Rhythmic editing creates
visual that allows audiences to flow with the character’s emotions. Rhythm was
important for the impressionists as it is a way to emphasize the character’s
reaction to a story rather than just portraying an action itself.
Again,
French Impressionism is to display the psychological exploration or emotion of
character on screen. Another way to convey a character’s subjectivity is
through superimpositions that conveys a character’s thought of memories.
Superimpositions is an editing technique that uses two different visual
overlaying one another. An example can be seen in Abel Gance’s film La Roue (1923). In figure 1.1 the face of
Norma is superimposed over the smoke from a locomotive, representing the
fantasy of the engine driver, who is in love with her.
Figure 1.1 Superimposition shot in La Roue (1923)
Then,
the impressionists uses quick editing to explore character’s mental state. Also
in La Roue (1923), fast cut of different
visuals were edited to show the nervousness of the people because of the train
that was going to crash. In figure 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 shows the different scene
that were put together in fast cut.
Figure 1.2 The train going fast
Figure 1.3 Sisif on the train getting nervous
Figure
1.4 The view of the track showing the fast going train
Besides
that, French Impressionism illustrate character subjectivity, optical devices
such as filters, out of focus lens and slow motion were used. A filter is
placed over the lens to achieve a subjective effect and by blurring the lens
imitates the feeling of a character. Also, point of view shot is best to show
what a character is seeing and was a major technique used by the
impressionists. This has influence some the work in modern day cinemas. In Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994),
a scene where the police chases after the escaping criminal, visuals were
blurred and camera movements were fast. In figure 1.5 shows the depiction of
the chaos of the situation and the dizziness of the mind of the police.
Figure
1.5 Blurry visuals of the chase scene in Chungking
Express (1994)
Apart
from that, lighting is very significant as the illumination of a shot may
create the composition in order to guide us towards certain objects and
actions. French Impressionism can be shown by using lighting because it helps
to bring out and strengthen the feeling of the film. According to Kristin
Thompson and David Bordwell (2003, 96), filmmaker may place the filters over
the lens to enhance the effect of the shot. Lastly, filmmakers will control
over the actors’ behaviour and movement. According to David Bordwell and
Kristin Thonmpson (2010, 138), mise-en-scene allows the actors to express their
feelings and thoughts as well as create various kinetic patterns. The audience
understand the story through the actors’ facial expression, gestures and movements.
Therefore, the filmmakers will always control the actors’ actions and
movements.
Sound
editing can also be seen influencing the modern cinema. In Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998), the background sound
was edited to like Captain Miller was in an empty space and the surrounding
sounds went almost silent. This depicts the psychological state of Captain
Miller of being shocked and could not believe the reality. In figure 1.6, a
soldier shouting at him and was not heard by Captain Miller.
Figure
1.6 Soldier shouting at Captain Miller
