Characteristics

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