History and Development

History and Development of French Impressionist Film

French Impressionist Cinema was popular in the year of 1918 to 1929. It was also known as the avant-garde or narrative avant-garde. The periodization of French Impressionism included the use of pictorialism, montage and then followed by the diffusion. During the World War I which occurred from the year 1914 to the year 1918, French film production declined incredibly. According to Bordwell, D. and Thompson, K. (2010), "World War I struck a serious blow to the French film industry. Personnel were conscripted, many film studios were shifted to wartime uses, and much export was halted” (p.464).  

The only two major firms that were left after the war were Pathé Fréres and Leon Gaumont. In 1915, as the vacant screens had to be occupied, American films started to enter France. By the end of 1917, Hollywood cinema had successfully owned the market with the production of Pearl White, Douglas Fairbanks, Chaplin and Ince films, De Mille's The Cheat, and William S. Hart. After the war, the French filmmakers decided to try new methods in order to regain the market, and most of them imitated the methods and genres of the Hollywood production.

During the year of 1918, a new generation of young filmmakers believed that cinema was an art of emotion. Therefore, between 1918 and 1929, they started to produce Impressionist films which focused on the intimate psychological narrative of the characters. The Impressionist techniques used in the films such as the psychological narrative, camera work and editing had successfully gain popularity since 1918. “In the mid-1920s, most filmmakers formed their own independent companies but remained within the mainstream commercial industry by renting studio facilities and releasing their films through established firms. The other alternative movement, Surrealism, lay largely outside the film industry. Allied with the Surrealist movement in other arts, these filmmakers relied on their own means and private patronage. France in the 1920s offers a striking instance of how different film movements may coexist at the same time and place” (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010, p.464).

Unfortunately, Impressionist movement was said to have halted by 1929 as the production costs were increasing and the interests of its filmmakers became more diverse. However, the Impressionist techniques in this film movement such as the psychological narrative, camera work and editing were still being used in some films after French Impressionism was said to be triggered off. “They still continued to operate, for example, in the work of Alfred Hitchcock and Maya Deren, in Hollywood montage sequences, and in certain American genres and styles (the horror film, film noir)” (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010, p.466). Even until today, when a filmmaker wants to show and emphasize what and how a character is feeling or experiencing psychologically, he or she may choose to use the Impressionist forms of camerawork and editing such as slow motion, superimpositions and distorted visuals.