Before starting to explore our blog, let me introduce ourselves first. We are Broadcasting student from University Tunku Abdul Rahman Petaling Jaya, Faculty of Creative Industries.
World War I (WWI) ended in 1919 with the Treaty of
Versailles. After World War Onehad struck a
serious crisis to the France film industry. Most of the film crews were
conscripted to war and the studios were used for war purpose. France's film
exports were mostly limited to those countries which it already had a steady
cultural exchange, such as Belgium, Switzerland, and the French colonies. This
created the opportunity and needed for films of a distinctly French style. So, the films like PathéFreres and Leon
Gaumont began to be important to keep their business going, they are needed to
fill the vacant screen of a theater. While as a result, American films began to
flood into France in 1915. Those Hollywood films that featuring those popular
stars dominated the market by the end of 1917. After the war, the French film
industry never fully recovered so they tried to imitate the Hollywood
production methods and genres in order to attract the audiences.
1.1 Leon Gaumont1.2 The Pathé's brothers
French Impressionism gained its foothold with the group of young
directors that had worked within the movement at the time like Abel Gance,
Louis Delluc, Marcel L’Herbier, Germaine
Dulac, and Jean Epstein. These five directors differed from their predecessors. The
previous generation had regarded filmmaking as a commercial craft,but theytreated film
as an art form comparable to poetry, music and painting. They felt that cinema
should be able to stand on its own and not borrow from theater or literature. In the mid of 1920s, most had formed their own
independent companies. Unfortunately, they remained within the mainstream
commercial industry by renting studio facilities and also releasing their
films.
French Impressionism gained its foothold with the group of
young directors that had worked within the movement at the time like Abel
Gance, Louis Delluc, Marcel L’Herbier, Germaine Dulac, and Jean Epstein.
These five directors saw film as an art form comparable to music and painting.
They felt that cinema should be able to stand on its own and not borrow from
theater or literature.In the mid of 1920s, most had formed their own
independent companies. Unfortunately, they remained within the mainstream
commercial industry by renting studio facilities and also releasing their
films.
1.3 Louis Delluc, l'Eveilleur du cinéma français au temps des années folles, by Gilles Delluc
The movement gained the name “Impressionist” because the filmmakers
wanted to give their narration subjective depth. It would capture the momentary
of impressions that flit through a character’s mind. The directors wanted to
present the character’s feeling or emotion through putting more effort on the
intimate psychological stories instead or narrative dialogue. We can say that
an Impressionist film preferred to explore the inner life of the character, but
not through the external action. Flashback can depict the memories so some of
the films will be a series of them were very common. The films registered
character’s mental states, dreams and fantasies.
Some Impressionist films were shown to the French public, but unable to attract the foreign audiences so this cause the lost from
exports. Moreover, although the cost of a production is increasing but those
filmmakers were still producing extravagant productions, which would sooner or
later take them out of business or were engaged by bigger studios. The last two
Impressionists films that had been released after failed and reedited were Napoléon and L’Argent. Impressionism had ceased by 1929 but even into today, when
a director wants to convey a character of emotion or feeling they can just use
impressionist technique of camera work and editing.
1.4 Albert Dieudonné as Napoleon
1.5 L'Argent
French Impressionism
Cinema was also known as The First Avant-Garde or Narrative Avant-Garde style
that operated largely within the film industry. It is a period of film making
in France from 1919 to 1930. The movement is known for its use of
pictorialism, montage and diffusion. Most of
the Impressionist filmmakers started out by working for major French companies,
and some of their avant-garde works proved financially successful.
It is unique, it was never a concerted effort to coordinate
films under a specific set of goals. Over the ten years of the movement, the
films moved around the concepts of creating an experience that leads to an
emotional impression. Impressionism focused on the theory of photogenie, which
is a concerned with the unique quality that objects will take on when they are
photographed. It focused on framing and optical effects instead of narrative
storytelling.
The French Impressionist movement (1919-1929) was
developed by a new generation of filmmakers who sought to explore the cinema as
an art. They saw art as a form of expression conveying the personal vision of
the artist. In Happy Together (Wong
Kar-Wai, 1997), the shot of Iguazu Waterfall (2.1) appeared twice in the movie, one
is the beginning of the movie and another one is at the ending part.Iguazu is a sign
of urban people’s dreamscape, magical in a sense that the beauty of nature can
reunite the people’s broken spirit; in this case, heal Lai Yiu-Fai and Ho Po-Wing’s sick
relationship.Art also helps to build the experiences
and lead to the emotions. Art creates an impression and feeling, but not by fact, is
through suggestion and evoke.
For example, we see Ho Po-Wing alone in Lai
Yiu-Fai’s old apartment, crying and trying to arrange cigarette packages as
reminders of Lai Yiu-Fai’s affection (2.2).
2.1
2.2
Flashback and Fantasy
The interest of French Impressionist not on external
physical behavior, but on inner action. Impressionist film manipulates plot
time and subjectivity through flashbacks. It is very common, and sometimes it
might be a series of flashbacks in a film. In Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997), the beginning part
of the film from the bed scene (2.3) until lost at highway while on the way to Iguazu Waterfall (2.4) are the flashbacks of Lai Yiu-Fai explaining why they are in Argentina now.Yet, the exploration of psychological had been
emphasized and causes to reveal of character’s mental states, dreams or fantasies.
In La Souriante Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1923)consists almost entirely of the main character's fantasy
life, her imaginary escape from a dull marriage, a dream is what she hoping for. While in Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997), there a scene that showing the Hong Kong city
that upside down in order to emphasize that Hong Kong and Argentina are at two
very different ends of the earth. This also show that Hong Kong and Argentina are so much different and is a big distance between these two countries. Fantasy world can be seen in Le Voyage Imaginaire (René Clair, 1926) as well. In the film, Herr Clair creates
a dream world which plunges the audience into a universe full of fantasy. There
are lady fortune tellers, fairies, a man-eating door and even modern heroes such as
"Charlot", not to mention the "Notre Dame" roofs and the
museum "Grévin" as well.
2.3
2.4
Superimposition
Superimposition is when two or more images are placed over each other in
the frame. This effect can be accomplished by exposing the same piece of film
more than once as we see with double exposure effect. Superimposition may convey
a character’s thought or memories. InLa Roue, The smoke from a locomative superimposed with the image of Norma, representing the fantasy of the engine driver, who is in
love with her. (2.5) While in Coeur Fidèle (Jean Epstein, 1923) the
heroine looks out a window, and the foul jetsam of the
waterfront superimposed with that image to convey her dejection at work as a barmaid in a dockside tavern. (2.6)
2.5
2.6
Slow Motion
The visual depiction of mental states in French
Impressionist film through cinematography and editing. One of the
cinematography is slow motion shot to focus on a significant element in a
character’s subjectivity. For example, in Happy
Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997), when they are sharing the tinder of cigarette,
the smoke flows slow. This indicates the moment of togetherness (2.7).In the movie, their relationship always come with an argument, so when there is a happy moment, they will hope the time goes slow so that they can fully utilize the time and appreciate it.
2.7
Camera movement
Besides that, camera movement also one of the
aspects that very impactful in French Impressionist film, it can affect how the
audiences feel the moment of the characters. The cinematographer of Happy Together(Wong
Kar-Wai, 1997), Christopher Doyle utilizes the shaky camera movement in the
scene of after Ho Po-Wing running after
having a big argument with Lai Yiu-Fai in his room (2.8) . This indicates he is not
calm or anger, this is because usually human being get angry, their emotion and psychological status are unstable, so with a shaky shot can emphasizes it.While in the scene of Lai Yiu-Fai playing football with his
colleagues (2.9) , the shaky camera movement emphasizes the excitement. When people in an excitement status, they are usually very high and energetic, using a smooth or slow camera movement cannot present the feeling of that moment.
2.8
2.9
Distortions
The distortion element might use in a film to
show the occurrence of an event or incident is not in an ordinary way. When a character in an
Impressionist film gets drunk or dizzy, the filmmaker shows the experience through distorted or filtered shots or vertiginous camera movements. Normally, the Impressionists would shoot into a curved mirror to create a distortion effect such as in
Eldorado (Howard Hawks, 1921) a man's
tipsiness is conveyed by means of a curved mirror that stretches his body
sideways (2.10).In La souriante
Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1923), Dulac uses distortion images to paint Beudet's various emotional
states onscreen (2.11).
2.10
2.11
Filters
Filter in French Impressionist films is to show the
mood of that moment, it can be colorful, black and white or even in a specific
color. Mostly black and white indicates the character or that moment is sad or negative.
For example, in Happy Together(Wong
Kar-Wai, 1997), the black and white indicating the sadness of
both protagonists or mourning of them breaking up (2.12). During that moment, Lai Yiu-Fai's feeling is like the end of the world and he is losing hope and down, so he feels that the world is not in colorful mood in that moment. Moreover, Usually people present happy mood or positive mood with colorful because their world is full of hope and joy.The rich, saturated color scenes in Happy Together indicate
happiness or they are back together (2.13).
2.12
2.13
Framing
The framing of a shot can be seen as characters’
points of view or inner states. For the film Happy Together(Wong
Kar-Wai, 1997), the whole movie is the point-of-view of Lai Yiu-Fai. We can
hear that he is the narrative of the film and he is telling his own story from
the beginning he broke up with Ho Po-Wing then they start over and over again
until at last they are not getting back together anymore.
Rhythmic Editing
The Impressionists also experimented with pronounced
rhythmic editing to suggest the pace of an experience as a character feels it,
moment by moment.The rhythm accelerates and the shots getting shorter and
shorter, building to a climax in order to unstable mental state. This also
helps to influence the audience to be involved nervous environment of the
scene. In theLa Roue (Abel
Gance, 1923), fast
editing had been used in the scene of a train crash and a man's last thoughts
before he falls from a cliff. Besides that, the playing with extreme
fast-motion in Happy Together(Wong Kar-Wai, 1997), to film Buenos Airies (2.14) and Taipei traffic (2.15) so
that we feel the compressed, giddily accelerated pace of urban time.
In
our tribute video, we would like to show a few characteristic that usually will
found in French Impressionism. The first characteristic of our video is to show
the art of French Impressionism. For example the shot on Rossie wake up in the
small unfurnished dark room to show she feels apprehensive toward the
environment and also the shot of Rossie flashback, she knocked a stranger walked
pass by her and peeps on her when she was going to meet her friends.
There
were some scenes in black and white effect, the purpose of this is to show there
was a direct interaction between Rossie and kidnapper or they met face to face.
For example, we can see the scene in the small room was in black and white where
the kidnapper came in the room and Rossie looked at him eyes to eyes.
Besides
that, we also use the characteristic of psychological exploration. To show this
characteristic, we use a hand held camera movement to show the frightened
feeling of Rossie and also we took the point of view of Rossie to show she woke
up in the small dark room. Moreover, we use psychological exploration at the
end of the video that is Rossie was starring on the light to show she wanted to
escape from the sexual abuse. The light is a hope and it is near to her, but
yet she still unable to touch it.
Superimposition
is a function to tell the character’s feelings. It can be defined as putting
two or more images overlap in order to create a double exposure effect. For
example, we used a rose to overlap with the flashback of Rossie to create
superimposition. The rose had been metaphorically as the woman value. At the
end, the rose had been destroyed and this symbolized that Rossie life was spoiled
and not virginity anymore.
As
in editing part, we create the editing style that followed the rhythm of the
background music to create the mood of the film. There are two scenes that we
use POV cutting and that will be when Rossie awake from the fainted to show
that she was all the way alone in the room at that time. Another scene will be
the kidnapper was tracking Rossie to show that the kidnapper have a motive to
Rossie.
Finally,
through mise-en-scene we are creating an unsecure, darkness, loss reputation and
intangible toward Rossie in an unfurnished small dark room. The unfurnished
small dark room had been set up being this is because there is no method to
escape from the kidnapper. Meaning there is no sign of hope to dodge from being
abused by the kidnapper. The room’s walls covered with black paper to create
fairness, worry, frighten every negative aspect can be shown in character
expression. Here is an example of showing negativity, we play a lot of lighting,
especially low key lighting and shadow because these 2 elements can describe
fairness in many ways. Shadow can indicate something is walking toward you, but
it brings harm to you indirectly.
Divadaniela (2012-1024). French
Impressionism: 1918- 1929. Retrieved from < http://cinecollage.net/french-impressionism.html> Guy Austin (1996). Contemporary French
Cinema: An Introduction. Retrieved from
Hiromijurado (20 Aug 2013). French
Impressionism and Surrealism. Retrieved from
<http://hiro mijurado.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/french-impressionism-and-surrealism/
> Katie Sexton (18 Oct 2010). French
Impressionism, A Movement of Influence. Retrieved from < http://ksexton1989.blogspot.com/2010/10/french-impressionism- movement-of.html
> My Short Bio (17 May 2013). Foundation
of Cinema: French Impressionist and Surrealist Cinema. Retrieved from < http://wagesoffilm.tumblr.com/post/50642897894/
foundations-of-cinema-french-impressionist-and >
Remi Fournier Lanzoni (2002). French
Cinema: From It Beginnings to Present. Retrieved from
The Film Sufi (9 Aug 2012). “Happy
Together”- Wong Kar Wai 1997. Retrieved from < http://www.filmsufi.com/2012/09/happy-together-wong-kar-wai-1997.html >
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