History and Development

World War I (WWI) ended in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles. After World War One had 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 Pathé Freres 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 Gaumont                      1.2 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 they treated 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.