Siegfried Kracauer's Theory of Film - Basic Concepts

Vocabulary flashcards covering Siegfried Kracauer's core theoretical concepts on the realistic and formative tendencies of film, along with key historical examples and introductory film ontology concepts.

Siegfried Kracauer

A German cultural critic, engineer, and sociologist (1889–1966) who authored 'From Caligari to Hitler' and 'Theory of Film', advocating for cinematic realism over expressionist distraction.

From Caligari to Hitler

Siegfried Kracauer's book analyzing how expressionist cinematic techniques were utilized in Germany to instill nationalist sentiment and distract the public from social realities.

Photobioscope

A device developed around 1860 by Cook and Bonnelli that predicted a complete revolution in photographic art by seeking to capture natural motion like rippling leaves.

Basic properties of film

Properties identical to those of photography that uniquely equip film to record and reveal physical reality.

Technical properties of film

Cinematic techniques—most notably editing, alongside close-ups, lap-dissolves, and camera mobility—that serve to implement or support the medium's basic properties.

Camera-reality

The actually existing physical or material reality—the transitory visible world—that film natively gravitates toward capturing.

Editing

The most general and indispensable technical property of film, serving to establish a meaningful continuity of shots.

Realistic tendency

The cinematic direction, prototyped by Auguste Lumière, that prioritizes the recording and revealing of unstaged physical reality and everyday life.

Formative tendency

The cinematic direction, prototyped by Georges Méliès, that emphasizes artistic imagination, staged illusion, and narrative fantasy over unstaged photographic reality.

Lumière Brothers

Pioneer filmmakers led by Auguste Lumière who established the realistic tendency of cinema by recording unstaged everyday life and public movement.

Georges Méliès

A pioneer filmmaker of the formative tendency who substituted staged theatrical illusion for real life, pioneering techniques such as masks, multiple exposure, and lap-dissolves.

Teasing the Gardener (L'Arroseur arrosé)

A famous early Lumière film based on a real-life comic incident, considered the archetype of all subsequent film comedies.

Objective movement

The external motion of physical objects in the physical world perceived directly by the viewer's eye.

Subjective movement

Motion experienced by the film spectator through camera movement (such as panning or traveling) or rapid editing across time and space.

Cinematic approach

The creative methodology of a filmmaker who acknowledges the primary aesthetic principle of recording physical reality, ensuring formative urges do not overwhelm realistic obligations.

Hermann Warm

A set designer for 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' who stated the expressionist aesthetic principle that 'films must be drawings brought to life.'

Mummy complex

A psychological concept outlined by André Bazin asserting that the plastic arts originate from man's basic urge to preserve bodily appearance against death and time.