European Cinema Avant-Garde (1920s-1930s)

European Cinema Avant-Garde (1920s-1930s)

Overview

  • Focus on French, German, and Soviet cinema.

  • European cinema aimed for artistic self-awareness, contrasting with American cinema's commercialization.

French Cinema

Three Main Directions:

  • Impressionism:

    • Representatives: Jean Renoir and Germaine Dulac.

    • Continued the ideas of the first avant-garde.

    • Did not reject сюжет (plot) but emphasized a clear theme in each film.

    • Aimed for films to impact viewers as a "visual symphony."

  • Extremism (Pure Cinema):

    • Representatives: Henri Chomette, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, and René Clair (briefly).

    • Henri Chomette's theoretical principles:

      • Old cinema: simple reproduction of phenomena or indirect reproduction using existing visual models.

      • Pure cinema: can not only reproduce but also create.

      • By setting aside the reality of objects, pure cinema emerges.

  • Surrealism:

    • Representatives: Luis Buñuel and Man Ray.

    • Two forms: calm and sharp.

    • Calm: Man Ray.

    • Sharp: Buñuel, often in collaboration with Salvador Dalí (known for fantastic visions).

Example: Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) by Buñuel and Dalí

  • Features the infamous scene of a woman's eye being sliced (actually a cow's eye).

  • Aimed to create a strong, lasting impression on viewers.

German Cinema: Expressionism

Peak Development: 1920-1925
Key Characteristics:

  • M мрачная (dark) aesthetics.

  • Mystical and madness-related сюжеты (plots).

  • Exploration of contact with the supernatural.

  • Resonated with German society recovering from World War I.

Notable Films:

  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

  • The Golem

  • Destiny (aka Weary Death)

  • Nosferatu (aka Symphony of Horror)

  • The Phantom

  • Dr. Mabuse the Gambler

  • The Last Laugh

Other Popular Directions:

  • Kammerspielfilm (chamber-play film)

  • Mountain films

German/Dutch Angle

  • Used to depict emotional turmoil and героes' напряженное (tense) state.

  • Camera often looks up at the героes.

  • The горизонт (horizon) is skewed.

  • Shots often static but can involve camera rotation or diagonal movement.

  • Alternating horizontal tilts in montage.

Examples elaborated:

  • Nosferatu (Symphony of Horror): A loose interpretation of horror.

  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Story about madness; a doctor treats a patient, then goes mad himself, and narrates from an asylum.

Migration to the USA

  • Many prominent German Expressionist directors emigrated to the U.S. due to persecution and propaganda policies in Germany during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

  • Fritz Lang, for example, moved to Hollywood and directed significant films, including Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, Metropolis, and Fury.

  • These directors significantly contributed to American cinema and обновляют (renovated) the cinematic language.

Soviet Cinema (1920s-1940s)

Cinema as Propaganda

  • After the Bolsheviks came to power, cinema became the main tool for propaganda.

  • Nationalization of film studios.

  • New задачи (tasks) for cinema: to communicate with the people simply.

  • Significant иммиграция (emigration) of film specialists.

Key Figures

  • Sergei Eisenstein:

    • Creator of the concept of "montage of attractions."

    • His 1923 article in LEF magazine outlined a new theatrical device.

    • Background in theater direction, worked with Meyerhold.

Eisenstein's Montage

  • Method of film composition where images are broken into fragments and assembled in a specific order.

  • Aims to achieve a particular rhythmic effect.

  • Eisenstein viewed montage as the foundation of artistic cinema.

Attraction (according to Eisenstein)

  • Any aggressive moment in the theater that subjects the viewer to sensory or psychological impact.

  • Mathematically calculated to create specific emotional shocks.

Eisenstein's Directorial Method

  • Intellectual and conceptual juxtaposition of images, objects, and concepts.

  • Aims to achieve specific emotional and intellectual effects on the viewer.

5 Techniques of Film Montage:

  • Metric montage

  • Tonal montage

  • Overtonal montage

  • Rhythmic montage

  • Intellectual montage

"Russian Montage"

  • Rapidly changing кадры (frames) that create a new impression on the viewer.

  • Films: October, Alexander Nevsky, and Ivan the Terrible.

  • Dziga Vertov:

    • Made many documentaries, used unusual монтажный (montage) language.

    • Pioneer of the "kino-glaz" (cinema-eye) concept.

    • Invented the method of дистанционный (distance) montage.

    • For Vertov, montage included theme selection, primary material selection, filming, and combining ленты (film) fragments into a cohesive work.

    • Montage should be based on intervals, similar to music.

    • Rhythm of сьемки (filming) should involve changes in plans, angles, movements, and light intensity.

    • Дистанционный (distance) montage: Unpacking images, separating them, and interspersed with other visual images.

    • Key film: Man with a Movie Camera, where the camera is central to life, capturing the city's and people's rhythms.

  • Lev Kuleshov:

    • Wrote the book Fundamentals of Film Direction.

The Kuleshov Effect

  • The meaning of a shot changes depending on the shots рядом (next) to it.

  • Experiment: a man's face was intercut with:

    • A plate of soup.

    • A dead child in a coffin.

    • A woman lying on a couch.

  • Viewers attributed different emotions to the man based on the preceding image, even though his expression was the same.

  • This effect formed the basis of film theory and montage development.