FH Ch. 4 Flashcards
Film Journals
(types of)
Jean Epstein
Produced some of the most experimental Impressionist films.
Abel Gance
Scenarist who began directing. Made the first major Impressionist film. Produced by Pathé. The most popular of the Impressionists. Produced Napoleon (renowned for its innovative use of fluid camera movement).
Film Movement
Groups of films created by several filmmakers working for a limited period generally in a single country whose works share significant formal traits.
Impressionism
As a broader artistic movement: Artworks create fleeting feelings or impressions.
A French film movement (1918–1929) that sought to explore cinema as an artistic form of expression. Art creates an experience, that experience leads to emotions for the audience. Did not make direct statements, but created feelings via suggestion. Emphasized pictorial beauty and intense psychological exploration.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Rhythmic editing
Louis Delluc
French critic and theorist. Remained on the outskirts of the film industry—he funded the companies that produced his low-budget films with inherited money.
Germaine Dulac
A female Impressionist filmmaker at the Film d’Art company
Louis Feuillade
Most prominent director at Gaumont (at one point basically their entire source of income). Made serials (a form which was successful in France long after it lost prestige internationally) about crime etc. until social pressures caused him to start basing his serials on popular novels.
“Cinema Pur”
Abstract films that concentrated only on graphic and temporal form, often with no narrative.
“Photogenie”
A term popularized by Louis Delluc. The quality created by the properties of the camera that distinguishes a film shot from the original object photographed. Reveals the souls of people and the essences of objects.
“Visual Rhythm”
An idea stemming from the Impressionist belief that emotions rather than stories should be the basis for films. Created by careful juxtaposition of the movements within the shots and the lengths of the shots themselves. Offered a way to emphasize the characters reactions to the story rather than the story itself.
