Silent Film

Critical Debate: Is film realist or expressive.

What is film? What is its purpose? This can help determine whether it is abstract or not.


Cutting is to some extent abstract as we don't experience it in real life. Same with e.g. tracking in during conversation

Every film is made by someone who, whether trying to show reality or fiction, is showing a world through their perspective, and what they choose to show or not to show will inevitably make it different from reality. Abstract can be determined by how far it strays from reality.

Art Movements:

Modernism is the rejection of the classical art forms of the past. Begins at the age of impressionists.
Broad movement in western arts and literature that gathered pace around 1850, emphasising innovation
and experimentation in forms, materials and techniques in order to create artworks

Neo-classical - consists of leading lines and geometric shapes which direct your attention, and
deliberate structure. Golden ratio and fibonacci spiral

Van gogh and monet , part of the postmodernist movement, experimented with expressive styles and
the process undergone to get the paint on the canvas e.g. jackson pollock.

The aim of Dada artists was to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art that could reflect
the modern world. It was satirical and nonsensical in nature. Dada was anti-bourgeois and had political
affinities with the radical left.

Film is much like expressive art as it is not like creating something (cgi) but putting together pieces of
real life as a form of expression by the director, like a collage painting

Cezanne would move to get a different perspective on the objects he painted, like film can get different
perspectives

Futurist painting used elements of neo-impressionism and cubism to create compositions that
expressed the idea of the dynamism, the energy and movement, of modern life. It was launched by the
Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Futurism was exceptionally vehement in its denunciation of the
past, instead proposing a celebration of modern technology.

Constructivists believed art should directly reflect the modern industrial world, influenced by cubism
and futurism. Constructivism is a purely technical mastery and organisation of materials. The material
formation of the object is to be substituted for its aesthetic combination. Making and building from
pieces or fragments and analysing reality e.g. photo montage in which fragments were given new
meanings.

The argument that silent cinema meant developing new innovative ways to tell a story purely through
visual medium, and dialogue in film brought it back to the age of theater, something a constructivist
would be strictly against.

Soviet Montage

Dziga Vertov - constructivist. Montage was part of the selection process. Combination of shots would
affect the audience. Felt the task of the soviet film was to document reality to reveal truth and was
opposed to fiction film that depended on artifice.

Man with a Movie Camera was a visual symphony, a self-reflexive film about the making of the film.
An experiment in the cinematic communication of visible events. A collective experience about the life
and rhythm of a city, in which the spectator plays an active role as subject and audience.

Social context:

- in 1929 soviet revolution into and beyond first decade

- ideas about the role of the new soviet citizen

- openness to experiment initiated under Lenin now beginning to close down under Josef Stalin

Historical context:

- 1928 Stalin introduced first 5 year plan to expand industrial production to bring it in line with western
Europe.

Political context:

- Vertov associated with the left front group. In 1928 the first All Union Party Congress on Film
Questions criticised formalist devices used by Eisenstein (also part of left front). These devices
considered to make films inaccessible to a mass audience.

Technological context:

- Vertov worked on agit-trains, mobile propaganda centres to disseminate propaganda through films,
plays, posters etc.

Institutional context:

- Lenin established 'Lenin proportion': 75% fiction films to 25% documentary films.

Vertov’s effects that emphasised the artificial nature of film, which he pioneered:

• Double exposure
• Superimposition
• Animation
• Sped up action
• Freeze frame
• Reverse motion
• Overlapping motion
• Split screen techniques
• Slow motion
• Stop motion

A propos de Nice : documents people in the city, their daily routines, a carnival and social inequalities.

By showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial, the last gasps of a society so lost

in its escapism that it sickens you an makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution. The film is

heavily influenced by soviet modernism and constructivism through the family ties to Vertov and as such

sits firmly in that genre.

City Symphonies: A poetic, experimental documentary that presents a portrait of daily life within a city

while attempting to capture something of the city's spirit.

	Low angle shots of chimney stacks, camera pans around them, close ups of the chimney, intercut with an old woman representative of the bourgeois - old woman is going to die and be replaced by the industry. Low angle shot magnifies size of chimney , and low angle of her looking up so everything points to the direction of the industry. Shot of tipped over carnival mask - the aftermath Shot of furnace stover - a constructivist celebration of industrialisation Cross cutting between old lady chimney stacks and workers shows how forward thinking was bringing together the classes under the hold of industrialisation.

Discuss how far your chosen film or films reflect aesthetic qualities associated with a particular film movement.

Jean Vigo's A Propos de Nice, which was shot by Vertov's brother, Boris Kaufman, reflects constructivism in its celebration of labour and the proletariat, and it's criticism of bourgeois decadence. This is nowhere more apparent than in the end sequence, in which low angle panning shots of vast chimney stacks are intercut with an elderly woman who's presumed to be a member of the bourgeoisie; this seems to suggest that the future lies with industry, rather than with what vigo perceives to be the 'dying' upper classes. The chimney stacks are also intercut with close ups of members of the proletariat who, though clearly poor, are also elated, suggesting that the age of industry will be their age; we also see a man stoking a furnace, which acts as a metaphor for the proletariat being the driving force of the future.

MWAMC Essay:

Discuss how far your chosen film reflect a specific film movement (20)

Constructivism is a modernist movement, a celebration of industrialism and the manual labour. It explores the relationship between industry and art, where art is considered industry or part of industry. This was in response to growing industrialization in communist Russia ( due to Stalin’s 5 year industrial expansion plan) where the worker and industry was valued above all else, leading to the rejection of classical art which was considered bourgeoisie and not contributing to industry. Vertov himself was a constructivist and his communist ideology is seen throughout the film, presenting a realistic portrayal of Russian life in an abstract way, defining the film as a work of expressionism. 

One scene displays work inside a smelting plant, intercut with Svilova, the editor of Man with a Movie Camera , editing footage of that smelting plant. A direct comparison is therefore made, where the editing process is similar to manual labour - here, industry is portrayed as an art form - a fundamental idea behind constructivism. Art, previously restricted only to the bourgeoisie, is being given back to the common people.  The editing process also has contextual significance as constructivism was about the aesthetic combination of an object substituting its material formation. Editing is a form of artistic expression through a selection process, and can therefore be argued to make films inherently abstract as they do not show the entirety of reality. The fact that we see the cameraman filming in such adverse conditions, highlighted by the chiaroscuro of the silhouetted cameraman up against the erupting fire, making the flames seem more dangerous, conveys techniques of muscular filmmaking; likening the acts of filmmaking and manual labour, celebrating the new wave of technology. This celebration is developed further in a close up panning shot of turning cogs, the rotational movement of which is a recurring motif throughout the film. Rotation is representative of innovation, with historical context such as the innovative wheel, and now turning cog . These close ups serve as a fetishisation of the mechanisms of industrialism, obsessing over small details much like how a film would fetishize the female body through close ups. The shot begins with a small cog, which turns a big cog, leading up to an intercut setting of a dam/body of water, a force of nature harnessed through the combined efforts of small cogs, which can be said to be reflective and celebratory of the proletariat. This was fitting of the time, when the communist manifesto was powering forward, and the Tsars, the face of the bourgeoisie were overthrown. The themes of this film can therefore be said to relate the ideologies of communist propaganda pieces at the time, whilst also displaying the influence far left associated Dada artists had on soviet montage.

Jean Vigo's A Propos de Nice, which was shot by Vertov's brother, Boris Kaufman, reflects constructivism in its celebration of labour and the proletariat, and it's criticism of bourgeois decadence. This is nowhere more apparent than in the end sequence, in which low angle panning shots of vast chimney stacks are intercut with an elderly woman who's presumed to be a member of the bourgeoisie; this seems to suggest that the future lies with industry, rather than with what vigo perceives to be the 'dying' upper classes. The chimney stacks are also intercut with close ups of members of the proletariat who, though clearly poor, are also elated, suggesting that the age of industry will be their age; we also see a man stoking a furnace, which acts as a metaphor for the proletariat being the driving force of the future.

In the final scene, Vertov uses the Kuleshov effect to convey the message that manual labour, and the industrialisation of society should be valued higher than bourgeoisie typicalities, namely ballet. The scene starts with an audience, shown to be upper class with their various jewelries, enjoying a ballet performance. A high angle shot of the audience questions the credibility of their ideologies. This is in line with the modernist approach to reject society’s embedded beliefs of exclusivity of the bourgeoisie. Vertov then furthers his criticism by replacing the shots of the ballet dancer with workers, and people going about their day using modern transport such as trams. Focusing on the movement of people going about their day introduces a sense of dynamism, known to be expressed by futurist paintings. Movement tends to be linear and/or symmetrical, highlihgitng the perfection of technological advancements, in adittion to displaying how the film was influenced by neo-classical conventions of leading lines and geometric shapes. The futurist art movement is also known for celebrating modern technology, and a denunciation of the past, both of which are present in Man With A Movie Camera, showing another artistic influence on the film. The Kuleshov effect makes it seem that the audience are gazing in awe at the hard labour or grandiosity of the machinery we see. One could say the Kuleshov effect is an expression of soviet montage, as it is the collection and ordering of different shots that affects the audience. The non diegetic spectator partakes in this awe of manual labour, as Vertov uses a split screen, which is in and of itself an innovation, to amplify the immensity of technological advancements like the tram, or phone operating equipment. The desired response of appreciation for modern technology is as a result of constructivist influences on Vertov’s work. The silent era demanded a degree of innovation from filmmakers, as the spoken power in plays is taken away. It was this limitation which fueled creative processes that defined Vertov’s signature style, and so once dialogue was reintroduced in film, this takes away the need for innovative style, something a constructivist would be strictly against.