I can respect Tudor’s refusal to grant Bazin the benefit of two types of realism, but I disagree with his reason. By the late 30’s sound moved editing toward realism, switching the operative cutting style from symbolic/expressive to dramatic/analytic. 1 Andre Bazin. Featured Cite Them Right Online. Pages: 207 / 206. DVD. Bazin argues against any device that can be used to manipulate the audience’s perception of the scene and its potential to remain ambiguous and open to interpretation. Bazin denounces the “trickery” of montage, evident in the animal film by Jean Tourane. Andre Bazin, “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema”, in Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen ed., Film Theory and Criticism (1999), pp.44-46, 6.) The depth of field/long take style, known as mise-en-scéne, attracted itself to Bazin for two essential reasons: a) It maintained the unity of space and the relationship between the objects within that space. 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This is trickery; it removes the freedom on the part of the spectator to select for him or herself and removes whatever existential ambiguity may be present in the scene. Contrarily, if the scene is complex why presuppose only one meaning? Although Welles inherited many traits from German Expressionism Tudor can not deny that the context is different – within Wellesian mise-en-scéne- ­and that there is a difference between cutting a space through montage and cutting a space “in depth” as does Welles. Historical concerns are minimized while the logic and connectedness of the various directions of Bazin’s thought are emphasized. Thereafter, every pleasant thing that happened in my life lowed to him. Bazin was greatly influenced by existentialism, a … Even when, in his article “La Technique du Citizen Kane,” 3 Bazin defends Welles against George Sadoul’s charges of unoriginality he concludes with the spiritualistic thought that Welles, the modern artist, has left behind (through his films) “a resonance the likes of which we have never known before” (my translation). Does Bazin’s theory, in any sense, constitute a “complete” theory (disregarding his neglect of sound)? Bazin goes on to state that: “The guiding myth, then, inspiring the invention of cinema, is the accomplishment of that which dominated in a more or less vague fashion all the techniques of the mechanical reproduction of reality in the nineteenth century, from photography to phonograph, namely an integral realism, a recreation of the world in its own image, an image unburdened by the freedom of interpretation of the artist or the irreversibility of time” … He was the general editor of the film criticism journal Cahiers du cinema, and a considerable part of his work focused on realism. The majority of them were anthologized in their original language in the four volume set Qu’est- ce que le cinéma? (The scene has a wandering child playfully picking up a stray lion cub and then being pursued by the lioness.) 1 & 2 do we see even a passing remark at film noir or the expressionistic-like Universal horror films of the 30’s. At this point Henderson does not posit any answers, but only raises the question of whether there can be a theory dictating the complete organization of a film. Although the potential for human intervention is always present, even granting the mechanical intervention, Bazin believes that the filmmaker owes it to the complexity of reality to refrain from false subjective manipulation and overwrought formalist mediation. but instead wants us to neglect the causal events and consider only the final results. All of these quotes or paraphrases are taken from What is Cinema Vol. The newsletter highlights recent selections from the journal and useful tips from our blog. If the scene has only one simple meaning why insult the audience’s intelligence with needless and obvious close-ups? Cinema can never totally duplicate the viewing process – physiologically and psychologically. Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 1 (12), http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=86, BLAKENEY, K. 2009. Please login to your account first; Need help? Hugh Gray, (Berkeley : University of California Press, c1967-71), pp.81-82, 9.) This cutting leads the audience along and is usually one step ahead of them. Bazin’s starting point for his historical overview is the silent period. He writes enthusiastically about the style of Erich von Stroheim whose philosophy of filmmaking Bazin describes as “Take a close look at the world, keep on doing so, and in the end it will lay bare for you all its cruelty and its ugliness.”6 He appreciates neo-realism as “a kind of humanism” first and a “style of filmmaking” second.7 This is really apparent in his review of Umberto D, where he describes how the scene with the maid waking up in the morning is broken up into smaller and smaller units and shot continuously turning “life itself” into “spectacle” and “visible poetry”.8 He seems very taken by the idea of shooting an entire film about a man to whom nothing happens for ninety minutes.9. 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