TCF112/Bazinian Realism

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André Bazin

  • Wrote during the post-World War II years: 1940s-1958
    • Died in 1958 at age 39
  • Cahiers du Cinéma
    • Founded 1950 with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Lo Duca in 1951.
    • And edited it until his death
    • World's most influential film journal in 1950/60's.
    • "Auteur Theory"
      • Auteur = "author"
    • François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer
  • Bazinian realism
    • "Evolution of Film Language"
      • "Language" = film style, technique
      • Divides filmmakers into two approaches:
        1. Those who put their "faith in the image"
          • Méliès
          • German expressionism
          • Soviet montage--Kuleshov, Eisenstein
        2. Those who put their "faith in reality"
      • Advocated a specific type of realism:
        1. Deep focus
          • Composition in depth
          • Spatial continuum
        2. Longer takes
          • Temporal continuum
        3. Lateral camera movement

Jean Renoir (1894-1979)

  1. Silent films
    • Surrealist, experimental
  2. Sound films in France, pre-WW II
    • 1930s
    • Popular Front—liberal, socialist politics
    • Poetic Realism—dark dramas
  3. Sound films in US, during WW II
    • Variety
  4. Sound films in France, post-WW II
    • 1950s
    • Theatrical, backstage stories; comedies, musicals