TCF112/Bazinian Realism

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"
         • Lumière Brothers
         • Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, and William Wyler.
           • See frame grabs from Renoir and Wyler films.
    • 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