The Story So Far (summary of previous weeks)

• The 400 Blows and photogenie – beauty vs. real life, Epstein’s telephone, freeze frame from The 400 Blows
• Modernism – technology, economics (market and skills)
• Photogenie and mental subjectivity
• Montage for drama logic rather than social reasons
• Magic vs Reason
• Eisenstein’s montage techniques: film as socially/culturally active
• Sound’s contribution to cinema

Fritz Lang and M

Film and scene analysis

• A lot of people in my tute didn’t like M! I loved it though.
• Real life event
• Artistic reproduction
• Audience response: angst, paranoia, suspense, creepy via camera angles, lighting/ mise en scene
• Use of silence
• Piecing the story together
• The mob (cultural context, Europe 1920s-30s) vs the police (justice, free will, institution)

What are the expressionist elements?

• Strange camera angles (eg. the one of the police inspector from the floor)
• Lack of sound and music

Where/how does realism fit in?

• Lack of music

Bazin

What is Bazin’s concept of realism?

• Reality and everything that can support it (including sound, deep focus and invisible editing) define what film should be.
• Sound enhances realism.
• Faith in the image vs faith in reality.

What is it opposed to?

• Anything that supports “the creation of a sense or meaning not proper to the images themselves but derived entirely from their juxtaposition”.
• Manipulation (eg. Eisenstein’s suggestive editing, dramatic sets and lighting of German Expressionism) that stands in the way of releasing film’s true potential for realism.
• 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.

What is the dichotomy he sets up?

• Editing manipulates the image which is against realism, but montage also implies reality: analytical editing reveals something.

How does analytical editing fit in?

• Analytical editing reveals something about reality: editing is emphasis.
• Guiding the subjective consciousness