In the lead up to this semester I coincidentally watched a lot of films by Louis Malle, François Truffaut, Jacque Tati, and contemporary French filmmakers. There is an immediate and inexplicable quality held by most French cinema when compared to its Hollywood equivalents, and after our class discussions, I’m realising that this could perhaps be something to do with coverage. Obviously, this topic is very broad, and there is a huge variety in the way both English and French directors operate individually, however, I feel that it is safe to say that as a whole, French cinema operates in a totally different way to mainstream Hollywood/American cinema (in both in historical and contemporary settings).

While there are well studied differences in Hollywood vs European narratives, I would like to explore the differences in coverage in this reflection. Although, could you argue that the coverage of a scene arises from the way it is written? Maybe the two things are more connected that I would first expect. Maybe stylistic differences in coverage are partly caused by the differences in narrative style? I feel like this may be outside of the scope of this reflection, but could be something that I reflect on further at a later date.

Strong examples of these differences can be the French new wave cinema. Take this scene from Jean Luc-Goddard’s Vivre Sa Vie for example:

The camera pushes in from a two shot to a single of Anna Karina’s character (Nana) seemingly without motivation. Upon further analysis you could say that this movement highlights the importance of Nana’s thoughts. I would argue that most Hollywood audiences would consider this move to be unnecessary, and following the same idea, most Hollywood directors would not have the idea to do something like this, it just simply wouldn’t cross their mind. I find that moments like this, which arise not from necessity, but from creativity, really challenge me to consider the artistic quality of the film. Like a painting with one element seemingly out of place, it provides a lot more substance for the audience’s consideration. If this scene was covered in the most utilitarian way, it would not be worthy of my discussion, so by that logic, I would argue that there is something inherently valuable about this kind of stylistic coverage.

This kind of creativity isn’t limited to just the French new-wave era either. Take this scene from Xavier Dolan’s 2015 film Mommy for example: [spoiler alert]

 

Throughout the entire film Dolan uses the camera in a very stylistic manner to give direct insight into the protagonists thoughts and emotions. All the characters in this scene are shown through very tight frames with a lot of compression, making everyone feel uncomfortably close together and trapped within the shot. This directly correlates to the protagonists situation, being locked in a straight jacket. I find the most powerful shot in this scene to be the final slow motion close up of his Steve’s feet running. To me, what makes this shot is its slight dutch angle, emphasising the freedom he is feeling and creating a truly powerful closing remark.

Hopefully these examples provide some value to you. I know they did for me, however that doesn’t always translate well onto the page. There is so much going on in these shots, and I want to spent more time looking at the ‘why’ rather than the ‘how’, but I’m finding it hard to discuss the latter without the former. I am also realising that figuring out what camera techniques a director/DOP/operator has used, doesn’t necessarily mean that I have learnt anything at all about a scene’s coverage, which is often harder to explain concisely apart from referring to it as ‘significant’.

I think French cinema has some incredible lessons to teach me as I develop my filmmaking practice. Here’s some thoughts that I will challenge myself to keep coming back to:

• the most obvious solution is not always the best one.
• why does it have to be done this way?
• look at this from another perspective.
• how can I represent a mental state with my coverage?
• WWTFD? (What would the French do?)

Another few French specific thoughts I would like to consider further:

• Would someone with a mastery of the French language naturally have a greater ability to understand the term decoupage?
• Is French cinema is less attached to the traditional practices of the theatre? It seems that there is more consideration around the unique possibilities of film as a medium.
• Does French rely on the audience’s ‘intelligence’ more than Hollywood cinema? Can a camera shot say as much as a piece of dialogue exposition?

Merci.