In What Ways Can Film Be Seen as a Specific Art Form - Essay Example

?In cinema, the “work of art has to be more than a mere imitation of the world, or some part of it: it must also be a transformation of the world” (Smith, 2005, 599). The work of art constitutes not only a reproduction of an original - or else, the art form would only be a cheap copy rather than a piece filled with colour, creativity, character, ideas, self-interpretation and the magic of the surreal. One witnesses the transformed world of cinematography in Vsevolod Pudovkin’s Mother (1926) by and Chris Columbus’ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) by dissecting the functions and effects of the mise-en-scene, philosophy, montage, fantasy, realism and authorship (auteur). The world is transformed first through the eyes of the director since he is the one visualizing, creating and re-creating a world for the public. Art centers on two ideals: beauty and life. Likewise, cinematic art focuses on aesthetics (the depiction of a portrait to appeal to the senses) and incorporates life images and themes. Through cinema, the author of the film production has the liberty to be unconventional and he can still adhere to the real by embracing a realist approach. improvisation, individual interpretation, reality, illusion and entertainment of the senses. According to (Gazetas, 2008, 18), “the art of the cinema is the art of the mind insofar as movies are capable of transforming reality into an object of imagination that completely isolates the viewer from the real world.” Cinema has the ability to transform real objects into imaginative ones and to manipulate lighting, space, and colour to explore different themes in-depth. Artists are bestowed with enviable liberties which renders them and their work very flexible. In other words, although the artist aims to give a true-to-life translation of an art piece (an episode in a character’s life), he is free to twist, distort and imagine facts in the real to simulate his own world and orchestrate the course of events. Chris Columbus, through J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone represents a transformed world which evokes a wonderland of childhood bliss and even utopia. Set in a child’s paradise Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, one sees through the lens of fantasy, an idealized childhood, illusion and nostalgia. The possibilities are unlimited, unrestricted from the boundaries of reality. On this stage, the artist makes modifications to the real. Fantasy is the art of infusing the supernatural within the mundane. Columbus as film director fully exploits the power of fantasy in the film, recreating a world in which the wizards and witches have constant encounters with the spiritual world. As a result, one sees the intermingling of both imagination and reality in film and in the real world. They do not inhabit separate spheres anymore. The unreal became the surreal which has become real. Characters, such as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Voldemort, Professor Dumbledore…are endowed with uncanny, spiritual abilities such as clairvoyance, enchantment, prophesy, self-levitation and telekinesis (moving objects with the mind). In the film, doing magic tricks is not a mere activity. It becomes a spiritual affair in which the student has to harness and control the special power given to him or her. The paranormal constantly takes place in the novel, forming an inextricable part of life and human experience.  The world of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is transformed not only by reason of the supernatural but also by the symbolic use of colour, light and dark. (Cooper, 1997, 123) proposes that in cinematic productions “beauty is a symbol of morality, no account is developed as to how art and beauty may be conducive to life.” Artists manipulate colour to emphasize or de-emphasize certain details in their work, in the same way, film directors are artists themselves since they employ colour to make their moralizing points, creating a rich, dynamic combination. Darkness rightly encapsulates evil, moral darkness and corruption, violence and cruelty. The shadowy characters, for example Voldemort, are impelled by egocentric desire to acquire absolute power. It is Voldemort’s hell-bent ambition to murder Harry Potter and gain total supremacy. Moral darkness is compounded by physical darkness and in the film noir genre the prevailing ambience and colour imagery is dark-black. "The dark and sleazy environment also suggests hidden and malevolent forces lurking in the shadow, stalking their prey" (Gazetas, 2008, 167). The mise-en-scene encompasses the setting of the stage to the tones and shades of the ambience. In Mother (1926) the encroaching gloom and darkness in the milieu, clothing, sound and expression are reminiscent of depression, isolation, alienation and clandestineness. The lighting and darkness betray the deeply challenging atmosphere among peasants in Russia. Here the first scene introduces the viewer to a mother listening to a sad, Russian opera. She is in a dilapidated kitchen, seemly in mourning. Dark is a necessary cover for in the volatile political environment, revolutionary Russians must go clandestine and hide their subversive activities from the authorities. In the corners of the home, the initial scene projects a prevailing darkness which portends impending doom. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) conjures up forbidding images of night, death, fate and evil. The French New Wave Cinema introduces an artistic concept, the mise-en-scene theory, which capitalizes on the background and the environment to narrate a particular scene. To clarify, “in a mise-en-scene without architecture, the screen’s frame is the only point of reference, just as the painting’s frame regulates the composition from within” (Vacche, 1996, 235). From this explanatory connection, one understands that the mise-en-scene is the frame in which the work of art is enshrined. The mise-en-scene theory explores cinema in which the theatrics of space are constructed for the camera. This use of space - how it is arranged and how the action and the objects relate within it-generates exciting topics and commentary on film. It enriches our understanding of the main themes of the plot narratives, clarifies the character of certain personages and adds information and invokes emotion and sentiments with which the characters wrestle. Through characterization and mise-en-scene, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone champions fantasy while Mother advocates realism. (Lamarque, 2004, 31) has the opinion that “to succeed at cinema, a film must have true characters and must be true to them.” The reason why these realist works are so stridently against fantasy is because the realist focus appreciates the illustration of the truth in the quotidian life. The realist style of art, called verisimilitude preserves truth and reality in the film’s narrative account for sentiments and the romantic often eclipse clarity. Realism offers no embellishment, therefore realist film makers are against the view of projecting a fantasy. The protagonist of Mother has no intention of capturing the audience with an attractive exterior. Instead, the main objective is to represent this character as an average person who embodies all oppressed individuals, involved in the revolutionary struggle. The Soviet cinema also wields the mise-en-scene to not only tell the truth to the people, but to tell them of the possibilities in a world recreated by his ideas. In a nation fed-up of the superficial. French New Wave Cinema and Soviet Cinema intends to decrease the amounts of artificial lighting in favour of natural lighting as a technique to accentuate reality. Similar to the attempts in a drawing, film directors remain loyal to a particular ambience instead of casting in an artificial setting. By Pudovkin’s wielding of natural light in Mother –he runs counter to the classical Hollywood which utilized artificial lighting and shot scenes in places not native to the film. The mise-en-scene not only impacts space, but also time. In a world transformed by the film producer, time laws in magical realism operate outside of the normal sphere. Within the scope of cinema, “time is curved and coincidental in a whole moment that is outside of clock time” (Rabassa, 1973, 444). Harry Potter’s Philosopher’s Stone (2001) stresses a timelessness which also points to an otherworldliness. Wizards and witches pass hundreds of years without ageing in a matter of 2 hours. Characters live in a world outside the scope of natural time. Representation of reality is a key aspect of the transformation of art and, one observes in French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realism the complete rejection of Hollywood hegemony and the opting for lower-classed, plain-clothed protagonists, leading simple lives and undergoing hardship. French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realism dismiss the Hollywood’s celebrity culture and privileges obscure characters. Hollywood cinema in classical film advances an image of glamour, finesse, and opulence usually with a happy denouement but French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realism, characters are positioned in deeply adverse circumstances, face a crisis or grapple with uncertainty or failure. Reality wears tattered rags. The dissimilarity between Hollywood and Soviet film only reflects a vast divergence between the ideologies of Eastern Soviet and democratic America. For example, the film, Mother (1926) gives a realist portrayal of life, translating reality without embellishing actual events. Contrary to Hollywood, French New Wave, Soviet cinema and Italian Neo-Realism film directors want to draw a particular ideology, driving at social and political issues. Commenting on Soviet cinema, (Christie, 1988, 3) remarks that “the still struggling industrialised Soviet cinema of the 1930s was rejected by both Britain and America…thus a new interpretative model emerged, that of the state propaganda machine.” Soviet cinema of Einstein and Pudovkin was one in which the Soviet government controlled media to a large extent. As a consequence, the monopoly on cinema was at the government’s disposal to communicate a message to the people. The strict, harsh censorship of the Socialist Soviets is directly opposed to democratic liberties of America. The striving to realize this transformed world stimulates film directors to permeate ideas of social justice and enflame the passions of the public. In Mother (1926) both mother and son’s hope lay in the success of political revolution. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels patronize a Soviet Communism that demanded the rising up of the poor workers to revolutionize a new system. Marx and Engels declare that “the history of all past society has consisted in the development of class antagonisms” (Marx 2004). Mother (1926) verifies the truth of this statement. French New Wave film directors choose to improvise even the scripts of the actors seeing that they wanted to draw a scenario without hindrances to creativity. This governing attitude is common to French New Wave Cinema since typical characters are bohemian, young, and rebellious-continually going against the grain. In cinema, there are no rigid rules, no right or wrong. French New Wave film are anti-authoritarian because it is believed that in art rules restrict, while fewer regulations are beneficial for it promotes originality. As a result of this fluid approach, one deduces that film is a confirmed art work since it lends itself to multiple interpretations. Critics of an piece of art see different facets belonging to the same work, authored by the same man. (Prettejohn, 2005, 62) puts forward that “while the symbol of each flower is specific…nonetheless it is impossible to give a definite interpretation and to sum up its meaning.” In other words, although there exists certain codes in filmmaking which guides the labeling of symbols and which denote hidden meaning, the cinema criticism and interpretation are up to the viewer. Beauty in the eye of the beholder carries with it an individuality that no one else should control, regulate or delimit. Not following the rules in filmic art is not a novelty. Mother (1926) is a revolutionary, anti-establishment movie which tells of the coexistence of maternal love and patriotism through death. The dominating presence surrounding the home is darkened by shadows because of the ominous presentiment that haunts the worried mother. In the long run, both mother and son soon join hands in supporting the revolutionary cause. Although they both perish in the end, the spirit of resistance is strong in the movie. The only person who could resist the traditional patriarchal government in Russia is the woman. The transformed world of Pudovkin involves one in which the woman is on par with the man and involved in the socialist struggle. The Soviets envisaged a new world in which the people as one rise up against their oppressors. Paternalistic politics has disappointed the entire nation; as a consequence, a revolutionary matriarchal power is preferred. In like manner, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) is a film which encourages rebellion. Harry Potter is a junior wizard at the Hogwart’s enchantment school and habitually transgresses the rules of the ordered establishment because he operates under the conviction that what he does is right. In complicity with his friends, Harry Potter knows that rules are meant to preserve order; however, he also understands that sometimes, revolution is the only way to improve and preserve freedom. His revolutionary character aligns with his heroism and attributes to him an independent mind-not easily led or governed by another. Artistic montage and the soviet film montage movement enable the attainment of a transformed world, throwing in relief both disparity and unity in the science of filming. The Soviet montage movement (1924-1930) is a cinema period in which the practice of cutting and editing films to fit neatly in the film is popular. Film critic (Vacche, 1996, 153) realizes that the mise-en-scene reveals ties between icon painting and rural life in his mixing of farm, artistic and military utensils. Here, the amalgamation of objects , via montage, produces the mise-en-scene which then make vital connections with a still life painting and real life. To execute a montage, the director would avert the viewers’ vision to another scene which emphasizes the previous scene. The effect of montage is to awaken the spectator to certain details. Montage is an aesthetic method often used in art, photography and painting in which a combination of seemingly abstract artistic items and pictures are integrated and united to form a cohesive art piece. The effect of a montage adds dimensions, colour, diversity, and also the element of otherworldliness. The product is a unique creative work which although it is not close to something one would see in real-life, taken separately, one recognizes that the multi-faceted artwork forms a distinctive whole. Soviet montage overlaps certain scenes to clarify on a previous scene. A peculiar chronological effect is accomplished through cinematic montage-time periods can be compressed or expanded for greater impact. The montage style facilitates maneuvering time so that “the plot skips over years of story time….but the plot duration also compresses time through montage sequences” (Bordell, 1997, 315). The time an event would usual take, sometimes months or years. Film makers execute this feat by condensing it to only a few minutes. This is a remarkable achievement and only reaffirms the flexibility and artistic ingenuity of film makers. Based on the montage of clips, the film maker can build his film. Like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces fit with one another. Under French New Wave, the auteur theory claims that a director’s work characterizes his own identity “assigning proper authorship, determining degrees of authenticity, prescribing copyrights, and delineating (an inventory) …of complete works” (Gaut 2002, 207). As an art piece always bear the unique mark of the painter, so does the auteur concept of the French New Wave movement posit that the film should bear the distinctive and indelible fingerprint of the filmmaker. The principle maintains that directors must claim their work and control patent. As tokens of the director’s personality, every film is said to carry an inimitable personality - one could observe and discriminate the differences between the characteristic styles of a film director and the next. In sum, Einstein models the true filmmaker - one who fuses within himself both artist and film director for “Einstein continued to draw, make caricatures…and became involved in theatrical productions” (Bordell, 2007, 57). Filmmakers have to project a different world to the audience, a world transformed by change where the impossible becomes possible. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) Chris Columbus manifests aspects of French New Wave and Hollywood cinema. Cinema is beauty, beauty is art, and art is life. References: Beumers, B 2007, The cinema of Russia and the former Soviet Union, Wallflower Press , London. Bordwell, D 2007, Poetics of cinema, Routledge, New York and London. Bordwell, D 1993, The cinema of Eisenstein, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts. Bordwell, D & Thompson, K 1997, Film art, McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York. Bordwell, D & Thompson 2001, Film art, 412-415. Christie, I & Taylor, R 1988, The film factory: Russian and Soviet cinema in documents, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Cooper, DE 1997, Aesthetics: the classic readings, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford Elder, B 1995, The magic of Australia, Beaut Books, Sydney. 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