Andre Bazins Theorisation of Cinematic Realism - Research Paper Example

Film and Critical Theory ANDRE BAZIN’S THEORISATION OF CINEMATIC REALISM Introduction The writings of Andre Bazin (1918-1958), the French film critic and scholar, are acknowledged as the most important of realist film theory, similar to Einsteins’s writings based on formative theories. Though like Einstein Bazin did not formulate a clear, logical system, his ideas are consistent and based on the strong foundation of deductive reasoning. Further, the variety and intricacy of his ideas “give them a richness and cultural impact rivalled only by those of Einstein” (Andrew 1976, p.134). Bazin’s contributions to film aesthetics are widely acknowledged; the most significant work being “the restoration of interest in the integrity of the visual field” (Sarris 2003, p.25). He succeeded in reducing the montage theories of Einstein and other scholars to options, rather than essentials. Though Bazin did not attempt to establish new rules to replace the old, he changed the way most critics viewed motion pictures. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to give a critical account of Andre Bazin’s theorisation of cinematic realism. Discussion Theorists such as Marcel L’Herbier, Dziga Vertov, and the Grierson school of British documentary film makers supported the photographic properties of film. Contrastingly, Bazin was the first critic to effectively challenge the formative tradition. He did not agree that there could be a learned power of artistic control over mechanically recorded image, but strongly believed and “pleaded for a film theory and a film tradition” (Andrew 1976, p.134) that focused on the naked power of the image. His views were considered to be singificantly important and intelligently thought out. Andre Bazin’s Emphasis on Realism in Cinema Bazin differs from conventional film theorists in two important ways: first, he suggested a goal for cinema which was outside commonly held beliefs about art, cinema as a tool to open opportunities to unknown universes, “cinema as a new sense, reliable like our natural senses, giving us knowledge of empirical realities otherwise unavailable” (Andrew 1976, p.145). The second way in which Bazin differs completely from other film critics is his concept that cinematographic language includes all the different possibilites of images basic and unadorned, and scenes which are unedited. Andre Bazin succeeded in introducing optical realism with individual images, rather than with successive images, as seen in the two otherwise dissimilar films Citizen Kane and the slow panning of the camera in Open City (Sarris 2003). Bazin’s anti-montage position of presenting individual images was highly influential; this technique was unlike the rapid juxtaposition of shots known as montage and practised by most film directors of the time. Deep-space shot was used by some film-makers such as Welles to create a virtual editing. He believed that in contemporary cinema the narrative was presented in smooth continuity, and “made conceptual points through sound not through cutting” (Bordwell 2005, p.259). Bazin considered the power of cinema to record and transmit reality that the camera faces, to be a valuable advantage. Andre Bazin’s scholarly articles presented in two volumes of his book What is cinema? are denoted as classics and the ultimate benchmark of film studies and film criticism. His writing is considered to be intellectual and stimulating, though easy to understand. Since World War II, Bazin has been upheld as the most significant personality in French cinema, despite the fact that he had not made any films. He was also co-founder of one of the world’s most influential and distinguished French publications Cahiers du cinéma state Bazin & Gray (2004). Mimesis and Depiction of Reality Mimesis is mimicry or imitation of certain aspects of the world, particularly human actions, and their portrayal in literature and art, towards realism. Bazin gave a great deal of consideration to the hypothesis that cinema responds to the forces of growth and other processes that result in increasing complexity, and to the belief that cinema has certain inherited traits. Since cinema has existed only three generations, it should be understood only by taking into account its genetic characteristics, and “the history of its development within specific environmental forces” (Andrew 1976, p.172). Bazin’s beliefs on existentialism prevented him from developing core concepts on what cinema ought to become. On the other hand, he attempted to make cinema aware of its freedom and possibilities, to unshackle it from old theories which associate it to particular self-conceptions and ideologies. Bazin ceaselessly sought to find the answer to his question “What is cinema?” without wanting or hoping to reach a definite conclusion on the issue. Taking a broad perspective, cinema includes its past, its future, the story of its evolution which was a growing process, and its increasing development while at the same time revealing itself more (Andrew 1976). Founded on the above beliefs, the historical orientation of Bazin’s theories is easily perceptible. “To understand cinema it is essential to take account of its origins and observe the directions of its growth in a changing mileu” (Andrew 1976, p.173). According to Bazin, cinema is the product of two parents and of two genetic strains. The parent concepts of cinema are realism and institutionalism. In Bazin’s essay entitled Ontology of the Photographic Image in his book What is Cinema? he has depicted that realism originates from the art of painting. From the time of the Renaissance, painting had expressed the desire for replicating the concrete world. Similarly, from literature at the end of the nineteenth century also, cinema was impacted towards depicting realism. Another factor is the scientific spirit which impelled a curiosity in the way the world looks and works; hence cinema helped to serve that interest. Films also originated from popular culture. Cinema has been in a mutually dependent position with the entertainment industry in all its aspects. Bazin believed that the sociological function of cinema is as much a part of cinema as its inherent realism. In his writing, he traces the struggle between various such tendencies, including the “evolution of both cinematic language and cinematic content” (Andrew 1976). Bazin’s views have far-reaching implications. For him, a paradoxical meaning lay behind cinema dedicated to realism which was profoundly aesthetic. According to Bazin, paradox is his particular dialectic or logical arrival at the truth of realism, and is “truly the essence not only of his style, but of his mental processes” (Bazin and Gray 2004, p.12). Along with paradox, Bazin’s humor was also a significant presence in his works. The film scholar and critic concedes that some transformation does occur during the process of picturization, with the camera angles causing fragmentation of the realism in an image, framing, perspectives that arrange these fragments according to comparative time durations, and infuse them with a meaning other than the one which they had as a part of the total image. “Relations between them now exist that were not present in the original and true reality” (Bazin and Gray 2004, pp.12-13). In the cinematic presentation of events, there is a filtering of reality through the director’s perspective. From this arises the assertion that there is no such thing as neorealism, there are only neorealist directors who may belong to diverse social, political or religious groups. The important detail is that in this mimetic process of duplicating reality, cheating should not be involved, whatever process of imaging is undertaken. The film receives a mold which is both spatial and temporal to depict space and time, pertaining to the reality produced by the cinema depicting the reality of the world of which we are a part of. From this statement, it is clear that Bazin accepts the idea of some kind of change or artifice. Praising Einstein’s Potemkin, Bazin had remarked that art was not possible without artifice, and some part of reality may need to be sacrificed in order to achieve art in its highest form (Bazin and Gray 2004, p.13). Teleology Teleology is the study of purpose in natural phenomena, and the use of design to explain the ultimate purpose. In his work The Concept of Presence, Bazin states that the stages of photographic advance within the history of plastic arts considerably reduces the gap between presence and absence. “Cinema ultimately overcomes the piecemeal nature of photographic realization” (Stewart 1999, p.142) to provide a molding of the object as it exists in time. This would create an imprint of duration of the object. This concept is further reinforced with some mystification in Bazin’s metaphor for cinema as a mirror with a delayed reflection, whose tin foil retains the image. The above conceptualization of cinematic duration as optic mould rather than the fleeting trace are in alignment with the language of the more well-known Ontology essay, where it is stated that photography does not have the purpose of creating eternity in the same way as art does. On the other hand, it is believed by Bazin to preserve time “embalm time”, thus preventing its “corruption”. According to him, cinema is not so much about aesthetics; its teleology is more about mummifying change, the image representing that point of time when it was captured by the camera. Bazin’s metaphors are found to relate to “the illusory effects of mechanic phenomenality, not with the essence of the photographic object, and certainly not with the cinematic image on strip or even screen” (Stewart 1999, p.142), but with what appears as apparent of their resolved presence across time. According to Henderson (1972), the structure of Bazin’s thought surmounts the fundamental divisions between ontology and history. That is, the teleology in film history is that philodophy smoothens the divisions underlying Bazin’s concerns on what lies between history and ontology which is the philosophical or methaphysical aspect. The introduction of recorded sound to cinema is considered to be representative of teleology, especially when relating to cinema as an institution, rather than as technology. Altman (1992) states that from the perspective of many film scholars, it would be an idealistic argument that addition of recorded sound to recorded images which were the first manifestation of cinema, is an inherent part of cinema. However, contemporary views on this issue as in other concerns, are in contrast to Bazin’s beliefs. Andre Bazin described the transition to sound cinema, by using a religious metaphor. According to the film scholar, while silent cinema can be correlated to the “Old Testament” of the art form, sound film making thus represents the “New Testament” and sound technology “The Saviour” (Bazin 1967, p.23). According to his perspective, in cinema history there was a continuously increasing drive towards realism, and the introduction of the talkies is a natural part of this thinking, due to which it forms an inherent part of his writing on film history. On the other hand, after Bazin’s time, his ideas on silent cinema and the advent of sound have been negated, though not replaced by new perspectives. The realism of narrative cinema, both before and after the advent of sound, is considered to be an illusion created through conventions, arising out of a need for unity and transparence on the part of the audience. However, the logical outcome of this perspective is a new teleology based on the cinema’s elaboration “of an increasingly convincing simulacrum of the real” (Altman 1992, p.127), which is sought by human psychology, and is correlated with Bazin’s ideas on the basic human need for realism. Materialism and the Everyday It is required of cinema, to provide the visible and material aspects of the cosmos which modern science has revealed. Kracauer (1997) stated that man is no longer aware of what reality is. Old beliefs related to nineteenth century materialism have been eliminated by the discoveries of Einstein and Heisenberg. The unrealistic-appearing and unpredictable, though physically verifiable world can be recorded by high speed and infrared camera. The philosophical approach to cinema such as that of Bazin, is opposed by theorists of semiotics who are dogmatically materialistic in all aspects: language, social ideology, and personal psychology. These impact the institutions of culture including cinema, and their development. “The most radical theorists of this sort hope to bring human beings to an awareness of these material conditions and force them to alter the basic structures of their life by achieving new material conditions in violently rejecting the old” (Andrew 1976, p.242). On the other hand, Michel Foucault and others are deterministic and believe that it is not possible for man to be in control of these conditions, since he can only follow a pattern which cannot be changed. Determinist materialism is pessimistic while revolutionary materialism is optimistic, and both are modern manifestations of a position dating back to the Greeks, and has existed in every era of western civilization. However, there is also a contrasting perspective, which believes that man and his imagination have the freedom to explore the world, which is not a closed system, but a mystery to be discovered. Art is seen as as means to overcome the given conditions of the human situation, looking beyond to a world of hitherto unknown possibilities. Thus the phenomenology of Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Dufrenne, has given rise to the view of art as freedom, whereby the “materialism and anti-humanism of structuralism and semiotics has revolted” (Andrew 1976, p.243). While phenomenology is influential in other domains, in film theory it was not systematically investigated, following the early demise of scholars such as Andre Bazin in 1958. Conclusion This paper has highlighted and critically investigated Andre Bazin’s theorisation of cinematic realism. The evidence indicates that Bazin seeks to define the essence of cinema through his orientation towards realism underlined by paradox, replication and mimesis, teleology which is the explanation of ultimate purpose in natural phenomena, and philosophical depiction of the material aspects of the world’s reality. Bibliography Altman, R. (1992). Sound theory, sound practice. Great Britain: Routledge. Andrew, D. (1976). The major film theories: An Introduction. The United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Bazin, A. and Gray, H. (2004). What is cinema? Volume 1. The United States of America: The University of California Press. Bordwell, D. (2005). The cinema of Einstein. Great Britain: Routledge. Henderson, B. (1972). The structure of Bazin’s thought. Film Quarterly, 25 (4): 18-27. Kracauer, S. (1997). Theory of film: the redemption of physical reality. The United King- dom: The Oxford University Press. Sarris, A. (2003). The auteur theory revisited. In V.W. Wexman (Ed.). Film and authorship. The United States of America: Rutgers University Press. pp.21-41. Stewart, G. (1999). Between film and screen: modernism’s photosynthesis. London: University of Chicago Press. Read More