Film Studies 10-07-08

Film Studies 10-07-2008 Breathless Breathless: Editing: classical Hollywood cinema  continuity editing: conventions that define this genre of film Soviet Montage Movement: these directors were contributors to this genre. Director V.I. Pudovkin “editing is the basic creative force by power of which the soulless photographs (the separate shots) are engineered into living cinematographic form” (p 218) Through the editing is the way the movie takes artistic life. Director Dziga Vertov: “I am kino-eye. I am builder. I have placed you… in an extraordinary room which did not exist until just now when I also created it. In this room there are twelve walls, shot by me in various parts of the world. In bringing together shots of walls and details, I managed to arrange them in an order that is pleasing.” (p 227) Refers to an experiment: “artificial geography”: shots of different places. Cut them together, the viewer could make in inference that the actors were sharing the same space. Soviet: very interested in editing: contrasted to the Long Take. i.e. Citizen Kane: 2-3 minute-long takes. This approach reigned in Russia, but gave way to others, young soviet directors who wanted a different approach. Important for cinema to break from theatricality. Editing was the artistic technique that could do this. Unique to cinema, and its potential should be exploited to its fullest. Intellectual Montage: The juxtaposition of a series of images to create an abstract idea not present in any one image. Kuleshaft (sp?) effect: Didn’t have resources to actually make movies at this certain period. Took movies that were already around and would cut them. • Famous experiment: famous films, two shots: 1st shot, actor famous in Russia, looking off-screen, expressionless. • Following shot of a child in a manger

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o Proud of his son Another one: bowl of soup o Feeling of hunger well-conveyed Someone in a casket o Expression of sorrow he is experiencing. Therefore, the meaning of a certain shot can vary depending on previous or following shots. Editing: cutting shots that would lead us to make inferences about various things. It’s only when you see the following image that you retrospectively make inferences about the prior shot.

Editing offers the filmmaker four basic areas of choice and control (p 220-231): 1. Graphic relations – i.e. purely pictorial qualities – between shot A and shot B 2. Rhythmic relations (generated by differences or similarities in shot length) between shot A and shot B o Shot length: i.e. cross-cutting of a woman in the telegraph office sending a telegraph to her boyfriend who is a railroad engineer. Shots of 3 locations: telegraph office with woman, tramps outside trying to get in, boyfriend in his car on his way to rescue her. Shots get shorter and shorter; famous last-minute rescue. o Manipulation of the rhythmic relations 3. Spatial relations between shot A and shot B o i.e. artificial geography o constructing a space in your imagination given cues by the cutting. 4. Temporal relations between shot A and shot B o Linear fashion shot (forward in time)… flashbacks, going back and forth (i.e. citizen kane) o Doesn’t show us anything, no merit of narrative point. -

on continuity “editing”: o as its name implies, the basic purpose of the continuity system is to allow space time and action to continue in a smooth flow over a series of shots. All of the possibilities of editing we have already examined are turned to this end. First graphic qualities are usually kept roughly continuous from shot to shot. The figures are balanced and symmetrically deployed in the frame; the overall lighting and tonality remains constant; the action occupies the central zone of the screen. Second the rhythm of the cutting is usually made dependant on the cm distance of the shot. Long shots are left on the screen longer than

medium shots and medium shots are long of longer than close ups. (p 231) o 180 degree system: the continuity approach to editing dictates that the camera should stay on one side of the action to endure consistent left-right spatial relations between elements from shot to shot. o Establishing shot: a shit, usually involving a distant framing, that shots the spatial relations among the important figures, objects, and setting in a scene.  Spatial clarity: should be focussed on the story and not to have to bother with this unless there’s some contribution to the story o Axis of action: in the continuity editing system, the imaginary […] - what the 180 degree system does: 1. it ensures that relative positions in the frame stay consistent. 2. it ensures consistent eye-lines 3. ensures consistent screen direction. - gun fights situation, character walking one way and the other walking the other. Etc. Shot/reverse shot: [definition] Jean-Luc Godard: - violates conventions of spatial, temporal and graphic continuity by his systematic use of the Jump Cut: o when 2 shots of the same subject are cut together but aren’t sufficiently different in camera distance and angle, there will be a noticeable jump on the screen. o Abrupt stops and jumps. People at the time didn’t understand: critics: “this guy doesn’t know how to make a movie”. - scenes of crucial action are sometimes brief and confusing. o i.e The murder of the traffic cop, an event that triggers much of what follows is handled in a very elliptical fashion. In long shot, we see the officer approaching Michel’s car, parked in a side road o some scenes are cut up while others are not (unsure of why he does this) “We won the day in having in acknowledged that a film by Hitchcock, for example is in principle as important as a book by Aragon. Film auteurs, thanks to us, have finally entered the history of art.”

“a bout de soufflé began this way. I had written the first scene (Jean Seberg on the Champs Elysees) and for the rest I had a pile of notes for each scene. I said to myself, this is terrible I stopped everything. Then I thought: in a single day … one should be able […]” Narration in new-wave films: a) aimless protagonists: these heroes are “flat” psychologically. Whereas Hollywood characters have def. goals, new wave char’s seem somehow unknowable. Why do the cahr’s in Breathless, do what they do? What motivates their actions? b) Episodic plot: may relate to adjacent scenes in only a loose , associational manner. It’s not always clear why particular scenes follow one another, or even why certain scenes are included in the film at all (little if any narrational significance) char’s talk to one another, but what they say doesn’t seem to illuminate their motives or help us follow a story. c) Ambiguous endings: Hollywood films are famous for their strong sense of narrative resolution whereas new wave films often have “open” endings. At the end of breathless for instance, we’re left with many questions such as how to interpret Michel’s dying works”c’est vraiment degueulasse.” We are left to ponder what michel thought was disgusting, Patricia’s betrayal, his own last minute failure to flee, or simply his death. “ce film est dedie a la monogram pictures” Soviet montage : (1924-1930) - editing very important - before these, the shots were lengthy, fairly distant, and that captured the actors’ performances On Eisenstein’s montage technique in October: - he conceved this film as an editing construction. Deliberately opposed himself to continuity editing, seeking out and exploiting what Hollywood would consider discontinuities. - Roam freely through time October’s War and Hunger sequence: 1) Russian soldiers throw down rifles, fraternize with Germans 2) Provisional government HG; underling extends document 3) Bombs fall on soldiers, crosscut with… 4) Cannon being lowered off factory assembly line; finally, shots of cannon are crosscut with… 5) Images of hungry women and children followed by titles: “the same old story…”/”hunger and war”

- contrast with the highly robotic/stylized germans and Russians with the very realistic movements of the crushed soldiers and the starving women and children.