Modified Surrealism Essay

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European Avant- Garde Film: Essay

Why did European avant-garde artists turn to film in the 1920s?

We say this is the century of steam, the century of electricity, much as we say the

stone age, the iron age, the bronze age, but we will soon be saying it is the age of the

cinema.

Edmond enoit- !evy" 190#

The invention of film camera is a defining moment in the history of visual culture. 1

rom the !umieres first screenings in 1"#$,2 cinema %uic&ly develo'ed from a

(courtly novelty)3to a ma*or, new, cultural institution of s'ectacle entertainment for

the masses. Within the first ten years, s'ecialised *ournals and news'a'er columns

devoted to cinema had a''eared, film theory and critical discourse started to emerge,

and discursive 'ractises began to ta&e sha'e.4 +erha's with the ece'tion of film

dart,5cinema was not reserved for the high classes- it was aimed at a mass audience

for all social bac&grounds, and became a 'o'ular social 'asttime./ +ur'osebuilt

theatres, re'laced small, dar& rooms with benches, and the noisy, (untrained)"

audiences of the first cinematic screenings were (socialised) into hushed, immobile,'assive s'ectators.# s a conse%uence of the standardisation of film form and cinema

ehibition,10 audiences %uic&ly became rece'tive to narrative, 'lot and character

stereoty'es, of 'o'ular genres, including comic s&etches, fantasies, melodramas and

classics- which were largely 'roduced by ollywood studios.11

1hwartz, 5aness 6. and 7eanneene 8. +rzyblys&i- The Nineteenth- Century Visual Culture Reader,

6outledge, 2004, ' 1 1226ees, . !- istory of 9'erimental ilm and 5ideo rom the :anonical vant ;arde to

:ontem'orary


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6ecognising the scale of its influence and mass a''eal, cinema was used for a variety

of social and cultural 'ur'oses.12 s a mechanical derivative of 'hotogra'hy, its)

technical ability to record, saw that film also had the 'otential to document and

inform, and was soon used for (moral or social 'ersuasion-)13 to advertise- s'read

news- and to educate. s this illustrates, the Western cinema had %uic&ly evolved

from 'redominantly thrilling novelties, to absorbing 'sychological e'eriences,14

which had not only become entrenched within 'o'ular culture, but had disseminated

into other influential fields. s !evy had 'redicted, it a''eared that the age of the

cinema had truly arrived.

=n order to address the %uestion, (Why did 9uro'ean avantgarde artists turn to film in

the 1#20sA) this essay e'lores the influence of mainstream cinema on the 'ractises of

the avantgarde. lthough the following discussion includes a brief overview of a

range of artists creating film during this 'eriod, the main focus lies with the

urrealists- 'articularly alvador Bali and !uis


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cinema also 'rovided a uni%ue 'latform in which to criti%ue and reflect u'on their

modern world and thus, modernity.

=ns'ired by emerging theories regarding the role of 'erce'tion and time in art, many

artists, turned to the film medium, in an attem't to ('ut 'aintings in motion.)1#

Therefore, many artists disengaged formal narrative, dis'laced recognisable character

ty'es, and disru'ted s'atial and tem'oral conventions of commercial cinema. rtists

such as ans 6ichter and 5i&ing 9ggeling ignored the mise-en-scene com'letely,

favouring abstract animations of 'ure, gra'hic forms and nonre'resentational colours

and sha'es.20 8any favouredpur%ualities of the film material, drawing attention to

the fundamentals of cinema as (a stri' of trans'arent material that FrunsG through a

'ro*ector.)21 Ethers, including ernand !eger, 'referred to foreground sha'e and

teture, rather than diegetic reality- and avantgardist)s, such as 6ene :lair and

rancis +icabia, e'lored innovative editing and cinematogra'hic techni%ues to

interru't narrative continuity, and negate other familiar elements of cinema, such as

framing and conventional camera angles, found in commercial film.22

lthough variant in style, form and aesthetic, it seemed that on the surface, these

films shared a common interest in innovation and the e'erimental, and dismissed the

standardisations found in mainstream film. This a''arent unification can be

'rovisionally e'lained, by what 8atei :alinescu)s has called, (a radical criticism of

the 'ast and a definite commitment to change and the values of the future.)23

owever, as 8alcolm Turvey suggests, in The Filmin of &odern .ife! /uropean

"'ant-0arde Film of the )*1+s2the relationshi' between the cinematic avantgarde

and commercial cinema, was as com'le as that of the wider historic avantgarde and

bourgeois modernity.24

lthough many of the films created during the 1#20s, seemed to re*ect concerns that

were 'aramount in the creation of illusory reality of the 'ro*ected image, 2$ they still

1#6ees, ' 120Turvey ' 14$216ees, ' 2"22Turvey, ' / 10423:alinescu, 8atei-Fi'e Faces of &odernity! &odernity, "'ant-0arde, 3ecadence, 4itsch,

ostmodernism, Bu&e ?niversity +ress, 1#", ' #$24Turvey, ' 1 1/2$6ees, ' 1$1

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shared some features of conventional cinema. or eam'le, films were still shown in

theatres- they relied u'on an audience to watch the 'ro*ected image, and many were

'resented with musical accom'animent, not unli&e mainstream films.2/ What

emerges then, is a (dialectic, rather than a sim'le negationH.the avantgarde may

o''ose what it ta&es to be bourgeois taste,)2yet it unavoidably embraces elements of

it.

Whilst their contem'oraries were e'loring rather more e'erimental avenues, the

urrealists were a''lying many of the conventions of narrative cinema to their own

films, in order to then subvert and transgress e'ectations and associations that had

been standardised in the cinematic event. Their films were not e'lorations of

abstract sha'es and form on the film stri', they were not ra'id montages of dis'arate

images of machines and inverted swinging ladies- urrealist film had narrative

structure, familiar characterty'es, a sense of diegetic time and s'ace, and shared

many of the cinematogra'hic techni%ues that could be found in the 'o'ular films of

the day.

o what made the urrealist films canonical of the avantgarde rather than of the

mainstream cinemaA What drew the urrealists to the cinema in the first 'laceA What

as'ects of the cinematic e'erience suited their cause and why did they 'refer

convention to innovationA

=n the first urrealist manifesto, ndre


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re'resented a new ob*ective medium which seemed 'erfectly suited to the urrealist

ethos.30

s a 'o'ular form of entertainment for the masses, cinema can be seen as being

devoid of hierarchy, which 'articularly suited alvador Bali)s 'hiloso'hy of antiart.31

@ot to be confused with the Badaist antiart, this urrealist conce'tion, relates to an

art that can be understood with no (aesthetic training,)32which can be observed with

('ure eyes.)33 e believed that this would rid (artistic and sub*ective distortions,)34to

enable the s'ectator the freedom to see reality, in (all its 'oetic strangeness.)3$

Therefore cinema was thought to be the medium which would suit the urrealist

ambition to reach out to a larger number of 'eo'le on a more (universal 'lane.) 3/

=t has been argued that the real interest for the urrealists was for the 'henomenon of

the cinematic e'erience rather than the film itself. 6ichardson has stated that the

urrealists believed (it is the environment within which films are shown that 'rovides

a 'lace in which the marvellous may be encountered.)3 =ndeed,


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This, (conscious hallucination,) can be associated with the dar&ness of the cinema

theatre, which was said to (lull the mind)41 thus creating a lowered level of

consciousness. 42 This induced 'assivity was said to enable an (absence of

contradiction, the relaation of emotional tensionsHa lac& of the sense of time, and

the re'lacement of eternal reality by a 'sychic reality obeying the 'leasure

'rinci'le.)43 =t has been suggested that cinema has the ('ower to disclose what lies

dormant within the collective consciousness, ma&ing manifest what is latent without

destroying the mystery of its latency.)44 The standardisation of the cinematic event

thus created the 'erfect environment in which to begin bridging reality and

imagination.4$

ilm as a medium, seems to befit the essential characteristics of the dream the visual,

the illogical, the 'ervasive, yet the urrealist film relied u'on a (recognisable) reality

within which it (e'lodes conventions and artificial boundaries with the imaginary.) 4/

urrealist film is thus based on a combination of diametrically o''osed values. s

8ichel :arrouges has indicated, (urrealism is not to be confused with the unreal- it

is a lively synthesis of the real and the unreal, of the immediate and the virtual, of the

banal and the fantastic.)4 s this suggests, the urrealist film balances on of the

'eri'hery of the logical and illogical by their careful combination of ('erce'tual and

imaginary elements.)4" The film medium 'lays an im'ortant role in this realisation.


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range of Coften misguidedD connotations-4#but des'ite the movement)s associations

with the unreal, the bizarre, the marvellous and the unconscious, their films are in

fact, rooted in the illusory reality inherent within the medium. s 6everdy, ou'ault,

ragon, and 'ollinaire, observed in their (tentative e'lorationFsG of the film

medium-)$0in s'ite of the fact film ultimately 'resents fragments of reality, it could

achieve (un'recedented realism) and (naturalness,) which would become central to

the develo'ment of urrealist film.$1 What this suggests is that film, by its very

nature, could create the illusion of reality, which was believed and acce'ted by

'acified audiences without %uestion. This enabled the urrealists to ta&e advantage of

the audience)s belief in the image they were 'resented with, in order to subvert, and

disru't their e'ectations of the 'ro*ected reality, to e'lore the absurd and the

irrational.$2

%n chien "ndalou C1#2#D by !uis


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Bali, and


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scene, yet at the same time remain at a distance, as the viewer is disallowed normal

associations of (em'athy, meaning and closure.)$# Cigure $D for eam'le, witnessed

the death of a character on the street- the cyclist, as illustrated in the centre image, is

enlivened with emotion, yet there is no continuity to his e'ression of grief- in fact his

attentions are swiftly transformed into that of desire, which could no doubt, 'rovide a

'erfect condition for 'sychoanalysis. This sense of incom'letion is also re'resented

in Cigure 3.D which suggests a 'ossible love interest between the woman and the man

on the bicycle, indicated with the use of *um' cuts- yet this narrative is never fully

concluded. s seen in Cigure 4.D the woman)s over ecited embrace, is then

ine'licably dis'laced from the man to his clothing. The audience is left wondering

of a 'ossible demise, yet the man once again enters the narrative. (=f the elements of a

'ossible story seemed to surface, they FareG abru'tly interru'ted.) /0 The film forces

the viewer to watch carefully instead of (submitting to any 'reestablished narrative

construction,) as it sim'ly refuses to com'ly with any im'osed structure.

or the urrealists, the conventions associated with the cinematic event, the 'assive

audience and their un%uestioned belief in the reality of the s'ectacle 'ro*ected,

'rovided a readymade environment in which to begin to bridge reality with

imagination.


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European Avant-Garde Film: Essay

$mages

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igure 1

The eyeline matching shot of the moon which 'roceeds from the initial shot of the

man is a conventional techni%ue found in mainstream cinema to im'ly narrative

continuity.

igure 2.

These three images also im'ose continuity editing, in order to im'ly the action of the

slicing of the woman)s eye. The cloud 'assing over the moon is meta'horically

re'resentative of the original action. Bue to the 'lacement of the shot in the

se%uence, in relation to the 'revious se%uence of igure 1, the animal)s eye which is

indeed sliced is associated with the initial image.

igure 3.

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The image on the left sets the scene with an establishing shot which situates the

woman in her environment. The 'roceeding *um' cuts are em'loyed to create a

'ossible narrative. The right image of the woman loo&ing u' indicates that she senses

the cyclist)s a''roach.

igure 4.

The embrace that is illustrated in the left image is dis'laced to the man)s clothing

without e'lanation. er amorous feelings for him as witnessed in the initial shot, are

not re'eated, and the relationshi' between them becomes more ambiguous as the film

'rogresses.

igure $.

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The re'resentation of death, grief and lust, are re'resented in a this figure.

heightened emotional se%uence, which negates any re'resentation of e'lanation or

conclusion.

igure /.

series of dissolves reveals a succession of seemingly dis'arate images, 'erha's

related only by their ab*ect connotations. =t is *ust one eam'le of a series of

une'lained, illogical events in the film.

European Avant-Garde Film: i%liography

bel, 6ichard-French Film Theory and Criticism! " #istory("ntholoy )*+- )**,+rinceton ?niversity +ress, 1##3

c&er, lly-Reel 9omen! ioneers of Cinema, )6*: to the present, :ontinuum

+ublishing :o. 1##1

damowicz, 9lza- Surrealism! Crossins(Frontiers, +eter !ang, 200/

rtauld, ntonin and usan ontag-"ntonin "rtaud, Selected 9ritins, ?niversity of

:alifornia +ress, 1#""


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L ons, 2002

ammond, +aul- The Shado8 and Its Shado8! Surrealist 9ritins on the Cinema,

:ity !ights


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8atthews, 7. .- Surrealism and Film, ?niversity of 8ichigan +ress, 1#1

@ichols,


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5icari, 7ustin-&ad &uses and the /arly Surrealists, 8carland, 2011

Williams, lan !arson-Republic of Imaes! " #istory of French Filmma$in,

arvard ?niversity +ress, 1##2

Williams, !inda-Fiures of 3esire! " Theory and "nalysis of Surrealist film,?niversity of :alifornia +ress, 1##2

Williams, Tami 8ichelle-;eyond Impressions! The .ife and Films of 0ermaine

3ulac from "esthetics to olitics, +roMuest, 200

Winter, 7ay- Sites of &emory, Sites of &ournin! the 0reat 9ar in /uropean

Cultural #istory, :ambridge ?niversity +ress, 1##"

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