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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
3
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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
10
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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.
11
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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 $.
12
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The re'resentation of death, grief and lust, are re'resented in a this figure.
heightened emotional se%uence, which negates any re'resentation of e'lanation or
conclusion.
igure /.
series of dissolves reveals a succession of seemingly dis'arate images, 'erha's
related only by their ab*ect connotations. =t is *ust one eam'le of a series of
une'lained, illogical events in the film.
European Avant-Garde Film: i%liography
bel, 6ichard-French Film Theory and Criticism! " #istory("ntholoy )*+- )**,+rinceton ?niversity +ress, 1##3
c&er, lly-Reel 9omen! ioneers of Cinema, )6*: to the present, :ontinuum
+ublishing :o. 1##1
damowicz, 9lza- Surrealism! Crossins(Frontiers, +eter !ang, 200/
rtauld, ntonin and usan ontag-"ntonin "rtaud, Selected 9ritins, ?niversity of
:alifornia +ress, 1#""
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L ons, 2002
ammond, +aul- The Shado8 and Its Shado8! Surrealist 9ritins on the Cinema,
:ity !ights
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8atthews, 7. .- Surrealism and Film, ?niversity of 8ichigan +ress, 1#1
@ichols,
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5icari, 7ustin-&ad &uses and the /arly Surrealists, 8carland, 2011
Williams, lan !arson-Republic of Imaes! " #istory of French Filmma$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##"
ournals:
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