European National Cinemas and Their Impact - Report Example

The French New Wave or La Nouvelle Vogue that came to prominence in the 1960's was a hugely influential movement in the the history of Cinema. It laid the ground work for many of the informal styles of film making that are common today. American film makers like Robert Altman and Quentin Tarintino and others owe a debt of gratitude to the originators of this style that rebelled against the formal style of film that had been the dominant form up until then. This paper will look at the conditions that led to the creation of the New Wave style, its leading innovators, its stylistic changes and the influences it had on European and American films that followed. France's defeat to Germany and occupation by this foreign force during World War II deeply effected the outlook of the French in subsequent years. After seeing their whole way of life taken away from them there was loss of faith in the old explanations of the world. Even in the post war period with liberation there was desire to try and do away with the old philosophies. In this background Jean Paul Sartre's philosophy of Existentialism challenged the idea of god and absolute meaning in life. As Heptonstall observes "Rarely, if ever, has a serious philosophy caught the public imagination in the way that Existentialism did after the Liberation." (Heptonstall, 2004) Existentialism made a call for creating meaning on an individual level. Across other areas of art this feeling also took hold. In Cinema notably there was challenge to the old conventions of cinema. There was a frustration with the conventions of wholeness that were typical of French Cinema before the war. In the aftermath of the war the old conventions lost their allure. In this setting a new school of criticism of film developed led by men like Andre Bazin and Jacques Donial-Valcroze. These two men started the film theory magazine Cahiers Du Cinema. In this magazine they outlined their new ideas about the direction that film should take. The theorists at this magazine believed that film should make make a break from the tradition of Montage filming. By this they meant that film should not be filmed in an organized staged way that had been the tradition. They argued for a new presentation style called Mise En Scene which literally meant “to place in the scene.” Mise En Scene involved letting the setting and story dictate the filming.(Phillips.p.1.2004) Rather than stage the scene in the way of the old Montage style with a tight idea of what should be shown filming would occur in all kinds of settings and not be carefully managed but rather followed. This style did not completely reject the old straightforward plot narratives because that would have been completely without meaning. It was not that they rejected meaning but they wanted to show it in newer more informal ways. In many ways this form of filming wanted to show reality as it really was rather than create a fictional reality which was the case in the past. In order to show the reality in a new informal ways the New Wave film maker employed a number of techniques that had not been seen in cinema before. They experimented with the editing of the film in different ways. They filmed in unpredictable ways. Sometimes they would film in a long sequences, longer than the traditional patterns of the past. Then, rather than make smooth transitions between scenes they would make scenes that appeared not to fit together logically. This was part of the plan to keep the viewer off-balance and challenge his expectations. Another technique used was to film in any location rather than the staged studios that had had been the tradition in the past. This innovation allowed a great deal of freedom in offering new settings to the audience. It , in effect, allowed the camera into everyday life in film in a way not seen before. Natural lighting was employed more and more in the New Wave, which introduced different varieties of mood to film. The traditional method of using carefully planned dialogues were substituted with improvisation on the spot. This innovation allowed changes in the dialogue that would come from adjustments to the actors presentation and the changes in setting and even simply for the rise of new ideas to film the scene. The improvisation was not limited to the the dialogue but also extended to changes in the plot that were made on the spot. This adjustment in the formerly strictly pre-designed part of the story was a big change from the past but it went hand in had with the new approach which wanted to present reality in a less artificial way. The artificiality was also reduced by having direct sound recording. Direct recording of the sound presented many flaws that exist in reality but not in the old style. The older tradition tried to stage reality but the new style, on the other hand, tried to capture reality in all of its presentation. The techniques of the New wave style were possible because of the use of small light cameras that allowed following of the action in any locale. It was not only cameras that became smaller but other equipment to record sound. The net effect of all these changes that led to a decrease in size and an increase in mobility meant that people could now make films on a much smaller budget. This allowed not only more films to be made but in the sense that films could made about a variety of subject because the stories could take place anywhere and then by extension they could be about anything. Directors in this new style could leave their own personal stamp on films. The idea of film makers being authors or auteur of their work was a huge part of the new innovation of the New Wave. Under the old studio tradition of France and other places films were mass produced by large studios that made the films in a particular standardized way. In the New Wave style the personal style of production and filming and even story allowed the full input of the director. In this way there were styles of film that became typical of a specific director's style .There were a number influential auteurs in the New Wave movement and it is important to examine their contributions. François Truffaut was one of the most significant figures in the French New Wave movement. Truffaut made his mark early on with his harsh criticisms of popular forms of film in the magazine Cahiers Du Cinema. He worked in the style of the New Wave by being a true auteur, even more so probably because many of his films were autobiographical.(Phillips.p.4. 2004) The most influential of his work was 400 Blows. Fabe describes it well: The “400 blows” of the film's title comes from the French idiom “faire les quatre cents coups” which means “to raise hell. ” While The 400 Blows is certainly about a child who raises hell—rebelling against authority by playing hooky and stealing—the title has a double meaning. It not only refers to the exploits of a hell-raising adolescent rebel, but also alludes to the blows dealt the child by his insensitive, neglectful parents and the stifling, bullying school and state authorities—the kinds of blows to a young person's psyche that could well cause a child to become alienated and raise hell. This is a subject about which Truffaut knew a good deal. (Fabe, 2004, p. 125) In this film Truffaut works in the style of New Wave films filming on location and following the progress of a small boy who in many ways shows aspects of Truffaut's own complicated childhood.(Phillips.p.4. 2004) The film was made with overhead camera shots and the idea of the visual explanation was emphasized over the strictly verbal as Fabe points out: “ The 400 Blows exemplifies New Wave policy in its allegiance to the image. As I noted above, the New Wave theorists believed that cinema should not be a transparent form through which other arts, such as novels or plays, are transmitted, but a unique aesthetic system in its own right whose essence was visual. (Fabe, 2004, p. 127) Truffaut did much to influence the course of many other film-makers that followed. Jean-Luc Goddard was another huge figure in the French New Wave movement. Goddard is well remembered for his work Breathless or A Bout de Souffle. This film demonstrated many of the elements of New Wave theory in technique and story. There was the use of varied locales with mobile cameras following the haphazard story of a car thief from Marseilles who encounters an American girl with whom he has an ill fated recounter. The protagonist is definitely unheroic and there is none of the romance of the traditional stories. The story does not follow the typical arc of a traditional story. The cinematography makes extensive use of the “Jump cut “ and the “ Quick cut” which came to be recognized as the style of the French New Wave as Ruspoli points out: The lives and thoughts of the characters are echoed by the camera movements and editing innovations Godard has made. Of these, the most important are the jump cut and the quick cut. Godard invented the technique of cutting out a few feet of film in seemingly random places. This "jump cut" produces a rhythmic, unsettling pulse in certain scenes. The "quick cut" is a similar technique in which Godard cuts out short shots that break up the continuity of a given scene. (Ruspoli.p.1. 1994) This style of filming introduced a level of action even when the scene was not one of high energy. In this way the story in Breathless was constantly seen to be moving. Not all of the French New Wave directors favoured a high energy story . Eric Rohmer was the less famous of the early French New Wave style because he was known more as a critic for Cahier Du Cinema than a film maker but he too made a contribution to the body of work of this school in his film L'Amour L'apres-midi or Love in the Afternoon. Maybe Rohmer is less famous because he chose to focus on less dramatic scenarios than his fellow auteur s. His style was less dramatic with fewer highs and lows but a more continuous story. In this way he showed a more thoughtful side to the French New Wave movement. The great Louis Malle also made films in the French New Wave style. The first film he made Ascenseur Pour L'Echefaud or Elevator to the Gallows was a classic of the French New Wave style with a score from American musician Miles Davis. The French New Wave movement did not operate in a vacuum. It was influenced by film making styles from abroad. A favourite director of the French New Wave theorists was Alfred Hitchcock because like the New Wave stylists he left his own distinctive mark on the films he made and therefore could easily be considered an auteur. Hitchcock was more an influence on the French New wave movement than being influenced by them. Other American directors owe a great deal of gratitude to the innovations of the French New Wave style. Robert Altman is a director is an excellent example of how the ideas of the French New Wave made their influence in the Hollywood films that were made in the 1970s and onwards. Altman's films are characterized by a very realistic style that almost seems documentary. This informality is like that of the French New Wave but it is underlined by a distinct point of view that clearly indicates that it is an Altman film. His 1970 film M.A.S.H was a critical and commercial success which used many of the techniques of the the French New Wave as well as the the spirit of rebellion of that school as well. The film was dark humored look at the absursdities of life in an American mobile medical unit stationed in Korea during the war. The anti-establishment angle of the film and the the almost docu drama style of filming made it unlike films that American audiences had been used to. The blood and gore of the operating room were contrasted by the humor of the surgical staff in an unconventional way. The film showed Altman's unique way of letting conversations go on simultaneously at the same time and liberal use of mobile camera shots from a variety of vantage points. Short Cuts made in 1993 is another example of the episodic and disjointed appearing presentations that Altman known for. This film shows over 20 actors involved in stories that sometimes overlap and highlight the strange way that fate can influence lives. The film is like Altman's other films highly realistic. There is a sense of watching real people involved in real activities that in some ways pre-dates the huge fascination in reality based television today. Quentin Tarantino is an example of a more recent American director who has directly taken a lead from the French New wave movement. His most popular film the 1994 production Pulp Fiction is a classic modern representation of French New Wave ideas. Tarantino used the French New Wave ideas of a fragmented narrative presented in a non-linear style. Like Altman's Shortcuts this story involved many interconnected storylines but Tarantino did not employ the realism of Altman. Tarantino's story has a comic book like style of great violence and lots of elements of pop culture and strange sequences of dialogue and film that surprise the viewer constantly. Tarantino is a very self conscious film maker and has acknowledged his respect for the work of Godard and others of the New Wave school. (Tasker, 2002, p. 316) The French New Wave style of film making revolutionized the way of making films for the future. They introduced technical and narrative ideas that allowed smaller scale looks at life as it was rather than the fiction that was the norm before them. The three giants of the movement Truffaut, Godard and Rohmer left a body of work that still is prominent part of European cinema. The ideas of these theorists influence many other French film makers but these were the representative examples. The ideas of this school also had a great influence on other film makers in the world. This paper looked at the influence of the French New Wave school on just two examples, Robert Altman and Quentin Tarantino but there are many others. The French New Wave style is perhaps the most important movement of film because it was such a wholesale change from the conventions of the past and it allowed a look at life in new challenging ways. References Burke, K., & Cavallari, H. M. (2000). Integrating Theories of Cinema and Communication. International Journal of Instructional Media, 27(1), 83. Retrieved June 7, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001182745 Cook, D. A. (1996). A History of Narrative Film. New York: W. W. Norton. Retrieved June 7, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105303345 Cooper, S. (2003). A History of the French New Wave Cinema. Journal of European Studies, 33(3-4), 363+. Retrieved June 7, 2006, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002577607 Dixon, W. W. (2003). 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