Mise-en-Scene

I often think about life as a series of consecutive events that singularly make no sense whatsoever, but when combined, are meaningful. I was pleasantly surprised to observe my view on life in film this week.

With the juxtaposition of images, as well as the use of editing techniques which involve putting separate shots with singular meanings consecutively, a third—and more powerful—meaning is created. A particularly iconic example of this can be seen in Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potempkin. This 1925 silent film is best known for the Odessa Steps sequence, which sequences shots of a massacre and joins them together with facial expressions and singular symbolic images, such as the firing of weapons, captivating the audience’s attention like a puzzle would a toddler. This complication of shots is, in fact, like a puzzle—the sequence focuses on details of the massacre and leaves the audience to piece the singular shots together and form their own image of the massacre as a whole. This sequence remains one of the most studied ones and has been heavily referenced since.

The Weimar era (1919-1933)—the period after World War I until the rise of Nazi Germany—was a time of political and economic turmoil, as well as new social freedoms and artistic movements, and gave rise to German Expressionism. This film movement emphasized inner states of characters through mise-en-scene and montage. This film era was a platform of expression to describe the state of Germany post-World War I and, through the aggressive and morose themes these films undertake, a sense of subconscious foreshadowing of fascism and Nazi Germany can be observed. This film era absorbed post-war brutalities and turned it into abstract art.

Kammerspielfilme, which means chamber films, generated sympathy for the public through common themes of lower-middle-class life. German filmmaker F.W. Muranau made the ultimate Kammerspielfilm in 1924 called The Last Laugh. The Last Laugh revolves around a character who takes great pride in his work, until one day he’s demoted. This character is relatable and captivated audiences.

During this film era, in the midst of art movements such as Dadaism and Surrealism, films were designed to offend higher classes. Luis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou (1929) is a surrealist film inspired by scenarios thought up by surrealist artist Salvador Dali. This film lacks conventional plot and toys with the audience by not having a particular meaning and was an attempt from Buñuel to shock and insult the intellectual higher class. To Buñuel’s horror, the film was actually a huge success amongst the intellectual middle class. The film uses the same editing techniques of specific sequence montage previously mentioned. The film begins with a shot of a man sharpening a razor, then a close-up of a young woman being held by the same man who was seen sharpening a razor then cuts to a shot of a cow’s eye being slit by a razor. The change happens so quickly that it almost seems as though it is the woman’s eye being slit. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that the Pixies’s song “Debaser” is a reference to the fact that Un Chien Andalou debases morality and standards of art.

The Birth of Motion Picture

Silent films have always been unfamiliar and, frankly, a rather terrifying territory of film to me. Learning about the beginnings of cinema, as well as the silent film era, has changed my perspective on the matter, for the better.

It would be absurd for me to write about the birth of motion pictures without referring to photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who successfully simulated motion through still photographic sequences. Although Muybridge’s photographic experiments did not lead to motion pictures as we know them in these contemporary times, he is still referred to as the “Father of the Motion Picture”.

At the end of the 19th century, Louis Lumière invented the Cinématographe which kickstarted the motion picture era. The Cinématographe enabled the capture of everyday activities, in direct sunlight and free from studio limitations. The Lumière brothers held an exhibition in Paris where their films (Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon included) were played to a paying audience, inspiring producer and director Georges Méliès to launch himself into filmmaking. Méliès went on to produce over 500 short films, which were shot tableaux style, giving the illusion of a moving painting. Méliès’s success was immediate, and his films, such as Le Voyage dans la lune / A trip to the Moon (1902), remain iconic to this day.

Voyage dans la lune / A trip to the Moon tells the story of a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon. The astronomers explore the Moon and are met by hostile natives, who capture them. The astronomers escape and return to Earth in triumph. This Méliès film is considered to be the first science fiction film. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Lumière brothers and Méliès’ work had catapulted film, and other filmmakers had emerged globally, namely Porter in the United States. Porter’s editing techniques and use of process shots were progressive and experimental and, with The Great Train Robbery (1903), altered the future of film narration.

The period of time from the end of the 19th century to the 1920s saw the evolution of motion picture from an unfamiliar field of experimentation, to a medium deemed for masterpieces. This era saw an emergence of actors and directors, including the renowned Charlie Chaplin, who soon became an iconic to the Silent Film era. Charlie Chaplin grew to fame through his remarkable use of movement to illustrate a lacking dialogue.

Murnau’s film Sunrise – A Song of Two Humans (1927), is another beautiful example of the power of movement and use of the camera to illustrate a story where verbal dialogue is non-existent. The very fact that the characters in this silent film don’t have names solidifies my view that the subjects of Sunrise are mere pretenses for a further exploration—and admiration—of movement. Through his wonderful use of movement and light, Murnau did with film what Monet did with paint. It’s no surprise that this 1927 film captivated the very first Academy Awards in 1929. Janet Gaynor (the wife) won Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the film won Best Cinematography and Best Unique and Artistic Picture.