Towards another state of perception liquid perception
This solution, however, only relates to a nominal definition of 'subjective' and 'objective'. It implies that the cinema has reached an evolved state, having learned to mistrust the movement-image. But what happens if we take as our starting-point a real definition of the two poles, or of the double system Bergsonianism suggested the following definition a subjective perception is one in which the images vary in relation to a central and privileged image an objective perception is one where, as...
First commentary on Bergson
1 First thesis movement and instant Bergson does not just put forward one thesis on movement, but three. The first is the most famous, and threatens to obscure the other two. It is, however, only an introduction to the others. According to the first thesis, movement is distinct from the space covered. Space covered is past, movement is present, the act of covering. The space covered is divisible, indeed infinitely divisible, whilst movement is indivisible, or cannot be divided without changing...
The first level frame set or closed system
We will start with very simple definitions, even though they may have to be corrected later. We will call the determination of a closed system, a relatively closed system which includes everything which is present in the image - sets, characters and props - framing. The frame therefore forms a set which has a great number of parts, that is of elements, which themselves form sub-sets. It can be broken down. Obviously these parts are themselves in image en image . This is why Jakobson calls them...
Theses on movement 1
1 Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution, trans. Arthur Mitchell, 1954 p. 322 hereafter CE . 5 On the organic and the pathetic, cf. S. Eisenstein, La non-indiff rente Nature, I, 10 18. 6 Arthur Knight, Revue du cin ma, no. 10. 7 Jean Mitry, Histoire du cin ma muet. III, pp. 49 51. 10 On all these points, cf. Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory, 1911, Chapter IV. 15 Ibid., p. 16. Ihe only resemblance between Bergson and Heidegger and it is a considerable one lies here both base the specificity of time...
I The two poles objective and subjective
We have seen that perception was double, or rather had a double reference. It can be objective or subjective. But the difficulty lies in knowing how an objective perception-image and a subjective perception-image arc presented in the cinema. What distinguishes them It could be said that the subjective-image is the thing seen by someone 'qualified', or the set as it is seen by someone who forms part of that set. This reference of the image to the person who sees is marked by various factors....
The spiritual affect and space in Bresson
Although the close-up extracts the face or its equivalent from all spatio-temporal co-ordinates, it can carry with it its own space-time -a scrap of vision, sky, countryside or background. Sometimes it is depth of field which gives the close-up a behind. Sometimes, on the contrary, it is the negation of perspective and of depth which assimilates the medium shot to a close-up. But, if the affect obtains a space for itself in this way, why could it not do so even without the face, and...
Chapter The crisis of the actionimage
1 Peirce's 'thirdness' and mental relations the Marx Brothers the mental image according to Hitchcock marks and symbols how Hitchcock brings the action-image to completion by carrying it to its limit the crisis of the action-image in the American cinema Lumet, Cassavetes, Altman the five characteristics of this crisis the loosening of the sensory-motor link 197 2 The origin of the crisis Italian neo-realism and the French new wave the critical consciousness of cliche problem of a new conception...
The crisis of the actionimage 1
1 Cf. Peirce, Ecrits sur le signe, Peirce believed that 'thirdness' was one of his principal discoveries. 2 Peirce does not refer explicitly to these two kinds of relations, the distinction between which goes back to Hume. But his theory of the 'interpr tant', and his own distinction between a 'dynamic interpr tant' and a 'final interpr tant', partially coincides with that between the two types of relations. 3 E. Rohmer and C. Chabrol, Hitchcock, p. 124. 4 Cf. Narboni, 'Visages d'Hitchcock', in...
Frame and shot framing and cutting 1
1 Cf. P.P. Pasolini, L'Exp rience h r tique, pp. 263- 5. 2 No l Burch, Praxis du cin ma, p. 86 on the black or white screen, when it no longer simply serves as 'punctuation' but takes on a 'structural value'. 3 Claude Oilier, Souvenirs cran. Cahiers du cin ma, p. 88. It is this which Pasolini analysed as 'obsessive framing' in Antonioni L'Exp rience h r tique, p. 148 . 4 Dominique Villain, in an unpublished work which includes interviews with cameramen cadreurs , analyses these two conceptions...
A characteristic of Bunuels work power of repetition in the image
Ihere are nevertheless great differences between Strohcim's naturalism and that of Bunuel. In literature, there is perhaps something analogous in the relationship between Zola and Huysmans. Huysmans said that Zola only imagined impulses of the body in stereotyped social milieux, where man was only reunited with the originary world of animals. For his part, he wanted a naturalism of the soul, which would tetter recognise the artificial constructions of perversion, but also perhaps the...
Second thesis privileged instants and anyinstantivhatevers
Now Creative Evolution advances a second thesis, which, instead of reducing everything to the same illusion about movement, distinguishes at least two very different illusions. The error remains the same - that of reconstituting movement from instants or positions bur there are two ways of doing this the ancient and the modern. For antiquity, movement refers to intelligible elements, Forms or Ideas which are themselves eternal and immobile. Of course, in order to reconstitute movement, these...
The difficulty of being naturalist
For the moment what interests us is not the way to get outside the limits of naturalism, but rather the manner in which some great directors have failed to come within them despite repeated attempts. This is because, while they were obsessed by the originary world of impulses, their particular genius none the less directed them towards other problems. Visconti, for example, from his first film to his last Obsession and The Innocent tries to reach raw and primordial impulses. But, too...
Figures or the transformation of forms
1 Mikhail Romm in Cahiers du cin ma, no. 219, April 1970. 2 Pudovkin, cited by George Sadoul, Histoire g n rale du cin ma, VI, p. 487. 3 Kisenstein's very detailed commentary can be found in the chapter 'La centrifugeuse et le Graal', non-indiff rente Nature, I. 4 I. Kant, Critique of Judgement, para 59. T his is what Kant calls 'symbol'. 5 P. Fontanier, Iss Figures du discours 1968 . 6 Cf. M.-L. Potrel-Dorget, 'Dialectique du surhomme et du sous-homme dans quelques films d'Herzog', Revue du...
Griffith and Eisenstein
Pabst's Lulu shows the extent to which one goes from one pole to the other in a relatively short sequence first the two faces, of Jack and of Lulu, are relaxed, smiling, dreamy, wondering then Jack's face, above Lulu's shoulder, sees the knife and goes into an ascending series of terror 'the fear becomes a paroxysm. . . his pupils grow wider and wider. . . the man gasps in terror ' finally Jack's face relaxes, Jack accepts his destiny and now reflects death as a quality common to his killer's...
From situation to action secondness
We are approaching a domain which is easier to define derived milieux assert their independence and start to become valid for themselves. Qualities and powers are no longer displayed in any-space-whatevers, no longer inhabit originary worlds, but are actualised directly in determinate, geographical, historical and social space-times. Affects and impulses now only appear as embodied in behaviour, in the form of emotions or passions which order and disorder it. This is Realism. It is true that...