Bela Balazs Theory of Film

778 B17t Balazs

54-60581

Theory of the film

4i

Bela Balazs

THEORY OF THE FILM (CHARACTER AND GROWTH OF A NEW ART)

London

DENNIS 0OBSON LTD

TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN BY E D ITH BONE FIRST PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN IN M C M L BY DENNIS DOBSON LTD 12 PARK LACE LONDON S W I*

1

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CONTENTS

1

PREFACE

11

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

13

PRAISE OP THEORY

IN

17

Why are people not taught appreciate films?; Need for general culture; Creative culture; Theory as a new Columbus; great opportunity missed. Dangers of Ignorance;

to

A

II

AHC1BNT HISTORY Movies

and

theatre;

New

large-scale subjects;

23

industry; Photographic characters; Slapstick

Hew

comedy; Examples,

MEW FORM-LANGUAGE

III

A

IV

VISUAL CULTURB Film

culture;

33

colanlml Englishman; The have lemrued to see; Why arc Art does not develop.

Tfee

We

girl;

30

old films fttfiay? ;

V DBRSICHTBARBMKNSCH VI

39

TKB CREATIVE CAMERA We

the

are in philosophy of

46

A

new

picture; Identification; Principle of the microcosm;

art;

VII

THE CLOSE-UP

52

holds the sectional pictures together?; Sound Sound in space; The face of things; Visual life; Lyrical charm of the close-up; The

What

is indivisible;

Thirteen.

VIII

THEFACEOFMAN A new dimension; soliloquy;

60

Melody and physiognomy;

'Polyphonic*

play of features;

Silent

Micro-

physiognomy; Asta at the mirror; The Depafy of the Baltic Fleet; Speech and facial expression; Speech in the sound films; Asta speaks; An example from" Russia; Dumb show; Keeping silent is no solution; Tempo of mimicry; Mute dialogues; Details of faces in close-up; I can see that I cannot see; SimpMied acting; Changes In Nature voices; Simple faces; Simple unnatural; Nature turned Into art; Education In and Children physiognomies; Clroup physiognomies; Class faces; Our uafcaown The second face; Microdnunu; Dramatic stale; Camera rhythm; Commonplace dramatized; Crucial moment; Reality instead of truth.

IX

CHANGING SET-UP Synthesis jectivity

of the photographed of the object; vii;

identification;

on the

g

film;

Sub*

More

Aftthro^morphous worlds; Objective subjectivism; Theme

variations; Physiognomy of background; Landscapes; H0w a theme?; The worker and the the machine; Phyttognomy and accclerttittg rhythm; Distortion;

and i*f

out

Impossible outlines; unusual conditions; Film lines;

in

ti

fite;

The

*/ Dr.

seewsry; flmiipr^0ttiiiii; oC Subjective impvesskwism; Indirect setHup; angles; lie bee aa at of the set-up; Btupty awf

bnmm

pfcttwet;

object;

Dangeiws Style

aoct

beauty;

seMip;

The

t

a

of alt as

X EDITING

118

When

Inevitable

the

scissors lie; interpretation; Pictures have no tenses; Time in the film; Time as theme and experience; Continuity of form and

Creative atmosphere; editing; Flashbacks;

editing;

Idea-associative

Metaphorical montage; Poetic montage; Allegoric montage; Literary Intellectual metaphors; Associations of ideas; montage; Rhythm in montage; Speed in action and speed in cutting; Scene in ritordando, shots in accelerando; Length of shots; Rhythm of the sound film; Musical and decorative rhythm in cutting; Subjective cutting;

Walking; Sport in the

film; Inexpressive sport,

XI

PANORAMA Experience

139

of

time;

Dramatic

quality

of

panorama.

XII

BXPRESSIV1 TECHNIQUE OF THE CAMERA Fading;

Secret

of

the

diaphragm;

143

The camera

invisible things; Time perspective; Psychology of the dissolve; Time and sequence; Picture size and dissolves; Dissolves and simpler stories; Dissolves and the linking of space; Narcosis; Changes of scene without movement; Dissolve and mental picture; Photographed curtains.

shows

Part II

XIII

F1OBLEMSOF STYLB INTHB FILM

155

Pure dttefafttogmphy; Kims without story or hero; MIm without * hero; Travel films; tetiuctkm&I which tmve a hero; Unknown proximity; News films; Epics of labour; Showing man; War Nature films.

XIV tOlHALISM OF TUB

AVAHT-0AEDE Absolute film; Bpistomology of astbetics; Appear* of the outer world; Internal affairs; Conceptual Logic is the means, psychology the end; Abstract .sub-titles;

film;

analogy.

Sound

abstraction;

174

XV OPTICAL TRICKS, COMPOSITES, CARTOONS

185

Film

camera

of Matks; tricks; Significance comedy; You can't kill a photograph; Psychology and length; Cartoons.

XVI SOUND A

tragic

194 prophecy;

Blind alley;

Prophecy;

What

do we demand?; The acoustic world; Discovery of noise; Dramaturgy of sound; Sooed speaks up; of as Influence Sounds dramatis persons; accompanying music; A battle of sounds; Problem of the sound play; The picture forms the sound; Silence; Silence and space; Dramaturgical function of sound in the shot; Sound-explaining pictures; Asynchronous

sound;

of

Intimacy

Sound cannot he isolated; Educating our ear: Sounds throw no shadow; Sounds have no Sound has a space colouring; Basic problem of sound reproduction; Sounds cannot be by images; Sound montage; Sound Asynchronous sound effects; The most Asynchronous

instrument;

picture,

synchronous

sound.

XVII

DIALOGUE

22!

and speech heard; Silence Speech Audible gesture of speech; Why is law of impossible;

The

film shot

sound

XVIII

and the word;

as

is

action;

m

effect.

PEOBL1M OF THE SOUND

232

Improbable of the musical Cliapitfs

Sparing

we

Film of the 0f sound; Rule of the

IUm; Film

namtor.

XIX REMARKS ON THE COiClUE FILM AND STEftfiOSCOPIC FILM Moving films;

colours;

Colour

Coloured cartoons.

cutting;

242

XX THE SCRIPT Lessing and

the

246 film;

Parallel actions;

Technical

conditions and artistic principles.

XXI XXII

ART FORM AND MATERIAL

258

PROBLEMS OF STYLE

266

The

epic;

Style

and

stylization;

Subjective

and

traditional stylization.

XXIII

MUSICAL FORMS

275

Film opera.

XXIV HEROES, BEAUTY, STARS AND THE CASE OF GRETA GARBO

INDEX

283

289

PREFACE TUENAMBOF

Bfla BaUzs is probably known in England only Bartdk*s librettist and the author of children's books, the intelligentsia of Europe he ranks as a classic pioneer of film theory. In particular Ms two books, published

as yet ia the

IE

German,

entitled

Der mchtbare Mensch

(1923) and

Der

d$ Films, were rated among the most important contributions to the

of film art

uofarttiaately. they

They wore indeed pioneering works, but* not translated and published in English,

The

generalisatioE about England still seems to hold are empiricists in art and despise theory* Ortainly ibis to be so ia relation to theatre and cinema, for the publication of original works in French, German and Russian is compared to the number of similar books published It is important* therefore, that B61a BaUzs's last book should be available in English, for it sums up aU the work, thought, and he put into Ms previous pioneering works, which It is, alaSp Ms last book. He died as it that

we

ww

for us* ia prticiilar is, 1 think, art written and the

one of the most lucid books

wy antithesis

on

complexity and

difficult

both of !l!m

to tto

mm It

and

a*

art*

n

IIk

only have Of tlie iilni

flm

is

so

an unprecedented opportunity to study of an art in tm making* It to an bom to an Industrial, civilization and is primarily due f economic causes. The that only very few natioog hate a

for their productions.

of

clear is the importhis to relation to

the ffinu *lw,inoM; Imported 0C the ails' an axiom wMoh the Amwfcans for ft long time! Balazs pointed out to his

we

IAt

of

oCjHppradatfoa of

to 1919, pr0n0tittcim

that ail

same goal towards an makes

that

*tte

of Eisenstdn*s Nevertheless, he and

art.

He of

style.

the if not only Arm of the it

U .S. A

Added

to this factor,

one. Tie Afflttioa ffloa ImlBstry, for .'s fourth largest industry but also the 11

PREFACE

12

out is the An important aspect of film art that psychological act of Identification", which in the film reaches a degree Mtherto unattainable in any other medium* and here Essen* tein postulated a thesis which is completely in accord with Balazs, Eisenstein's "conception is that cinema is a synthesis of all the arts

and

that, while

Walter Pater said

(I

quote from mcmor>)

art strives to reach the condition of music', Eisenstein said,

*al!

*all

ait

reach the form of the sound-colour-stercoscopic cinema*, and that though Balzs writes, *one need not take this to

strives to

,

,

,

had been hatching film themes, film which could not be presented in novels 01 that these poor authors had to wait decade for

that for ages writers and film characters

plays; the possibility of visual expression, until finally they Lumi&re brothers and ordered a cinematograph* the new

new

to the to

fit

on the other hand, there is no thai from artists to time seem to burst the erf time great art forms, and their content is more powerful Consider what such artists as Michaelangeio, Tolstoy, and Balzac, could have done with the sound^colour-clftetiiat They would one and alt I think, have cried to the is tic medium I was striving to create, here is the low of and mind, here is both past, present and future* ami colour and sound, mind and matter, into one unity! is the answer to the cry of Chorus in V: *0h for a muse of fire that would the of the

content', yet

invention!*

As

Balfes again pints out, monumentality in art

is

to question of quantity (as Hollywood ** " can never be made monumental of by tie crowd scenes or the of the sets, but only by the theme or tie persoitity of its hero.

not a *A liii

tm

This book then

a pioneer in tic of brought up-to-date by its author. ideas art now commonplace, bit stl demand the not only of film

who

are

and

ttt-pervadifig

is

in the

.

.

*

My

t

tftfc

of art of the

Ii

of In

of film its

lit

ctf all

and tie

ttot

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS appearing between pp. 128-9

We

are grateful to the British Film Institute for their co-operation in supplying these photographs.

NANOOK OF THE NORTH Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in THE KID Rin-Tin-Tin In JAWS OF STEEL Asta Nielsen

EWEGE NATT BROKEN BLOSSOMS

In DIE

Lilian Gish In

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC BATTLESHIP POTBMKIN

Falconettl in

Llnder Sessne

Hayakawa ANGORA

IL

VIVBRB IN FACB

ANNA

WALTZ LA0Y HAMILTON BERLIN

ARSENAL

NACHT

DIE

FALL OF THE

OF

IN

IS

14

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SOUS LES TOITS DE PAWS FELIX LENDS A HAND BOULE DE SUIF TOE STREET BALTIC DEPUTY THE LADY IN THE LAKE

PART

I

CHAPTER ONE IN

PRAISE OF THEORY

DANGERS OF IONOEANCE

WE

KNOW and admit that film art has a greater in on the minds of the general public than any other art.

ALL

fluence

The official guardians of culture note the fact with a certain amount of regret and uneasiness. But too few of us are suffi ciently alive to the dangers that are an inevitable consequence of this fact- Nor do we realize clearly enough that we must connoisseurs of the film if we are not to be as much be it the mercy of perhaps the greatest intellectual and spiritual influence of our age as to some blind and irresistible elemental force. And unless we study its laws and possibilities very care fully, we shall not be able to control and direct this potentially greatest instrument of mass influence ever devised in the whole

course of human cultural history* One might think that the theory of this ait would naturally be regarded as the most present-day art theory. No one would deny motion picture is the popular art of our centttiy-^-unfortunatdly not in the sense that it is the pro duct of the popular spirit but the other way round, in the sense of the people, and particularly of the urban that the

important

field for

to-day that the art of the

extent the product of this art, an art population* is to a time a is at the industry. Thus the question of the public to a tetter, more critical appreciation of is a question of the mental health of the nations, the too few of us have yet realized how dangerously and iirespoitsibly we famve failed to promote such a better that

of film

art.

17

IN

18

PRAISE OF THEORY

WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT TAUGHT TO APPRECIATE Nowadays

FI

LMS?

social considerations arc taken Info account in

the cultural sphere no less than in others. Nevertheless* the aesthetics of the film are nowhere included in the official teach sections for litera ing of art appreciation. Our academies have new art of our the for none but ture and every established art, first the that 1947 the film. It was not until

day was elected to the French Acadfme. At our universities are chairs for literature and all arts except that of the film. The its first Art Academy which included the theory of film art in used curriculum was opened in Prague in 1947. The

in our secondary schools discuss the other arts but of of the film. Millions hear about the such of use make never wiU who painting

my and

But the they read no books and laok at no pictures. who frequent the movies are left without teaches them to appreciate film art,

one

NEED FOR GENERAL CULTURE There are numerous film schools in the world and no one denies that there may be need of a theory of the fi!m>-~for film specialists. In Paris, In London, and tic to been and scientific film societies have not is 'science* of the film. But what is had knowledge: It is a general level of culture. Mo one be or not the Mutest conception of

A

who had considered well educated. Beethoven or Michelangelo would be out of idea of tie people of culture. But if he has not the ments of film art and hid never

Wark Griffith,

lie

might

still

The

Ami

we

it i*

an to

taste to the highest

or

of

pass for a

person, even on the our time is that about which one yet

erf

that

&e

art of

the

art

Until

is

a

01

film art

CREATIVE CULTURE

19

OB the history of art and on aesthetics; until the art of the film has a chair in our universities and a place in every text-book

in the curriculum of

our secondary schools, we shall not have in established the consciousness of our generation this firmly

most important

development of our century.

artistic

CREATIVE CULTURE is all the more important as what is at stake is not the valuation of the film, but the fate of the merely proper film itself* for this depends on our appreciation, and we are responsible for it- It has always been the rule in the history of art and culture that the two were functions of each other in

This

dialectic interaction.

the better

Art educated the

of the public

taste of the public,

demanded and rendered

the development of art to higher levels. IE the of the film this is a hundred times

and

possible

more so than

in the case of

any other

poets,

or composers may perish, but their work lives. of the film a kck of proper appreciation in the first place, but the work of art itself,

conceivable for a writer to be in advance of his time and write in the solitude of Ms study a book not appreciated in his own time; a painter may a picture, a composer compose music which only pos paint with its higher culture and understanding can value. Such terity

But in the kills,

not the

art. It is

it is

it

a a

for

a

0w

my individual genius to create

in defiance of the

or prejudices of bis not only to the capitalist fibt in* immediate cash returns. Even a films for the public fib) pKxtoction cannot

And wMch

day*

of

words* the

bom. The film as a product of much and is too complicated

industry costs too

this

century

*

-

appedtion of any llm*

of film art of

tibe

A certain degree of success

Tie

public

in otite

an inexorable material postulate

lor

situation is paradox: in the sphere be available before the film, fto

possible only by aa appreciation the producers of tibe film can

is

on which

in

What

is

fe

Is

not a passive' ^ppredatioft, whioh

IN

20

PRAISE OF THEORY

what is already available, but an inspiring, encouraging* creative appreciation; we need theoretical understanding and a sort of aesthetics which does not draw conclusion from al enjoys

ready existing works of art but demands and expects such works of art on the basis of theoretical forecasts. What is wanted is a responsible public and canny &