Experimental Film And Experimental Films In The 1900s

In “A Century of Cinema”, Susan Sontag explains how cinema was cherished by those who enjoyed what cinema offered. Cinema was unlike anything else, it was entertainment that had the audience feeling apart of the film. However, as the years went by, the special feeling regarding cinema went away as those who admired cinema wanted to help expand the experience.

David Bordwell wrote his article ‘The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film’ in an effort to convey the main idea that “art cinema” can be considered as a distinct mode of film practice, through its definite historical existence alongside other cinematic modes, set of formal conventions, and implicit viewing procedures. Rather than searching for the source of the art, or what drives the art in film, Bordwell compares art cinema to the classical narrative cinema, and highlights the differences in narrative structure. Bordwell makes the assumption that it defined itself against the classical narrative mode; especially with the way it deals with space, time, and the cause and effect link of events.

Films are also treasures of culture, filled with clues and insights into the attitudes and perceptions of the people of the day. While documentary films obviously present a historical record of people and events, dramatic fictional movies can also reveal the same. Comparing the main characters in Hitchcock's 1934

1st Draft Movies are a big part of everyday life. Millions of Americans go to the movies every week. Have you ever stopped to think about what movies used to be like, or how movies became what they are today? All of that can be traced back to the 1930’s.

Although experimental film officially made its debut in the 1920's, the practice could be considered as old as filmmaking itself. The nineteenth century was a period of rapid growth for camera and film technology, and when the idea of motion pictures was still new, the visual formulas and narrative patterns that have become common in modern films had not yet been constructed.

So, now the question of how they could entertain without offending anyone come into play. Films from this period have been named the "Cinema of attractions" by film scholar Tom Gunning, in part, because they treat show over narrative. The popularity of film in its first decade was for some, a cause for concern. It faced challenges to produce longer pictures, which not only would advance their profitability, but also needed to be narrative, which in turn allowed films to carry ethical and good messages.

Viewers of films usually expect certain aspects to be included in the film for instance love, war, and crime. The expectations of the viewers and their attitude at the end of the film usually define the genre, to which the film will fall. In most cases, the purpose of the films and the attitudes developed by the audience as the plot of the film grows, will help shape the genre to which the film will be categorized. Even though these expectations exist, it would be unfounded for the film to follow an individual ideal like communicativeness and knowledge that defines the genre. The shifts in these genres between combat and romance, for instance, are used to facilitate the conceptualization of the purpose and the representations used in the film.

Cinema after 1906, according to Gunning, pushed towards the structure of linear narrative, and away from the immediacy of the "spectacular image" (Strauven, 1999: 387).

Throughout the beginning of time people have used art to express themselves. With each major, and minor, there is an artist that captures the world as it is around him. There are also artists that create fiction to give the world and escape from reality. The medium of art that will be discussed in this essay will be film. Since the invention of Thomas Jefferson kinecto graph and the Lumiere brothers cinemtograph, films have continued to be the most popular entertainment methods in France and America. Since historical events have somewhat of an impact on the content in film, this essay will take a look at the effects of films years before and after World II. World War II was one of the major historical events to have

Documentary film, a term coined by John Grierson, “the father of the documentary film movement in the English speaking world,” (Barsam, 1973, p. 77), concerns a genre that is unlike other forms of cinema. There are no actors and the “plot” reveals itself in authentic actions rather than dialogue. The people concerned are the characters, their lives the setting. In the years leading up to Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North, the first such feature-length film, the medium was immensely popular, with audiences clamoring to see the far reaches of the globe from their local theater or exhibition house. While narrative film in the modern day is considered the default mode of moviemaking, documentaries still capture the imagination and take the viewer into real lives they have not experienced, rather than lives imagined on a page. Without these historic documentaries, film itself may not have reached the heights of culture it inhabits today. The early history of documentary film is inseparable from the history of film itself.

After WW1 the Great Depression had a very late impact on the major film companies in France, when it did, it unfortunately caused several film studios to go bankrupt, then in the late 1920’s to 1930’s many small film companies and groups emerged giving birth to the tendency called poetic realism. Because the large companies who made films with a focus on making money were gone the filmmakers and artists were able to concern themselves with the art of film, they often took poetic innovations that we can associate with impressionism or surrealism and combined them to create a more realistic style of narrative filmmaking. Therefore these films stylistic techniques have been influenced by the political and economical historical contexts that took place in France that has enhanced these films aesthetic. The growth of political awareness had then reflected in the films of this time, thus the enormous historical impact that effected France’s films and industry. The question can be asked, how did these social, political and economic issues of France at the time come thought the arts and cinema and start a very impactful thread of films.

La Jetee is a science fiction short still picture film that was made by Chris Mark. The film is about "a man that is scarred by his childhood memory", which was set in World War III. The war takes place in Paris, France, where a bomb was dropped (Mark, La Jetee). Years later, people who survived, lived underground and there were concentration camps where these scientists were experimenting on people to travel through time. However, the experiments failed and the people who were experimented on "went mad" until a man with a "strong image memory" comes in (Mark, La Jetee).

According to film theorist Thomas Schatz, “a genre approach (to film) provides the most effective means for understanding, analyzing, and appreciating the Hollywood cinema (Schatz vii).” His approach to film is strongly supported by theorist Edward Branigan’s and the narrative representation of character interaction (Branigan), and André Bazin’s arguments that the objective reality pressed against audience interpretation.

No matter who a person thinks invented the motion picture camera, whether it was Louis Lumiere or Thomas Edison, I'm sure they had no idea what it would become at the turn of the century. Motion pictures, has become an entertainment medium like no other. From Fred Ott's Sneeze to Psycho to Being John Malkovich, the evolution from moving pictures to a pure art form has been quite amazing. Different steps in filming techniques define eras in one of the most amazing ideas that was ever composed. Silent to Sound. Short to long. Black and white to color. Analog to Digital. All were important marks in the History of Motion Pictures. "It's different than other arts. It had to be invented"

Film Industry has been expansively affected by the changes in technology. The mechanical and digital innovations give cause to the influence of equipment, distribution and the way in which films are made and consumed. New trends shape directors and filmmakers to expand creatively towards telling stories in motions. The film industry has developed to one of the most important tools of communication, it's cause so powerful affecting the way individuals and societies think, act and behave. Among the new Era approaching film, and seeing celluloid film fade is that of the Digital Era and a camera that saw celluloid films passing hastened.