A Propos de Nice
Art so far:
- Talkies controversial when originally introduced
- Film seen as a form of art and mass media when it came about
- MWAMC: experimental, took on concepts never done in films before, created idea of art
- Art is no longer just a painting, cinema is art
A propos de Nice (About Nice):
- A documentary about Nice
Unmediated -> not edited to appease certain people, without bias?
Realist vs Expressionist
Realism:
- Representation: As unmediated as possible
- Visual Aesthetic: Simple
- Principle: Respect/Truth
- Intent: Spectator reflection
Expressionism:
- Representation: Highly mediated
- Visual Aesthetic: Highly constructed
- Principle: Manipulation
- Intent: Spectator 'agitation'
APDN: expressionistic -> designed to make people angry about the rich
APDN:
- directed by Jean Vigo, France, 1930
- Silent short documentary
- Photographed by Boris Kaufman (brother of MWAMC's director Dziga Vertov)
- Film depicts life in Nice, France by documenting people in the city, daily routines, a carnival & social inequalities
- Vigo described the film in an address to the Groupement des Spectators d'Avant-Garde: 'in this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial... the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you & makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution'
- Although French, heavily influenced by Soviet Modernism & Constructivism - not least through family ties to Vertov - & as such sits firmly in that genre
- Is a montage film
- Mediates to the point where its nearly fiction but its still a documentary
- APDN & MWAMC are both modernist, constructivist & city symphonies films
3 movements which influenced APDN:
Modernism
- Strong commitment to the machine, inc machinery of cinema, as a progressive force, promises to create a bold new future
- Culture celebrates invention of whole new way of life; period when 'modern' life = invented
- Looking forward, sense of new/different world under construction & experienced materially & psychically
- In opposition to the idea of films constituting 'art movements', is the idea they're contributing to an international effort to understand through experimentation what's possible within medium of cinema, an understanding informing art cinema & popular cinema equally
- Challenges & progresses what's been done before
Constructivism
- Sergei Eisenstein, greatest filmmaker-as-theorist of all, used his 1st feature (Strike) as a laboratory experiment in power of montage
- However should be careful never to limit Soviet Montage to editing -> better to call moment Constructivism which links developments in cinema to wider artistic innovations of the time
- Constructivism celebrates the machine (inc human machine) with new theories of acting & physical movement based one exploring mechanics of human body & communication -> uses ideas of mechanisation of society -> move to industrialisation
City Symphonies
- A type of constructivist cinema
- Early 20's (when silent era of film-making still in full swing): genre of city symphony emerged
- What constitutes a CS is somewhat fluid but broadly speaker it's defined as a poetic, experimental documentary that presents a portrait of daily life within a city whilst attempting to capture something of the city's spirit
- More specifically, refers to films that are influenced by the form & structure of a musical symphony, although it's debatable as to how many of the films labelled as city symphonies conform to this pattern. The city symphony tag is very slippery -> questionable whether even its most famous example (MWAMC) is a true city symphony
City symphonies is a product of constructivism which is a product of modernism which is a product of expressionism
Montage: puts shots in a non-chronological order, designed to create a specific meaning, idea of collage editing
Need to know what left wing is to help understand Vigo's concepts
Context:
Social:
- '29: Soviet Revolution into & beyond its first decade -> socialist unrest across Europe & world to varying extents
- Ideas about role of work classes rights changing -> power to question wealthy & status quo growing rapidly
- Spain -> homeland of Vigo's parents & when Vigo was young -> under a military dictatorship
- Vigo's father, a prominent Anarchist journalist, imprisoned for political views, dying whilst incarcerated under suspicious circumstances
Historical:
- Prior to Wall Street Cash -> wealthy, inc. those in France, lived highly opulent life styles, v. different to poor & the wealthy's own circumstances post '29
APDN takes a modernist & expressionist view on wealth & the rich -> hypocritical of them
Political:
- By association with Vertov's brothers, Vigo associated with Revolutionary LEF group (Left Front) -> members included Rodchenko, Mayakovsky & Eisenstein -> all prominent socialist film-makers -> Vigo's peer group & people he spent his time with were pro-USSR, pro-Socialist Revolution, very left wing, staunch advocates for fairness, harsh critics of private wealth & riches
A socialist making a condeming film of wealth, riches & capitalism, different to the others in Russia who celebrates the equality through their films
Technological/Institutional:
- Vigo, suffering from tuberculosis, worked as an assistant cameraman for a small company in Nice
- After his father-in-law gave him & his wife $250, Vigo bought his own Debrie camera
- Summer of '29 in Paris: Vigo met Boris & Mikhail Kaufman (brothers of Dziga Vertov). Boris was interested in Vigo's idea about making a film on Nice & them (with their wives) created a script
- Vigo saved ends of film from his work in order to shot APDN & filming underway by year's end
- In the film, Vigo wanted to avoid a travelogue approach & show boredom of upper class in casinos & at the shore + struggle of poor inhabitants in slums
- Vigo & Kaufman unable to shoot inside casinos, instead they decided to concentrate on strength of images & rely on editing phase
One of the very first low budget independent style of filmmakers
Further reading: http://sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/politics-and-metaphysics-of-jean-vigos-a-propos-de-nice/
- Talkies controversial when originally introduced
- Film seen as a form of art and mass media when it came about
- MWAMC: experimental, took on concepts never done in films before, created idea of art
- Art is no longer just a painting, cinema is art
A propos de Nice (About Nice):
- A documentary about Nice
Unmediated -> not edited to appease certain people, without bias?
Realist vs Expressionist
Realism:
- Representation: As unmediated as possible
- Visual Aesthetic: Simple
- Principle: Respect/Truth
- Intent: Spectator reflection
Expressionism:
- Representation: Highly mediated
- Visual Aesthetic: Highly constructed
- Principle: Manipulation
- Intent: Spectator 'agitation'
APDN: expressionistic -> designed to make people angry about the rich
APDN:
- directed by Jean Vigo, France, 1930
- Silent short documentary
- Photographed by Boris Kaufman (brother of MWAMC's director Dziga Vertov)
- Film depicts life in Nice, France by documenting people in the city, daily routines, a carnival & social inequalities
- Vigo described the film in an address to the Groupement des Spectators d'Avant-Garde: 'in this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial... the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you & makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution'
- Although French, heavily influenced by Soviet Modernism & Constructivism - not least through family ties to Vertov - & as such sits firmly in that genre
- Is a montage film
- Mediates to the point where its nearly fiction but its still a documentary
- APDN & MWAMC are both modernist, constructivist & city symphonies films
3 movements which influenced APDN:
Modernism
- Strong commitment to the machine, inc machinery of cinema, as a progressive force, promises to create a bold new future
- Culture celebrates invention of whole new way of life; period when 'modern' life = invented
- Looking forward, sense of new/different world under construction & experienced materially & psychically
- In opposition to the idea of films constituting 'art movements', is the idea they're contributing to an international effort to understand through experimentation what's possible within medium of cinema, an understanding informing art cinema & popular cinema equally
- Challenges & progresses what's been done before
Constructivism
- However should be careful never to limit Soviet Montage to editing -> better to call moment Constructivism which links developments in cinema to wider artistic innovations of the time
- Constructivism celebrates the machine (inc human machine) with new theories of acting & physical movement based one exploring mechanics of human body & communication -> uses ideas of mechanisation of society -> move to industrialisation
City Symphonies
- A type of constructivist cinema
- Early 20's (when silent era of film-making still in full swing): genre of city symphony emerged
- What constitutes a CS is somewhat fluid but broadly speaker it's defined as a poetic, experimental documentary that presents a portrait of daily life within a city whilst attempting to capture something of the city's spirit
- More specifically, refers to films that are influenced by the form & structure of a musical symphony, although it's debatable as to how many of the films labelled as city symphonies conform to this pattern. The city symphony tag is very slippery -> questionable whether even its most famous example (MWAMC) is a true city symphony
City symphonies is a product of constructivism which is a product of modernism which is a product of expressionism
Montage: puts shots in a non-chronological order, designed to create a specific meaning, idea of collage editing
Need to know what left wing is to help understand Vigo's concepts
Context:
Social:
- '29: Soviet Revolution into & beyond its first decade -> socialist unrest across Europe & world to varying extents
- Ideas about role of work classes rights changing -> power to question wealthy & status quo growing rapidly
- Spain -> homeland of Vigo's parents & when Vigo was young -> under a military dictatorship
- Vigo's father, a prominent Anarchist journalist, imprisoned for political views, dying whilst incarcerated under suspicious circumstances
Historical:
- Prior to Wall Street Cash -> wealthy, inc. those in France, lived highly opulent life styles, v. different to poor & the wealthy's own circumstances post '29
APDN takes a modernist & expressionist view on wealth & the rich -> hypocritical of them
Political:
- By association with Vertov's brothers, Vigo associated with Revolutionary LEF group (Left Front) -> members included Rodchenko, Mayakovsky & Eisenstein -> all prominent socialist film-makers -> Vigo's peer group & people he spent his time with were pro-USSR, pro-Socialist Revolution, very left wing, staunch advocates for fairness, harsh critics of private wealth & riches
A socialist making a condeming film of wealth, riches & capitalism, different to the others in Russia who celebrates the equality through their films
Technological/Institutional:
- Vigo, suffering from tuberculosis, worked as an assistant cameraman for a small company in Nice
- After his father-in-law gave him & his wife $250, Vigo bought his own Debrie camera
- Summer of '29 in Paris: Vigo met Boris & Mikhail Kaufman (brothers of Dziga Vertov). Boris was interested in Vigo's idea about making a film on Nice & them (with their wives) created a script
- Vigo saved ends of film from his work in order to shot APDN & filming underway by year's end
- In the film, Vigo wanted to avoid a travelogue approach & show boredom of upper class in casinos & at the shore + struggle of poor inhabitants in slums
- Vigo & Kaufman unable to shoot inside casinos, instead they decided to concentrate on strength of images & rely on editing phase
One of the very first low budget independent style of filmmakers
Further reading: http://sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/politics-and-metaphysics-of-jean-vigos-a-propos-de-nice/
How does A propos de Nice…
•Fit
into the expressionist
v realist debate?
•Show
the features of Modernist cinema in the 1920s?
Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera is just about the last word in this celebration of technology, constructivism and modernism. (For the record the linkage of A Propos de Nice with A Man with a Movie Camera is because Dziga Vertov’s brother, Boris Kaufman shot the French short and both films can be regarded as representing an art genre of the time, the ‘city symphony’ characterised by its creative use of montage.)
Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera is just about the last word in this celebration of technology, constructivism and modernism. (For the record the linkage of A Propos de Nice with A Man with a Movie Camera is because Dziga Vertov’s brother, Boris Kaufman shot the French short and both films can be regarded as representing an art genre of the time, the ‘city symphony’ characterised by its creative use of montage.)
•Show
the features of Soviet Constructivist cinema
in the 1920?
•Show
the features of a 1920s City Symphony?
Handheld cameras used throughout -> technique to heighten social realism + demonstrate busy bustling beach city -> sutures audience allows them to become part of this world. 5:10-5:14 = example where technique used. As the audience, we see well-dressed people, some of them walking dogs. Another example at 6:23 -> low angle handheld shot pan of a boat sale. The theme of us as the audience 'watching' the middle class is recurring -> shot of boat sales to emphasize idea MC are dominant in society/overpower lower classes -> Captures city symphony as captures ideology of 1930's that MC were 'ruling' class, with their leisure activities & lifestyle dominating society.
Handheld camera used to heighten realism and demonstrate the busy bustling city. Allows viewer into world. (5:10-5:!4, 6:23) -> Recurring theme of 'watching' middle-class people. Low angle shot of boat sail (MC activity) -> recurring theme middle class are dominating society and are overbearing -> city symphony as captures the idea at the time that the middle class were the 'ruling' class as dominated leisure activities and society.
High angle shots used, as if the viewer is watching over the city. At 6:06-6:10 & 6:14-6:18 = high angle shot of seemingly well-dressed people walking along the beach. Throughout the film, we see more of these shots looking down on the middle-class citizens. Thinks low of the working-class and highlights his dislike for them. Show the city symphony as represents the population excluding the middle-class, and how the rest of society has a dislike for the middle class due to their elaborate lifestyle and potential arrogance.
City Symphonies:
Poetic, experimental documentary capturing life in a city at a particular time while attempting to capture something of the city's spirit using constructivist ideas.
Handheld cameras used throughout -> technique to heighten social realism + demonstrate busy bustling beach city -> sutures audience allows them to become part of this world. 5:10-5:14 = example where technique used. As the audience, we see well-dressed people, some of them walking dogs. Another example at 6:23 -> low angle handheld shot pan of a boat sale. The theme of us as the audience 'watching' the middle class is recurring -> shot of boat sales to emphasize idea MC are dominant in society/overpower lower classes -> Captures city symphony as captures ideology of 1930's that MC were 'ruling' class, with their leisure activities & lifestyle dominating society.
Handheld camera used to heighten realism and demonstrate the busy bustling city. Allows viewer into world. (5:10-5:!4, 6:23) -> Recurring theme of 'watching' middle-class people. Low angle shot of boat sail (MC activity) -> recurring theme middle class are dominating society and are overbearing -> city symphony as captures the idea at the time that the middle class were the 'ruling' class as dominated leisure activities and society.
High angle shots used, as if the viewer is watching over the city. At 6:06-6:10 & 6:14-6:18 = high angle shot of seemingly well-dressed people walking along the beach. Throughout the film, we see more of these shots looking down on the middle-class citizens. Thinks low of the working-class and highlights his dislike for them. Show the city symphony as represents the population excluding the middle-class, and how the rest of society has a dislike for the middle class due to their elaborate lifestyle and potential arrogance.
High angle shots used so spectator can watch city (6:06, 6:14) -> Links to city symphony as captures idea of looking down on the middle class and dislike for them
•Reflect
the social,
political, historical, institutional and technological context of
its time?
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