Feb 04 2009
Silent Films: the Birth of an Art Form, Pt. 4
Due to masters like Griffiths and Edwin S. Porter, cinema did have a strong tie with American traditions and aesthetics, but the medium continued to develop somewhat independently in Europe at the same time. Drawing from very different cultural, psychological and artistic influences, European filmmakers with little access to American films were birthing their own piece of cinema history.
In Germany, filmmakers were taking the new medium and experimenting in bold, non-traditional ways. They were more interested in a non-naturalistic and subjective use of film to tell dark, psychological stories. This led to German Expressionism, a world of abstract symbolism, and perceptual distortion, of wild, chaotic worlds, which reflected the inner dreamscapes of the mind.
They tried to portray inner subjective reality in objective external images, thus not only telling their characters’ story, but also showing his mind and emotions. This exploration not only radically altered film’s visual style, but also expanded film’s narrative potential to a whole new, deeper level. Expressionism can be seen strongly even today in the work of Tim Burton and others who work in the dark world of the surreal.
Moving further east on the map, the Soviets saw the nascent film medium as a potent tool for their new regime. Visionaries like Sergei Eisenstein seized the chance to chart unexplored territory of artistic potential. Although his first masterpiece, “The Battleship Potemkin”, was clearly a propaganda piece for the government, it is nevertheless a defining moment of film history that is relevant to this day. There, Eisenstein sought to reach the psychological depth and the emotions of the viewer.
He explored the use of sound and image stimuli on the audience, using force and counterforce, and the juxtaposition of images to create something far greater than a mere additional property. His use of montage (a staple tool in modern cinema) and fast cutting were instantly respected for their power to move a story along and were quickly adopted worldwide.
