Poetic Realism movement and Rene Clair PDF

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Poetic Realism movement and Rene Clair...

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Poetic Realism movement and Rene Clair

Rene Clair had a distinguished career in silent films but it was the production of feature films that placed him at the forefront of European production. These films revealed the particularly fascinating way in which the virgin medium of speech is handled. Hollywood had just begun to codify the classic way of using sound. Clair took the opportunity, from a change of a Classic Hollywood style, to explore the alternative to audio and video design. He acknowledged that language, sound, and music had a power equal to that of the image, and that his first attempts were to combine sound and image rather than simply making sound to support the story. He was looking for the opposite. "Sous les Toits de Paris" is a text with examples of how not to synchronize sound with image. Filmed entirely in a studio, Clair tells the story of two men who love the same woman, Pola. Introduces the characters to a song. The most famous series of the film opens the work correctly (after a prologue, which does not appear in the current copies). After a series of still images from the rooftops of Paris, the camera passes through the tops of the chimneys and descends to a street where it approaches the city. We follow her as she leaves her house to listen to a itinerant singer (Albert) and his clients sing a song of the play. As the song goes on, a wallet "works" in the crowd and Albert (who turns out to be the other protagonist of the play) signals to Pola, whom he will "chase" throughout the play, that it will be the next victim. In the film, Clair constantly presents an object but connects it with the wrong sound. For example, in the morning after Albert and Pola shared his apartment, his alarm clock rang. He goes to close it and instead grabs his shoe. The alarm stops. We learn why, as Clair yells at Pola, when she actually turns off the alarm. Despite these innovations, the French critical community and the public did not embrace "Sous les Toits de Paris" when it was filmed. While Clair was working for a German company, the film premiered in Berlin. There the film was applauded as a masterpiece. He moved on to his next play "Le Million" (1931), which was made mainly with the same troupe as "Sous les Toits de Paris" a musical whose dialogue took place through the song with the introduction of a choir of merchants who participated in the action although they seemed to have little to do with the actual project. (Sometimes the dance even expresses the thought of a character).

Sometimes characters can mimic a situation with rhythmic accompaniment. Clair went so far as to ask his actors to move their lips while talking, while the audience listened only to music. The treatment of Michele, who is looking for a lottery ticket, and the merchants to whom he owes money, is performed with the music of the dance rather than with a spoken word. "Le Million" proved to be an important project as well as a commercial success. While still working for Tobis - Klang Film and with the same troupe, Clair directed "A Nous la Liberia" in 1931. In a more serious tone, he began to explore the idea of industrial progress through a screenplay similar to "Le Million" where he mixed music, satire and farce. The studio saw it as a big critique and did not let him do it. But at this point Clair had established himself as a top director in France and had a way of doing it. "A Nous la Liberte" can hardly be considered a serious, social manifesto. The film shows the lack of personal freedom in a modern industrial world. Clair portrays a mythical 20th century Europe in which freedom is a meaningless word. The film focuses on two characters who earn a lot of money but eventually give up to become vagrants. In "A Nous la Liberte", Clair continues the complex use of sound and image but without any of the novelties of the previous two films. Jean Vigo, made only four films before his tragic death at the age of 29 in 1934. He was one of the pioneers of the Cine Club movement in France and the first two films are directly related to the experimental movements of 1920. The "A Propos de Nice "(1930), made with cinematographer Borris Kaufman and shows the resort of Nice for about 40 minutes. He found money from Vigo's father-in-law, but shocked those waiting for a typical, progressive travel narrative. Instead, Vigo, the son of a murdered anarchist, depicts a city full of death ruled by adventurers, full of lifeless monuments and endless cemeteries, a situation reminiscent of the surrealists of 1920. After "A Propos de Nice", o Vigo began to combine surrealism with what would later be called poetic realism. With "Taris" (1931) a short documentary about a champion swimmer, Vigo put his camera under water while swimmer Taris jokingly blew water into the lens at the bottom of the lake. But this work, which lasted only 11 minutes, was simply an introduction to the two important films that would sadly end the life of the director. "Zero de Conduite" (Zero for Conduct 1933) made Vigo famous. Its production was independent, a 44-minute film that gave a terrifying picture of the French education system. Hardly a refined narrative of "Zero for Conduct" can be broken down into a series of disorganized imaginary impressions of life in a French boarding school. Gradually the boys revolt. The adults who run this school are all caricatures, including the dwarf principal. The only nice teacher, Huguet, imitates Chaplin. An enjoyable, delicate and fascinating film, the French authorities abolished the

show until after the end of World War II. During 1950, "Zero for Conduct" was carefully studied by the French New Wave. Vigo created his final work "L'Atalante" (1934) while dying of tuberculosis. This film amazingly praises the human condition. Describing the journey of two spouses on a river boat, the film combines images of the harmony of marriage with the severity of unemployment and hunger of the great financial crisis. Creates a poem of realism. Michele Simon presents in it his most lively voyages as an eccentric sailor. The most straightforward of Vigo's works, "L'Atalante" provokes a strong reaction from the audience. The fact that Vigo's solo feature films do not diminish their prestige. Vigo was a pioneer of poetic realism. Jean Renoir would make this style world famous. POETIC REALISM flourished in the interwar period, which elsewhere, in the "Mecca" of the then Cinema, in FRANCE. The main incarnation was the Director MARCEL CARNE. A large group of French directors gathered around him, such as: FEDER, RENOIR, DVIVIE and many others. POETIC REALISM is not a Film School, in which you can give strict entrenchments, as it has a wide range of styles and perceptions. POETIC REALISM has very clear elements of philosophical NATURALISM, something in which it makes him considered a forerunner of ITALIAN NEORALISM. We define poetic realism as a poetic negotiation of a realistic subject, taking the term "realism" in the sense it had in the 19th century, which is associated with the description of the vulgar, rude and vile aspects of reality, with the "indecent" as opposed to the "noble". POETIC REALISM does not hesitate to dive into the gloomy environment of a harsh reality, decline, bitterness and frustration, but sees this reality and describes it in a unique and subtle POETIC WAY. This is the difference between it and "pure" ITALIAN NEORALISM. That is, the POETIC MOOD OF DESCRIPTION. LYRIC SPEECH, the corresponding image and description acquire the character of poetry. Films that marked this school during the interwar years were: "THE HOTEL OF THE NORTH" 1938 MARSEILLE CARNE "THE PORT OF THE INCOMPLETE" 1938 MARSEILLE CARNE "EARLY MORNING" 1939 MARSEILLE CARNE Of these films, a truly poetic elegy by MARCEL CARNE stands out, dominated by a huge not only Cinematic but also Political form of the great French actor JEAN GABIN.

Poetic realism is characterized by bitterness, melancholy, a pessimistic view of the things of life (Here is its opposition to Positive Italian neorealism). JEAN GABIN & MICHELLE MORGAN "LE JOUR SE LEVE" ("XIMERONEI" JEAN GABIN, ARLETTY, JULES BERRY The Great French artist…. A great figure in FRENCH POETIC REALISM with a decisive passage is the director JEAN RENUAR Poetic Realism adorned with its presence the 7th art but also continues to have its traces alive in many creators of today, who always see reality bittersweet with a poetic speech intense and aromatic. Jean Renoir, the second son of the great French Impressionist painter, led France to cinematic glory. His style was spontaneously characterized as lyrical and realistic. His films reveal a complex of interpersonal relationships between person and space, real life and inner feeling. These relationships seem to overturn the general context, asking the viewer what was going on outside the camera field. Renoir seemed to want to explore the metaphysical side of our world through detail. An obsession with the life of the lower class provided the thematic core of poetic realism. We observe a dark world in which individuals seem to transcend their characters. From movie to movie, the decor creates the psychology of the hero. Indeed, poetic realism, as demonstrated by Renoir's work, introduced a new way of paying attention to cinematic decor. Together with the help of music and lyrical dialogue, poetic realism formed an atmosphere of post-psychic crisis. Jean Renoir discovered cinema while recovering from a war wound during World War I. Until 1924 he directed his first film "La Fille de L'Eau" starring his wife Cathrine Hessling. Knowing the influences of D.W. Griffith, Eric Von Stroheim and Charly Chaplin, Renoir began the reissue of Zola's novel Nana (1926), his most important contribution to silent cinema. However, during the 1930s Renoir created one masterpiece after another. "Boudu Saved from Drowning" (1932) tells the story of a bum who invades the home of a middle-class couple. Regarding the style, through the long shots, the extension of the camera movement as well as the careful use of the Deep Space, Renoir was able to compare the character with the movement and the movement with the character. Renoir created "Boudu Saved from Drowning" as a dialectic of life and nature. The film contrasts Boudu's natural freedom with the bourgeois nature of his host. Renoir apparently contrasts the reflection of sunbeams in the water

with the trick of the cozy house filled with birds. To connect the natural and the artificial, Renoir was constantly shooting through the windows of the middle-class house as they are permanently open to the natural world. But in "Boudu Saved from Drowning" Renoir did not want to face the consequences of dividing the natural and the artificial. On the one hand, his comedic manner allowed him to avoid the misery associated with the middle-class way of life. Boudu, on the other hand, never really portrayed a serious threat to the capitalist way of life of the middle class. Renoir criticized the comedy but did not go so far as to suggest a progressive solution. "Le Crime de Monsieur Lange" (The crime of M. Lange 1935) offered a solution and thus consolidated Renoir's reputation as a left-wing director. With the support of the Popular Front government that was about to take power, Renoir sought to portray the lives and problems of workers' daily lives. The narrative shows that a cooperative spirit can, through collective action, overcome the tyranny of capitalism. To emphasize the meaning of the whole, Renoir focuses all the action of the project on a courtyard which is surrounded by the publishing company and the workers' houses. The yard becomes a kind of tent. By the end of the film, the characters who had once disagreed agreed, the section is reflected in the way it is published as well as in the cinema. At the beginning of the film, the heroes are presented as lonely types, connected only through confrontational shots. At the end of the film, they join in large scenes in deep space. An anthem of the human spirit along with a dose of black humour, "The Crime of M. Lange" also directly attacks class superiority and prejudice. It honours the collective effort, presenting how collective action can lead to a better world for all. Renoir would then go on to make immediate political films. The film "La Vie Est a Nous" (People Of France 1936) was made due to the rise of the popular front government. In preparation for the May 1936 elections, all the leaders of French Communism decided to take control of a film. As soon as "The Crime of M. Lange" ended, Renoir was considered the logical choice for directing. But the creation of "La Vie Est a Nous" was done under a collaborative effort. Jacques Brunius directed the episodes of the news, Jean-Paul Le Chanois produced the episodes, and Jacques Becker directed an episode on the farm. Many of those who worked on the film belonged to the French Communist Group. But most do not. In the spirit of collaboration of the Popular Front, the individuals and the troupe worked for free and were maintained with other jobs, and so with the contributions the film cost only 1/10 of the usual French feature film. Several weeks before the Blum's election, the film "La Vie Est a Nous" was shown very often without discrimination in the political rallies that took place before the

election. It premiered at the Bellevilloise Theater, a theatrical cinema owned by the French Communist Group, in a working-class area of Paris. The idea of the film was conceived as an election propaganda film, "La Vie Est a Nous" does not tell a story for everyone, but makes a summary. To present their case, the filmmakers combined the big documentary film with the theatrical scene. The beginning presents images of the wealth of France that contrasts with the poverty of its population. A hero tells us: France does not belong to the French. "France belongs to the two richest families." The images may be beautiful with a composition of poetic realism, but no member of the audience understood the meaning of the film: The French have to do something about the misfortune, to elect a government of the Popular Front. Renoir made another political film before the outbreak of World War II entitled "La Marseillaise" (1938). While the fellowship of the Popular Front was still alive, Renoir's friends on the left dreamed of a spectacle that would entertain the people of France. The plans, supported by workers' units, needed financial assistance through assistance. Millions of people were asked to contribute two francs to a work praising France. Even after the collapse of Blum's government during the spring of 1937, Renoir and his associates proceeded despite adversity without any direct government funding. With "La Vie Est a Nous" being offered free of charge to actors and staff, in the end the creators of this French Revolution historical film were forced to appeal to bankers for loans and distribute it through traditional theatrical channels. Ever since the history of the French Revolution became so well known, Renoir has shot a series of dramatic moments focusing on a large battalion from Marseilles and the famous song. The film "La Marseillaise", while praising the efforts of ordinary men and women to change society, re-created the wonderful cinematic scenes and the realistic use of direction that is such a large part of Renoir's 1930 work. When World War II came, Renoir felt the need to make an appeal against the war. While working on other films for three years, he tried to persuade the producers to shoot "La Grande Illusion". And only when the great star of French cinema Jean Gabin agreed to appear, did the support come. But probably the actor in the film that is best known, is the German officer Rauffenstein sentenced to death played by Erich Von Strokheim. Initially this was a small role but when Renoir learned that his idol Erich Von Stroheim was in France and was looking to revive his acting career, Renoir willingly took him and expanded his role. He inserted the iron belt and the chin strap to show the sternness of the character and with some pieces of dialogue, Von Stroheim gave the most famous show of his life.

"La Grande Illusion" (1937) tells the story of French prisoners who live in confinement and then escape from a German prison prison camp during World War I. Renoir used this story to compare and contrast people who sought to earn honour in the face of the horror and madness of war. No one could win in this case. Only the human spirit could emerge victorious. Renoir's appeal to humanity was not heeded. Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels referred to "La Grande Illusion" as "Cinema Enemy Number 1" and banned the film. If we look at "La Grande Illusion" today, we will see a film that is more than a reference to the war but, like Renoir's next film "Rules of the Game" (1939), is an examination of its basic structures. French society. Officially, both have a similar four-part structure and end with a section moving outward into a much quieter, more intimate, inland scene. "La Grande Illusion" has four parts that develop a network of changing relationships which at first emphasizes the differences but in the end presents the characters that transcend the invincibility of their class and nationality. The French aristocrat de Boeildieu and the worker Marechal are prisoners of war but are bound by their nationality; the German official Rauffenstein and the French aristocrat from their class. When the French are captured and taken to the POW camp, a fourth major protagonist, the Jew Rosenthal, appears. In terms of style, the first part of the film covers the prisoner-of-war camp through the frequent use of windows, which emphasizes the separation of people from class and ethnicity. Rosenthal and Marechal escape because de Boeildieu sacrifices his life. The German Rauffenstein shoots his partner because he resists him. The proletarian and the wealthy Jew escape to a world where the Upper Class is doomed, a Renoir favourite subject that is researched even more complexly in the project "Rules of the Game". "La Grande Illusion" depicts a new and different world, a society that may or may not be better than it was in the past. "Rules of the Game" (1939) proved to be Renoir's last film before leaving for the United States. He formed his own independent production company La Nouvelle Edition Francaise for a project he planned to film at Technicolor. The shots were shot in black and white in February 1939 and filming ended in May 1939, less than a year before the Germans invaded Renoir. The richness of "Rules of the Game" is mainly due to the rich references in painting and theater. The mood of the film takes the viewer to the setting of Renoir's father while his style is reminiscent of French comedy. Renoir argued that the elegant form of 18th-century French comedy could serve as the appropriate field on which to comment on the impending collapse of Europe. The music also takes the viewer back to an earlier era. And indeed Mozart's elegant soft music opens and closes the film.

Thematically, "Rules of the Game" presents life as a game played with rules that never remain the same. No one has the time to resist and point out where the world is going. The story of the weekend in the countryside seems random. The film plays on tensions and paradoxes and finally glorifies humanity as the French nation stabilizes at a critical historical point, at the end of one era and the beginning of another. The experienced organization of Renoir's cinematic movements and the amazing use of depth space orchestrate a vivid frame of contrasts through a set of characters. His mobile camera seems to constantly capture several characters in simultaneous front and rear action. The actors come and go beyond the limits of the frame. Close-ups and view shots rarely draw attention from the complexity of the action and movement. The beautifully directed chase series, the use of force for pleasure stand out because of the fast pace and the violent reality of the defenseless rabbits that die. When "Rules of the Game" was staged in two theatres in Paris in July 1939, the audience and critics disapproved. Renoir cut the film from 113 minutes to 85 but was eventually banned...