André Bazin: Film as Social Documentary

Traditionally in Film Studies, the idea of cinema being able to put the truth on screen has been associated with one particular film theorist, namely André Bazin. However, only 6% of Bazin’s almost 2600 articles has been republished in anthologies or edited essay collections and reading the remaining 94% of these writings (which to date basically remains widely unread) makes it clear that Bazin was not so naïve. This paper focuses on an essay from 1947, one of Bazin's first and most important, "Tout film est un documentaire social" ["Every Film is a Social Documentary"]. It suggests that fiction films can tell the truth, but mainly in the way that dreams do, by revealing what people really think, or their collective unconsciousness, regardless of their conscious awareness. What is this truth which is told by any fiction film? How can one reconcile this theoretical perspective with Bazinian ontological theory of cinema in general? This article seeks to answer these questions by means of an in-depth analysis of that essay and of a wide range of examples taken from other, mostly unknown writings by Bazin

André Bazin: Film as Social Documentary

Traditionally in Film Studies, the idea of cinema being able to put the truth on screen has been associated with one particular film theorist, namely André Bazin. However, only 6% of Bazin’s almost 2600 articles has been republished in anthologies or edited essay collections and reading the remaining 94% of these writings (which to date basically remains widely unread) makes it clear that Bazin was not so naïve. This paper focuses on an essay from 1947, one of Bazin's first and most important, "Tout film est un documentaire social" ["Every Film is a Social Documentary"]. It suggests that fiction films can tell the truth, but mainly in the way that dreams do, by revealing what people really think, or their collective unconsciousness, regardless of their conscious awareness. What is this truth which is told by any fiction film? How can one reconcile this theoretical perspective with Bazinian ontological theory of cinema in general? This article seeks to answer these questions by means of an in-depth analysis of that essay and of a wide range of examples taken from other, mostly unknown writings by Bazin

Motion/Performance Capture and The Afterlife of The Index. A Reconsideration of André Bazin’s “Myth of Total Cinema”

The history of film technology is not a progressive and linear march towards the future : it is rather a discontinuous, irregular process where the past returns more often than not. Motion capture and performance capture technologies are particularly indicative examples of this dynamic, as their digital nature is far from opposed to the indexical bias of photography that (according to a widespread doxa) the digital is supposed to gradually supplant. On the contrary, they integrate the index in their own functioning. Moreover, some of the films making use of these devices (for instance Robert Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol) seem to allegorize this very paradox. André Bazin has often been believed to advocate for a teleological view of history (and of the history of film technology) just because of his idealism. In fact, a close re-reading his writings, particularly of his “Myth of Total Cinema”, shows that his idealism works as an “antidote” against teleological presuppositions.L’histoire de la technologie au cinéma n’est pas une avancée progressive et linéaire vers le futur. Elle est plutôt un processus irrégulier et discontinu où le passé souvent revient. Les technologies de capture de mouvement et de performance en sont des exemples particulièrement probants, car leur nature numérique est loin d’être opposée à l’index photographique sur lequel – selon une vulgate assez répandue – le numérique serait censé prendre graduellement le pas. Au contraire, ces technologies intègrent l’index dans leur fonctionnement même. Qui plus est, quelques-uns des films qui leur font appel (A Christmas Carol par Robert Zemeckis, par exemple) semblent allégoriser ce paradoxe. Cette situation sera également l’occasion de revenir sur la conception bazinienne de l’histoire technologique du cinéma. En effet, on a souvent cru que la conception de l’histoire que défendait André Bazin était téléologique, à cause de ses prémisses idéalistes. Or, une relecture des écrits de Bazin, et tout particulièrement “Le mythe du cinéma total”, montre au contraire que son idéalisme était en fait un antidote contre toute conception téléologique de l’histoire

Eric Rohmer's Film Theory (1948-1953)

This book is a first step toward a serious reassessment of the mostly unspoken theoretical and aesthetic premises underlying auteur theory

Eric Rohmer's Film Theory (1948-1953)

This book is a first step toward a serious reassessment of the mostly unspoken theoretical and aesthetic premises underlying auteur theory