The Evolution of Film Language -- Andre Bazin

Bazin notes the importance of editing, as he believes it is what makes film a language rather than a series of moving pictures. He explains that editing creates meaning of images, and makes film a true art form. Bazin is essentially outlining the view of silent film directors, who believe editing images is what defines film, and sound is not necessary for a narrative. This is quite the opposite of non-expressionist cinema, in which editing has no role. Bazin also touches on the history of film language. In the 1930’s for example, Hollywood excelled in creating 5 or 6 main genres (Ex: comedy, crime and gangster films, musical and dance films, etc…) At the same time, however, France excelled in creating dark/ poetic realist films. However, by the late 1930’s, talking cinema in France and the United States achieved a state of “classical perfection.” Also, most films were shot using the same decoupage, in which a story was told by a series of 600 shots using the technique of a shot-counter shot, where the camera’s point of view alternates from one speaker to the other (in dialogue, for example). This kind of decoupage was questioned with the growing popularity of using depth-of–field to enhance realism in film. For example, in Citizen Kane, entire scenes were shot in a single take by using depth of field. Depth of field gives us a stronger sense of reality, and this is why it is considered a contribution to mis-en- scene rather than a camera technique. Essentially, the 1930’s transitioned from silent film to talking film with expressionism, symbolism, and montages, and the 1940’s introduced depth-of-field as well as classical decoupage and heightened realism (focuses on the image’s visual structure and organization in time).