Brief History
The French impressionist cinema movement started in the 1920s. Its emphasis is on subjective realities, and emotional representation is the main characteristic of this movement. It is also essential to mention filmmakers who introduced the movement, including Epstein. They argued that films should be seen as art that creates experience, giving rise to emotions that depict the truth behind them. Unlike expressionism, which concentrates on the body and outside, impressionism is focused on internal aspects such as mental states, fantasies, and character dreams. One notable factor about French impressionism is that it is subjective and has unparalleled distortion of story time with the use of flashbacks and memory. On the one hand, the process is rather technologically demanding. It entails the invention of new techniques by cinematographers to provide a perception experience for characters, such as artificial lighting, special effects, etc. This paper aims to analyze Coeur fidèle (1923) – the structure and aspects of the French impressionist cinema.
Overview
Coeur Fidèle” is a French silent movie released in 1993 and directed by Jean Epstein. The film tells a story about Marie, a young woman who works as a salesman in a Parisian fabric shop. The central theme of this film is related to Marie’s love for a young man named Jean. The film is set in Marseille, a working-class neighbourhood. It portrays the struggles the working class experienced during the early 20th century. The film is important because it portrays the social and economic conditions of the working class in France at the beginning of the 20th century. During this period, France was socially and economically transformed into a modern industrialized state and an emerging bourgeois society. This film also focuses on the problems surrounding women during that time, especially the low salaries and poor working environments women used to face at their workplaces. Epstein employed many cinematic techniques and invented new ones to present his dramatic tale. These techniques include tracking shots, filming on the merry-go-round, inserts, in-motion POV shots, filming on the gritty port in Marseille and close-ups. The film is considered one of the most innovative films of the late silent era and the bearer of Poetic Realism and Neo-Realism.
Editing and Cinematography
Coeur fidèle (1923) by Jean Epstein is a French impressionist film, evidenced by its editing and cinematography. According to lectures 2 and 3, the French impressionist editing was based on using lots of superimpositions to reveal the characters’ perceptual evidence. One salient move made in the film “Coeur fidèle” is to utilize superimpositions to unveil the characters’ perceptions, thoughts, and emotions. For instance, in a scene where the protagonist feels overwhelmed, the film applies superimpositions to show the inner disturbance Marie is experiencing, making it easy for the audience to relate to her state of mind and perceive what she is undergoing emotionally as real. The film uses superimpositions as an excellent cinematographic tool to explore the characters’ inner lives, particularly about how they see, think, and even feel. French impressionist filmmakers used this technique to function as the character’s feelings and thoughts by using overlays of many images to show the mental states in the characters’ minds. The film “Coeur fidèle” portrays Marie as overwhelmed due to the challenges she faces. It uses superimpositions to render the visual counterpart of their internal agitation. This method goes beyond the regular form of storytelling by taking the audience into the character’s inner world into their emotions to portray the mental and emotional turmoil the protagonist is going through, the film uses various images (Zhang et al., 2023). Therefore, the French impressionist films utilized superimpositions to bring the audience close to the character. This makes it easy for the audience to feel they are living through the same experience as the character. (Natale, 2012) At the same time, the layering images reveal that the character is undergoing some emotional distress. It also compels the viewers to engage more with the narrative (Zhang et al., 2023). Furthermore, applying superpositions adds genuineness to the emotion shown in the film. It lets the audience view the character’s emotions as sincere and real. The process generates a deeper moving impression, which is memorable since it interacts with the viewers visually and emotionally (Zhang et al., 2023). The strategic application of superimpositions in the film becomes an effective mechanism for deciphering what the characters see, feel, think, or perceive (Natale 2012). Using this technique not only helps to depict the internal turmoil in the protagonist but also makes the audience relate more to this story from the character. French Impressionists (2023) state that in French impressionist films, to intensify the subjectivity in the film, the impressionist’s editing and cinematography present the character’s perceptual experience through their optical impressions. In the film by Epstein, characters’ optical impressions are presented by having cut into a very deep point-of-view so that one can see the things the characters see. By applying this technique, the audience can see the character’s viewpoint in the films; thus, the experience appears direct and makes the audience emotionally react to it. For instance, when the protagonist is chased, the film has cut-ins to her point-of-view that heightens the perceived danger, and the audience senses this urgency for action.
Knowledge about “Coeur fidèle” contributes to understanding film theories, indicating how certain film forms can provoke emotional and argumentative reactions among its audience. The use of superimpositions and deep point-of-view shots in this film demonstrates the principles of emotional realism and cognitivism, revealing this movie’s form as the means and its narrative as the reason for generating a strong emotional and cognitive experience of the audience, which also evidence the use of French impression styles in the film. Somehow, the film’s use of superimpositions and deep point-of-view shots represents both emotional realism and cognitivism to educate the audience on the theories associated with films.
Also, the impressionist experimented with rhythmic editing to portray the character’s experience to the audience as the character feels it. During scenes with emotional turmoil or violence, the rhythm accelerates as the shots get shorter and shorter. This is illustrated, for instance, while creating some continuity between his different shots through match cuts. In one scene where Marie is looking at the jeans photo, he cuts the film to a shot of Jean looking at the ship. The two shots have been linked together by the visual similarity of the images, which creates a sense of connection between Jean and Marie to the audience. Cabak (2022) supports this, stating that match cuts are powerful in creating and establishing connections between themes and characters, which assists the audience in following the narrative more easily. The French impressionist used this technique to include the creation of a sense of unity and fluidity in the plot.
French impressionists deployed other rhythmic editing methods, such as cross-cutting, to increase the subjective experience. The reason is that French impressionists prioritized creating a subjective experience over a linear narrative and hence utilized rhythmic editing to depict thoughts, emotional states, and perceptions through fragmented and nonlinear storytelling. Epstein evidences this by utilizing cross-cutting to create tension and suspense. This is evidenced by the scene where Marie is chased by a man who intends to assault her. The film switches between Marie running through the street and a man pursuing her, causing a sense of danger and urgency as they keep changing direction. Using shots of Marie sprinting down the streets and then transitioning them with shots of the man chasing after her makes it easy for the audience to relate emotionally to the movie. Suspense is heightened by the continual shift of direction, the counter-positioning of Marie’s vulnerability, and the danger that pursues her. Through the use of the cross-cutting technique, viewers get to follow the movements and actions of the characters as they experience them, immersing the audience in the tension of the scene. According to Markus & Heiko (2022), cross-cutting effectively builds tensions and suspense by alternating different scenes, engaging the audience emotionally as they follow the character’s actions and movements. The dynamic usage of cross-cutting not only emphasizes the present danger Marie is in, but it connects the spectators with the characters on the level of nerves and makes each moment of suspense and action very real and vivid. In this specific scene, Epstein uses cross-cuts strategically to intensify the audience’s anticipation and improve the quality of the movie. The rhythmic editing in this scene evidences symbolic imagery, a key style in French impressionist films. The variations and repetitions establish a visual rhythm, which goes beyond literal narrative and contributes to a more symbolic and expressive cinematic language.
Also, the French impressionist films were evidenced by editing effects that disrupted spatial relations. Low angles were widely used in this era to challenge the viewer’s perception of perception and of space, creating a more abstract visual experience. Epstein employs different camera angles and movements to generate different effects. For instance, he utilizes low-angle shots to make the characters appear larger than life. In one instance, Jean is perched at a dock overlooking the sea. According to Baranowski & Hecht (2017), low-angle shots add depth to the viewers’ perception by creating an immersive experience. For example, in this instance, the low angle makes the audience see Jean as a commanding figure, reinforcing their connection with the unfolding story and the character.
Comprehending the inner mechanics of “Coeur fidèle” will expand one’s theoretical knowledge of film theories, specifically regarding emotional realism and argumentative effects. Editing and cinematography techniques employed in the film make the audience believe they are witnessing a real story, thus enhancing their emotional connection with the characters. Simultaneously, the film employed the technique of cross-cutting and camera movements to develop the argumentative effects that shaped the audience’s comprehension of the narrative and the themes. Match cuts, cross-cutting, low-angle shots, and tracking shots create a seamless feeling with the storyline and tension, as well as full immersion into the events within the movie. It helps to understand these techniques to improve one’s film theory knowledge on emotional realism and argumentative effects.
Psychological
The film is a French impressionist film as it includes psychological depth to the narration, focusing on the characters’ internal actions by showing their mental states, fantasies and dreams. For example, during the scenes that show the protagonist Marie running away from her abusive foster parents, the camera angles and distorted images help the viewers know what Marie feels, allowing the audience to empathize with her. The method enables audiences to associate with the characters’ personal experiences, which are central to the storyline. French impressionist films, to increase subjectivity, utilized distorting lenses and filters. The filter was usually placed on the camera’s lenses to attain a subjective effect, and used curved mirrors to achieve distorted shots.
Also, French impressionist films, since they believed that art should be expressed in the form of emotions instead of stories, employed editing effects that increased the immersion experience to the audience by employing a combination of juxtaposing movements to increase the emotional appeal, which led to the use of various forms of editing. This is evidenced in the film where Epstein employs montage editing to create psychological depth as it increases the film’s focus on the inner actions of the character. For example, in the scene where Marie dreams of her lover, the rapid montage editing technique communicates her confusion and agony and arouses emotions in the viewers. Using rhythmic editing, overlays, and close-ups, the director, Jean Epstein, constructed a poetic tribute to the love in the film. According to Xiang et al. (2022), montage allows filmmakers to use symbolic and metaphoric imagery. The reason is that the juxtaposition of unrelated shots creates new associations by adding layers of depth and interpretation to the film (Xiang et al., 2022). The opening sequence creates an intimate approach to the protagonist’s situation in the harbour bar through a succession of close-up shots of her eyes and hands as she cleans the table and glasses and then table and glasses. The carnival sequence is characterized by a quick montage, which includes close-up shots and the characters’ emotions and perceptions. In this sequence, nearly all of the formal cinematic ‘rules’ that Epstein abandons create a fractured montage in accordance with Marie’s perception. This creates a sense of psychological depth as Epstein, using montage editing and other techniques, portrays the character’s inner actions, emotions, mental states and perceptions, a key style in French impressionist films. The precise application of visual rhythm in French impressionist films not only created psychological depth but also was used to create flows to enable the self-narration of the film through emotions. This helps the audience understand film theories and how certain narrative structures like emotional realism and argumentative effect are produced using film form structures in Coeur fidèle. The use of subjective camera angles, interior monologues of the characters, and a montage editing style of the film help draw the audience into the characters’ feelings and provoke an emotional and intellectual reaction. This way, the viewers can comprehend how the film functions and gain knowledge about film theories, particularly as it concerns the emotional realism and argumentative effects evoked by the film form structures and narratives. It creates greater emotional and cognitive reactions because the art audience is involved in the characters’ psychological states.
Manipulation and Subjectivity
Coeur fidèle” (1923) film by Jean Epstein is an example of impressionist cinema, and it has peculiar ways of dealing with plot time and objectivity. This was a common feature of impressionistic films, as it enabled the audience to acquire direct experiences related to the movie from the emotions and memories of the character. Such a technique invokes feelings out of their context in the viewers’ emotional experience, creating confusion and disorientation. Sarria (2015) reveals that subjective camera angles and close-ups create emotional realism in the scene for the viewer. In this film, subjective camera angles have been utilized to enable the audience’s perspective to be from the eyes of the character, hence making one empathize with the character’s experiences and feelings. Moreover, they help enhance visual motifs as well as symbolism. For instance, a repeating motif of the heart-shaped locket portrays the lonely search for a soulmate. Besides using naturalist light and location filming, the film’s emotional reality is additionally portrayed with its persuasiveness and immediate approaches. Moreover, the pattern of narrative and the use of subjective views also affect the cognitive responses of viewers. This nonlinear nature defies expectations for a linear narration, demanding the audience’s active participation in reconstructing the story. Therefore, the use of memory and flashback, images and imagery, realistic or natural light, and the subjective camera height all contributed greatly to the effect of the film in an intellectual and emotional sense on its watchers.
Technology
- Optical printing: Epstein employed the optical printer, which brought about interesting visual phenomena in his video. For example, the visual phenomena involved the colour-changing of eyes and the disappearance of objects. The technique was employed for various sequences, such as the “Hat Check” sequence. The French impressionists emphasized exploring and developing new technologies that conveyed experiences and emotions. Also it was concerned about visual experiences’ transient nature and capturing of fleeting moments. Historically, optical printing has been used for making special effects of motion pictures such as fade out, dissolve, slow motion, fast motion, and matte work (Yu & Zhang, 2019). Currently, optical printing is employed by most experimental filmmakers, educational providers, or photographic film restorers as a form of art. Creating duplicates of the hand-made or physically altered film is especially helpful.
- Time-lapse photography: Epstein used time-lapse photography extensively to capture change and characters over time. The technique used in the film, despite being quite spectacular, also contributed considerably to intensifying the emotional aspect of the film, hence improving the visibility and presentation of the video. The French impressionists focused on creating a naturistic and simple representation of the world through adopting this innovative and experimentation approach. According to Person (2015), time-lapse photography consists of photos taken less frequently than normal, with the resultant footage appearing sped. Change and motion occur slowly, so this kind of camera can be used to observe the development of plants, moving stars at night, and construction work. Time-lapse has a power over time, showing how long scenes can be fast-paced to let people see them.
- Dizzy camera movements: in the film, during a scene when the protagonist goes drunken, Epstein utilizes distorted and filtrated frames representing an impressionistic approach with vertiginous, unsteady camera moves to show the character’s drunkenness. This method does not only make it realistic but also increases the emotional effect of the play. According to Zhang & Weber (2021), the purpose of using dizzy camera movements in filmmaking is to evoke emotions effectively.
Conclusion
The utilization of technology-developed techniques in the film not only enhanced visual appeal within the film but also created an emotional response and likely triggered certain arguments among the viewers. Innovative camera techniques and special effects created a sense of wonder, making the viewer part of the movie. This is supported by Rozalio (2021), who states that the Emotional influence of technological techniques is increased by the film’s plot, which centres on love, infidelity, and betrayal. Overall, Coeur Fidelle by Jean Epstein is a technically challenging film that demands innovative techniques, including optic printing and other processes, such as time-lapse photography and camera movements, to facilitate emotional engagement with the audience. From a broad perspective, these techniques made the movie worth engaging with and enhanced visual appeal.
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