FILM HISTORY AND CROSS-CUTTING

Lecture 3

Reassessing film history

• Reassessing the place of Georges Méliès

• Pinpointing the shift from a cinema of attractions to a narrative cinema and the role of cross-cutting in that shift

Place of Georges Méliès

• Old account– Méliès’ work is a perfect example of theatricality

(i.e. theater staging applied to film conditions) and narrativity as we see it in later films

• New, revised account– Méliès’ work is neither a perfect example of

theatricality nor narrativity as we have come to know it.

– Rather, his work exemplifies trickality

What is theatricality?– Identified with “the theater” (ie. The high art

conception)– Invocation of the proscenium stage– Distance between camera and filmed action (i.e.

long shots)– Frontality– Artificial sets– No scene dissection; each scene corresponds to a

single shot

A Trip to the Moon, 1902

Why is Mélies not a perfect example of theatricality?

• This account denies the specifically cinematic originality of his films

• He was interested in cinematic spectacle– Openly acknowledges the illusion of film• Ex: direct address to the audience• Ex: set artificality

• His theatricality owed to the format of the live magic show

What is narrativity?

• Development of psychological characters• Creation of suspense• Illusion of realism

Why is Mélies not a a perfect example of narrativity?

• He told stories, but they were secondary• Like other early filmmakers, he also wanted to– Show objects and people in motion– Wow audiences with the new amazing apparatus– Show “exotic,” faraway lands and people

• A kind of magician incorporating story elements to link his spectacular tricks

Méliès wrote in 1932:

“In this type of film (fantasy films, flights of imagination, artistic, diabolical, fantastical or magical films), the most important thing lies in the ingeniousness and unexpectedness of the tricks, in the picturesque nature of the décors, in the artistic lay out of the characters and also in the main ‘hook’ and the grand finale. Contrary to what is usually done, my procedure for constructing this sort of film consisted in coming up with the details before the whole; the whole being nothing other than the ‘scenario’” (quoted in Gaudreault, 1987)

Méliès wrote in 1932:

• “It could be said that in this case the scenario is merely the thread used to hold together ‘effects’ which haven’t much in common anyway just as the master of ceremonies in a stage review exists merely to tie together scenes with no obvious connection between them”

What is trickality?

• The work that makes theatricality and narrativity secondary to tricks

• More familiar term for this is the “Cinema of Attractions”

FORMAL INNOVATIONS 4: MÉLIÈS

FORMAL INNOVATION 5: CROSS-CUTTING AND STORYTELLING

• In the development of story films, cross-cutting is crucial.

• WHAT IS NOT CROSS-CUTTING? simple succession editing (e.g. chase film)

• WHAT IS CROSS-CUTTING?Paradigmatic example from The Godfather

SIMPLE SUCCESSION EDITING (ex: the chase film): Stop Thief!

(Williamson)

HOW TO INDICATE THE IDEA OF “MEANWHILE” IN FILM?

1. Simultaneous action occurring in the same field (requires a wide shot)

Simultaneous action occurring in the same field

Nero. Or the Fall of Rome, 1909

HOW TO INDICATE THE IDEA OF “MEANWHILE” IN FILM?

2. Simultaneous action existing in the same framea) Ex: opening shot “Life of an American Fireman”

Simultaneous action occurring in the same frame

HOW TO INDICATE THE IDEA OF “MEANWHILE” IN FILM?

3. Simultaneous actions presented in succession: first one in its entirety; then the other

Accomplished in three waysa) Through repeated action edits (a.k.a. temporal overlap)

a) Ex: “Life of an American Fireman”b) Through a title “in the meanwhile…”c) Through narrator’s commentary

HOW TO INDICATE THE IDEA OF “MEANWHILE” IN FILM?

4. Cross-cutting of simultaneous action (following an A-B-A-B-A-B pattern)– Ex: The Girl and Her Trust (D.W. Griffith, 1912)– Ex: The Godfather

Cross-cutting of simultaneous actionEx: The Girl and her Trust (D.W. Griffith, 1912)

“Detours in Film Narrative”

• Gaudreault’s Key Questions:• 1) How and when did cross cutting emerge? Was

there ever a time when filmmakers did not know how to express simultaneity of two actions? Was this ability inherent from the beginning?

• 2) Which version of Porter’s The Life of an American Fireman is the original, release print (i.e. which version did audiences in 1903 likely see)?

• Gaudreault’s Method:

Examines The Great Train Robbery, a later film, to show that Porter did not yet have the practice of cross-cutting figured out though he wanted to express simultaneity

Life of an American Fireman (Porter, 1903)

The Great Train Robbery(Porter, 1903)

Cross-cutting or simultaneous action in succession?Ambiguity in The Great Train Robbery

Shot 1 Shot 9 Shot 10