In Roy Andersson's "You, the living", there was this scene of the newly-weds, in their home, having a quiet evening, dressed in their wedding clothes. Then you notice some lights moving out the window and it does not take long before you realise that it is the house that is moving, as if on rail tracks. As it enters the city the lights become brighter and more frequent, until it stops at the train station. People outside start gathering around to wish the happy couple. They open the window and the crowd starts singing and waving as the house starts its journey again for their honeymoon.
This scene is a classic example of "what else you can do with this art called cinema". It is not a full story. It does not contain critical dialogues, and yet it could not have been portrayed by any other art forms. Henri-Georges Clouzot was a master of this craft, a director who really liked to experiment with film. Just to clarify, I am not referring to the technicalities like focus, framing and cuts, but rather the inventive ways in which a director can make your heart jump with a sequence of images.
At the opposite side of the same coin lies the topic of this post. The story begins back at the late 1910's, with a film called "Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari". At this time, Germany is shaped by a movement that would continue to influence many later generations and inspire Alfred Hitchcock to be ... well, Hitchcock. The German expressionism was the starting point for the creators of this film (I am not going to bomb you with names as the information is already out there). Fritz Lang was asked to direct the film, but he was engaged in filming another one at the time, so he was left out of what I consider the starting point of another separate line in the history of cinema. It was not long afterwards that Fritz Lang embraced this new type of cinematography and made one of the most famous films of all times, "Metropolis". What was introduced in film-making was the collaboration of different artists to produce alluring sets in which their stories would be hosted. The actors were therefore taken out of the natural environment and placed in what seemed more like a theatrical stage. With the combination of the expressionistic tones, the result would be images that were equally tempting as the plot (if not more) and movie stills that refused to release your eyes.
This style was merely a need to create eerie effects that reflected the characters' mood with the humble means available at that era. Today this is extensively done with the help of CGI, and that is the reason why the 2005 remake of Caligari flopped trying to produce an almost exact copy of the original. Still, you can find references to this old trend, or even tributes, popping up here and there.
Since cinema is a big fan of reality, all these weird sceneries become decreasingly popular after the 20's, giving place for the film-noir to flourish. Althought hidden, this mise-en-scene is not lost, but reincarnated in the dystopian movies of the 80's and 90's like "Dune", "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children". With earthy tones on a sepia background, "out of this world" effects are produced. Painters, set designers and various artists meet again to create eye-feasts and a new current is born. These movies are more like fairy-tales but just like their predecessors, they preserve the same bizarre atmosphere. The expressionistic influences that are almost inherent in the b/w films are replaced with art-nouveau strokes (a movement which strangely also comes from the early 20's and is itself influenced by the cinema and the industrial revolution).
From there on you really have two choices. One is to accept CGI generated films as the real descendant and of course Tim Burton as the leader. If you choose this it will not actually be mise-en-scene, since the later involves the creation of artistic sets before the actors are placed in them. But it will make much sense if you consider that the whole purpose is to have an extraordinary atmosphere that captivates the spectator.
The second choice is a new path. This path is influenced by the Delicatessen groove and holds the characteristics of fairy-tale. Movies like "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" still preserve some aspects, but lack the sinister mood.
I guess somewhere into that pile of the sadly not-yet-discovered films lie some details that when accidentally stepped upon will make me grin with enthusiasm and glue all the pieces together. Or as wikipedia might say [citation needed].
This scene is a classic example of "what else you can do with this art called cinema". It is not a full story. It does not contain critical dialogues, and yet it could not have been portrayed by any other art forms. Henri-Georges Clouzot was a master of this craft, a director who really liked to experiment with film. Just to clarify, I am not referring to the technicalities like focus, framing and cuts, but rather the inventive ways in which a director can make your heart jump with a sequence of images.
At the opposite side of the same coin lies the topic of this post. The story begins back at the late 1910's, with a film called "Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari". At this time, Germany is shaped by a movement that would continue to influence many later generations and inspire Alfred Hitchcock to be ... well, Hitchcock. The German expressionism was the starting point for the creators of this film (I am not going to bomb you with names as the information is already out there). Fritz Lang was asked to direct the film, but he was engaged in filming another one at the time, so he was left out of what I consider the starting point of another separate line in the history of cinema. It was not long afterwards that Fritz Lang embraced this new type of cinematography and made one of the most famous films of all times, "Metropolis". What was introduced in film-making was the collaboration of different artists to produce alluring sets in which their stories would be hosted. The actors were therefore taken out of the natural environment and placed in what seemed more like a theatrical stage. With the combination of the expressionistic tones, the result would be images that were equally tempting as the plot (if not more) and movie stills that refused to release your eyes.
This style was merely a need to create eerie effects that reflected the characters' mood with the humble means available at that era. Today this is extensively done with the help of CGI, and that is the reason why the 2005 remake of Caligari flopped trying to produce an almost exact copy of the original. Still, you can find references to this old trend, or even tributes, popping up here and there.
Since cinema is a big fan of reality, all these weird sceneries become decreasingly popular after the 20's, giving place for the film-noir to flourish. Althought hidden, this mise-en-scene is not lost, but reincarnated in the dystopian movies of the 80's and 90's like "Dune", "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children". With earthy tones on a sepia background, "out of this world" effects are produced. Painters, set designers and various artists meet again to create eye-feasts and a new current is born. These movies are more like fairy-tales but just like their predecessors, they preserve the same bizarre atmosphere. The expressionistic influences that are almost inherent in the b/w films are replaced with art-nouveau strokes (a movement which strangely also comes from the early 20's and is itself influenced by the cinema and the industrial revolution).
From there on you really have two choices. One is to accept CGI generated films as the real descendant and of course Tim Burton as the leader. If you choose this it will not actually be mise-en-scene, since the later involves the creation of artistic sets before the actors are placed in them. But it will make much sense if you consider that the whole purpose is to have an extraordinary atmosphere that captivates the spectator.
The second choice is a new path. This path is influenced by the Delicatessen groove and holds the characteristics of fairy-tale. Movies like "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" still preserve some aspects, but lack the sinister mood.
I guess somewhere into that pile of the sadly not-yet-discovered films lie some details that when accidentally stepped upon will make me grin with enthusiasm and glue all the pieces together. Or as wikipedia might say [citation needed].
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