Chapter 3 Realism Objectives: The objective of this chapter is to make students aware of realism in world cinema, the seminal names and films associated with the movement. Key words: neorealism, dogme, cinema verite, gritty realism Background Realism finds its roots in the writings of French writers such as Balzac, Flaubert and Zola (who was famously associated with the naturalistic tradition). Historically, this is a point where artists reacted against the Romantic movement of the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries. In cinema, realism is a stylistic choice and can be understood as an illusion that what is shown on screen is connected to reality. Realism is a contested term, prompting the question - are all things recognizable real? It is an amalgam of devices to disguise the fact what we see is not real. With the development of photography camera was able to capture an objective truth about the world. Realist films present what appears on the screen as natural, for e.g., Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895) by the French film pioneers, the Lumiere brothers. In the sixties, one major reason for the flourishing of realism was the development of camera and the reception of photographs. The major theorists associated with realism are: Rudolf Arnheim (1904-2007), Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) and Andre Bazin (1918-1958). As Bazin argues in What is Cinema? : Photography does not create eternity, as art does; it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption. Bazin implies that photography has an historical purpose in capturing a view of the world forever. It may be noted that in a realist film, hero is not always easy to identify with and often carries a certain degree of moral ambiguity about him. In other words, to make a protagonist appear as a real person, a realist film must attribute those characteristics on the character which the audience perceives as real, for example, The Last Detail (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Shanghai (2012), also, documentary films. Susan Hayward explains this Realism functions in film on both the narrative level and the figurative (that is, pictorial/photographic). In this regard, physical realism marries into psychological realism via the narrative structures. Generally speaking, realist films address social issues. (Hayward, 311)
Poetic realism This kind of filmmaking is associated with the kinds of films that were made in France in the 30s, particularly by directors such as Jean Renoir. These films were focused on stories about the masses and kinds of hardships common people faced. Renoir s use of the long take also helped in his brand of cinema. This resulted in helping the audience to navigate their way around the frame rather than getting manipulated by editing techniques, for example, A Day in the Country (1936) Italian neorealism Vittorio DeSica influenced the neorealistic movement to such an extent that his presence is felt whenever a director shoots on the streets and employs nonprofessional actors. His depiction of urban working-class people in Sciuscia (Shoeshlne, 1946) and BicycleThieves (1948) set a fresh standard for naturalistic performance in European cinema. De Sica saw his nonprofessional actors as key to the integrity of a new realist cinema; "against the absence of human solidarity, they are a word In favour of the poor and the unhappy." In De Sica's casting of individuals who personify the social types and values he sought to show, there are traces of the technique of 'typage" employed by the Russian directors Eisenstein and Pudovkin. Hollywood and neorealism In the lato-1940s, neo-realism s influence spread to Hollywood: real locations, long takes and deep focus brought verisimilitude and urgency to American thrillers and the social conscience genre, whether studio-made or Independent, In films such as The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945) and The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948). The Best Years Of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946). The repercussions of realism were felt far and wide, including Satyajit Ray in India, Akira Kurosawa in Japan, the German directors who briefly created the new sub-genre of the Trummerfllm(rubble film), and filmmakers in Spain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe followed suite. While these decades saw crises in studio filmmaking around the world, whenever filmmakers sought to escape studio acting and arthouse artifice to return to real life, they were responding to the Influence of neo-realism. The minimalist meditations on experience in Bresson s A Man Escaped (1956) and Mouchet'e(1966) remind us of Lamberto Maggiorani's intensity as the bereft father of Bicycle Thieves. Consonant with a
movement marginal to the Italian industry, neo-realism's legacy has tended to be felt less in canonic establishment cinema and more In improvisatory experimental trends typified In America by John. Cassavetes - Shadows (1959), for example- and developed in Faces (1968), A Woman Under The Influence (1974), and In Shirley Clarke's The Connection (1961). Kitchen Sink Realism: This term is particularly related to the literary movement of the 50s in Britain. An important characteristic is plots based on the youth, using their locations, dialect and attitudes. The idea was to explore social and political issues, for example, Look Back in Anger (1958), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960).Ken Loach's films, such as Poor Cow (1967) and Kes(1969), regularly employed unknown actors from the environments in which the film took place. Dogme "manifesto" The 1990s saw a renewed interest in filmmaking whichexposed underrepresented segments of experience. While the Danish Dogme manifesto eschewed traditional acting, this era also witnessed filmmakers such as Larry Clark and Harmony Korine experimenting with non-professional actors In, respectively, Kids (1995) and Gummo(1997). Lars von Trier concocted the idea of Dogme with his younger colleague Thomas Vinterbergin in 1995. It turned out to be hugely influential and surprisingly far-reaching, catching the imagination of young filmmakers all over the world. Dogme 95 became the cornerstone for the success of von Trier's company Zentropa and helped launch several Danish filmmakers on the International stage, including Vinterberg himself, Susanne Bier, SorenKragh-Jacobsen and Kristian Levring. The Dogme Manifesto started with a suspicion of auteurism and a call for collectivism. It was von Trier's intention to get a new New Wave rolling, so the movement had to be bigger than any Individual, and von Trier was at the time by far the best-known Danish filmmaker. The manifesto aim is the true democratization of cinema. This was a reference to the Impact of digital video, which was Just beginning to make Itself felt. For Dogme believers the problem was that the medium had become very decadent. The solution was to take a "Vow of Chastity in the form of the following: 1. Shooting must be done on location. Prop and sets must not be brought in. 2. The sound must never be produced apart from the Images, or vice versa. 3. The camera must be hand-held. 4. The film must be in color. Special lighting Is not acceptable. 5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action, (Murders, weapons, etc must not occur.) 7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That Is to say that the film takes place In the here and now.) 8. Genre movies are not acceptable. 9. The film format must be Academy 35mm. 10. The director must not be credited. Most if not all of the Dogme films broke at least one or two of these rules - the last one more than any. But the general idea was clear, and indeed common to many oppositional movements in the history of cinema: neorealism, nouvelle vague, cinema verite, all emphasized that cinema must return to real in order to maintain its authenticity. The first two Dogme films, Vinterberg's Fesfen (The Celebration) and von Trier's The Idiots premiered in the main competition at Cannes in 1998, and Vinterberg's film won the Jury Prize. Kragh-Jacobsen's Mifune(1999) and Levring's The King Is Alive (2000) followed shortly afterwards, and soon there were many films being made under the Dogme banner. Vinterberg's next was It's All About Love (2003), which might have been conceived as Dogme's polar opposite, But the point had been made, Dogme put Danish cinema back on the map, and showed the way for the widespread acceptance of the low-budget, hand-held aesthetic that digital video has further made possible. Independent American cinema Independent American cinema seeks to break the hegemony of big-budget Hollywood entertainers and star vehicles. Films like Heavy (1995), Trees Lounge (1996) and Sling Blade (1996) found drama in the everyday struggles of the American social undergrowth, The Blair Witch Project (1999) brought together actors who had never acted before and who have scarcely been heard from since, while United 93 (2006) used non-professionals to depict the ordinary citizens who downed hijacked United Airways flight 93 on September 11,2001. Events such as Sundance festival have played an important role in the growth of the realistic indie films. Realism and Iranian cinema The 1990s also saw a renaissance in Iranian cinema, commonly referred to as Iranian New Wave, in which directors like Abbas Kiarostami (Close up, 1990; And Life Goes On..,1992) and Samira
Makhmalbaf (The Apple, 1998) drew upon quirky experiences and non-professional actors to chronicle the everyday vicissitudes of life under Islamic law. These filmmakers are increasingly shifting towards the rural, and away from urban settings in order to seek more freedom by filming in open locations. Once freed from the confines of the studio, the mobile camera would often follow a character around the city (as in the films of Godard, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese). Iranian filmmakers are turning towards using actual locations, using mobile cameras, and relying on natural lights and sound. One of the key features is the blending of documentary and fiction. Soviet socialist realism This form was dictated by the state, and was an important movement that fully recognized the ideological potential of cinema. Sergei Eisenstein and Kuleshov are the most important names related to this movement. Magic realism We call it magic realism when elements associated with the fantastic intrude into films. This is not to be confused with fantasy films such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings etc. Some examples of magic realism are: Chocolat (2000), Pan s Labyrinth (2006), Magnolia (1999), The Mistress of Spices ( 2005) Cinema verite Literally truthful cinema, cinema verite films are usually shot with light, easily portable, inexpensive equipment, hand-held cameras, on actual locations, with real people (not professional actors) and on a relatively small budget. The films are usually shot without a script and assembled later in editing, Films for viewing: Cinema verite (2011) Dirty and gritty realism These are bleak stories of everyday life portraying life and regular struggles in a realistic manner, for example in the works of filmmakers such as Ken Loach. Films for viewing: Trainspotting (1996), My Name is Joe (1998), Danny Boyle s 127 Hours (2011).
Reference Hayward, Susan. Key Concepts in Film Studies. NY & London: Routledge, 2004. Suggested reading 1. Bondanella, Peter. Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. 3 rd rev.ed. NY: Continuum, 2001. 2. Hallam, Julia & Margaret Marshment. Realism in Popular Cinema. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. 3. Hillier, Jim. The New Hollywood. London: Studion Vista, 1993. 4. Kelly, Richard. The Name of this Book is Dogme 95. London: Faber & Faber, 2000. 5. Lay, Samantha.British Social Realism: From Documentary to Brit Grit. London: Wallflower Press, 2002. Suggested websites http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/independent-film-road-movies/realism.html http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898 http://brightlightsfilm.com/40/realism2.php#.uem0u4lrbzo Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema? Berkley: UCLA, 1971, 2005. Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction http://design.wishiewashie.com/ht5/walterbenjamintheworkofart.pdf Quiz 1. Answer the following: i. Trace the origins of realism in arts. ii. What are the features of Dogme 95?
iii. What is magic realism? 2. Match the following: i Pan s Labyrinth ii Look Back in Anger a Kitchen sink realism b Dirty realism iii My Name is Joe c Dogme 95 iv The Idiots d Magic realism 3. Assignment Take any film by Danny Boyle and read it as a realistic film. Answer key 2. i-d; ii- a; iii-b ; iv-c