French Impressionism and Surrealism

It was during the silent era after World War I when France adapted movements in other arts. They adapted these movements because the World War I seriously affected the French film industry and made Hollywood very prominent in France that time, to the point that French people are watching more Hollywood films than local films already. Not all these movements are locally French except for French Impressionism and Surrealism. They used these film movements as alternatives to Classical Hollywood Style.

The young filmmakers Abel Gance, Louis Delluc, Germaine Dulac, Marcel L’Herbier, and Jean Epstein wanted cinema to be considered as an art comparable to music, literature, and painting. Because of this, French Impressionism started to be practiced in films.

Superimposed frames to depict the
woman's emotion

French Impressionism focused on the emotions and/or the psychological aspects of a character. Superimposed frames to show a character’s thoughts and different camera angles such as point-of-view shots to show how a character sees something, characterized impressionist films. Editing and cinematography were the distinct factors of these films.

“Impressionism’s emphasis on personal emotion gives the film’s narratives an intensely psychological focus.” (Bordwell & Thompson, n.d., p. 451)

Impressionist films cost more when sound came to the cinema in 1929. Directors lacked financial assistance to produce more impressionist films that time. Impressionism may be ended by 1929 but its influences continued until now.

Ants coming out from a hand is an
example of unusual imagery

Surrealism, on the other hand, was characterized by its nonlinear presentation of events. It was anti-narrative and showed unrestrained imaginations and dreams and unusual imagery. Causes of events in the film were difficult to decipher since often there were scenes that were not that significant to the film.

"Surrealism [was] based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association, heretofore neglected, in the omnipotence of dreams, in the undirected play of thought." (Breton, n.d)

Surrealist films’ cinematography and editing were similar to impressionist films. However, the psychological aspect of a character was absent. These films were hard to understand. Many different interpretations can be extracted from a single surrealist film.

The decline of surrealism in the French film industry started when André Breton, founder of surrealism, joined the Communist Party. Surrealists were involved in a disagreement that Communism was a political equivalent of Surrealism. Therefore, as a unified movement, French Surrealism was ended in 1930.

Reference: Film Art by David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson