The High Sign (Keaton, 1921)

Expressive

• Iris shots are used to manipulate what the audience should focus on such as the death note 1

• The newspaper is absurdly large as he continues to open it up multiple times, acting as a comedic tool whilst he also replaces a gun with a banana . The mise-en-scene is deliberately unrealistic to show how out of place he is in this new town he had been thrown into 2

• Whilst aiming at some bottles for target practice, he accidentally shoots a man who reacts in an over exaggerated manner, leaping high into the air and running rapidly away clutching his injured behind in an overly paced way to show the pain he is in 2

• His shooting at one target and hitting another when aiming at the bottles and later shooting from behind his back and under his legs causes injury and destruction around him as he is careless and inexperienced 2

• Painting a hook on a wall to hang your hat is an inventive way of manipulating the setting in which he is placed 2

• The design of the house of the man who is about to be killed with its unique use of trap doors and moving beds that extend into another room is an expressive method of using mise-en-scene. Its also unrealistic that all the rooms in the house can be seen at the same time as he moves from one room to another when running away from the gang 2

Realist

• An ordinary person getting caught up in extraordinary events 3

• Gangs in America were commonplace during the 1920s, hiding away behind false front such as the gun range that hides the ‘Blinking Buzzards’ 3

• Carrying a firearm during the 1920s was legal in America which made crimes such as robbery common as it was easy to obtain a gun without being caught 3

• Wide shots are typically used in the rooms in the house as they chase each other 1

• Long depth of field is traditionally used throughout the majority of scenes to focus on everything that’s happening 1

The Scarecrow (Keaton, 1920)

Expressive

• The exaggerated mise-en-scene through the use of common household objects placed in unusual areas and being used in abstract ways such as the salt hanging above the table on strings ready to pour and the space for the table on the wall to make it easier to wash
• The car topples backwards when a large man sits at the back of it and despite being partially realistic, its an expressive depiction of what would actually happen to emphasise the mans weight for comedic effect
• The woman they are both attempting to seduce briefly looks at the camera after running away from the scarecrow as she engages with the audience to convey her shock and confusion
• His athleticism as he crosses over the river on his hands is unnecessary but is used for entertainment as it provides a joke as he tries to prevent getting wet despite doing so anyway
• The horse is given the appearance that its real as there are two horses next to each other so when the woman rushes off he is left behind on a fake horse located on a stand, leaving him in bewilderment

Realist

• The idea of two men going after the same girl is a common theme often used in both 20th century literature and film as it could connect with the audience because it was highly likely that some had experienced this for themselves as they were living in a male dominated society
• Continuity editing depicts a narrative in a linear way that lets the story play out in time
• When the dog chases Buster, he runs away in panic and fear as he believes he is about to be bitten by a rabid dog which was easily contractible during that period of time as there were less vaccination and animal control programmes set up before the 1940’s
• The scarecrows jacket contains inside it a hidden bottle of alcohol as this was the prohibition era which didn’t end until 1933
• Keaton lights a cigarette after his chase with the supposedly rabid dog which would have been a common activity as tobacco was widely available and seen as a fashionable habit as there was less awareness about the dangers it could cause

André Bazin: The Realist and The Expressive

André Bazin was a film critic, theorist, philosopher and humanist who wrote a series of essays between the years 1944 and 1958 outlining his theories.

Bazin opposes classical and expressive editing on the following counts. The geographically and psychologically logical cutting within a scene does not add anything to the intent of a scene, only adding emphasis. If the scene has only one simple meaning why insult the audience’s intelligence with needless and obvious close-ups? If the scene is complex why presuppose only one meaning? Expressive editing invents meaning through juxtaposition of the images and not through the images themselves, whilst removing the freedom on the part of the spectator to select for themselves.

Bazin is not against editing which forms the basis of film structure, but is against optical illusions (and expressive editing that adds meaning through the juxtaposition rather than content of each image). Bazin employs a simple aesthetic criteria for deciding when to edit: anytime two or more objects/subjects are necessary to the construction of meaning in a scene, depth of field is preferable over editing.

He splits directors into two groups: one which bases integrity in the images (Jean Renoir) and another in the reality (Sergei Eisenstein). Imagists can either fall into the category of working with plastics such as lighting or those that work with editing. Realists on the other hand choose not to distort time and instead attempt to depict true reality.

Bazin prefers that filmmakers use longer takes with less cuts so it appears more realistic and a deeper depth of field. He also prefers the audience to make their own judgements about what they are watching with the freedom to direct their own viewing process including what to look at, how long they should look at it and what they should look at first. His opinion on film is that it isn’t art, rather reality and that montage is misleading and falsifies what the audience are watching.

One Week (Keaton, 1920)

In ‘One Week’, both expressive and realist elements are used to create narrative meaning throughout the film in order to move the story forwards.

Expressive

• Buster carries a supposedly brick chimney up a tall ladder that he had taken off the front of his porch as attempts to build his crooked house which should be an impossible feat as a traditional chimney would have been heavy and not nearly light enough to carry.
• Buster’s wife is in a bathtub where she is washing herself to get clean after the mil explosion in her face. She reaches for a bar of soap located next to the bathtub which is just out of reach so she begins to reach for it, half-standing, before stopping and acknowledging the camera, engaging with the audience and breaking the fourth wall before the hand of presumably the cameraman covers the lens as she once again reaches for the soap and moving away once the wife has sat back down, acting as a joke as it initially gives the audience the impression that she is going to stand up without clothes, therefore breaking the illusion whilst having an effect on the audience.
• The spinning around of the house as he attempts to get back in is unrealistic in the windy circumstances and presents how hopeless the husband is as his feeble attempts to get back into the house repeatedly fail and his poor craftsmanship leads to the destruction of their American dream
• Pathetic fallacy could be considered under both categories as weather is natural, but the specific timing of the weather in cohesion with the disastrous events around them makes it seem more expressive than realist when the rain and wind, representing their futile situation as their guests leave, their house falls apart around them and they spend the night sleeping cold on their suitcase covered in mud.
• At the climax of the film, when the house gets stuck on tracks with an approaching train. The husband and wife both attempt to move the house before diving out the way which passes by on the other side of the track, completely missing the house leaving them in a relieved state before another train hits it head on. The camera angle means that from the audiences perspective, the train is about to hit and by doing this, it creates suspense as the audience anticipate the house will be destroyed and then shock when it misses and is then hit in the opposite direction, sending the house crumbling to the ground

Realist

• The wide shot showing the sudden explosion of milk in the wife’s face is very realistic as during the 1920s there were no tabs on milk bottles, meaning the user had to poke the cover off, causing the milk to spray everywhere and create a mess as scene in the film
• There are several references to superstition in the film – the reaction from the women in the house at the umbrella being open indoors is supposed to bring bad luck to its user and his disposal of the horse shoe after he has been launched out of his house and he and his wife sit drearily in the mud with their suitcase. A horseshoe is supposed to bring good luck and fortune when hung over a persons front door. His throwing away of the object could signify his loss of hope that his house is going to be a success.

Buster Keaton: Silent Clown

‘Buster’ Keaton was born in Kansas on October 4th 1895 to his parents Joe and Myra, Vaudevillian comedians that gave Keaton an exciting upbringing that would later inspire his comedic antics. He had already started acting alongside his parents at the age of four, where it was normal for ‘Buster’ to be thrown around the stage and towards hecklers in the audience.

A chance encounter with film star and director Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle started his career when he was invited to be in his upcoming film The Butcher Boy (1917) that helped to launcher his film career. Keaton’s short films soon became too limiting and after multiple popular films such as One Week (1920) and Cops (1922), he made the transition to feature films, with his first being Three Ages (1923). The most renowned of Keaton’s comedies in Sherlock Jr. (1924) which used special effects that received mixed reviews as critics and audiences alike had never seen anything like it before. His Civil War film The General (1926) was the largest and most expensive sequence ever seen at the time, where a bridge collapses causing an oncoming train to fall into the river. Despite its shocking and never before seen drama, audiences didn’t respond well to the film, disliking the loss of comedy for over the top drama.

After a few more silent features such as Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), Keaton had his contract sold to MGM, sending his career, legacy, and personal life into a downward spiral. His first film with MGM was The Cameraman (1928), which is regarded as one of his best silent comedies, but the release signified the loss of control Keaton would incur, never again regaining his film -making independence.

His first appearance in a film with sound was the film The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929), though despite it’s popularity, MGM increasingly reduced his creative control over his films and by 1932, his marriage to Natalie Talmadge had dissolved when she sued him for divorce, resulting in the loss of his home, the bulk of his assets, and contact with his children. They were disallowed from speaking about their father or seeing him but rekindled their relationship with him when they came of age. His hardships in his professional and private life had been slowly taking their toll and culminated his own dependence on alcohol by the early 1930’s causing him to be fired by MGM in 1933, leaving him an alcoholic.

Silent Cinema: Stars and Studios in the States

The invention of film in 1895 by the Lumiere brothers in France created opportunities over the world to produce new and exciting entertainment for everybody to enjoy.

In America, reels with 8 – 12 mins of film were projected on to a large screen with some narrative films using a standard of ‘2 reeler’ films that were between 16 – 24 mins in length. The first cinemas were introduced after WW1 but were very different from the cinemas of the 21st century, lacking sound and colour with a mere 12fps compared to the traditional 24fps audiences have grown used to as commonplace in films today. Film became viewed as popular entertainment for everybody to have fun with the majority being comedy and romance films. The beginning of the studio system began during the 1910 – 1920s, where 6 different studios continually produced a wide variety of films in competition with each other. The popularity of these films brought about a star system in America as the country is capitalist, with the most popular actors of the time being paid an increased amount of money to star in a studios film as a specific name on a film would make someone want to see a film and therefore bring in more money for the studio. Glamorous women in film became known as ‘Pin – up girls’ whilst some standout names of the early era of Hollywood being, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy who were popular due to there bravery and athleticism admired in actors of the age.

Creating Meaning: German Expressionism and Soviet Montage