German Impressionism and Surrealism

After the World War 1, the French film industry was ruined. It was then the directors firmly intended to restore it. It was then the French impressionism and surrealism started.

Impressionism was a French Avant-Garde Film movement that was made by the French Film industry and was profitable. Young French directors after World War 1 saw film as art and thought cinema should express feelings. Narration has lots of psychological depth manipulating plot time and subjectivity. Rhythmic editing and subjective shots emphasize the characters inner feeling. Although not commercially successful and ceased by 1929, but was very influential to certain filmmakers, styles and genres.

Surrealism was literary and artistic movement to become seriously associated with cinema. It is a modernist approach to film that originates in Paris in 1920’s. Surrealism was made independently of the French System and did not prove financially successful. The Surrealist filmmakers relied on private patronage. Their works was screened into small cinemas. These films confused and shocked audiences. Filmmakers worked outside the film making system. It seeks to bring the unconscious way to film and is anti narrative. The movement seeks to human awareness like the one that was shown in the film Un Chien Andalou (French film written by Salvador Dali and directed by Luis Buñuel in 1929), where the eye was being slice. On that part, we can see that it was realistic because we have the feeling that it was real and effects are not available on that time. Surrealism shows a repetition of elements. It has a recognizable formula that describes every scene. It is diverse movement that lost unity after 1930 but individual filmmakers continued to work for many years.