Andre Bazin, The Realist And The Expressive
Andre Bazin was born in France in 1918-1958. He is known for writing about cinema and created this idea about the two types of cinema. In 1940 this idea had grown and been formed, the two types were Realist and Expressionism. By the 1940s, with a lot of effort, it was possible to watch every single film ever made and after this task these two types are what were formed. He could see how it had developed since it was first created in 1895 and the effect mass communication had on cinema.
Realist cinema (which Bazin liked more) is truth through verisimilitude. This basically means long takes, little editing, deep focus and no form of manipulation. This means an audience would have to choose what the part they want to focus on. It is quite similar to true observational cinema and both are not physically possible because there are always decisions being made which effect what the audience think. Expressive cinema is truth through metaphor which features examples from German expressionism and Soviet montage. This means over the top Mise-En-Scène, performances and editing to manipulate the audience.
In France, cinema was controlled by the state and for Bazin it wasn’t up to the standards being set by other countries. So he used his idea of the two types of film (which he preferred Realist) and started the French new wave with other people who thought the same. This is also what caused the creation of the hand-held camera.
Andre Bazin also found that despite his love for Realist and dismissal of expressionism, expressive cinema was more popular. In the 1890s when the cinema of attractions were created (which is very Realist) people would watch it once but then after they would not really be entertained. It was seen as more of a novelty and a piece of art but as time went on people realised that it was not a sustainable form of cinema, therefore expressive cinema was embraced.
Due to film in America being more commercial, films began to include narratives and genres such as comedies. Comedy films are very expressive, especially in the early 1900s before sound, because they try to manipulate the audience to laugh and there is usually over the top performances, complimented by crazy sets. Many people however, combined the two types of cinema (Expressive and Realist) to create the most entertaining films which would make them the most money. During this time, Andre Bazin hadn’t even created these ideas yet so filmmakers like Buster Keaton were already showing signs of real thought about their films.
Overtime, Hollywood becomes more and more powerful and lead cinema with a mix of both types of film so Andre’s ideas weren’t used fully except from occasional observational documentaries.