Language, Metaphor & Film East & West in Film & Print

Language & Truth n Language is extremely imprecise n Language at best approximates reality n It is a system of signs (signifiers) that represent or connote “meaning” (signified) n Words work best at describing objects that can be verified by the senses n Words become less accurate and more metaphorical when attempting to describe other spheres of reality Basic Concepts THE MEANING OF MEANING

Two Views of Language n Idealists n Romanticists n Mystics n Archetypal Classical and “Modern” View THE MEANING OF MEANING SIGNIFIED SIGNIFIER

Plato METAPHYSICS The Ideal n The world of "forms“ or ideals comprehensible by the use of the intellect or understanding (universals that are the referents of general concepts and truths) The Real n The perceptual world of “imperfect copies” of these universals; the world of illusions and particulars (never see the absolute). Classical View

Ralph Waldo Emerson LANGUAGE (1849) 1. Words are signs of natural facts. 2. Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts. 3. Nature is the symbol of spirit. Classical View NATURE AS BASIS OF LANGUAGE

Ralph Waldo Emerson LANGUAGE (1849) “Every word which is used to express a moral or intellectual fact, if traced to its root, is found to be borrowed from some material appearance. Right means straight; wrong means twisted. Spirit primarily means wind...We say the heart to express emotion, the head to denote thought; and thought and emotion are words borrowed from sensible things, and now appropriated to spiritual nature.” Classical View (Platonic) NATURE AS BASIS OF LANGUAGE

Ralph Waldo Emerson LANGUAGE (1849) “It is not words only that are emblematic; it is things which are emblematic. Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture. Light and darkness are our familiar expression for knowledge and ignorance; and heat for love. Visible distance behind and before us, is respectively our image of memory and hope.” Classical View (Platonic) NATURE AS BASIS OF LANGUAGE

Ralph Waldo Emerson LANGUAGE (1849) “The whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.” Classical View (Platonic) NATURE AS BASIS OF LANGUAGE

The Power of Metaphor Metaphor is the basis of language and thought. Basic Concepts THE MEANING OF MEANING

The Postmodern View: There are no absolute truths. Postmodern THE MEANING OF MEANING

Two Views of Language n Idealists n Romanticists n Mystics n Archetypal Postmodern THE MEANING OF MEANING SIGNIFIED SIGNIFIER n Postmodernists n Poststructuralists n Constructivists SIGNIFIERSIGNIFIER

The Power of Metaphor All we can say about anything is that it is sort of like this... Postmodern View THE MEANING OF MEANING

The Power of Metaphor Evolution is like a tree… The atom is like the solar system… Melancholy is like the color blue… Sin is Iike a stain on a white cloth… Postmodern View THE MEANING OF MEANING

The Power of Metaphor We can never say exactly what it is like. We can never get at the absolute truth. There are no absolute signifieds. All we can do is use signifiers that have meaning only in reference to other signifiers. Basic Concepts THE MEANING OF MEANING Postmodern View

Robert Frost EDUCATION BY POETRY “I have wanted in late years to go further and further in making metaphor the whole of thinking." Power of Metaphor METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF THINKING Postmodern View

T. S. Eliot OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE (1919) “The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an 'objective correlative'; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked." Power of Metaphor EVOKING OF EMOTIONS

Freiderich Nietzche WHAT IS TRUTH? “What, therefore, is truth? A mobile army of metaphors..." All philosophies rest on the shifting texture of figurative language. Power of Metaphor METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF THINKING Postmodern View

Milan Kundera “Metaphor is a means of grasping, through instantaneous revelation, the ungraspable essence of things.” Power of Metaphor METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF THINKING Postmodern View

The Power of the Cinematic Image “ In Blue Kieslowski is attempting to render complex and difficult emotional states and situations from within the confines of the cinematic language he has at his disposal. Indeed, I would certainly contend that he stretches that language as far as possible so as to open the ground of new cinematic vistas (the sugar cube receding in the coffee, the mysterious flautist). “

Krzysztof Kieslowski “ There are details in Blue that seem to convey a proximity to hell, despair, dread and damnation. What Kieslowski is trying to do is to find a cinematic language that can express Julie’s dilemmas (in much the same way that Shakespeare, for example, stretched the written and spoken word to express the dilemmas and passions of his characters).” Richard Rushton, Reading Three Colours: Blue, Senses of Cinema

Two Approaches to Film Making MONTAGE EDITING n “Tell” the audience what to think and how to feel by dictating the meaning, via intellectual montage, and regulating emotional response, via rapid edits, non-diegetic music, and orchestrated camera movements Film Theory METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF CINEMATIC TRUTH CINEMATIC REALISM n Allow the audience to become immersed in the ambiguity of reality, via sustained cinematic images

Two Approaches to Film Making MONTAGE EDITING n “Tell” the audience what to think and how to feel by dictating the meaning, via intellectual montage, and regulating emotional response, via rapid edits, non-diegetic music, and orchestrated camera movements Film Theory METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF CINEMATIC TRUTH CINEMATIC REALISM n Allow the audience to become immersed in the ambiguity of reality, via sustained cinematic images

Two Approaches to Film Making MONTAGE EDITING n Mechanical manipulation of the audience Film Theory METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF CINEMATIC TRUTH CINEMATIC REALISM n Film as a phenomenological experience

Two Approaches to Film Making MONTAGE EDITING n Rapid cuts n A + B = C (Kuleshov effect) n Intellectual montage (ideas) Rooted in Hegelian dialectic, Marxist propaganda and Pavlonian psychology n Rythmic montage (emotional response) n The Hollywood Model Film Theory METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF CINEMATIC TRUTH

Two Approaches to Film Making MONTAGE EDITING n Rapid cuts n A + B = C (Kuleshov effect) n Intellectual montage (ideas) Rooted in Hegelian dialectic and Marxist propaganda n Rythmic montage (emotional response) n The Hollywood Model Film Theory METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF CINEMATIC TRUTH

Soviet Montage Cinema (1910s-20s) SERGEI EISENSTEIN ( ) n Viewed montage as the basis of cinema n Juxtaposition of contrasting elements n Constructivist emphasis upon mechanistic assemblage n Montage of attractions n “Objects in collision, producing an explosion that would arouse the viewer” n Pavlovian theory: Controlled orchestration to mold and manipulate the audience

Soviet Montage Cinema (1910s-20s) EISENSTEIN FILM THEORY n Rooted in Marxist concept of dialectic materialism--point and counterpoint n Cognitive model of artistic creation n Dominant organizing principle n Four major types of montage F MetricDifferent shot lengths F RhythmicDifferent pace F TonalAtmosphere F IntellectualSymbolic meaning

Soviet Montage Cinema (1910s-20s)

Two Approaches to Editing CINEMATIC REALISM (Mise en scene) n Long takes n Capture “reality” as it is n Deep focus, depth of field n Less directorial control of what the viewer should focus upon n Ambiguity n More “real”

Two Approaches to Editing CINEMATIC REALISM n Emphasis on the power of the pure image n Mise en scene, not montage n Viewer must think about what he /she is seeing n Required to look deep into the image n Experiential

Two Approaches to Editing CINEMATIC REALISM n More metaphorical n Often more romantic, spiritual, and philosophical subjects n “Experience the rain, be one with the mud”

Two Approaches to Editing CINEMATIC REALISM n Emphasis on the image n Audience must think and participate (look closely, become sutured into the scene) n “Divining the real”

Kieslowski

Andrei Tarkovsky “ The artist expresses these things by creating the image…Through the image is sustained and awareness of the infinite: the eternal within the finite, the spiritual within matter, the limitless given form.” Sculpting in Time. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987 ( Page 37).

Andrei Tarkovsky “Sculpting in time.” “The image incarnate.” “Cinema as a religious experience.”

Andrei Tarkovsky “ Thought is brief. The image is absolute.” Sculpting in Time. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987 ( Page 41).

Andrei Tarkovsky Sculpting in Time. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987 ( Page 118). “I reject…montage cinema because [it does]…not allow the audience to bring personal experience to bear on what is in front of them on film. Montage cinema presents the audience with puzzles and riddles, makes them decipher symbols …appealing all the time to the intellectual experience. [Montage cinema] proceeds to make a total onslaught on the audience, imposing upon them his own attitude to what is happening.”

The Sacred Image

Andre Bazin ( ) CINEMATIC REALISM n Cinema and photography are media that an artist can utilize to review the deeper meanings behind the phenomena of existence n Close observation of natural phenomena reveal planetary consciousness n The spirit behind the “real” object n Long takes (long hard gaze) Film Theory METAPHOR AS THE BASIS OF CINEMATIC TRUTH

Andre Bazin ( ) Bergson’s concept of “creative evolution” n Evolution of the “vital spirit” in man n Close experiential scrutiny reveals deep structures/meanings behind phenomena n Under scrutiny of inquiry [artistic analysis] these deep structures are brought into the light n Cinema and photography are media that an artist can utilize to review the deeper meanings behind the phenomena of existence

Andre Bazin ( ) “Divining the real” n Mystical n Metaphysical n Creative evolution n Spiritual renewal n Social reform n Metaphysical

Andre Bazin ( ) n Christian view of man as fallen n Seeking redemption and atonement n The role of cinema is to help man in his search for truth and understanding in an ambiguous and uncertain world n Man can transcend alienation and modernity n Film can be a religious experience n “Love” and “state of grace”

Andre Bazin ( ) n Film image “embalms” time & wrenches phenomena from the flux of life n Symbolic power of cinematic imagery combined with empirical density of cinematic realism n The spirit behind the “real” object n The “long hard gaze” n Disliked over-expressive, over-ornamental, or overuse of montage F (More like Tarkovsky than Eisenstein)

Andre Bazin ( ) n We know that under the image revealed there is another which is truer to reality and under this image still another and yet again still another under this last one, right down to the true image of reality, absolute, mysterious, which no on will ever see.

Style is philosophy.

Two Types of Film Making MONTAGE CINEMATIC REALISM Hollywood Eisenstein Mehta Tarkovsky Leigh Kieslowski

The Hollywood Model n The “aesthetic of pretense” n Studio system (manufactured films) n Star-centric n Formula approach to narrative F Hero - Problem - Overcome- Happy Ending n Shot-reverse-shot n Rapid montage editing (0.5 to 3 sec) n Non-diegetic music n Audience “along for the ride”

Kieslowski vs. Hollywood

American vs. Eastern European Films n Individual is everything n Star-centric n Obsession with status, personal freedoms n America is the greatest n Pursuit of happiness n Wars happen elsewhere n Film as spectacle n Formula, “happy-ending” plots n Aesthetic of pretense n Suppression of the individual n No middle class n Struggle for survival n Distrust of all governments n Pursuit of tolerable dignified existence n Wars happen here n Film as mirror of harsh existence n Not many happy endings n “Dark, somber, ironic, existential”

Styles of Film Making n Montage editing/Hollwood model n Cinematic realism n Psychological fantasy n Stylized historic epic n Revisionist history n Magical realism n Video minimalism n Hyperrealism (and many more)