balázs

Close-up (CU) can express “the hidden life of little things.” CU has widened and deepened our vision of life.  “A good film w/ its CUs reveals the most hidden parts in our polyphonous life and teaches us to see the intricate visual details of life." With CUs even objects get human expressions projected onto them, the CU breathes human soul into objects. Facial expression: most subjective and individual of human manifestations and it is rendered objective in the CU. “The silent soliloquy” the face can say much more than a soliloquy, it cannot be suppressed or controlled. Many profound emotional experiences can never be expressed with words. The revolutionary world of the CU takes the viewer from the external world to the internal soulife. CUs makes us see the world anew. CU revealed the hidden mainsprings of life we thought we already knew so well. CUs are the pictures expressing the poetic sensibility of the director. “The facial expression on a face is complete and comprehensible in itself and therefore we need not think of it as existing in space and time." Physiognomy – the assessment of a person’s character from their outer appearance, especially the face. “They are picture-like yet they seem outside space; such is the psychological effect of the facial expression." Spoken word has hidden though, film (with CU) was the first to show us the truth of the face. Silent film [in the silent facial expression] gave us the world of microphysiognomy which could not otherwise be seen with the naked eye or in everyday life. Silent film + CU present a “drama of the spirit closer to realization than any stage play has ever been able to do." Saw film as an instrument for generating a new understanding of the real world.
Examples:
- Lillian Gish + the Chinaman in Griffith’s Broken Blossoms. When the chinaman asks her to smile. “But his friendly eyes bring a real smile to her face. The face itself does not change; but a warm emotion lights up from inside and an intangible nuance turns the grimace into a real expression.”
- The Passion of Joan of Arc, maid’s examination scene. “We move in the spiritual dimension of facial expression alone… Fierce passions, thoughts, emotions, convictions battle here, but their struggle is not in space.”