Refute the idea that photography and film are only mechanical reproductions. In the difference between film + reality lies the art of film. You can’t just place objects in front of a camera. Visual reality has depth vs film. Sizes + shapes do not appear on the screen in their true proportions but distorted in perspective. Sounds not missed in film. Smell and touch are suggested indirectly through sight. An audience is forced to seek an explanation of why things are arranged the way they are. Lack of depth adds a playing field for artists. Chaplin shows emotion through gestures and actions, not words. By making something visual that isn’t (sound, feelings), if done well, it will strengthen the effect. Calls attention to the flatness and solidity of the cinema. The danger of cinema lies in the mere reproduction. The silent film as the definite form of the 7th art. The intro of sound film aborted the progress of film art by tempting filmmakers to submit to the inartistic demand for a superficial naturalness.
Examples:
- Docks of New York, instead of a gun shot we see doves flying away, replacing the sound with something visual.
- The Immigrant, because of the camera position the spectator thinks Charlie is puking but he is just catching a fish, using cinematic technique (camera placement) for a specific effect.
- The Gold Rush, instead of Charlie saying he loves the girl he gets super excited and tears up pillows and has a fantasy with a dinner and does the bun dance. Defamiliarize objects, using the rope as a belt. Time and space become fluid, when he shovels snow.
Stills from Josef von Sternberg's Docks of New York (1927)
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