Film Aesthetics: Structural Evolution of Reality and Viewer Interaction
The invention of the cinematograph by the Lumière Brothers was initially a scientific discovery. To sustain its existence, it evolved first through the avenue of entertainment, then into industry and art. The cinematograph introduces people to moving images that make them feel as if they are witnessing live events in a theater, gathered in front of a large screen. This characteristic of the device provides audiences an experience they have never encountered before. As the experience is repeated, its impact begins to diminish, leading to new quests. Even an unmediated event captured by the camera in a single space and time is determined by the person behind the camera—who decides where it will be positioned, what it will focus on, and what it will include. The reality indicated by the camera becomes the reality presented to the audience. Hence, the audience has no choice but to accept the perspective of the camera. The viewer's gaze is confined by the rectangular frame shown by the camera. There is no frame in real life sharply delineating the field of vision.
Trier, a pioneer of the Dogma 95 movement, utilizes the (Automavision) technique in his film "Boss of It All" to minimize the intervention of the person using the camera. However, the irregular framing and disruption of fundamental framing rules in the film make this technique unsuitable and discomforting for the audience.
Representations of Reality in Cinema
Cinema, at various times, gets influenced by societal changes, sometimes approaching reality, and at other times, distancing itself from it. For example, Vertov's revolutionary realism, the self-reflective reality of the French New Wave movement, the social realism of Italian Neorealism—all capture their own realities from different angles. All these approaches consider the position of the viewer. The physical reality of the camera, the reality of the viewer's position, the director's reflection of reality, and the reality of the image—all these realities coexist within the film, but one of them dominates. The dominant one determines the type and approach of the film. Throughout cinema history, certain movements and unique directors have chosen from these varieties of reality, shaping their own perspectives. For instance, while Godard aims to prevent his audience from completely immersing themselves in the film, classical narrative cinema wants the audience to forget their reality and become involved in the events within the frame. Pascal Bonitzer mentions directors like Hitchcock and Godard, indicating that they represent the peaks of the game played between cinema and reality, sometimes ruthlessly deconstructing reality, while at other times, harboring dubious respect for it.
Roy Armes, in his book "Cinema and Reality" discusses three fundamental tendencies related to reality: revelation, imitation, and questioning. The revelation of reality constitutes a realistic aesthetic tradition aiming to depict the world as it is, without intervention. The imitation of reality focuses on the film's ability to imitate life but prioritizes similarity to reality over reality itself. The tendency to question reality aims to reveal the actual truth behind what is seen. This complex relationship of reality throughout cinema history divides cinema into two fundamental theories: Realism and Formalism.
James Monaco suggests that the struggle that nearly all cinema theories precede is rooted in expressionism and opposition to reality, which gives rise to Realism Theory. Expressionism was the dominant theory in cinema history until the late 1930s, evident in the British Documentary Movement pioneered by Grierson, followed by the Italian Neorealism Movement in the mid-1940s. As they were seen as opposites in cinematic realism, the terms Expressionism and Formalism were sometimes used interchangeably. James Monaco distinguishes these two theories as follows: Expressionism emerged in Germany in the 1920s as a more general and romantic (Surrealist) cinema approach, whereas Formalism, beginning in the same years in the Soviet Union, is a more specific (genre-specific) and formal (external appearance, form) theory.
Grierson, a pioneer in developing a theory of modernist documentary reality in the 1920s, particularly emphasizes that documentary films could play a critical role in society by serving as an effective communication medium between the government and the public. Rudolf Arnheim, known for his books "Film as Art" and "Film Theory," contributes significantly to establishing realism as a theory. Arnheim points out that unlike theater, cinema can depict real life in an actual setting, making the impression of real life powerful. However, due to the absence of three-dimensional depth at that time, lack of color, and the presence of a limited frame, cinema was seen as somewhat removed from reality. Vertov, Pudovkin, and Eisenstein, who were trained at the Russian State Film School in the 1920s, are directors and theorists who have left a mark on the Formalism Theory. Pudovkin and Eisenstein bring together shots from different times and places to reveal the assembled pieces of cinematic narrative. Pudovkin emphasizes that montage is a method that controls the psychological guidance of the viewer and aims to support, not change, the narrative, while Eisenstein's theory advocates for striking montage. According to him, the purpose of montage is to approach reality by destroying it. Although these two fundamental theories are seen as opposing, both aim to capture reality. (While Eisenstein uses montage to glorify society, Pudovkin prefers to concentrate on the power of individuals to overcome courage and difficulties.)
The Aesthetics of Reality in Cinema
Since its invention, cinema constantly supports itself with technical advancements. The most fundamental ones are the introduction of sound and color into cinema. With the entry of sound into cinema, the capture of real-life began. Some filmmakers like Eisenstein believed that these technological developments were unnecessary, considering that they would diminish cinema's impact, even killing the art of cinema. Alongside technical advancements, simplification efforts are also important in enhancing reality in cinema. A revolutionary development in cinema, and at the same time, an event that can be seen as the narrative tool of revolutionary cinema, is the existence of lightweight equipment. This development enables cinema to freely roam the streets and the heart of society. Realistic cinema develops a technique to solve the problem of the perspective that obscures reality. This technique is the most basic form of documentary filmmaking (fly-on-the-wall). In this technique, the camera is as unobtrusive and unmediated as a fly on the wall. The use of the handheld camera, which has become the most recognized and indispensable formal feature in terms of movement convenience in documentary cinema, is often used by fictional cinema not to capture reality but to create the impression of reality. Ira Konigsberg describes this approach as the 'Documentary Style', explaining how fictional cinema imitates documentary cinema to create a sense of reality through sound recording, reality, and objectivity in editing. Every method cinema employs to evoke emotions, including physical tricks experimented with by Georges Melies (French) on film strips and contemporary special effects, is a deception.
According to Classical Narrative Cinema, the success of a film is determined by its continuity. The reason for preferring continuity is the belief that it allows the events in the film to be portrayed more realistically. Once viewers begin to question why the camera moves or why it transitions to another shot, the magic of cinema is disrupted. The most successful editing is the one that goes unnoticed. There are two dominant perspectives regarding the reality created by editing: one suggests that editing kills reality and that reality cannot be shown without editing. The first perspective, supported by realistic film theorists like Arnheim, is based on the assumption that showing events in a single continuous shot reflects the reality of the external world. Arnheim defends continuity by stating that the simplest way to show events occurring in a space simultaneously is to capture them in a single shot. On the other hand, Godard claims that cinema is built on falsehoods. He mentions that respecting reality in cinema is only about not cutting from wherever one wishes for the sake of effect. Godard deliberately breaks the rules of cinema, uses jump cuts in editing, shows the film's technical equipment, and even has characters in the film speak directly to the audience to create camera-awareness. The aesthetics of reality in cinema serve two purposes: first, to depict events unfolding naturally in an environment, and second, to appear as realistic as possible. The latter is essentially an imitation of the former.
