Cinematography: The Creative Use of Reality

Author(s): Maya Deren

Source: Daedalus, Vol. 89, No. 1, The Visual Arts Today (Winter, 1960), pp. 150-167
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
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MAYA

DEREN

Cinematography:

The motion-picture

The Creative Use

of Reality

camera

is perhaps
the most paradoxical
of all machines,
in that it can be at once
active
independently
and infinitely passive. Kodak's
"You
the
but
early slogan,
push
ton, it does the rest," was not an exaggerated
claim;
advertising
to any simple trigger device, a camera can even
and, connected
take pictures all by itself. At the same time, while a
comparable
of other mechanisms
and refinement
has usually
development
resulted in an increased specialization,
in the scope
the advances
and sensitivity of lenses and emulsions
have made
the camera

and indiscriminate
To
capable of infinite receptivity
fidelity.
or
can
this must be added the fact that the medium
deals,
deal,
in terms of the most elemental
In sum, it can produce
actuality.
maximum
results for virtually minimal
effort: it requires of its
a
modicum
of
and
operator only
energy; of its subject
aptitude
it
its
that
and
of
matter,
exist;
audience,
only
only that they
can see. On this
as a mass
it
level
functions
elementary
ideally
for communicating
medium
ideas.
equally elementary
The photographic
medium
of fact, so amor
is, as a matter
not
it
is
that
unobtrusive
but
phous
merely
virtually transparent,
and so becomes, more
than any other medium,
of
susceptible
servitude to any and all the others. The enormous value of such
ac
suffices to justify the medium
servitude
and to be generally
as its function.
a
has
been
to
This
obstacle
the
cepted
major
definition and development
of motion pictures as a creative fine
art
its own
of creative action in its own terms?for
form?capable
can become manifest
is as a latent image which
character
only
if no other image is imposed upon it to obscure it.
Those
concerned
with
the emergence
of this latent form
must
assume a
therefore
role, one which
protective
partially
recalls the advice of an art instructor who
said, "If you have
trouble drawing
the vase, try drawing
the space around the
vase." Indeed, for the time being, the definition
of the creative
to what it is not as to
form of film involves as careful attention
it is.
what

Animated

Paintings

In recent years, perceptible

first on the experimental
fringes
of the film world and now in general evidence
at the commer
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deren:
Cinematography
The

Creative

Use of Reality

cial art theaters,

there has been an accelerated
development
be
called the "graphic arts school of animated
might
abstract backgrounds
with
film." Such films, which
combine
are
not
and
realistic
but
designed
painted
recognizable
figures,
artists who make use of a
by trained and talented
graphic
fluent knowledge
of the rich resources of plastic
sophisticated,
even
A major
factor in the emer
media,
collage.
including
enormous
the
technical
and
gence of this school has been
of what

so that
in color film and color
processing,
to
artists
for
these
the
two-dimen
possible
approach
screen with all the
freedom
sional, rectangular
they
graphic
to a canvas.
bring
screen and canvas had
The similarity between
long ago been
as Hans Richter, Oscar
artists
such
by
recognized
Fishinger,
and others, who were attracted not by its graphic possibilities
of the
(so limited at that time) but rather by the excitements
film medium,
its
the
of
time
dimen
exploitation
particularly
a
square,
sion?rhythm,
spatial depth created by
diminishing
the three-dimensional
of a
illusion created by the revolutions
etc.
at
their
service
of
the
skills
They put
spiral figure,
graphic
as a means of
the film medium,
film
expression.*
extending
The new graphic-arts
school does not so much advance those
as reverse them, for here the artists make use of the
early efforts
as an extension of the
film medium
This is par
plastic media.
one
clear when
the principle
of movement
ticularly
analyzes
for it is usually no more than a sequential
articula
employed,
laboratory
it is now

advance

tion?a

kind of spelling out in time?of

the dynamic
ordinarily
an individual
in
the
of
The most
composition.
implicit
design
are often in
term to describe
such works, which
appropriate
teresting and witty, and which certainly have their place among
visual arts, is "animated paintings."
into the film medium
This entry of painting
presents certain

the introduction
parallels with
attracted to it persons who had

of sound. The silent film had

talent for and were inspired by
and development
of a new and unique form of
the exploration
The addition of sound opened the doors for
visual expression.
the verbalists and dramatists.
Armed with the authority, power,
the venerable
laws, techniques,
skills, and crafts which
literary
over centuries,
arts had accumulated
the writers hardly even
to recognize
the small resistance
of the "indigenous"
paused
in which
to explore
film-maker, who had had barely a decade
and evolve
*

the creative

It is significant

that Hans

of his medium.

potential
Richter,

pioneer

in such

a use

of film,

abandoned this approach. All his later films, along with

soon

the films of

Man
and the painters
in Richter's
who
Ray, Dali,
L?ger,
participated
a
etc. ) indicate
later films
of
(Ernst, Duchamp,
profound
appreciation
the distinction
between
the plastic
and
the photographic
and
image,
use of
make
enthusiastic
and creative
photographic
reality.

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is similarly due
The rapid success of the "animated painting"
to the fact that it comes armed with all the plastic traditions
are its impressive heritage.
And just as
and techniques which
the development
of film form on the
the sound film interrupted
so
a more finished
commercial
level by providing
substitute,
as a form of
is already being accepted
the "animated painting"
film art in the few areas (the distribution
of 16 mm. film shorts
to film series and societies
still find an audience.

)where

experiments

in film form can

has an extraordinary
The motion-picture
medium
range of
common
arts
It
in
the
fact that
has
with
the
expression.
plastic
on a two-dimensional
sur
it is a visual composition
projected
move
can
in
it
deal
the
of
with
that
face;
dance,
arrangement
ment; with
theater, that it can create a dramatic
intensity of
can
in
it
the
with
that
events;
music,
compose
rhythms and
can be attended
time
and
and
of
instrument;
phrases
by song
with poetry, that it can juxtapose images; with
literature gen
can encompass
in its sound track the abstractions
erally, that it
only to language.
seems to create confusion
This very profusion of potentialities
a
in the minds of most film-makers,
is dimin
confusion which
a
in
of
ished by eliminating
those
portion
major
potentialities
the film is subsequently
favor of one or two, upon which
in a
An artist, however,
structured.
should not seek security
over the
of
deliberate
mastery
poverty; he
tidy
simplifications
should, instead, have the creative courage to face the danger of
in the effort to resolve it into
by fecundity
being overwhelmed
and
economy.
simplicity
the "animated painting"
film has limited
While
itself to a
on the
small area of film potential,
it has gained acceptance
basis of the fact that it does use an art form?the
graphic art
form?and
that it does seem to meet
the general condition
of
as an
film: it makes
in
its statement
movement.
This
image
a
is of the
of whether
opens the entire question
photograph
same order of
as all others. If not, is there a
image
correspond
to it in a creative context?
ingly different approach
Although
is the basic building
the photographic
block of the
process
as
it is a tribute to its self-effacement
medium,
motion-picture
no consideration
a servant that
to
its
been
has
virtually
given
own character and the creative
thereof.
implications
available

The Closed Circuit

of the Photographic

Process

based on "imitation") means

The term "image" (originally
in its first sense the visual likeness of a real object or person, and
it distinguishes
in the very act of specifying
resemblance
and
entire
is
the
of
visual
establishes
which
category
experience
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deren:
Cinematography
The

Creative

Use of Reality

sense
In this specifically negative
not a real object or person.
of a horse is not the horse
in the sense that the photograph
is an image.
itself?a photograph
it pre
But the term "image" also has positive
implications:
sumes a mental
its
most
in
form
whether
(the
passive
activity,
and memory)
"mental images" of perception
or, as in the arts,
realized by the art in
the creative action of the imagination
strument. Here reality is first filtered by the selectivity
of indi
to
interests
and modified
vidual
perception
by prejudicial
as such it is combined with
con
become
similar,
experience;
or
and remem
both forgotten
experiences,
trasting
modifying
a
to
into
assimilated
become
bered,
image; this in
conceptual
art
to the manipulations
turn is
of the
instrument; and
subject
is a reality in its
is a plastic image which
what finally emerges
a likeness or
own
is not, fundamentally,
image
right. A painting
it is a likeness of a mental
of a horse;
concept which may
resemble a horse or which may, as in abstract painting, bear no
visible relation to any real object.
is a process by which an object creates
however,
Photography,
mate
its own image by the action of its fight on fight-sensitive
a closed circuit
at
rial. It thus presents
the
point
precisely
art forms, the creative process
in the traditional
takes
where,
as
the
artist.
exclusion
the
This
of
reality passes through
place
artist at that point is responsible both for the absolute fidelity of
the photographic
conviction
that
process and for the widespread
a
cannot be, itself, a creative
medium
form.
photographic
it is but a step to the conclusion
From these observations
that
its use as a visual printing press or as an extension
of another
creative form represents a full realization of the potential of the
in this manner
It is precisely
medium.
that the photographic
in
is
used
"animated
process
paintings."
are
to objects which
But in so far as the camera is applied
a more creative use
is
this
images,
really
already accomplished
in scientific films, its fidelity
of the instrument
than when,
to reality in conjunction with
is applied
func
the revelatory
use
a
or
tions of telescopic
lenses
and
microscopic
comparable
of the motor?
as the
of a lens trained upon matter
shows
Just
magnification
us a mountainous,
in an
smooth
craggy landscape
apparently
can reveal the actual structure of move
surface, so slow-motion
ments

or

cannot

in
be slowed down
a
in
be
actuality
change
changed by
to
a
of
for
the
of
bird,
tempo
performance.
Applied
flight
slow-motion
of
reveals the hitherto unseen
sequence
example,
movements
it
is
and
the many
strains
small
of
which
separate
changes
or whose

compounded.
a
By
telescopic

which
nature

either

would

use of the motor,

I mean

the telescoping

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of

a camera to take pictures of a vine

by triggering
at regular speed, the
intervals. When
projected
of the
film reveals the actual integrity, almost the intelligence,
movement
of the vine as it grows and turns with the sun. Such
to chemical
has been
telescoped-time
photography
applied
to
and
whose
tempo is so slow
changes
physical metamorphoses
as to be
imperceptible.
virtually
camera here functions
as an
the motion-picture
Although
instrument of discovery
it does yield
rather than of creativity,
a kind of
unlike
the
of
"animated
which,
images
paint
image
itself is a use of the telescoped-time
),
principle
ings" ( animation
is unique to the motion-picture
It may therefore be
medium.
as an even more valid basic element
in a creative
regarded
film form based on the singular properties
of the medium.
time achieved
at ten-minute

Reality

and Recognition

The application
of the photographic
process to reality results
in an image which
is unique in several respects. For one thing,
since a specific reality is the prior condition of the existence of a
not only testifies to the existence of
the photograph
photograph,
as
a
of an
that reality (just
testifies to the existence
drawing
its equivalent.
This
artist) but is, to all intents and purposes,
at all a matter of fidelity but is of a different
is
not
equivalence
is the term for a graphic
If realism
order altogether.
image
some real
a
simulates
which precisely
then
photograph
object,
must be differentiated
from it as a form of reality itself.
an
This distinction
role in the
important
plays
extremely
address of these respective
images. The intent of the plastic
arts is to make meaning manifest.
In creating an image for the
the artist primarily under
express purpose of communicating,
to
create
most
out of the
takes
the
effective
aspect possible
resources
of his medium.
deals
total
however,
Photography,
to endure, and
in a living reality which
is structured primarily
are
not
to serve that purpose,
whose
designed
configurations
even serve to conceal
to communicate
its meaning;
may
they
as a
measure.
In a photograph,
that purpose
then,
protective
our attendant
we
a
and
reality,
begin by recognizing
knowledges
into play; only then does the aspect
and attitudes are brought
to it. The abstract
in reference
become meaningful
shadow
a
scene is not understood
at all until revealed and
in
shape
night
identified as a person; the bright red shape on a pale ground
a
in an abstract, graphic context,
communicate
which might,
sense of gaiety, conveys
different
when
something
altogether
a film, the continuous
as a wound.
As we watch
recognized
is like a
act of recognition
in which we are involved
strip of
of
film
beneath
the
the
itself, to
memory
images
unrolling
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deren:
Cinematography
The

Creative

Use of Reality

form the invisible underlayer

of an implicit double exposure.
an abstract,
The process by which we understand
graphic
is
to
almost
that by which we
then,
opposite,
directly
image
a
In the first case, the aspect leads us
understand
photograph.
in the second case the
to meaning;
which results
understanding
is the key to our evaluation of the aspect.
from recognition

Photographic Authority

and the "Controlled Accident"

us with
As a reality, the photographic
the
image confronts
an
as an
one
innocent arrogance of
exists
which
fact,
objective
indifferent to our response. We may in
presence,
independent
we do not
turn view it with an indifference
and detachment
invite
the man-made
images of other arts, which
our
our response in order to
and
demand
perception
is
the communication
they initiate and which
their raison d'?tre. At the same time, precisely because we are
aware that our
does not in any way di
personal detachment
an
minish
the verity of the photographic
image, it exercises
in
to
the
of
authority comparable
reality
only
authority
weight
have

toward

and require
consummate

itself.
It is upon

this authority
film is based.

that the entire

school of the social

expert in the selection of
documentary
Although
use of camera
in
and
the most effective
the
reality
placement
and angle to accentuate
and effective
the pertinent
features of
of minimal
inter
it, the documentarists
operate on a principle
in
interests
the
to
the
of bringing
vention,
authority of reality
the support of the moral purpose of the film.
the interest of a documentary
film corresponds
Obviously,
to
the interest inherent in its subject matter.
Such films
closely
a
war.
period of particular
pre-eminence
enjoyed
during the
more
to
This popularity
served
make
fiction-film
producers
aware of the effectiveness
and authority
of reality, an
keenly
awareness which gave rise to the "neo-realist"
style of film and
to the still growing
contributed
trend toward location filming.
In the theater, the physical presence
of the performers
pro
a
sense
us
to accept the symbols
of
vides
induces
reality which
of geography,
the intermissions
the passage
which
represent
are
of time, and the other conventions which
of
the form.
part
Films cannot include this physical presence
of the performers.
can, however,
replace the artifice of theater by the actu
of
and place; the interruptions
of in
distances,
ality
landscape,
termissions can be transposed
into transitions which
sustain and
even
of dramatic development;
while
intensify the momentum
events and episodes which, within
the context of theatrical
or aspect
in their
artifice, might not have been convincing
logic
can be clothed
in the verity which
emanates
from the reality

They

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streets and
of the surrounding
landscape, the sun, the
buildings.
In certain respects, the very absence in motion pictures of the
is so important to the
physical presence of the performer, which
can
even
our
sense
to
contribute
of reality. We can, for
theater,
a monster
in
existence
if we are not
the
of
believe
example,
room
in the
asked to believe
with us. The
that it is present
us
intimacy imposed upon
reality of other art
by the physical
works presents us with alternative
choices:
either to identify
or to withdraw
with or to deny the experience
they propose,
a
awareness
as
to a detached
of
that
merely
reality
altogether
film
consists
But
the
metaphor.
image?whose
intangible reality
air and caught on
of lights and shadows beamed
through the
to us as the reflection
the surface of a silver screen?comes
of
At that distance we can accept the reality of
another world.
the most monumental
and extreme of images, and from that
can
we
and comprehend
them in their full
perspective
perceive
dimension.

The authority of reality is available even to the most artificial

as an art of the "con
constructs
if photography
is understood
I mean
the main
trolled accident."
accident"
By "controlled
tenance of a delicate balance between what
is there spontan
as evidence
life of
of the independent
eously and naturally
are
activities
and
the
and
which
persons
deliberately
actuality,
into the scene. A painter,
introduced
upon
relying primarily
as
means
the
of
his
would
take
intent,
aspect
communicating
care in the
enormous
of
detail
for
of,
every
arrangement
a beach
scene. The
on the other
example,
cinematographer,
in general, has the desired
hand, having selected a beach which,
or
or crowded?must
on
deserted
grim
aspect?whether
happy,
the contrary refrain from overcontrolling
the aspect if he is to
retain the authority
of reality.
The filming of such a scene
so as to create a context of
and framed
should be planned
limits within which
that occurs is compatible
with
anything
the intent of the scene.
The invented event which
is then introduced,
though itself
an artifice, borrows
from
the
of
the
scene?from
reality
reality
the natural blowing
of the hair, the irregularity
of the waves,
the very texture of the stones and sand?in
short, from all the
are
elements
which
the property
of
uncontrolled,
spontaneous
in
itself.
the
delicate
actuality
Only
manipu
photography?by
I call controlled
lation which
accident?can
natural phenomena
into our own creativity, to yield an image where
be incorporated
the reality of a tree confers its truth upon the events we cause
to transpire beneath
it.

Abstractions
Inasmuch

and Archetypes
as the other art forms are not constituted

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of reality

deren:
Cinematography
The Creative
Use

of Reality

for reality. But photography,

itself, they create metaphors
being
or
the equivalent
itself the reality
thereof, can use its own reality
as a
In painting,
the image
for ideas and abstractions.
metaphor
an
in
the
abstraction
is
abstraction
of the aspect;
photography,
of an idea produces
is not
This concept
ment was interrupted
into the film medium.

the archetypal
new to motion

image.

pictures, but its develop

intrusions
traditions
of theatrical
the
by
The early history of film is studded with
Marlene
Theda
Bara, Mary
Pickford,

archetypal
figures:
etc.
Buster Keaton,
Greta Garbo, Charles Chaplin,
Dietrich,
as personages,
not as people or personalities,
These appeared
around them were
like
and the films which were
structured
cosmic truths.
celebrated
monumental
which
myths
medium
The invasion of the motion-picture
by modern play
is
actors introduced
which
of
the
and
realism,
concept
wrights
in the a priori real
at the root of theatrical metaphor
and which,
is an absurd redundancy which has served
ity of photography,
to
of its creative
medium
the
motion-picture
merely
deprive
It is
effort of preten
dimension.
significant that, despite every
tious producers,
directors and film critics who seek to raise their
status by
and
the methods,
attitudes,
professional
adopting
criteria of the established
and respected art of theater, the major
stars and the most
creative
the most
figures?both
popular
as
to
in the
Orson
directors
(such
Welles)?continue
operate
even
was
as
It
earlier archetypal
Marlon
tradition.
possible,
an
to transcend realism and to become
Brando demonstrated,
realist, but it would
appear that his early intuition
archetypal
has been
ertory

subsequently

complex,

crushed

another

under

carry-over

from

the pressures
theater,

of the rep

where

it func

a
tioned as the means by which
could offer a
single company
an
remunerative
audience while providing
variety of plays to
consistent
its
is no justifica
for
members.
There
employment
tion whatsoever
for insisting on a repertory variety of roles for
actors involved
in the totally different
circumstances
of mo
tion pictures.

Photography's

Unique

Images

In all that I have said so far, the fidelity,

reality, and authority
serve
of the photographic
to
and to
image
primarily
modify
we
the
in
which
however,
support. Actually,
sequence
perceive
initial identification
followed by an interpreta
photography?an
tion of the aspect
to that identification
(rather than
according
in
and con
irreversible
terms)?becomes
primarily
aspectual
a
manner
in
fers meaning
to
the
upon aspect
unique
photo
graphic medium.
as a time micro
I have previously
referred to slow-motion
157

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it has its expressive uses as well as its revelatory ones.

upon the subject and the context, it can be a state
Depending
a kind of inti
ment of either ideal ease or nagging
frustration,
or a
on a movement
mate
and loving meditation
solemnity
into
to an action; or it can bring
which
adds ritual weight
of
otherwise
that
dramatic
image
reality
anguished helplessness,
our
of childhood,
when
only in the nightmares
experienced
comes
us
move
terror
to
which
the
while
pursues
legs refused
scope, but

ever

closer.

is not simply slowness of speed. It is, in fact,

Yet, slow-motion
not on the screen, and
exists in our minds,
something which
can be created
reality
only in conjunction with the identifiable
we see a man in the attitudes
When
of the photographic
image.
of running and identify the activity as a run, one of the knowl
is the pulse normal
is part of that identification
edges which
to that activity.
It is because we are aware of the known pulse
it occur at a slower rate
of the identified action while we watch
the double-exposure
of speed that we experience
of time which
we know as slow-motion.
It cannot occur in an abstract film,
where a triangle, for instance, may go fast or slow, but, having
no necessary
pulse, cannot go in slow-motion.
Another unique image which
the camera can yield is reverse
motion. When
used meaningfully,
it does not convey so much
a sense of a backward
movement
but rather an
spatially,
uses of this occurs
most
One
of
time.
of
the
memorable
undoing
is executed by
in Cocteau's
Blood of a Poet, where
the peasant
on the
a
of
fire
which
also
shatters
the
crucifix
volley
hanging
wall behind him. This scene is followed by a reverse motion
and
of the action?the
dead peasant
rising from the ground
on the wall; then
the crucifix reassembling
the
again
volley of
the
the
crucifix
and
fire,
peasant
again the
falling,
shattering;
filmic resurrection.
Reverse motion
for
obvious
reasons,
also,
does not exist in abstract films.
case
The photographic
negative
image is still another striking
in point. This is not a direct white-on-black
statement but is
as an inversion of values. When
a
understood
applied to recog
nizable person or scene, it conveys a sense of a critically quali
tative change, as in its use for the landscape on the other side of
death in Cocteau's Orpheus.
Both such extreme images and the more familiar kind which
as a
I referred to earlier make use of the motion-picture
medium
of the image originates
in our recog
the meaning
form in which
its authority
nition of a known reality and derives
from the
in
between
and
direct relationship
the
reality
image
photo
some intrusion
the process permits
graphic process. While
by
of that image, the limits of its tolerance
the artist as a modifier
as that
can be defined
the original
point at which
reality
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deren
Cinematography
The

Creative

Use of Reality

:
:

or is irrelevant
becomes
( as when a red reflec
unrecognizable
tion in a pond is used for its shape and color only and without
concern for the water or the
contextual
pond).
cases
In such
of as the
the camera itself has been conceived
etc.,
lenses, multiple
artist, with
superpositions,
distorting
etc.
used to simulate the creative action of the eye, the memory,
Such well-intentioned
efforts to use the medium
creatively,
by
it traditionally
forcibly inserting the creative act in the position
in the visual arts, accomplish,
instead, the destruction
occupies
as
its
This
of the photographic
image, with
image
reality.
us
on
to
levels?
several
engage
unique ability
simultaneously
of reality, by the knowledges
and
by the objective
authority
values which we attach to that reality, by the direct address of
its aspect, and by a manipulated
between
diese
relationship
use of the medium.
is the
creative
the
for
block
building

The Placement

of the Creative Act and Time-Space

Manipulations
Where
does the film-maker
then undertake his major creative
action if, in the interests of
these qualities
of the
preserving
to
he
restricts
in the
himself
control
the
of
accident
image,
and
almost
exclusion
stage
accepts
pre-photographic
complete
from the
photographic
Once we abandon

process as well?
the concept
of the image as the end
and
consummation
creative
of
the
process
(which it is
product
in both the visual arts and the theater), we can take a
larger
view of the total medium
and can see that the motion-picture
instrument actually consists of two parts, which flank the artist
on either side. The
the camera provides
images with which
him are like fragments of a permanent,
incorruptible memory;
their individual
is in no way dependent
their
upon
reality
can
in
and
to
be
assembled
sequence
compose
actuality,
they
In film, the image can and should
any of several statements.
be only the beginning,
the basic material
of the creative action.
All invention
and creation consist
of a new rela
primarily
between
known
The
of
film deal in
parts.
tionship
images
as I
are
out
realities which,
structured to fulfill
earlier,
pointed
their various functions, not to communicate
a
specific meaning.
Therefore
as
several
attributes
they have
simultaneously,
when a table may be, at once, old, red, and
a
as
it
high. Seeing
an
its
separate entity, an antique dealer would
appraise
age,
artist its color, and a child its inaccessible
But in a film
height.
one in which
such a shot might be followed
the table falls
by
its
of
would
constitute
apart, and thus a particular
aspect
age
in the sequence, with all other attri
its meaning
and function
butes becoming
The editing of a film creates the
irrelevant.
159

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or new
gives particular
meaning
relationship which
sequential
a con
to
to the images according
it establishes
their function;
a
their
form which
them without
text,
distorting
transfigures
their reality and authority, or impoverishing
aspect, diminishing
is the characteristic
that variety of potential
functions which
dimension
of reality.
the images are related in terms of common or con
Whether
in the causal
events which
is narra
trasting qualities,
logic of
is the poetic
tive, or in the logic of ideas and emotions which
the structure of a film is sequential.
The creative action
mode,
in film, then, takes place in its time dimension;
and for this rea
son the motion
of
picture,
spatial images, is
though composed
a time form.
primarily
A major portion of the creative action consists of a manipula
tion of time and space. By this I do not mean only such estab
as flashback,
lished filmic techniques
of time,
condensation
etc.
not
action
These
affect
the
itself
but the
parallel action,
method
of revealing
it. In a flashback
there is no implication
that the usual chronological
integrity of the action itself is in
any way
Parallel
rushes

affected

action,
to the rescue

increasingly
camera

by the process,
as when we

as

critical,
a witness

of memory.
however disrupted,
see
the
hero who
alternately
situation
becomes
and the heroine whose
on the
is an omnipresence
part of the

of

action,

not

as

a creator

of

it.

I refer
of time and space to which
The kind of manipulation
itself part of the organic structure of a film. There
becomes
is,
for example,
the extension
of space by time and of time by
if
extended
space. The length of a stairway can be enormously
it
of
the
three different
shots
person ascending
(filmed from
so that it is not apparent
different
that the identical
angles
area is
are so edited
each time)
that
together
being covered
action
is
continuous
and results in an image of enduring
the
in the air can be
labor toward some elevated
goal. A leap
extended by the same technique, but in this case, since the film
action is sustained
far beyond
the normal duration of the real
action itself, the effect is one of tension as we wait for the figure
to return, finally, to earth.
of a single frame,
Time may be extended
by the reprinting
the figure in mid-action;
here
which has the effect of freezing
a moment
of suspended
animation
the frozen frame becomes
to its contextual
which,
position, may convey either
according
as
in the turning back of Lot's
the sense of critical hesitation
(
on stillness and movement
a
or
comment
constitute
may
wife)
scenes of
as the
death.
The
life
and
of
reprinting of
opposition
a casual situation involving
several persons may be used either
in a prophetic
context, as a d?j?-vu; or, again, precise reitera
tion, by inter-cutting
reprints, of those spontaneous movements,
160

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edward

steichen,

Collection

Museum

The Maypole,
of Modern

Art,

1932.
New

York.

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boris
Courtesy

kaufman,
of

the

Scene

from

"L'Atalante"

(at dusk).

artist.

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boris kaufman,
Scene from "On the Waterfront"
the
scene).
ing through
Courtesy

of

the

(smoke

artist.

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drift

maya

deren

and Alexander

HAMMiD, Scene

from "Meshes

the Afternoon."
Courtesy

of

the

artists.

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of

deren:
Cinematography
The

Creative

Use of Reality

can
scene
and exchanges,
expressions,
change the quality of the
to that of a stylization
from one of informality
akin to dance;
em
in so
by shifting
doing it confers dance upon nondancers,
to
movement
movement
from
the
the
the
of
purpose
phasis
then assumes the solem
itself, and an informal social encounter
and
of
dimension
ritual.
nity
of the camera
Similarly, it is possible to confer the movement
in
the
for
movement
the
the
of a figure
scene,
upon
figures
large
in a film is conveyed by the
that
changing relationship between
as
screen.
I
have done in my re
If,
figure and the frame of the
one
cent film The Very Eye of Night,
eliminates
the horizon line
and any background which would
of the
reveal the movement
total field, then the eye accepts the frame as stable and ascribes
to the figure within
it. The hand-held
all movement
camera,
a
on
over
and
the
white
moving
revolving
figures
totally black
in
movement
is as grav
which
their
ground, produces
images
as three-dimensional
as that of birds in air or fish
and
ity-free
in water.
In the absence of any absolute orientation,
the push
and pull of their interrelationships
becomes
the major dialogue.
mean
I
and
of
time
also the creation
space,
By manipulation
of a relationship
between
separate times, places, and persons.
a shot of one person is terminated
a
A swing-pan?whereby
by
a
or
and
another
shot
of
person
rapid swing away
place begins
with a rapid swing of the camera, the two shots being subse
in the blurred area of both swings?brings
into
quently
joined
in actu
dramatic proximity people, places, and actions which
One can film different people
separated.
ality might be widely
at different times and even in different places performing
ap
the same gesture or movement,
and, by a judicious
proximately
as to preserve
in such a manner
the conti
joining of the shots
action
the
itself
dominant
of
the
the
becomes
movement,
nuity
dynamic which unifies all separateness.
can be related but can
Separate and distant places not only
move
a continuity
continuous
of
be made
identity and of
by
a
a
one
as
in
this
shot
when
ment,
person begins
gesture
setting,
set
hand
the
another
followed
entering
by
being immediately
to
I
the
have
this
used
there.
gesture
ting altogether
complete
to apartment
in a
to make a dancer step from woods
technique
to
to
him
from
lo
location
and
transport
similarly
single stride,
In my At
his stage.
itself became
cation so that the world
of the
the dynamic
Land, it has been the technique by which
instead
of
is
the
and
undertak
reversed
protagonist,
Odyssey
for adventure,
finds instead that
ing the long voyage of search
action which was
the dynamic
itself has usurped
the universe
once the prerogative
of human will, and confronts her with a
in which
her personal
and relentless metamorphosis
volatile
is
sole
the
constancy.
identity
165

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are but

indications
of the variety of creative
a mean
can be
which
time-space
relationships
accomplished
by
It is an
of the sequence
of film images.
ingful manipulation
to
the
order of creative action available
motion-picture
only
it is a
The ideas of
medium.
medium
because
photographic
of separateness
and of conti
and of extension,
condensation
to
in
it
the
which
fullest
deals, exploit
nuity,
degree the various
its
of the photographic
attributes
(which es
image:
fidelity
tablishes the identity of the person who serves as a transcendant
its
all separate
times and places),
force between
unifying
our
activates
which
basis
of
the
the
knowl
recognition
reality (
the geography
of location
edges and values and without which
trans
could not exist), and its authority which
and dislocation
and intangibility
of the image and en
cends the impersonality
and objective
dows it with independent
consequence).
These

several

The Twentieth-Century

Art Form

to the effort to deter

I initiated this discussion
by referring
a
as
means
we
mine what creative film form is not,
by which
recom
a determination
can arrive
it
at
is.
I
of what
eventually
for all custodians
mend this as the only valid point of departure
to the keepers of catalogues,
and in particular
of classifications,
to the harassed
librarians, who, in their effort to force film into
or the
are
one or another of the performing
plastic arts,
engaged
in an

endless

Procrustean

operation.

A radio is not a louder voice, an airplane is not a faster car,

of the same period of
and the motion
(an invention
picture
as
a
faster painting or a more
should not be thought of
history)
real play.
All of these forms are qualitatively
different from those which
as unrelated
must
not
them.
be
understood
de
They
preceded
as diverse as
bound
but
coincidence,
merely
by
velopments,
a new way of
a new way of life?one
in
pects of
thought and
an
of time, movement,
which
energy, and dynamics
appreciation
is more
than the familiar concept of
immediately
meaningful
as a static solid anchored
matter
to a stable cosmos.
It is a
for example,
change reflected in every field of human endeavor,
in which
structure
the notion of mass-upon-mass
architecture,
has given way to the lean strength of steel and the dynamics
of cantilever balances.
It is almost as if the new age, fearful that whatever was there
to arrive com
already would not be adequate, had undertaken
even to the motion-picture
medium,
which,
equipped,
pletely
re
to deal in movement
structured
and time-space
expressly
most
be
art
would
the
and
propitious
appropriate
lationships,
in terms of its own
form for expressing,
paradoxically
intangible
186

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DEREN:
Cinematography
The

Creative

Use of Reality

concepts of the citizen of

reality, the moral and metaphysical
this new age.
This is not to say that cinema should or could replace the
than flight is a substitute
for the
other art forms, any more
or for the
of
land
of
pleasures
walking
leisurely panorama
seen
car
a
or
new
train
from
window.
when
scapes
Only
things
serve the same purpose better do
they replace old things. Art,
deals in ideas; time does not deny them, but may
however,
are
make
them irrelevant. The truths of the Egyptians
merely
no less true for
never
to answer questions which
they
failing
raised. Culture
is cumulative,
and to it each age should make
its proper contribution.
can we
How
justify the fact that it is the art instrument,
all
that
inventions, which
among
fraternity of twentieth-century
is still the least explored and exploited;
and that it is the artist
?of whom,
the culture expects the most prophetic
traditionally,
is the most laggard in recogniz
and visionary
statements?who
that
the
formal
and
of his age are
concepts
ing
philosophical
in
structure
the
actual
of
his
instrument
and the tech
implicit
niques of his medium?
If cinema is to take its place beside the others as a full-fledged
cease merely
art form, it must
to record realities
that owe
existence
to
of
their
actual
the
film
instrument.
Instead,
nothing
so much out of the very nature
it must create a total experience
of the instrument as to be inseparable
from its means.
It must
it
the
narrative
has
borrowed
litera
from
disciplines
relinquish
ture and its timid imitation of the causal logic of narrative
of the earth-bound,
plots, a form which flowered as a celebration
and
of
time,
space
concept
step-by-step
relationship which was
the
of
materialism
of
the
nineteenth
part
primitive
century.
it
must
the
of
filmic images and
Instead,
develop
vocabulary
evolve the syntax of filmic techniques which
relate those.
It
must determine
the disciplines
in the medium,
inherent
dis
cover its own structural modes,
the new realms and
explore
to it and so enrich our culture artistically
dimensions
accessible
as science

has done

in its own province.

167

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