History and Development of French Impressionism

Avant-garde is the term of modern sense in people or works in experimental treatment on visual, arts, culture and society. During the 1910s and 1920s, period of ‘historical avant-gardes’ as well as a peak era of arising experimentalism in film arts, for examples: Impressionism in France, Constructive in the Soviet Union, Expressionism in Germany, Futurism in Italy, Surrealism in Spain and France, Muralism in Mexico, and Modernismo in Brazil (Stam, 2000). These avant-garde filmmakers have put experimentation as their practice’s central with experiment with three overlapping levels: reworking genres, exploring the variety of film language and define the representation of subjectivity again. Hence, these experimental allow the filmmakers challenged with the traditional filmic narrative and omniscience of the spectators with different new film techniques (Hayward, 2013). In this essay, we will focus on the history and development of French Impressionism and how the film movement influenced the Hong Kong film, ‘In the Mood for Love’ (Wong Kar-wai, 2000).

French Impressionism was an avant-garde aesthetic which brought a huge impact in the film industry with formed the independent companies, but remain the commercialize elements for the purpose of renting the studio facilities and releasing their films in the mid-1920s. However, French Impressionism had struggled a lot of obstacles before it's able to become a legend film movement in the industry. French film industry declined during World War I as many resources were drained away for wartime uses to support the fighting. At the same time, American films began moving into France to fill up the vacant screen. The French film market at the end of 1917 was dominated by Hollywood cinema as only 20 to 30 percent of the films screened were produced by French. The French producers faced an uphill obstacle to fully recover their prewar strength in producing films.

The problems faced by French Film production between 1918 and 1928

1. Competition from Imports

As mentioned above, the amount of imported films into French occupy a huge percentage in the French film market especially the American films in early of the decade. In the mid- to late 1920s, American films have declined but the growth of film production in other countries such as Germany and Great Britain were faster than did France. Because of the enormous competitor, American films dominating most of the film markets caused French cinema can only rely on a limited number of successful films with limited export to the countries where had a cultural exchange with France such as Belgium, Switzerland and French Colonies in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Source from: Film History (Thompson & Bordwell, 2002)

2. Disunity within the Film Industry

After World War I, the two major film companies, Pathé Frères and Léon Gaumont do not pay any effort for film production, but choose to cut back the badly damage and risky on industry and only concern on the profits from distribution and exhibition by abandoning vertical integration firms which able to strengthen the film industry. This phenomena caused the French industry was led by few large and medium-size firm but many small companies. Additionally, production, distribution and exhibition were three sectors of the industry which often have a lot of conflicts because the small exhibitors have no stake in French production so they always show the American films to bring profit for them. Although the film producers requested frequently to the government to limit the amount of imported films. However, the government failed to protect local film industries from foreign competitors because of the more powerful distributors and exhibitors rely on the imports to make money. Plus, a strong attack to the industry with high taxes on movie ticket has brought a lot of harm to every sector of the industry.

3. Outdated Production Facilities

The lack of capital investment cause the French production only able depended on glass studio built during prewar and the filmmakers hard to catch up with the technological innovation American firms (especially lighting equipment)   had invented during 1910s. The French Filmmakers failed to create lighting effect hence they start to use sunlight and block off some parts of the light to create dark patches. During 1920s, modern lighting technology became common but the cost was too expensive for widespread use.

Major Postwar Genres

Although French industry faced a lot of difficulties as mentioned above, the filmmakers still produced a variety of films. In the postwar era, French serials followed the establish patterns which were cliffhanger ending, master criminals and exotic locales. However, the format has to change because of the social criticism on the glorification of crime. Due to the limited budget, many film companies using French monuments as setting. Fantasy film with special camera tricks and comedies were popular genres in French industry.

The Impressionists’ Relation to the Industry

Source from: Film History (Thompson & Bordwell, 2002)

            The rising of a new generation of filmmakers had relieved the crises in French industry. These filmmakers had arranged their time to make avant-garde piece of art and profit-oriented film at the same time to get their financing. According to the picture above, we can see that there were prolific, successful directors and companies born in the era of French Impressionist Cinema which brought a lot of impact to the film industry.

For examples: Abel Gance was the first filmmaker who departs from established stylistic traditional. Besides making Impressionist films, he also had to work on commercial projects. However, Gance attempt to make more individual works as he has a huge passion on Romantic literature and art. Charles Pathé continued to finance and distribute Gance’s films after he formed his own company. The decision can bring a high risk for Pathé because of the Gance’s films were lengthy and very expensive but luckily Grance was the most famous Impressionist. Gaumont, the other major film company had invested in the production of Rose-France by Marcel L’Herbier, the second Impressionist film with the allegory of war-battered France which not generally seen as it was too impenetrable. On top of that, in 1922 the Russian production group settled down in Paris with new image as Film Albatros. The lead actor in this company had become a major French star in this industry who named as Ivan Mosjoukine. Albatros was profitable by producing few Impressionist films. The Impressionist’s independent production had raised the French Impressionism film movement however the movement faded because of the filmmakers lost their small companies in the short period.

The End of French Impressionism

            In the 1920s, there were three different Europe film movements coexist while the French Impressionism lasted the longest, from 1918 to early 1929. One of the factors caused the movement faded was the Impressionist filmmakers disbanded their tightly knit group and started to experiment in different directions due to the film style’s techniques were becoming more customary. By the late of 1920s, the public and distribution firms were losing their interest in supporting Impressionist film plus the Impressionist faced a hardship when losing their independent companies in the late 1920s. In the bad economic situation, the filmmakers were unable to rebuild their independence film production during the arrival of costly sound production in 1929. However, the essences of the French Impressionism such as psychological narrative, subjective camerawork and editing techniques were long-lived as they are still existing in our film industry.