'film Flourishes In Its Relations With Other Arts'

Film as a medium has photography to thank for its simple origins as a means of recording live action. The first showing of projected pictures to spectators took place in December 1895, thanks to Louis and Auguste Lumière and their Cinématographe, which depicted a train entering a station, inciting terror amongst the spectators who ran from the halls in fear. These early films were factual records of events such as a sporting match or a baby being fed and initiated the 'realist' strand of cinema. Georges Méliès's Voyage to the Moon (1902) sparked the imaginative and fantastical use of the medium. Cinema as it is generally considered today developed from these primitive origins and came to early fruition with the notion of narrative and the genius of editing. The evolution of editing brought to film the rhythm which in turn could be defined as the essence of cinematic form. With the advent of sound, cinema continued to flourish. The quote 'film flourishes in its relations with other arts' would seem to imply that the success of film is in the most part due to its relation with 'other arts'; in the Oxford English Dictionary the verb 'to flourish' is primarily defined as 'to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way'. Thus, in order to consider this quotation it is necessary to analyse precisely the ways in which film's relations to the arts allow it to 'grow' and 'develop'. The second definition of flourish in the Oxford English Dictionary, 'to wave (something) about dramatically', would at first glance seem to be more appropriate in describing a human action involving the arms and an object. However, with a hint of artistic license, this definition in fact could be applied to the field of cinema if it were argued that a film 'flourishes' itself as a genre at its most splendid when it establishes 'relations with other arts'. In order to progress from its beginnings, cinema needed to equal the other arts firstly by using them, hence literature, music hall, theatre, painting, and aspects of reportage were at its roots. For some filmmakers, this has remained a key tool for expression in cinema, as novels, plays, music, dance and opera are frequently incorporated into cinematic production. Other directors have sought to examine the interior life of characters and this is to be found in the more pure aspects of cinematography. Film has in later years become a major art in its own right and takes its place with the other arts in a cannibalistic use of the medium. This essay will take the examples of Louis Malle and Jean-Luc Godard as models to examine the relationship between cinema and the other arts. Both directors were heavily influenced by the work of Robert Bresson, of whom Malle was an apprentice and Godard was famously quoted: 'Robert Bresson is French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is the German music.' . Bresson believed in the pure form of 'cinématograph'. In his work, Notes sur le cinématograph, Bresson distinguishes between two types of cinema; 'those that employ the means of theatre (actors, staging, etc.) and use the camera in order to REPRODUCE, and those that employ the means of the 'cinematograph' and use the camera in order to CREATE' . This distinction procures the question as to how arts are employed in film; whether they are simply reproduced or whether they serve to create.

In stylistic terms, the valorisation of the nouveau roman over 19th century literature sparked a new direction in terms of attitude towards language, evident in the works of Godard; 'a new sense of significance, as well as of poetics, inspired novelists and filmmakers to think in terms of the history, connotations, and multiple functions of the signifiers they used' . Thus, culture and language become intertwined, as culture is formed from language and language is influenced by culture: 'language.in some sense lays the foundations for culture as it is made of the same material: structural relations, systems of difference, signs, relations of exchange.' Language and communication are strong themes in Godard's work and forms of literature are often used to overcome a lack of communication, as seen in Une femme. In Pierrot especially, the idea that language, culture and life are intertwined is apparent as Ferdinand continuously searches to find a unique action to express individual freedom, such as crashing the car into the sea or blowing himself up with dynamite. However, these acts could be shown to be but mere mimicry, as other forms of art, for example books or comic strips, inevitably influence them. The fact that Godard's characters are 'trapped in this logic of citation', in part influenced by the movement of the nouveau roman, serves to demonstrate how culture and language are inextricably linked. Thus it can be said that, although not directly reference in the film, the influence of the nouveau roman on Godard's films illustrates certain themes within them.

As Royal S Brown comments on Pierrot, 'Godard turns his film noir into an almost phantasmagorical collage of in-and-out-of-context quotations - quick insert shots of paintings, spoken allusions to and quotations from well and not-so-well-known works of literature and their authors, music, comic books, advertising slogans, both spoken and visual'. In Godard's films, the medley of references to other arts serves not only to demonstrate the inseparable relationship between language, culture and life, but also implicates the viewer as a critical observer. Instead of being presented with clear-cut characterisation and narrative, as was the style of cinema pre-dating the Nouvelle Vague, Godard presents us with a cultural critique in which we become actively implicated. Indeed, the Cahiers du Cinéma magazine founded by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca in 1951 gave birth to a film dialogue which privileged evaluation of a film's mise en scène, that is to say, the arrangement of everything before the camera as opposed to the editing afterwards. In Bazinian terms, the success of the mise en scène would be directly proportionate to its ability to implicate the spectator. He maintained that this was particularly possible through the rejection of montage and privileging a deep focus, as it allowed the spectator to become fully involved with the film. Thus, adhering to a Realist school of cinema, focus on the depth of field brings 'both a more active mental attitude on the part of the observer and a more positive contribution on his part to the action in progress' . However, Godard's cultural critique formed a Realism which encompassed both montage and depth of field. He saw montage and mise en scène as mutually exclusive; that is, if a character turns to look at an object the editing will show it to the audience. Godard took Bazin's theory forward and concentrated on 'intellectual reality (the filmmaker's dialectical, or conversational, relationship with the audience)' . The importance of this in terms of the art forms assimilated into Godard's films is demonstrated by the apothegm of Brice Parain, who once taught Godard: 'The sign forces us to see an object through its significance' . For Godard, as for Bazin, every aspect of the mise en scène was important, and this includes references to other arts, whether it be the Roman art in Le Mépris, the Renoir in Pierrot or the stage-musical interludes of Une femme. Such cultural references not only highlight how other arts are effectively assimilated into cinema, but also necessarily implicate the audience as critical observers of the film. As the directors of the Nouvelle Vague viewed 'film essentially as a phenomenon of intelligence' , it could be argued that references to art included within film allow it to flourish through necessitating the audience to actively interpret it, thus intellectualising it as a genre.

In an issue of the Cahiers du Cinéma in 1962, Godard writes, 'I think of myself as an essayist, producing essays in novel form, or novels in essay form: only instead of writing, I film them.there is a clear continuity between all forms of expression. It's all one'. By classifying himself as an 'essayist', the intellectual nature of his work is stressed, as well as the importance placed on the spectators as active interpreters. However, his affirmation that there is a 'continuity between all forms of expression' paired with his belief that 'on doit tout mettre dans un film' are exemplary of his attitude towards the relationship between art, cinema and life. As the young painter says in La Chinoise, 'Art is not a reflection of reality. It's the reality of reflection'. Godard elaborates on this stating that 'you can't separate the mirror from reality' . Thus, his self-classification as an 'essayist' holds strong as this term necessarily indicates a relationship to reality. In stating that 'art is the reality of reflection', it can be argued that the references to 'other arts' within his films only serve to strengthen his view of cinema and life being one and the same. Godard considers all artistic media as one, in that they are all forms of self-expression. In an interview, when asked whether he thought film was an extension of all other artistic media, he answered, 'No, it's part of them' . Thus, references to 'other arts' in Godard's films demonstrate this attitude of assimilation. If Godard makes no distinction between life and cinema, 'other arts' within cinema are as inevitable as they are in life; as a means of self-expression. In this respect, it could thus be argued that life 'flourishes in its relations with other arts' just as cinema does, as for Godard, they are one and the same.

Thus it has been demonstrated that the films of both Malle and Godard can indeed be shown to 'flourish in their relations with other arts'; references to literature, music and painting serve to strengthen characterisation and thematic elements just as they provide contextual detail and social commentary. However, I propose that the two directors' manipulation of the arts differs in a way that consequently causes their films to 'flourish' contrarily, in relation to Bresson's concept of 'cinématograph'. Malle's choice of music both reinforces characterisation and themes whilst demonstrating the beautiful rhythm which can arise from the combination of sounds and image. Furthermore, his revolutionary use of jazz influenced films of the Nouvelle Vague to come, indicating its social relevance. However, although an apprentice of Bresson, Malle's style of cinema does not correlate exactly with the concept of 'cinématograph', and seems to a greater extent to be based upon external influences. The elements of social, contextual and historical commentary, of bourgeois culture and libertarianism, reflected in his use of music and artistic influences from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries support the notion that Malle's films 'flourish in their relations with other arts'. However, these elements remain to a certain extent external and referential. This technique could be considered more as a reproduction of the arts in his films rather utilising them to create a new form, as can be argued in the case of Godard. Godard's view that 'art is not a reflection of reality [but] the reality of reflection' sets him apart from Malle; instead of integrating the arts within his films, Godard assimilates the arts in his films. The result is an internal use of art which serves to implicate the audience in interpretation, to illustrate his notion that there is no difference between art and life, and to demonstrate the homogenous nature of all art forms coming under the overarching term of expression. This assimilation of the arts into film serves to create a pure form of cinema which in effect can live off itself as an art form, whilst it also functions to demonstrate how the fusion and interdependence of elements such as sounds and image is paramount. The films of Godard and Malle thus both flourish; Malle's in their relations with the other arts, Godard's in their assimilation.