Film Has the Ability to Mechanically Record and Represent a Truly Objective Reality

Film has many abilities. It’s form of art can expand liberally. However, to mechanically record and represent a truly objective reality is one I do not think it can do. This is not because the power of film is limiting but because the control we have over it is too colossal. We have so much influence in what we put in as well as what we keep out of what we show as filmmakers.

However, my opinion in this is not something everyone shares. Some hold opposite views as they regard that since a camera has the means of its mechanical recordings of events, it can record life as it truly is.

This statement above has been in debate since the early years of cinema with two separate view points on how it should be presented. Those who agree that film can recreate a truly objective reality without exploiting as something else are called ‘Realists,’ as they believe that the stories they portray can mirror the actual events that occur in lives. This form of film often carries a documentary style. In contrast to that, ‘Formalists’ give credence to the manipulation that film holds to convey a subjective experience of reality. A popular example would be animation.

A cinematic wave that flows out of realism would be the Italian Neorealism movement that brought to life the hardships amongst the poor and working class showcasing the Italian people after World War II. Exploring the themes of the effortful economy and moral conflict within their community. Their main aim was to bring forward the lives of their people without romanticising their conditions, often filmed outside of the studio to put emphasis on their harsh reality and used non-professional actors as money was tight. Albeit, in spite of what they wanted to create, they still did not establish a truly objective reality as decision making rules and consideration of planning makes it hard for film to capture life just the way it is.

Movies like Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948) influenced other directors’ work, e.g. Francois Traffault and Claude Chabrol, and ergo; the French New Wave was born.

This name was given to a group of filmmakers by critics in the late 1950s and 1960s as they incorporated the desire to shoot more current social issues on location in the streets of France. You can see this in the work of Agnes Varda’s La Pointe Courte. They wanted to put emphasis that although art imitates life, it is still plastic in its traditional sense. Something that can still be remoulded. The did this by putting more experimental editing in their work, i.e. involving the deliberate use of jump cuts, and consolidating deep focus cinematography.

Another French pioneer, George Melies, had a different opinion from those involved in