Essay about André Bazin Film Critic Extraordinaire

As time evolved so did the means of replicating reality. As far back as cave drawings, humans have tried to make sense of their surroundings through artificial means. We can go through time and see this process evolve from engraving, to painting, to photography, and to its most convincing form to date: cinema. In the task of duplicating reality cinema has surpassed all other forms of representation. Looking at the other means which are mentioned above we see cinema is the first mean that is able to capture movement, and nowadays even sound. Andrà © Bazin may well be the most influential critic ever to have written about this process. As †¦. States: â€Å"Bazin envisions each rung on cinemas evolutionary ladder as a step toward a more realistic†¦show more content†¦Interestingly enough, this system has come to be considered the classic Hollywood method. By the 1940s, however, particularly with the development of such democratizing tools as deep focus photography which eliminated the need for montage, and moved editing toward realism once more. Editing styles became more or less standardized. Cinema reached a point of classical perfection where content fused with form and the next evolutionary advancement, if there was to be one, would not be propelled by a technical matter but a thematic one: the subject matter and the effect it imposed on technical/formal aspect (†¦). This cinematic progress is in perfect accordance with Bazins notion of the cinema moving toward the myth of total cinema. The movement from the silent area into sound was an important one in the creation of realism. Bazin however, emphasizes the role of visuals more so than sound. Bazin understands that Cinema can never be completely the same as the actual viewing process. He realizes that the human eye does not perceive a scene in the same way as a camera recording a scene in depth of field and/or long take. However, Bazin states that editing is the mediator between the two making the process of viewing a film physiological: â€Å"Logical cutting according to drama, narrative, and anticipation constructs a sense of an integral space. The master shot establishes a location so that the cutting to points within