Bazinian Theory. Toward a synthesis of cinema - a theory of the long take moving camera. Part 1

This two-part paper will investigate Orson Welles’ The Trial (1963) as a model to explicate Brian Henderson’s long take theory. Instead of arguing for or against Henderson’s critical standpoint, it will use its classification scheme as a basis for a more thorough understanding of the theoretical “gap” that exists between the two institutional pillars of cinema, that is, the exclusive theories of Sergei Eisenstein and Andre Bazin. It should be pointed out that other less popularized theories exist in cinema, but they have not been so influential on the practicing filmmakers as the Eisenteinian montage and Bazinian reality theories.

This essay points the way for an approach to the development of a theory of the long take moving camera; and in so doing, it foreshadows a cinema of the future where film becomes a systematic process (eg. a cinema of becoming) that exists in a “gap” between reality and mentality, between perfect registration and pure conceptualization, and between the theories of Bazin and Eisenstein.

First, the hypothetical assumption is that cinema is strongly driven by an aesthetic of sensation and thought [eg. the direct perception of time (time-images), the kinesthetic sensation of movement (movement-images) or the fleeting feeling of memory (thought-images)]. Such a “thought-sensation” aesthetic is the foundation for an “embodiment theory” which is supported by Susan Sontag, as described in her essay “Against Interpretation.” She explains (paraphrasing her words) that filmmaking is distinct from the other art forms, such as the novel, because there is more than content in it. Cinema is a language of forms that can overwhelm content, and this fact is exemplified in camera movements, cuts, and frame compositions. Moreover, the immediate sensory experience should be the supreme goal of film art, and the ability to see, hear and feel should supersede interpretation; and finally, Sontag defines meta-criticism in film as an “embodiment theory” based on an aesthetic of sensation: “The function of criticism should be how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.” [1]

Furthermore, the aesthetics of sensation is driven home by Barbara Kennedy who discusses the cinema of becoming which she bases on a molecular paradigm developed from Deleuzian ideas. [2] Kennedy concludes her book (entitled Deleuze and Cinema) by saying:

I have established how the molar (i.e. an assemblage) elements of film theory can work along side newly created ideas developing from Deleuzian ideas, a molecular paradigm … I don’t foresee this use of both the molar and the molecular as in any way a new binary distinction. Rather, the ‘in-between’ space of the molar and the molecular may be compared, though not identified, with the space of cyborg-becoming, a space which has no boundaries within boundaries, a place which is not strictly hybridized space, but a space of continual motion, movement and becoming. A neo-aesthetics of sensation enables this consideration of how film impacts, how it innervates and engages as a material capture, as an event, as a processuality … Vision and sound are not purely experienced through representation, through the visual and the aural, but through the materiality of a whole range of bodies, from deeper engagement of body/brain and world, bodies which are human, non-human, technologized and machinic. (Kennedy, 210)

The Deleuzian concept of becoming as applied to a processual mechanics of cinema may shed some light on what the cinema (i.e. a “post-post” cinema) may look like in the future.

In 1971, Brian Henderson points out (in his book A Critique on Film Theory) that no approach had yet been developed to unify the fragmented theories of cinema. He states that:

… whereas classifications of philosophic theories usually concern not fragments of theories or attempted theories but only fully complete approaches to the problem, it is possible that there has not yet been a comprehensive or complete film theory. The underdevelopment of film theory, however, may itself be a reason for close analytical work, including a classification scheme of the principal approaches already taken. [3]

Modern theories of cinema are sparse as compared to other fields of study (eg. ethics and aesthetics) and those existing formulations are fragmented at best. Henderson admits that a new holistic theory is needed since the transfigurations of the cinema, especially after the advent of television (i.e. early 1950), cannot be fully explained by the classical theories. In order to formulate a novel theory, it is necessary to construct a well-rooted foundation, one that allows for inclusion rather than exclusion, one that is capable of molding itself to whatever schematic approach that might come its way (i.e. metaphorically speaking, a theory that is as fluid as water, having the potential to shape itself to any critical receptacle), and one that incorporates the principles from the older classical theories and the practical lessons learned therein.

And just as Einstein’s theory of relativity collapses to Newton’s laws of gravity as the particle’s velocity becomes much less than the speed of light; so too, must a modern theory of cinema be able to fold over into the older theories of the past, as certain cinematic categories (eg. style and form) approach particular classical settings, such as the filmic frameworks of Hollywood’s action-images (mostly classical) or Neorealism’s fact-images (mostly modern and sometimes semi-classical). The modern theory must be able to unify the old principles with those new insights which emerge from the renewed attempts to re-formulate cinema, as it pushes the boundaries of cinematic investigations into the uncharted domains of cinematic thought; for instance, Deleuze’s time-images which go beyond the movement-images and express a kind of mental reality where characters seem detached from worldly events. Furthermore, just as physicists have not been able to merge the force of gravity with the other fundamental forces (i.e. the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces), that is, to close the “gap” between space, time and matter within the universal energy field), so too, film theoreticians are left with the uncertainty of being able to close the “gap” between montage (cutting) and long take (not cutting).

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