Realism and Expressionism 

Introduction

     There are two elements or themes of the film that are very similar but it is very important to show the realist in the film that makes it similar to our viewer's world and life, that is Realism and Expressionism. 

Realism 

    Realism is a form of film that most directors use in their movies. It is the way that directors show the current world or even film trying to explain the history, they want it as close as they can be to the actual event or even as close to the present world we are living in without any scientific elements in it. It is mainly can be shown in the narrative and visuals in the film being watched. 

In THE LAST DETAIL, there was a quote from Andre Bazin stating that: "There is not one, but several realisms. Each era looks for its own, that is to say, the technique and the aesthetic which can best capture it, arrest and restore whatever one wishes to capture of reality.” This really stuck with me that a film with realism has the aesthetic to restore one wishes to capture reality, many know a lot filmmakers create a film to make up something they wish to happen or be real, it is really hard to make it believable without allowing the viewers feel like it can happen to them also. 

    One of the perfect movies for realism that was watched in Film class would be the 1981 film Prince of the City (Lumet), it has a backstory of police in New York City and shows the life of undercover police trying to show the bad in the police workforce without harming his family or his own unit. This already gives off realism to the viewers with the storyline cause it is something that really happens in the current world and there are no scientific elements that can only happen with editing. 

    A good scene that showed the technique of realism that a police officer would do is the chasing scene when Danny Ciello (played by Treat Williams) is running to chase down the drug addict for his own informer to have, even though no one admits that police officers actually do it the present police force, but for the time that it is set at, back then it seemed more possible. 

(Movie time: 17:34 - 20:40) 

    

    One of my favorite thing to look at in any movie will be the shooting location and background of the scene, In the film, the movie was set in New York City, and to really give off the vibe and skyline of New York, the movie was shot all in the 5 major New York City boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan) it is also the only major Hollywood movie along with The Godfather to be shot in all 5 (imdb.com), this was something I found out when researching and it really got me by surprise, most movies in our present century many tv shows and movies are shot in studios, greenscreens, or a part of the city the story is set in. Something else that gave off the realism of the movie was that at the time the film is set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, New York City was really going through trouble with finance leading to the fall of the city, and we were able to see it with the location and settings some of the shots were seen. 

Expressionism 

    Expressionism is very similar to realism but it is not focused on a world that a film director can not control but on creating a world that they can control with help of a set, props, light, and usually shooting in locations on a soundstage. There are also a lot of hidden messages in expressionism that one needs to dig into or think deeply about every scene or even the setting. 

    When we look closely at Brian De Palmas Blow Out (1981), he used a lot of different techniques to show expressionism. The background of the story is that Jack Terry (played by John Travolta) a sound effect technician was present at the assassination of a hopeful presidential candidate and happen to capture it on his recording equipment. In the film, De Palma uses a lot of dramatic lighting&color and also the movement of the camera (THE LAST DETAIL), along with the screen editing of the spilt screen to show two different things but have a connection together. Movies that are more focused on realism would not have a split screen because, in our real lives, we don't have two sets of pairs of eyes to see all the different events happening. De Palma did a lot of these to enhance the visuals and emotion in his films 

    The technique De Palma uses is called a split diopter, explained in Sven Mikulec's article about De Palma's Blow out he perfectly explained to us: The Split Diopter allows for Deep Focus cinematography but requires much less light. It also delivers a distinctive look that blends sharp and out-of-focus imagery all in one frame. Subjects in both foreground and background can be kept in focus. This was used a lot throughout the film. 

 

    There is another reason De Palma used the movement of the camera along with a lot of reflections of the characters throughout the film to show the confusion of how a character is feeling or the hidden secret that one can be hiding. Two perfect scenes to show it is when Jack is in the motel room listening to the recording of the accident while trying to find the right spot, De Palma showed the movement of the tape rolling while showing Jack's face can explain his head and the recording are both moving at a fast pace trying to find the right spot to prove innocence or even the expiration of what really happened at the scene and he doesn't want to be quite like what the detective told him to do. 

   

The other scene would be when Jack and the girl he saved from the assassination were talking in the cafe trying to convince her to help him find out what really happened that night. We can see as the camera moves/pans we see her reflection in the mirror behind her, we can see her clearly with nothing hiding but there are two of her just like the fact that she is playing two identities that Jack doesn't know that she was part of the accident on purpose. The use of reflection was perfect once we knew exactly why De Palma did it. 

Conclusion

    Though Realism and Expressionism are very similar, once we did closely into we can see the difference in it. Take a look at Prince of the City and Blow Out, hopefully, you would be able to understand the difference between the two! 

Links

http://thelastdetailfilm.weebly.com/realism.html 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082945/

http://thelastdetailfilm.weebly.com/expressionism.html 

https://cinephiliabeyond.org/brian-de-palmas-blow-out/