ArtsLife

Camera obscura

Sometimes it’s the written word. Other times, it’s a still photo. If the camera is too revealing, we can communicate via video or sound. Said filmmaker Robert Bresson’s in his 1975 book Notes on the Cinematograph: “A locomotive’s whistle imprints in us a whole railroad station.” 

Communication is a game of elements. Film is the art of combining images and sounds; it excludes what overexplains or impresses.

“One should not use the camera as if it were a broom.”

Robert Bresson, Notes on the Cinematograph

A good filmmaker lets the mind dance with imagination. A movie is both a creative and viewing experience. It can be dull and instantly lively, like the pendulum of our everyday lives. 

“My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.” 

Robert Bresson, Notes on the Cinematograph

Read The Elements of Style