Pure Cinema, or Cinema Pur, is a film movement about employing features of the media—imagery, rhythm, and cinematic—to tell stories as they are seen. Pure Cinema removes dialogue and narrative, but uses the camera and the filmmaker to elicit emotions and ideas.
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The Origins and Development of Cinéma Pur
Cinéma Pur, as an idea, may be traced back to the 20th century and has its background in Europe. We can say that it is related to the avant-garde cinema. Henri Chomette came up with the term, but it was early filmmakers like René Clair who gave life to the term. Many of these artists aimed at producing films that were not story-based but rather movement-based and contained elements of visual organisation and tempo. Their work was the creation of the foundation for what would be termed Pure Cinema.
Films like Ballet Mécanique directed by Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger and Symphony of a Great City directed by Walter Ruttmann are prime examples of this movement. These films were interested in the look of the thing—in the close-up, the doll shot, the montage, lens distortions, and dynamic cutting—less a matter of telling a story, more one that is actually experienced. The leaders of the movement were convinced that cinema could go beyond conventional story-telling and become the art of the pure visual image.
The Theory Behind Cinéma Pur
Cinéma Pur opposes the view of film as a means for narrating a story and focusses on the artistic uses of a camera. It postulates that cinema should be an autonomous art and that it does not belong to literature, theatre, or other forms of the visual arts. This philosophy is based on the assumption that it is possible to capture feelings that are wordless with the help of such specific tools of the film language as montage, camera movement, and optical ones.
The Dadaists, a group of rather provocative artists and filmmakers, viewed cinema as a chance to disregard narrative strategies. They made fun of such concepts as character, environment, and plot and saw them as the simplistic instruments of the bourgeoisie, which hindered the growth of the medium. Instead, they used an element of film—time—to subvert the typical ways of viewing time and space. Another famous representative of this movement was French feminist critic and film director Germaine Dulac, who called for a pure cinema that did not have any relation to other forms of art. Some of her works that demonstrate this approach are Thème et Variations and Disque 957.
How Cinéma Pur Operates
As one can guess from the name, Pure Cinema means that a show relies strictly on visuals and a cinematographic approach to telling stories and conveying emotions rather than using dialogues and linear plots. This approach is based on the concept of an image; it puts to work all the available and imaginable means of filmmaking. Directors of this movement use complex camera movements with elaborate stunts, effects, and sounds essentially to create meaning purely on the screen. The setting, the lens, and the post production are all orchestrated to elicit feelings and control the perception of viewers through the course of a film, and thus, the experience is very much embedded in the senses.
All in all, Cinéma Pur is not a conventional story, but it does not cease to be interesting. Through the appropriate employment of such components alongside other various features, these films are capable of drawing the interest of the audience, and the process becomes as engaging as most of the narrative-centred films. Pure Cinema reaches out to the audience and asks them to immerse themselves in the aesthetic experience of cinema as an art form. The concept of cinéma du look is quite distinct from the concept of film narrative and offers a special mode of film appreciation since it revolves around the aesthetic aspects of the film.
Notable Examples of Cinéma Pur
The theory of Cinéma Pur puts aside complex story lines, brilliant and eloquent speeches, and even computer-generated imagery (CGI). Still, it is not devoid of the capability of churning out films that are action-packed as well as heart-touching. Ladri di Biciclette is one of the best examples. It is also known as The Bicycle Thieves. This film became popular for its gritty realism, which can be explained by the fact that most of the actors are not professional and the scenes were shot in real-life settings, thus giving the audience the feeling they are watching real life.
In Ladri di Biciclette, there is not much use of dialogue, and the storyline is simple and not very sophisticated. The film is Pure Cinema at its best and gets the message across in images only, because of which it has an emotional core and a strong narrative. This approach gives the viewers a chance to watch the film more on the level of the gut and feelings and the craftsmanship of the frames and the actors’ faces. Therefore, through the use of visual storytelling, Ladri di Biciclette can be considered Cinéma Pur and has the ability to deliver an emotional message and change people without using the traditional approach to storytelling, which makes it a master piece of Cinéma Pur.
Cinéma Pur is an aesthetic approach, where the film is an appreciation of the visual language, where the image, montage, and all film techniques can tell a story with emotions without using words or a plot. As a result, Pure Cinema aims at simplifying the filmmaking process and going back to the basics in an attempt to deliver a pure visual experience. This approach does not only respect the core of cinema but also forces audiences to watch films on a much deeper and instinctual level, or at least it tries to, which we believe is the most valuable aspect of the medium.
