Scientific Studies on Rhythm in Film from 1880 to 1960 - Text 2
Beyond its experimental applications, the medium quickly fostered the emergence of an artistic interest in rhythm. Early filmmakers began to question the rhythmic capacities of their art and considered this issue one of its major stakes. In 1929, filmmaker Germaine Dulac wrote in the avant-garde magazine Filmliga: “In a film, as in music, one undergoes the influence of visual rhythm. A sequence of images should only unfold when prepared according to the laws of the strictest harmony.”[1] Rhythm indeed occupies a central place in her conception of film. Not only does she consider cinema to be intrinsically linked to this notion due to its mechanical and mathematical constitution, but for Dulac, narrative actions must also be structured according to a certain measure of rhythm in order to ensure artistic balance. Filmmaker Abel Gance likewise engaged with this question. In a lecture given at the Université des Annales in the same year, he stated: “I have often used in my films a technique that is more advanced and more audacious than that of my colleagues. The essence of this technique consists in bringing the deep laws of rhythm to the forefront.”[2] For the director, rhythm is here revealed through the filmmaker’s formal technique. Editing, camera mobility, and superimpositions appear to him as tools capable of providing a work with a genuine cadence. Extending this interest, Gance also invented the “triple screen” for his 1927 film Napoléon. This innovation was intended to enable the creation of a visual symphony, modeled on an orchestra in which the instruments are arranged spatially.[3]