The famous film critic Roger Albert once said, "If you don't know her face, you don't know the history of silent films." ”
And this face is Maria Fao connieti in joan of Arc's Passion in 1928.
Joan of Arc as Maria Fao connieri in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).
The Passion of Joan of Arc is Maria's only masterpiece as an actress, and her performance in the film has been passed down to generations and has become one of the most exciting performances in film history.
When it comes to why Maria excels in all the performances of the silent film era, the answer lies in the close-ups.
Maria's performance in Joan of Arc's Passion
Based on a real historical trial, Joan of Arc's Passion tells the story of the last days before Joan of Arc's sacrifice, and although director Dreyer set up a costly set, there are no set shots in the finished film, almost all of which consist of close-ups.
Think about the use of various types of shots in today's movies, the fixed shot is used to show the spatial position of the characters, the over-the-shoulder close-up shot allows the audience to understand the relative position of the characters in the space, wide-angle shots, mid-shot shots, moving shots, and editing are all to establish a sense of space in the picture.
Director Dreyer set up a costly set for the filming of Joan of Arc's Passion.
But Dreier did not use these techniques, but in almost all the pictures, the camera was aimed at the actor's face, only a few pictures were more than one person, and the camera barely moved.
It will be difficult for viewers to determine where the character really is, and it is also strange that the film has almost no form of exposition, and one may have heard of the real Joan of Arc* in history, but the film has little description of her life, or even why she was on trial.
* Joan of Arc: During the Hundred Years' War between England and France (1337-1453), she led the French army against the British invasion, and was finally captured and executed.
Joan of Arc was questioned by a jury for interrogation
Ultimately, the focus of Joan of Arc is not on the movement of the characters within the space, or the story that unfolds around them, but more on the characters themselves.
Dreier pushes the camera to show Joan of Arc being questioned by the jury, the scene is joan of Arc's perspective of the judge, we as the audience can also feel it, the themes of this film are about oppression, faith, martyrdom, religion, fear and conspiracy, which is a deep exploration of emotion, and uses one of the most expressive tools in the film - close-ups
Joan of Arc's Passion is cut out of her hair
The Exchange of Judges in the Passion of Joan of Arc
The huge influence of close-ups on the audience mainly comes from emotional contagion, allowing people to spontaneously imitate and synchronize the expressions, sounds, postures and movements of others, and ultimately converge on their own emotions.
Usually, when you see someone expressing an emotion, you involuntarily imitate that expression, just like yawning is contagious, and this physiological imitation will act on real emotions.
The most direct example of emotional contagion is the influence of parents' emotions on children's behavior in children's home education
Taking the opening scene of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" as an example, before landing, the film gives the soldiers 8 close-up shots, some people pray, some people stand waiting, some people have fear, and the audience's emotional explosion in the later movie is mainly from the emotional response stimulated by these close-ups at the beginning.
Most people think of the Omaha Beach landings, feel too far away from our daily lives, and do not feel the feelings of those in the historical scene, through the close-up director Spielberg put the audience under the position of the soldier, through the perspective of humanity to examine history, this is the effect of the combination of great directors and extraordinary performances.
The emotional commonality between the audience and the characters in a certain moment can rewrite the connotation of the whole play, make the viewing experience richer, and give the audience a new perspective.
A close-up from the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan, Omaha Beach Landing
In the case of the scene in The Godfather, director Coppola opens with an over-the-shoulder shot and then slowly advances the shot until Mike Corleone's face fills the picture.
If we compare two lenses together, we can see which one is more infectious. If you remove the close-up, although the plot can still be continuous, but through the uneasy look on Mike's face, Coppola digs out more layers of the story, whether this man should stick to the moral code and continue to be the proud son of the gang leader, or sit in the father's position through a murder.
The 10-second close-up of The Godfather allows Mike Corleone to fully express his inner feelings
It starts with an over-the-shoulder shot and keeps advancing into a close-up shot
Similarly, in the classic 1957 film Twelve Angry Men, if those close-up shots were removed and the whole film was shot with a wide-angle lens, the plot could remain the same.
But if the camera gets close to the actor's face, the audience will be brought into the role and as they slowly change their minds, they will eventually decide to pardon a person's life. From boredom, indifference, hatred to forgiveness and forgiveness, the empathy felt by the audience is attributed to close-ups of the jury, which is why the scenes in the entire film of "Twelve Angry Men" have only one room, but still make people feel the full emotion
A close-up from Twelve Angry Men
"Twelve Angry Men" has been favored by many film creators around the world, and in 2015 it was remade as "Twelve Citizens" by China.
Close-ups are the equivalent of a cinematic version of a theatrical monologue that not only shows the emotions of the characters, but also changes the audience's perceptions, and the reason why a great film evokes personal emotions is that it allows you to fit into the character's position, which is exactly what Maria and director Dreyer did when they filmed Joan of Arc.
They choose the real trial events in history to give us a subjective perspective on how a woman was tortured for her faith, and Mary's performance shows the deep emotions of human beings, so at the end of the film, the scene where Joan of Arc is burned is full of tension because the audience knows what she has endured and sees the world as she sees it.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Compared with the use of live-action alone, the close-up lens is more expressive, as if to bring us to the experience of Tolstoy's "film is another extension of literature".
In contemporary cinema, especially Hollywood films, we can find that close-ups are being abused, or even lost their original charm, through classic works like "The Passion of Joan of Arc", it is not easy to reflect on how close-ups are used, and what can it bring us?