Bazin,.Andre.-.What.Is.Cinema. - fading aesthetics

f~rest. So really his tree still derives from the Elizabethan placardwhich in the end is only a signpost. If we bear these undoubtedtruths in mind we will then admit that the filming of a melodramalike Les Parents terribles presents problems very little differentfrom filming a classic play. What we here call realism does not at auplace the play on the same footing as the cinema. It does not doaway with the footlights. To put it simply, the system of conven_tions that govern the production and hence the text are, so to speak,at the initial level. The conventions of tragedy with their processionof odd-looking properties and their alexandrines are but masks andcothurni that confirm and emphasize the basic convention which istheater.Cocteau was well aware of this when he filmed his Parentsterribles. Again, since his play was markedly realist, Cocteall thefilm-maker understood that he must add nothing to the setting, thatthe role of the cinema was not to multiply but to intensify . . . ifthe room of the play became an apartment in the film, thanks to thescreen and to the camera it would feel even more cramped than theroom on the stage. What it was essential to bring out was a sense ofpeople being shut in and living in close proximity. A single ray ofsunlight, any other than electric light, would have destroyed thatdelicately balanced and inescapable coexistence. The crowdedcoach too may travel to the other end of Paris, to Madeleine'shouse. We leave it at the door of one apartment to discover it at thedoor of the other. We do not have here the example of the classicalediting short-cut but a positive part of the direction, which thocinema did not impose on Cocteau and who thereby went beyondthe expressive possibilities of the theater. The latter, being restricted,cannot therefore produce the same effect. A hundred examplescould be adduced to confirm the respect of the camera forthe stage setting, its concern being only to increase the effectivenessof the settings and never to attempt to interfere with their relationto the characters of the play. All the annoyances of theater are notso easily disposed of. Having to show each room in succession and90