French Impressionism & Avant Garde
This early French film movement emphasized subjective experience and visual rhythm.
Impressionist cinema
Chapter 6 links cinema’s commercial side to France’s recovery from this major historical event.
WW2
Chapter 6 shows how the “esoteric” tradition helped lay the groundwork for this later French film movement.
The French New Wave
Williams contrasts the “long take” with this editing technique that fragments space and time.
Montage
Williams argues that early French filmmakers struggled to decide whether cinema was primarily a form of entertainment or this.
Art
Williams includes this director of Cœur fidèle and La Chute de la maison Usher as a key “esoteric” filmmaker.
Jean Epstein
The introduction of this technology shifted focus from experimentation to dialogue-driven storytelling.
Sound
Williams’s analysis suggests that French film identity remains tied to this notion of creative control.
Auteurism
This French term describes classical scene construction designed for narrative clarity.
Découpage classique
“Esoteric” films asked audiences to do this kind of mental work, interpreting visual symbols rather than just following a story.
Active interpretation
French avant-garde filmmakers often borrowed inspiration from this artistic and literary movement focused on suggestion and mood.
Symbolism
Williams describes French cinema in the 1920s as torn between being a national art form and this type of industry.
Mass entertainment industry
The commercial/esoteric tension foreshadowed later debates over whether film should be art or this.
Entertainment
Williams notes that “esoteric” filmmakers often used soft focus, dissolves, and rhythmic editing to capture this subjective dimension of experience.
Inner emotion or psychological perception
Williams explains that “esoteric” filmmakers believed cinema could function like music communicating emotion through rhythm and tone rather than this element of plot.
verbal or narrative logic
According to Williams, one major obstacle for Impressionist filmmakers was this practical issue.
lack of commercial funding or audience support
The demand for more conventional stories came largely from this group within the film ecosystem.
producers or studio financiers
Williams believes that the “esoteric” impulse never disappeared but instead lived on in these stylistically bold directors.
Auteur filmmakers or poetic realists
For Williams, the “commercial” mode assumes an audience that prefers this type of viewing experience.
Passive or straightforward viewing?
In the 1920s, debates about film’s meaning often centered on whether cinema could express thoughts and emotions directly, or whether it had to use this element of conventional storytelling.
Narrative structure
This 1928 film about a French saint blends spiritual intensity and visual experimentation, fitting Williams’s “esoteric” model.
he Passion of Joan of Arc
Williams views the commercial pressure on filmmakers as part of this larger twentieth-century cultural condition.
Modernity
The ultimate takeaway of Chapter 6 is that French film history depends on this uneasy coexistence.
The balance between art and commerce
According to Williams, the move toward standardized découpage classique marked a shift from the creative manipulation of film form to this kind of industrially controlled filmmaking.
Standardized or factory-style production
Williams implies that “esoteric” cinema achieves its artistic depth by emphasizing this quality the idea that meaning emerges from mood, tone, and visual association rather than direct explanation.
Ambiguity