New cinematographic and editing styles brought about by French Impressionism both changed and utilized silent film acting techniques of the time. Whereas before most silent films relied mainly on actors\u2019\/actress\u2019 ability to show exaggerated emotions now actors could be more subtle with the help of post-production edits to achieve the depiction of their characters mental state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Examples in Action:<\/p>\n #1<\/strong><\/p>\n In <\/span>The Smiling Madame Beudet, <\/span><\/i>Germaine Dulac creates many dream sequences in order to reveal the true desires and feeling of the main character. Germaine\u00a0<\/span>Dermoz<\/span>, the actress portraying Madame Beudet, uses her eyes to reveal her dream state by looking up while fluttering her eyelashes. Using French Impressionist techniques such as lightning, blurriness, and the intercutting of her dream sequences gives the impression and a view inside her mind and true feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n #2<\/strong><\/p>\n In this scene the housemaid asks Madame Beudet if she can take the night off to spend it with her fiance. As the camera cuts back to the maid from Madame Beudet we see a superimposed image of a man, seemingly her fiance, rubbing his check against her while smiling (image below). The superimposed image fades away and the maid loses her smile. These French Impressionistic techniques allowed for actors to portray characters in a more subtle form that normally would be impossible in older pre-French Impressionist silent films. #3<\/strong><\/p>\n French Impressionistic directors use superimposed images in order to portray their character\u2019s state of mind or perception of reality. In this scene in particular, a pendulum of a clock is superimposed over Madame Beudet in her bed. As she wakes up from her bed to find her husband asleep in a chair she starts to get restless. Just as the pendulum starts to appear on the screen Madame Beudet moves in the same rhythmic motion in sync with it. This acting technique would never make sense without the use of the French Impressionist techniques that try to show restlessness with a combination of acting and images.<\/span><\/p>\n __________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n “French Impressionism: 1918-1929.” Film Styles & Movements<\/i>. CineCollage, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Max Fields As French Impressionism started to take root in the 1920s, directors started to employ visual distortion and superimposition with hopes of achieving subjectivity of reality. These new techniques coupled with those of silent film actors aimed to translate perception of reality into subjective cinematic terms so that the viewer might understand the … <\/p>\n![\"fff\"](\"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2015\/12\/fff.jpg\")
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