Zoetrope : a rotating device that creates the illusion of movement from a series of still images that are shown in rapid succession – probably the simplest way of demonstrating cinema in its purest form.

And so it follows that this channel is dedicated to the exploration of "Pure Cinema". What is Pure Cinema? Pure Cinema is a film theory that proposes that cinema is an art form distinct from the other arts – inherently different to literature, music, dance, drama, painting and poetry.

D.W. Griffith was arguably the first film-maker to emphasize that cinema was different to other performing arts. Griffith’s concatenation – through editing – of a series of short takes demonstrated that this was a far better way of conveying the importance and intensity of a scene than if it was filmed in one take from the point of view of an audience sitting in a theater watching the stage.

Griffith’s body of work – and his attention to editing – strongly influenced early Russian film-makers, especially Vsevolod Pudovkin and Lev Kuleshov, who in turn influenced Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov. These Russian film-makers created their movies using uniquely -cinematic- devices such as a canted (i.e. tilted) camera, movement of the camera (i.e. a changing point of view) during a scene, and the jarring juxtaposition of images (a technique known as “Russian Montage”).

Pure Cinema advocates the use of images – since they are the very essence of cinema – above all else. This is not to say that Pure Cinema disdains soundtracks, dialog or any other useful creative technique. Rather, the use of images should be taken as a point of emphasis rather than as a strict dictum.

Alfred Hitchcock – whose career started with silent film - practiced Pure Cinema. He believed that the convincing expression of thoughts and the creation of dramatic intensity could be best achieved through the thoughtful selection and arrangement of images – and with very few words. Other well-known practitioners of Pure Cinema have included Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini, David Lean and John Frankenheimer.

Why then should Pure Cinema interest us today? Well, because the short film – in other words, the type of movie that is published regularly on Vimeo – relies on the essential techniques underpinning Pure Cinema. This is, in part, due to the circumstances peculiar to the process of film production by (often solitary) amateurs.

This channel will showcase those Vimeo works that continue the tradition of Pure Cinema. So if you see an example of Pure Cinema on Vimeo, please tag it as such and raise a shout.
 

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