Cinema Movements

When cinema first came out, it was just about recording motions. At the end of the 19th century, recording motions and showing this to the audience through films had a significant impact on the watching audience. The films shown had the aim of showcasing the capabilities of the camera, which was a technical invention, more than artistic concerns. Along with Cinema of Attractions, considered as the first movement of cinema, manipulating motion besides recording it, would come into the picture as the ability of the camera and film, which were the main instruments of cinema.

The Film d’Art movement first emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century, with the systematic adaptation of theatrical production to the cinema. The Film d’Art movement ensured that the cinema, which reached large audiences with the Cinema of Attractions movement, was performed with a qualified story, technical team, actors and directors. Cinema attained the status of “art” for the first time with the Film d’Art movement.

Following the Cinema of Attractions and Film d’Art, France was home to another movement that shaped cinema. French Impressionism, an avant-garde movement, soon replaced the Film d’Art movement, which rose to prominence with adaptations of theatre productions. French Impressionism was going to provide its audience with a cinema experience very similar to today’s cinema at a fairly early stage in the history of cinema.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the First World War (1914-1918) changed all of Europe. European countries entered a process of change that will shape our day in terms of matters such as economy, sociology, science, trade, industry and art. Cinema, which was still in its early stages at the time, became one of the main art disciplines that underwent this change. Cinema was permanently burdened with the effects of the First World War. German Expressionism was one of the movements that best conveyed this change experienced in cinema.

Russian filmmakers developed the theory of Soviet Montage, which shaped the history of cinema as well as Russian history during and after the First World War. In accordance with the developed theory, many Soviet montage films were shot for about 10 years. Soviet Montage films brought a brand new competence to the cinema with their innovative montage techniques.With this competence that strengthens the narrative, cinema has become an important propaganda tool for the manipulation of the masses in Russia, which was dragged from the 1st World War to the October Revolution and the civil war.

Between the two World Wars, the need for new and impressive propaganda methods emerged in order for the British people, who were struggling with the economic crisis, to hold on in unity. With the approach that emerged after long studies with the support of the British government, documentaries would not only be documenting, but also propaganda and commercial responsibilities would begin to be undertaken.

French Poetic Realism is the movement in which the most effective methods emerge for the transition to a layered structure in narration in cinema. With the innovative narrative techniques used in poetic realist films, cinema has turned into an art discipline that can act liberally, politically and without rules when necessary. These new competencies made a significant contribution to the development of independent and world cinema, especially French cinema.

Italian neorealism is a film movement that started after the fascist Benito Mussolini administration after the Second World War, in which the effects of the war and socio-economic collapse in Italy are conveyed. Italian neorealism is one of the cinema movements in which the foundations of today's modern cinema are laid.