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"THE BOOK OF ILLUSIONS by Paul Auster and the Theory of CENERE

we have seen in this space and see some books and articles devoted to talking about the silent movies, books written from the theory, whether through aesthetics or film history, or from the memory of a creator or a spectator. Although many of them there is a clear vocation for short, it hardly is condensed as much as the stroke that has emerged texts of literary creation, as we cite below. Belongs to The Book of Illusions (2002), Paul Auster, a work that can be retrieved on newsstands these days thanks to a special selection from the bottom of the editorial Anagram. Versa about a teacher and writer who is writing a book about one of the last silent film comedians and his art introduces the following observations, which clearly link with the theory of film Rudolph Arnheim, in his defense of the pure image and its rejection of all that, like color and sound, come to the cinema to the accurate representation of reality:

"was too explicit, I thought, not enough space left to the imagination of the viewer, and the paradox was in that the closer the film to simulate reality, unless he could represent the world so much that is in us and around us. So I had always instinctively preferred the black and white films to color films, silent films to talking. It was a visual language, a form of storytelling projecting images on a two-dimensional screen. The incorporation of sound and color had created an illusion of a third dimension, but also had stolen the images purity. No longer were they who were responsible for everything, and instead of making the film the perfect hybrid medium, best of all possible worlds, sound and color had weakened the language that should be enhanced. That night ... I thought I was looking at a dead art, a genre quite late that he would never be practiced. And But despite all the changes that had occurred since then, his work is so fresh and exhilarating as was the opening day. That was because they understood the language they used. They invented a syntax perspective, a pure kinetic grammar, and except for clothing, cars and old furniture that appeared in the background, his work could not grow old. Thought was reflected in action, human will expressed through the human body, and therefore was forever. Most of the silent comedies were not bothered to tell stories. They were like poems, dream interpretations, as intricate choreography of spirit, and, being already dead maybe we can reach deeper than viewers of his time. The other side saw a great abyss of oblivion, and the same things that separated us were in fact that made her so fascinating: its silence, its lack of color, rhythm irregular, rapid. These were obstacles, and therefore not easy to see, but also relieved to images of the burden of representation. Is put between us and the film, and therefore no longer had to pretend we were watching the real world. The flat screen was the world, and existed in two dimensions. The third dimension was in our head. "


[Auster, Paul, The Book of Illusions , Barcelona: Anagram, 2003, pp. 23 and 24]

Keep in mind that the ideas of Rudolph Arnheim here put into the mouth of a character in a novel were presented in a 1932 text, cinema as art, when the short history of sound film until then could not compete in any way with the high summits of the dumb. So, could present the shortcomings of silent films as sound and color, as elements that characterized it as art. It is true that there was music in the room and could have colored frames, but there was no intention that these were the sounds and colors of reality, but they were related to the topic, the reason is represented, taxes from an artistic will. For him also constituted his art features the distortion of space-time relations through the assembly (the film is usually not the events real time and space), framing and different techniques that alter our perception and point of view, example through lighting, etc. Also showed the status of art that they had a two-dimensional images, not the three-dimensionality of reality, or in addition to sound and color are odorless or the possibility to be touched. Extravagant attempts were made to bring the cinema to the five senses and three dimensions, but were not more than an anecdote.

And in the end, even with their opposition to the incorporation of sound and color was questioned, his theory is not without validity if we consider the color and sound have not remained exactly the reality (if someone is able to say what it "really"), since they are often manipulated by a calling elements of style, lighting, desired effect, even documentaries. Therefore, we continue to believe (qualified) in the words of Arnheim and the narrator's Auster's novel which has led us to discuss this issue.

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Arnheim (1916), Mari

Italian cinema as a source of prestige sought recruitment for the great screen stars of the theater. So did many of the great divas, but also important actors will even directed their steps towards the direction also. One of the operations in that sense most talked about was the hiring of Eleonora Duse (1858-1924), something like Sarah Bernhardt Italian international reputation, although more and withdrawal of the theater. Producers Arturo Ambrosio and Giuseppe barattolo managed to convince and the actress herself was born a proposal: the adaptation of the novel Cenere ("Ashes") of Grazia Deledda, who years later would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1926). The role of Duse was such that in the credits his name appears next to the title of the film, as a top star and excuse the project. And even appear immediately after a word of Deledda dedicated to the actress and the main theme of the work. The film was made in 1916 by Febo Mari (1884-1939), who also handles the script and keeps to himself the other role.

The story is not great thing, a typical drama: A woman, Rosalia, is forced to abandon her child, Anania, next to the factory where the father of it for the boy might have a future. And become a man, from Rome, where he studied, Anania still longing for his mother, who in turn reminds his son wandering through the countryside. When people return the child for his mother and to meet Margherita, his love since childhood. After days of searching, mother and son are reunited, but Anania not forgive his mother's abandonment and running of the home.



The pain occurs in Rosalia attitude leads him to despair and death. At the last moment, Anania kisses the forehead of his mother, dead in the arms of several pastors.

The film is very exaggerated. It focuses a lot on that drop-reunion, but the 37 minutes that allow the viewer to experience the pain of mother and child, with no end to see what looks Margherita in this story. The actress is good but its interpretation contained, given the small gesture, that sometimes comes as a great virtue, stifles some passages with a lack of pace.

The world reduced to the difficult relationship between mother and son also has a unity of action, just two or three scenarios in people, and mainly one: the family home, the highest austerity. Roman's stay Anania only have the point of a window, and people, some scrub and the factory. This is presented in a beautiful, soft dolly, an exception (there are also some interesting off-field or some isolated expressive level) in a movie certainly static, in which the theater is not just joined well with the film.

was the only Duse experience in film, perhaps because of his advanced age (he would die eight years later) or because they may not like the idea. In any case, the film tends to have its lines in the books film history, not so much by their virtues, as it constitutes a clear example of the transfer of talent between the theater and film at that time. Keep in mind that even then there was the consideration of film as a show less noble than the theater, the real reason for the meeting of the bourgeoisie. The emergence of the great figures on the big screen theater was both a complementary vehicle to shine in their careers and prestige to a form of cinema as art.