French impressionist cinema

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), directed by Jean Epstein

French impressionist cinema (also known as first avant-garde or narrative avant-garde) refers to a group of French films and filmmakers of the 1920s.

Film scholars have had much difficulty in defining this movement or for that matter deciding whether it should be considered a movement at all. David Bordwell has attempted to define a unified stylistic paradigm and set of tenets.[1] Others, namely Richard Abel, criticize these attempts and group the films and filmmakers more loosely, based on a common goal of "exploration of the process of representation and signification in narrative film discourse."[2] Still others such as Dudley Andrew would struggle with awarding any credibility at all as "movement".[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bordwell-1980 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Abel-1984 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Andrew-1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).