Rhythm

7. R H Y T H M

Where order in variety we see,

And where, though all things differ, all agree.

Alexander Pope, 1713

To speak Kant’s language, pure rhythm exists only in time which is a pure intuition a priori, that is why it belongs to pure sensuality.

Although more kinetic characteristics of motion can be defined, traditionally, as we have already said, three basic ones can be distinguished: rhythm, metre and tempo. In film aesthetics those terms are defined only generally or vaguely. Nothing is said at all about the motion in the sense we treat it in that work. It is usually replaced by one of its features, namely rhythm. Even that term, so often used, is defined very differently, not infrequently wrongly, by various authors. Sometimes even objective characteristics of rhythm are confused with clearly subjective ones, which certainly are significant, but not when its material basis is sought.

Generally, rhythm is formed when specified metre and composition patterns overlap with various designs and forms, owing to which conventional, mechanical order is continuously and interestingly disrupted, which makes it infinitely diverse, and simultaneously, organized. That main formative factor of a film it is neither designed nor constructed in an abstract way. Stiff macrorhythmic schematism is not the rhythm proper for film. In film art there is no place for already formed designs, exception only matters. Rhythm in its essence discloses the form of experience characteristic of the director.

Periodicity and repetition are the most obvious features of rhythm. In extreme cases rhythm can exist without periodicity, repetitions and precise proportions. In that way we arrive at the most general definition: rhythm is a series of alternate moments of duration in mutual relationship. It gives a film content and meaning. For the rhythm to exist, the rhythm which is of interest to us – formative and distinctive – there must be a principal rule against which it is defined. Rhythm can be thus defined as an organized order of motion. Repetition of composition factors makes the work move forward, consolidating its uniformity.

Creating an organic unity the elements (accented or unaccented duration), neither only denote time nor divide the film into meaningless parts. Repetitions in their essence denote a revival, vague prospect of hope , intuition, a harbinger of what is inevitable.

Film is, undoubtedly, a complex art. To a greater or lesser degree, depending on the type of film and the author’s individuality, it comprises aesthetic structures of almost all known arts. A question arises – what is this common element for all arts and what combines them in one integral film structure?

“In spite of diversity of forms and their use rhythm is homogeneous. There is only one general rhythmicity whose principles established towards human nature absolutely appear in all works of art, music or literature of all nations and all time “ (1).

“If there is, therefore, any common measure among numerous forms of expression, it can only be rhythm. It is only thanks to it that an effective correspondence les arts is possible” (2).

Rhythmic fluctuations are physical expression of internal stimuli. Rhythm, although its essence remains in abstract spheres, is a way of measuring and introducing time in a certain controlled and organized flow. It is vague, yet organized and full of expression sensation of motion. It can be said that rhythm is an essence, an expression of the phenomena created by the author in a creative and perceptive act. By way of it the artist expresses his subtle feelings and emotions, which by rhythmic formation of material, together with other elements of expression: content, pace, colour, texture and dynamics etc. is passed on to the audience in the course of creative act.

Paradoxically, rhythm is indefinable and always new, however, eternal and comprehensible.

“A lot is said about rhythm, constantly, for all reasons and very often without a reason. We vaguely know what it could be, we sense it even more vaguely and the more vague our knowledge about it is, the more it seems to us that we have respect mixed with fetishism for it. We think of it as of almighty divinity ready to perform miracles whenever we mention its name. Rhythm and eurythmy are very resonant words: articulating them a person admires himself and simultaneously thinks he enhances his own image in the interlocutor’s eyes.” In his work Quest-ce-que la danse?3 d’Udine says the following:

“It is certain that rhythm about which everybody speaks and which the artist uses, with a greater or lesser success, is one of the worst defined terms because it is a term most difficult to define. Always similar and always different, but only one and multiple, and when we want to capture it in what makes it a rhythm we are lost in explanations only about individual rules by which it is manifested. If there is an obvious identicalness by which we can recognize it, then its generality makes it vague and indefinable. Thus the definition can be only incomplete and eliminating.”

“ If every take is cut precisely at the moment the attention starts falling and then there is another take, the attention will continue to be tense and we can say the film has rhythm.

“What is called film’s rhythm is not what is captured from among time relations between takes , but it is overlapping of duration of every motion with the change of attention which it causes and satisfies. It is not the problem of abstract time rhythm but of rhythm of attention.” (4)

“Also the postulate of rhythmisazation of film, very modern but indefinable, can be met only owing to content because only the importance of certain sections or love for them may decide whether to treat certain episodes at length and others scantily, whether individual units are to be shorter or longer”. (5)

Although there is a great deal of truth in those opinions , they do not give a full answer because they do not value certain basic facts which are important to understand that so often used, but still insufficiently explained and defined phenomenon. The statements put too much emphasis on certain clearly subjective, i.e. changeable and at the same time inexact fact – the viewer’s attention which can vary depending on other factors, for instance taste, the level of culture, social environment, the knowledge of the subject, tiredness etc.

At this stage we have to aim at separating those elements to deliberately devise out of them a certain universal film structure which will affect all people regardless of the above mentioned differences.

Order and harmony are in the world’s nature. The world is governed by harmony of elements. Let us for a while concentrate on examples of perfect involuntary rhythmic synchronization of thousands of elements in the animal world. For example glow-worms fly in a group, glowing at the same time to a specific beat as if directed by a special drum. In thick grass the female could have difficulty in noticing the glowing lonely male. Also fish which gather in shoals , swim synchronously and rhythmically. The reason must be a feeling of more confidence resulting from being in a homogeneous group, which functions like an enormous organism and by its size drives away an enemy. Being in a group, acting in a synchronized and systematic way also definitely makes finding food easier.

Synchronization and rhythmic motion are a pillar of various aspects of human and animal world. Research showed that drivers avoided blocking city roads by acting spontaneously in a synchronized way, moving as a homogenous convoy of vehicles whenever possible.

Human consciousness may basically result from rhythmical, synchronized electric impulses of nerve cells. Researchers have discovered that the rhythm of brain stem neuronal discharge has a specified frequency (40Hz). It has not been explained well enough, but the presence of synchronization and rhythmic motion is obvious. The most important for us is the fact that the essence of natural phenomena, especially of living organisms, is order and harmony, which in the aspect of time and space is called rhythm.

Rhythm is also closely linked to such biological functions of organism as breathing, heart beat, pace etc. In humans distinct rhythm causes physiological reactions – more intense functioning of organs, involuntary swinging or beating time. All those are signs of a deeply rooted in humans sense of rhythm and its need at a subconscious, even physiological level.

On the basis of psychological experiments a phenomenon , the so called nomophilia, that is a tendency towards regularity. It seems that the need of order, proportion and harmony results from human willingness to understand and perceive the world , which is possible only when it is translated into comprehensible relations and measurements, defined for a human being .

In fact rhythm provides us with regular doses of information, exposing from among different layers of work the most important ones. The more this dosing of frequency, length, intensity and tone is appropriate to the assumption of the work resulting from the need of passing on specific content and impressions, the stronger the aesthetic experience is.

It performs another important function of overlapping of layers of work horizontally ,which makes it a homogenous structure. It means that rhythm is not the essence of the process, but also a certain structural model in a given medium, by which a defined human motif affects our mind and emotions. The structural essence of that motif is reflected in a rhythmic form in the given medium. It is a reflection of spiritual and emotional processes in a given material. As a form rhythm is closely linked to the content on which it directly depends, and which it sublimes to the range of aesthetic experience. Rhythm is an essential and universal form of meaning and expression.

7.1. FILM’S RHYTHM

Rytm jest rytmem ze wszystkimi jego cechami, wyraża się zewnątrz, ale wewnątrz jest nabity rozlicznymi myślami, inaczej to nie jest rytm.

Rythm is rytm with all its features, it expresses externally, but internally it is dense with numerous thoughts, otherwise it is not rhythm.

Wsiewołod Meyerhold

Film’s rhythm cannot be as pure as music rhythm, which is an abstract organization of sound material out of which it creates any designs according to certain rules. Film’s rhythm refers to a moving image of reality, out of which it creates its forms and its meanings. In film there are no pure cadences, but clearly combined rhythmic structures, which cannot be expressed in figures only. By arithmetical signs distance between accents can be marked, but in practice they cannot come down to figures of the play of colours, lights, texture, concise meanings etc. which with their infinite diversity do not submit to any strict formal rules.

Image is synthetic in its nature. “It gathers around the notion of the object and its presentation secondary or coincidental notions, which join here and together with it psychologically form a certain ostensible unity, less or more incorrect.” (6)

Motion itself (at an elementary level) is meaningless, it presents a fundamental, universal “substance” present in every element of film subject. Rhythm is a reflection of our feelings and emotions in film material (image and sound registered on a film and containing in itself specific values and meanings). In this way it becomes a specific form of our experience, in its structure identical to emotions themselves. Rhythmic fluctuations are traces of physical symptoms of internal experience and thoughts. In the rhythmic play we feel also symbolism of those internal stimuli, as those are the forms which have accompanied those emotions for ages. Rhythm is an infinite, diverse motion.

Motionless photography is not clear enough in terms of film. It expresses emotions and has a function of conveying meaning only when it moves.

Film’s rhythm is, undoubtedly, specific, first – by the threshold of observation which the eye cannot cross and which makes the precise relations of duration imperceptible for the eye and – secondly – by directing it to space aspect.

We can say that the eye is clearly less sensitive to rhythm than the ear. Whereas the ear registers time differences of one tenths of a second and without a bigger effort distinguishes twenty beats per second, the eye despite a certain awareness of different length of visual stimulus duration remains incapable of precise defining. The eye barely notices a take lasting for one eights of a second – (3 images of a frequency of 24 images per second, which represents the so called komat, human moment – the time a person needs to realize the impressions received by any of the senses). With difficulty and only for a short time the eye is able to perceive successive images lasting for one sixths of a second ( 4 images of a frequency of 24 frames per second). A short experiment on the editing table can help us realize it. Let us place one, two, three etc photograms between two pieces of blank and make them run with a usual frequency (24 frames per second). The first frame remains unnoticed, if there are two there will be only a blink, if there are three we will see what has been photographed, but we will see no motion etc. In this way sight proves to be the less efficient sense in time perception. Thus we arrive at a conclusion that first of all the ear is the organ of rhythm, i.e. the organ of time proportions. It is created to perceive duration, intensity and the direction of sound, time and space dimensions. Here the ear is a link between the perception of sound and image, a moment, in my opinion, very important for visual and acoustic art, which the film, though still unexplored, is.

The eye is made to perceive space. It is first of all the organ of space relations and proportions. That is why the eye registers relative duration of motion and intensity of objects in relation to space properties. Moving objects change sense by defining themselves in space in relation to other objects and in relation to the eye, which perceives duration an dynamics as a result of a changes of space. The changes of distance, location and direction in relation to the observer (a camera) exert influence on the intensity of perception.

Sound to a large extent affects the perception of passing time. We can change its dynamics or proportion in the visual layer (sound affects the lengths of takes – it shortens them or extends, accentuates particular elements etc).

Sound defines time, silence belongs to eternity.

In the clash of sound and image another phenomenon is occurs – nonsimultaneous simultaneousness of auditory and visual stimuli in film. Each of those senses receive information differently and through different channels sends it for analysis to the brain.

The speed of light is much higher than the speed of sound. That is why while changing the frame we should see the object first, then hear the sound which unfolds. Like in the nature, first we see lightening ,and then we hear a thunder. But despite a higher speed of light, paradoxically, a visual stimulus reaches our consciousness about 150m/sec later than sound stimulus because it circuits by that time longer in the network of neurons of human brain, where it is analyzed.

Looking and listening at the same time we are able to register and realize much weaker stimuli than the stimulus threshold of each of those senses separately. Signals from two independent sources, the eye and the ear, join in the cells of human brain (tegmentum – tectum). The biggest intensity takes place when the sight receives a signal of about 150 m/sec earlier than the hearing. It is then that we register the stimulation simultaneously, which results in the phenomenon of synergy.

So, practically, the consequence is that if we want to obtain an impression of simultaneous appearance of image and sound in film, we have to delay sound by 3 or 4 frames in relation to image. If we want to have an accent in a particular place, the sound should be delayed by 3 or 4 frames in relation to the place of visual accent.

A practice shows, most often appearance of sound is set in the splice of the image, which is a mistake as it results from the previous argument. When stimuli reach receptors at the same time, stimulation is weak. Experiments carried out in the 20^th century (Meredith) show that nerve cells receiving simultaneously sight and hearing stimuli are disorientated because after every stimulation the neuron must “rest” for a while and the moment or rest after receiving data from hearing is exactly the moment when the signal from visual tract fibres comes. It results in weaker stimulation even if compared to a signal which only one sense would cause.

Accidental sounds or music create totally unexpected and most often accidental proportions in the flow of film’s rhythm. In film’s time every moment means something . “ Film has helped me a lot in discovering and understanding the role of time in music. Because it is in film that two short seconds sometimes mean so much, they are seen when they are empty.” (7)

Film’s rhythm is fully sensed only if it is combined with content having basic informative and emotional charge. Aiming at more precise definition of that notion, which cannot be fully defined, let me quote one more definition of film’s rhythm. Film’s rhythm is a complex visual and audio movement composed of three mutually overlapping layers: motion (rhythm) of presented facts (objects in the image), sound motion (rhythm) and the motion of presenting (camera and editing). Only through their complex, vertical, “polyphonic” combination film’s rhythm materializes.

Time relations of takes and motion inside them only mean little. They do not result in any deeper emotion or aesthetic experience. If takes are proportionally organized, cuts represent a regular counterpoint to vague, tangled and free rhythmic flow which they pull into an organized flow in a specific way. Those precise time proportions of takes are called metric grid /measure/ metryczną siatka filmu of film.

Various forms of film’s rhythm at an elementary level (motion and the appearance of an actor in the frame, a change of a take, the beginning or an end of movement in a take, the beginning or an end of a ride/jazda or another movement of a camera, the change of key, brightness, colour dominant, introducing a new and intense colour etc) having the same kinetic characteristics (speed, direction, duration, dynamics etc) in their essence have the same value for us. Thus, if a movement in one carrier has the same characteristics as the other movement in the other medium, it creates the same or similar impression although the carriers of that movement are different.

That is why we can freely use motion, creating homogeneous , complex structures regardless of the variety of media and motion carriers like it is in a complex, multilayer film material.

Film never provides us with simple registration of a certain motion where no other rhythm than the rhythm of this particular motion can be present. The relations of duration and the intensity of motion and takes combined with the sound layer create their own rhythm, which makes sense only if combined with the rhythm of presented events. The rhythm of film medium emphasizes, extends or contrasts with the rhythm of event which next determines the visual and acoustic rhythm of film image, which as a whole gives a specific film’s rhythm. That rhythm is so flexible and diverse that adopting to “lyrical soul motion, passing dreams, vibrations of consciousness..” expresses it in its structure.

Sense in film is provided by images, rhythm, on the other hand, maintains, emphasizes or transforms information which these images contain, it helps in exposing and interpreting them by adding distinctiveness. “If film is treated in the first place as objective reality, organized in a certain space, then its sensually most noticeable expression, its most obvious meaning, is attained in duration. << Becoming>> of a film does not result, like in music, from rhythmic form but from the events of which the film flow is composed. It is the time objectively presented individuals experience not a subjective duration formed and modulated by pure rhythm.” (8)

I cannot agree with such an assumption. Becoming in film results from events, but as it is a structure, a personification of the essence of events it does not mean that it does not results from rhythm. Becoming of film does not result form an abstract scheme, as in music, its substance has to be brought down to specific schemes. They are extremely needed for harmonious and clear passing on of information and satisfying eternal nomofilic/nomofilicznych human needs, which most probably arise from basic needs – the clarity and readability of a structure.

That time is not only the “time which individuals experience”, but a quality and duration of motion formed by requirements of dramatic effect and rhythm. Underlapping and overlapping have for a long time been adopted figures in film. Extension and shortening of a plot, slowing down and accelerating images, different editing figures, various lenses, mis-an-scene types or positions of a camera – all that can dramatically change the expression of time, its subjectivity or objectivity, and is a means of its control and formation.

Film time results from movement whose form is rhythm, conditioned and justified in turn by dramatic reality. The essence of film’s rhythm is in contradiction with the realistic form of real world.

The director should not then define the length of takes and the composition time of the work according to that uncontrolled “realistic” duration of events and activities which he wants to show, but define them when working out the material and including in a specific metre, rhythm and tempo determined by the idea defined according to emotional and syntactic essence of the work.

The length of takes is conditioned by the need of perceiving their content only at the lowest level, while at the higher one it is also conditioned by the rhythmisization process, indispensable to the perception of any artistic form continuing in time.

A person experiences film’s rhythmic message with his whole nature. That is why it is so important for human expression. A person’s movement has a psychological reflection in film because human physicality is not a separate sphere, but the other side of mind, inseparably linked with it.

As film’s rhythm is, as already mentioned, conditioned by space and by everything of which rhythm it is, it can be neither subjected only to formal laws nor strict formal rules. It does not mean that rules do not exist and should not be sought, analyzed and formulated. As a matter of fact the main aim of this book is an attempt to pave that way.

The strength of film’s rhythm lies in its freedom and complexity. It develops simultaneously in space and time, in the visual and audible layer, through sensual and rational perception. Film conveys its content in the most complex way by image and sound, motion and motionlessness, word and music, light and silence.

“Determinants of visual rhythm are not transcendent towards every possible work but immanent for each of them. Rhythm depends on what has to be rhythmisized. It can be assessed only in the context of the whole work, not on the basis of rules considered to be absolutely << binding>>. Rhythm is good but not only in relation to content”. (9)

Not undermining the accuracy of these opinions, I would like to draw attention to one more aspect. I mean anthropometric approach to everything connected with a human being, which have already discussed in the previous chapters. For the reason that film is for human being , about a human being and created by a human being, it is also subject to anthropometric conditioning. All movements of a person in a frame , all movements of a camera and editing come from a human being, and a human being is the audience, letting pass through his anthropometric prism only what is subjected to that measure. It is thus understandable for a person and at a higher (level) it can be pleasant and exciting, which is already included in the domain of artistic expression.

Rhythm is not an automatic measuring of duration, but personification of successive movements (events) of different length and intensity in various combinations, which reflect subtle soul vibrations and recesses of human thoughts. “Actually, rhythm is a form, in the gestalt meaning of the word, the most convenient form – thanks to extremely good decomposition of its elements – and consequently a temporary expansion of noticeable forms. There is, however, one reservation – that rhythmic form is an expression of a certain intentionality. It is a way in which perception finds against itself everything at which it aims” (10).

“From a more general, aesthetic point of view let us note also: film cannot be separated from its form as it is possible in music, where, for example, we can say that symphony – in a certain sense – is ideal, different from the interpretation it assumes. It is impossible because the subject of a film exists in only one, defined form being its expression and its way of existence. <<Ideal>> existence of a film lies in its recorded reality”.(11)

Once again I have to emphasize that film’s rhythm is not “designed and constructed by abstract means. Rhythm in film must be created organically, in accordance with the director’s understanding of life, in accordance with his search for time”. (12)

Let us come back for a while to the audible layer of film, which in film’s rhythm analysis is often omitted although it presents inseparable and not less significant element of a complex phenomenon, which film’s rhythm is. As the eye is first of all the organ of space relations and the ear the main organ of rhythm, sound plays especially important role in modulating rhythmic morphology of film.

I believe that culminating points of film at the level of the so called great rhythm * have to be clearly accentuated also in their sound layer because otherwise rhythmic plasticity is lost. Time relations in film are articulated to a large extent by sound thanks to the principle of structure penetration and the dominance of stronger organization over the weaker one (G. Ligeti). (13)

Sound factors impose their way of organization. Apart from music in the sound layer, the run of specific sounds, murmur run and even the dialog can be rhythmisized. Time organization is absolutely dominant in the sound layer of a film although it is “contaminated” by space aspects, while space organization is dominant in the image layer, but it contains elements of time organization. Overlapping of the two layers usually consists in the sound layer imposing on the image its time organizations. Sound as an abstract material has incomparably bigger freedom as far as expressive organization of its structural elements is concerned. It leads us to a speculation that the sound layer of a film is often, in terms of rhythm, more clear than image layer although the latter in the whole history of reflection over film has been given absolute priority in every respect.

Sound is present innermost and for the longest time in a person. We hear it as early as in the prenatal period, so before we are born and open our eyes. Sound is our first contact with the outside world. Image comes later. Sound again activates that primary, and thus the deepest communication channel and moves the innermost layers of our imagination, which nothing else reaches so directly.

What is extremely important for art is that sound is a material little concrete and because of that it is very associative medium which ideally subjects itself to abstract formation. Image is much more informative in its concreteness and preciseness, which may make it more meaningful as regards communication, but for us artistic aspect is important, not conveying information or telling stories. Artistic film creates an experience . It does not inform directly about true reality. In that artistic meaning sound is most often irreplaceable.

Film has never been merely a moving image. It has, however, always been a sound image regardless of music or other sound layers having been set to image or not. If it is deprived of sound, even the most vivid/plastyczny and rhythmic film image loses its distinctness and dynamics. The principle, however, does not work the other way round. It can be easily proved at the editing table, turning off the image, then sound; or in everyday life when we follow a film on TV only by means of sound when we are, for instance, in the kitchen. Most often the dynamics of a plot is enough understandable and distinct, we follow it without any problems. Obviously, I do not have in mind the reference features of sound but its emotional expression. If we, however, turn of the sound of a horror film or of a film with high tension plot, then rubbish and falsehood drift from the image and tension and dynamics fall dramatically.

I do not mean to say that sound is to have propriety over image, I just would like to emphasize its function as equal factor of film image. Sound, especially if abundant and prepared with intuition, does not lose anything, on the contrary, concentrating our attention on it may seem more interesting and distinct than when we follow it together with the image onto which it transfers part of its emotional charge. Let us also add that sound which is not totally specific stimulates our imagination stronger than more precise film image which so precisely informs our sight sense that there is no room for imagination.

Let us remind some other known facts before we proceed to the analysis of rythm basis. We do not notice what continuously extends or even keeps appearing. To be more precise, after some time we become unresponsive to it. And, the opposite, everything which is new is perceived by our consciousness exceptionally carefully and intensively. Thus we can arrive at the following conclusion: to sense continuum we refer to discontinuum as in reality we notice only differences and relations in that which is changing. By discontinuum we sense continuum, i.e. continuous development in time.

Aiming to define the essence of unrhythmic movement on the one hand, and rhythmic on the other, the two phenomena need to be differentiated and separately analyzed. In unrhythmic movement we often disregard the fact that in the majority of phenomena where we deal with successive occurrence of movement elements in time more or less distinct subjective rhythmicity appears.

Successive film development can be of two types. The first one is simple an extension of movement. The movement extends in time on the basis of successive occurrence of single movements which by their defined duration extend and move forward the flow of the film. The film keeps extending by a new motion unit, in that case by unequal movements of different duration.

In some cases it should extend continuously by a certain defined regular unit, flowing evenly. Such an even succession is in music called isometric, which we can adopt to film terminology, too. As anthropometric film module has already been discussed, it can only be repeated here once again that metric succession is equal and regular, and the development of film’s plot flows in an uneven and irregular motion. As I have already mentioned, precise time organization of film flow requires the motion to be “embroidered” on the metric grid/metryczna sieć of film or, in other words, to be possible to be brought down to anthropometric metrum.

7.2. ENERGETIC CELLS OF RHYTHMIC MOTION

Nulla regula sine exceptione[1]

Order provides elements of work with content and meaning. So far we have discussed one type of progressive motion, namely simple extension of movement by successive units. It can be a continuous movement or disrupted, which means movement where new separate movements appear.

Another type of motion is rhythmic progressive movement, based also on disruption of movement, but also on the phenomenon of various intensity of the new movements, and formally – on the alternating layout of arsis and thesis elements in the rhythmic succession. This alternation in the composition of factors leads to a very important phenomenon in the development of rhythm, namely to the creation of two- phase cells composed of a part of stronger thesis and weaker arsis ones. Those are the energetic cells of rhythmic movement.

The essence of rhythmic motion is, thus, contained in its two-phase pulsation. In the first phase concentration of energy occurs, while in the second one a discharge. Such a rhythmic motion gets a specific character as it is no longer only the extension of motion in time, but energetic pulsation, tightening and relaxing of matter. Those pulsations represent energetic act of the matter in motion, the materialization of emotions. Emotion is an energy in motion.

Rhythm forms are specific for every film material. In that motion there are elements of different provenance: texture, colour, light key etc. Together they form innumerable sequences of expression combinations.

Rhythm always remains the essence of expression and is a universal means of communication between real phenomena , artistic structures and human soul.

Let us come back to elementary rhythmic unit. It is dual, i.e. consists of two phases: charging and discharging of concentrated energy. The two rhythmic phases are energetically linked between each other and represent the rhythmic pace which a film maintains.

In the science about rhythm the first element or rhythm phase is called arsis (Latin ars, artis – proficiency), the other one – thesis (Latin thesaurus – treasure, a abundant supply). In the arsis phase the movement concentrates and accumulates energy, so that in the thesis phase the accumulated energy can discharge in the undertaken movement and so that in arsis, the following phase, the movement can charge energetically for the effort of a new leap in time. In that phase the rhythmic flow receives as if a new dose of fresh energy, while the second phase makes use only of the initially received energy impulse and acceleration. Thus the rhythmic motion is brought down to a basic scheme which has a form of iamb although trochaic form is to a certain extent “natural”. Tripartite forms are in a sense less “natural”, if we can classify them so. Dual and tripartite forms are the pillar of all other more complex ones, which can always be brought down to the two basic ones.

Various movements have various weight i.e. dynamic value, let us determine their place in the basic rhythmic cell.

Rhythm becomes especially formed and distinctive if characterized by regularly placed accents. In the basic rhythmic cell the stronger accent usually falls on thesis, the weaker one on arsis. Such an accentuation especially clearly emphasizes the basic rhythmic character of that elementary cell. The foundations of it can be found in the human physiology, starting with the aim to organize information, group it in a specific, easily assimilated parts, by acquired needs for order and proportion, comodulation and nomofilia, and up to anatomical and biological conditioning of a human signified by characteristic two phases.

A person is predisposed to alternately make stronger and weaker movements , which results from the need of saving and gathering energy in the weaker phase to be used in the following movement of bigger strength and acceleration. Weaker movement is something similar to a relaxation, stopping or even supporting when accumulating energy for the following pace.

7.3. ASPECTS AND CATEGORIES OF RHYTHMIC MOTION

Będziemy grać w ten sposób,

dopóki i wasz puls i mój

Nie staną się jednym.

Duke Ellington

We can classify rhythm into four categories: regular, irregular, micro- and macro-rhythm.

Regular rhythm is a rhythm in which within one sequence of units throughout the whole flow of specific rhythmic units regular and alternate arsis and thesis moments occur, created by permanent changes of combinations of proportionally long movements. We can speak of a regular rhythm if its accents fall in a specific regular rhythmic scheme. Such a rhythm is “isometric” because it coincides with regular isometric metre, making its movement (arsis and thesis) rhythmical. In film it can be any regular two-phase movement which is repetitive, for instance, marching of a man, a flight of a bird etc. However, such a rhythm of a correct, strictly regular periodicity and accentuation after a certain time becomes too monotonous and little distinct. Only free rhythm of the plot at the level of the so called macrorhythm makes it kinetically interesting and expressive owing to the abundance of its forms.

Irregular rhythm (free) is a rhythm which freely forms on the regular metric network/grid providing it with an anchorage and specific relations. It cannot be brought down to certain rigorous, rationally constructed, regular schemes of the plot. It is only dependent on regular metre if it has been set. Irregular and nonmetric rhythm is the most popular film’s rhythm.

MicroRhythm covers smaller areas of film movement formed in rhythmic units. We could limit it to minor, regular or irregular arsis and thesis pulsations of basic rhythmic steps. At that level the rhythm rather regulates movement and time pulsation than participates in forming expression.

MacroRhythm is an extensive and complex rhythm of the plot and tension. It is not only superior in relation to microrhythm but also presents a different quality. Its main accents fall on places of dramatic climaxes where usually crucial points are and in which a change of kinetic character of plot flow is. That rhythm is a certain free plot and tension fluctuation which gives the movement an expressive form. Only at the level of macrorhythm movement is able to create forms and be expressive.

The accents in macrorhythm are in film dependent on numerous elements (in the first place on the plot and tension, on the location of the camera and the direction of the movement, type of lens etc), so it cannot be brought down to rigorous defined schemes where accents would fall on precisely defined places. It is at that level that the freedom, abundance and distinctness manifest.

It flows freely, creating abundant, distinct abstract kinetic forms. Only at that level rhythm becomes one of the main artistic means of formation, that is, of film expression. Only at this level a proper rhythmic form makes the artistic work “winged or heavy, lively or solemn, shy or brave as a man.”

As that is the plane in which the rhythm accomplishes, let us stop here to define and analyze its elements.

Macrorhythm appears in its basic form as rhythmic motif. Motifs form more complex units which can be called rhythmic phrases, periods, fragments or episodes. Owing to piecing together and binding motifs and bigger rhythmic units (periods, fragments) rhythmic themes are formed and together with their features as well as mutual relations create motion tectonics of a film.

Every single motif, phrase or theme is a certain kinetic “gesture” of specific expressive properties. That is why rhythmic motifs, phrases, themes and generally all rhythmic phenomena can be analyzed separately from their content only theoretically because they acquire their appropriate characteristics, motivating their presence only as kinetic expression of a definite content (material or formal). Without it we have only specified, more or less complex but often abstract rhythmic scheme. Rhythmic motifs, phrases and themes are valid if they carry content and expression. The division into rhythmic and plot motifs, and dramatic and content motifs can be made only theoretically, in practice they are inseparable.

The basic rhythmic motif could be defined as a specific group of movements of various length and dynamics which create a specific whole/unit/całość of its own characteristics. A motif would be a plot and rhythmic unit, possible to differentiate, composed of movements of various lengths and various dynamic weight creating a characteristic rhythmic whole. A motif develops its kinetic gesture in the network of modular cuts. It has its specific character and expression. It is by large independent of a take border. It can be a whole either smaller or identical or filling several shots.

A motif or kinetic plot and rhythmic forms creates its “arabesque” simultaneously in two dimensions. In the first case movements are of various lengths and dynamics, while in the other it is a complex plot and drama phenomenon in image and sound. Every motif is also a system of vertically organized elements (a complex phenomenon of content and ideological, cultural, civilization, social, psychological and genre etc background) and horizontally organized (kinetic development in time) ones. A sequence is a group of frames comprising one motif according to which it is in a special way formed morphologically.

Combining motifs into groups and into bigger units is done with the help of plot and rhythm’s immanent energy. It occurs by rhythmisizing motif kinetics, i.e. by forming it into a specific morphological whole by defining duration and placement of accents according to expressive structure of a given motif. The whole expressive form of a film results from expressive “gestures” of single motifs and themes as well as binding them and counterpointing in expressively formed film kinetics.

A motif as a whole form is distinguished by the fact that accents fall in an alternate way on every second or every third movement and on their combination at the second, higher level of accent (stronger). Moreover, a motif usually has a culminating central accent. The main kinetic accent can also be called a kinetic gesture node because that expression can vividly reflect its essence.

A motif can be composed of movements of a group of movements, which occur in an alternate way, but have a different length and dynamics. From the elements of a motif innumerable combinations of changes, lengths, accentuation or grouping can flow which are still, however, indistinct until they overlap vertically with plot and dramatic elements of the film. Only then can they assume their real function, form and meaning. In the rhythmic movement considered autonomously, individually fundamental features of movement are lost.

Kinetics of film material is most often an equivalent, an analogy of the content (motif) on another plane and it forms in a significant way the drama of the scene.

A significant homeomorphy of those layers is undeniable. Kinetic features corresponding to a specific gesture represent reflections of a person’s psychological motivation. Accordingly, kinetic features of a film motif express sublime essence of director’s experience.

Film’s rhythm fulfils itself in a time dimension and if we consider a content charge of image, illusion, space it becomes a time, space, audiovisual form, the most complex a person knows.

7.4. COHESIVE AND EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION OF RHYTHM

Only by expressing a new rhythm,

a painter truly creates.

Henry Matisse

The type of experience itself imposes on the motion a specific character – time, speed, duration and dynamics. Time organization of a film emphasizes and distinguishes specific subjects and at a higher level also accompanying them spiritual dynamics of experience. The image layer presents objects, environment, people, actions, situations and drama, while the time layer the structural essence of the experience which by the expression of its kinetics directly and deeply affects the emotions of the audience. The two layers overlap. The overlapping falls within expressive motion dynamics/ dynamika ruchu wyrazowego. Rhythmic formation provides the film with direct emotional expression, the element which the film shares with poetry and music.

Certain films or their parts do not require such an organization as they tackle subjects emotionally indifferent and such a precise rhythm form is not needed. Some films can only have a linking function or “breath”, so the form of direct expression is not essential for them, thus the free form of a film is more appropriate.

Those elements of motion which we consider the internal structure of music (motion of various character – tension and relaxation, raising, falling and dying out) are structural material also for a film. Music motif of a specific character can be translated as an expression of a whole register of mood and feelings of a similar structure and character. The nature of music does not allow for its simple realization in its medium.

It is different in film. It is not necessary for the director, as it is in case of a composer, to explain in his programme speech / wypowiedz programowa what the specific fragments mean. In film the meaning is much more complicated, but it cannot be forgotten that the film work should also make use of something more general, deeper, more universal - its dynamics of spiritual motion, reflected in film material and formed according to emotional essence of the events. I have in mind the emotions which result from the form of image and sound, but not from being distressed by plot and the fate of the characters. The basis for concrete and overloaded with information images are ideal, universal standards expressing spiritual dynamics of an experience reflected in film material.

Film chooses motion (in the broadest meaning of the word), organizes them and makes them dynamic. In comparison with the dramatic layer movements acquire significance, expression, are intensified or decreased. Movements thus give meaning to dramatic elements and vice versa. Owing to that kinetics in film acquires another meaning, creating fictional space and time. Those accented, measured and improved movements are carriers of film’s time and space.

As movements in film come from various media and arts, a problem of their combination arises. Perfect merging of various layers in film structure can take place on one platform only – kinesthetic, which represents the reflection and sublimation of spiritual and emotional motion. It concerns a very complicated establishment of heterogenic relations, which have to unite to form a consistent film work.

7.5. FILM NOTATION – RECORDING FILM MOTION

To name a phenomenon, means to understand it,

and to register it, means to master it.

N.D.

Attempts at recording motion by means of specific signs were made quite a long time ago. They resulted from the need of recording dance and ballet movements. Up to now no generally accepted method which would meet requirements has been designed. Kinetic script or motion notation is referred to as: motography, rhythmography or kinetopraphy.

Film notation is recording film motion in all its layers and sublayers. It depends on numerous composition factors and thus it cannot be fully homogenous. Certain basic rules can be established, however every director has to adopt them to his aims and needs. A lot of caution is needed here as every notation shows a tendency towards extending beyond functionality optimum.

Designing a notation, homogenous and immediately comprehensible for all, is not possible. Notation makes sense if it is necessary and justified by the author’s intention and idea, different for every author. I consider necessary designing a basic way of notation and a pool of universal means of its record.

First, uniform time units have to be defined so as to present basic time proportions in the notation. The notation should, however, be as simple as possible because it in itself is not an aim. The most important is film composition, for which the director seeks the best notation. For the notation not to be more complicated than the information to be recorded, it must meet the conditions of real necessity. For director’s or his collaborators’ practical use at shooting of a film notation does not need to carry so many practical instructions as the notation by the film scientist does. In the first case the most indispensable data are sufficient – basic tips regarding the structure of the would-be work and the way of its performance. First of all it concerns the flow of the plot, rhythm and tempo, while dynamics, articulation, expression, etc can be omitted. As the director directly realizes his concept of the subject, direct information for performers is possible. Only what is essential (most often precise synchronization of motion of various layers of the film into a defined rhythm and tempo) is subject to notation. That is why accurate record of all details is pointless. It is completely different with a notation which we want to retain and which because of that reason requires extensive documentation and precise record of all elements.

The way of notation discussed below seems to be helpful when recording motion scores in music films, cartoons, commercials and TV clips. I suggest using that type of notation for scenes which require perfect conformity of plot, movements of a camera, editing and sound rhythm. It must me added that every notation, music – to lead the way as the oldest and most perfect, is too stiff to contain in itself the great abundance of nuances of the artistic phenomenon which it notes, but it is needed to record basic structure of the work.

A film, or its particular scenes, can be made according to an accurate rhythmic calculation. In order to achieve a the best rhythmic synchronization between elements, one must identify the elements participating in the construction of rhythmic structure of the work, and then the way of their planning and notation.

The number of lines drawn depends on the number of kinetic layers creating a rhythm. Lines are added to that, both for the notation of acoustic layer as well as staff, if a precise musical accompaniment is needed. (Diagram No. 14).

Generally speaking, there are three layers which affect the rhythmic form. Those are the in-frame movements, camera movements and sound motion (dialogue, music, effects). The number of lines drawn corresponds to the number of separate elements (sublayers) participating in creating rhythm image within a frame. As already said, lines for camera movements and separately for sound values and staff for music should be added, too.

As in musical notation we use certain variants of note signs.

The rhythmic score of scenes is supplemented by additional drawings which are to define the space relations of actors and motion objects against other objects, in relation to the camera and film set (topodiagram, storyboard, shooting board). Every motion should be marked on the metre grid siatka metryczna of the film. As I have already pointed out, I am of the opinion that it is necessary to adopt 1.5 sec.(2 x 0.75 sec.) as a basic value of unit length. I derived it from mean values of human movements and on the basis of rhythmic features of those movements (two-phase, arsis and thesis character, basic regularity).

Fundamental assumptions of film kinetography, previously discussed, together with the following points enable us to record on paper the full flow of film motion with its significant characteristics.

Positioning signs on the proper line enables us note and read which of the motion elements is in motion.

Three types of signs define three basic types of motion:

change of place (translatio) □,

bending (flexio) <>,

and rotations (rotatio) ○.

Their overlapping means composite motion (e.g. wstaw)

Strona 238 - proponowane słownictwo

Diagram No. 14 Scheme of film’s kinetic score

acoustic layers (sound motion complex)

visual layers (motion in image complex)

head

hands

and upper part of torso

legs

and lower part of torso

camera

choreography /choreogram of actors’ behaviour

sound

music

dialogue

sound coefficients

change of place

bending

rotation

compound movements (various combinations of the three previous signs)

To record the duration of motion we use signs similar to notes (l; 1/2; 1/4; 1/8 etc.), but their shape depends on the type of motion which we note for example in the following way: … 1/8, 1/2….. etc.

By the direction sign (◄ ; ► ; ►) we mark the direction of motion, which in turn is defined by the positioning of direction sign, e.g. (wstaw znak).

In that way we ensure defining three-dimentional motion in space (together with drawings of projection and shooting board).

While decreasing or enlarging metre, for practical reasons, the mark is made in the first measure of kinogram, e.g. 1 sec. As I have already suggested, the basic length norm of the measure should be 1.5sec.

(popraw ponizszy znak)

left up

backwards forward

down right

The notation is read from left to right, and the consequence of signs positioned on the lines of the kinetogram score shows where a particular motion begins and ends, which enables capturing the continuity of movement flow.

We usually note only the active part of the body, the other, passive part completes motion in the natural way.

rests:

4 2 1 ½ ¼ 1/8 1/16 1/32

accents: ^

crescendo:

If the motion extends through several metric units, we draw an arc/łuk below the units of motion:

The beginning and the end of the take is marked by a double line: I wstaw

overlapping – three lines: thin –thick-thin:

darkening – thin-thick:

lightening – thick-thin:

To sum up, it is necessary to record motion measure by measure, set the route of a character, movable objects and masses (of all significant movements in a take), then the route of the camera, put motion accents, gestures etc. Illustrations, drawings and possible photographs may be supplemented here.

To be precise, rhythm is created by alternating subsequent categories of elements: plot flow (precisely run), a choice of sets, angles and height of the camera duration and direction of movements, length of takes. It means forming an ordered morphology of sequences, which result in a certain regularity of repetition and accents, as well as a specific, optical and vivid character of frames. If accents and lengths are in a certain installment of film flow regularly positioned, the installment is isometric. The regularity should not stiffen and schematize the film, on the contrary, it should add order and distinctness to film subject.

Wstaw str. 241,242,243

Diagram No.15: Situational projection. Diagram of scene topography

Diagram No. 16: Scene shootingboard str.242

Diagram No. 17: Fragment of film’s kinetic score str. 243

At today’s level of film art development only the greatest masters succeed in precise rhythmic organization of film subject. Even they do it, in principle, intuitively owing to their especially brilliant sense of film subject motion. It must be, however, taken into consideration that to have control over such a complex film mechanism apart from abilities, i.e. artistic talent, an exceptionally a well-coordinated film crew, the ability to manage them and a large budget, which allows for appropriate duration of shooting, are needed.

The lack of kinetic notation in film practice does not undermine the need of its existence. For film to be a highly-organized art apart form the notation of a text, music and sound a notation of motion is needed. The way of notation suggested here is completed with a precise description and a commentary. It may happen that one day, in case of film masterpieces being lost or worn-out, people will be able to reproduce them from such graphic notations.

This work is also an attempt to work out a precise method of film design. The realization of today’s film author’s concept requires a film project to be worked out systematically in accordance with defined rules. Firstly, for the director to explain to himself the future result on the basis of specific drawings and plans; secondly, every considerable and complicated undertaking requires a conscious and precise preparation and organization.

7.6. KINESTETHIC EFFORTS IN THE FINAL SEQUENCE Of THE FILM TITLED MOUTH FULL OF EARTH

Myśliciel wypowiada bycie.

Poeta nazywa świetość

A philosopher voices being

A poet names sanctity

Martin Heidegger

Sztuka jest stanem ducha.

Art is a state of mind

Leonardo da Vinci

As a practitioner, who arrives at certain theoretical conclusions, I will quote some examples which come from my film Mouth Full of Earth. One of its main aims was testing possibilities of the medium itself.

It is not a realistic film but a created film reality based on a literary theme. I borrowed from it the outline of the plot, some characters and one of the motifs (the development of mass hysteria). The picture does not tell the story , which is only a pretext here. Characters do not develop psychologically, but remain permanently kept in a fixed set of typical gestures. The film is an emotional and reflective extract which develops an idea by means of visual and acoustic layers, and specific space and time film structure. For the first time I used in it some elements of kinesthetic and anthropometric theory of time and space film organization, which I have expounded in this work.

How did it look in practice? The description of the film episode will be a considerable simplification, but it will help in understanding the heart of the matter by practical efforts. Rhythmicity is much more complicated than the possibilities of its description.

The film Mouth Full of Earth is an absurd chase after a stranger, to whom every chasing person attributes some fault.

Blue is a prevailing colour in that film. It is a colour of intellect, spirituality, melancholy, distance and sublimation. Cool blue and green are predominant in the scenes with Stranger, and a warm palette of sunny autumn in the scenes with the chasers. Every scene or a sequence has its own palette of colours, in whose harmonies certain colours or accords of colour prevail. That color fluctuation has its input in the overall processual structure which we have called film’s marcorhythm. Broader discussion of the issue of the process of color arrangement in the general film’s rhythm exceeds the planned framework of this book.

The film is composed on the 18-frame meter grid./ siatka metryczna After the grotesque episode of the chase, with the chasers joining in successively, I needed an effect of absurd growth of the chase, which at a certain time takes on a mechanical character. That is why, among others, takes in that part are of the same length. That fact also performs the function of precise coordination of takes with music. The takes used in their essence do not have the same rhythm and tempo, but by the predominant impression of regular cuts take on that feature. In an attempt to obtain an effect of faster and faster chase, I arranged the run of takes by shortening them.

Following that absurd and mechanical phase, and then the speeding up phase there is the peak of the film’s macrorhythm – a shot fired at Stranger and his coming to a standstill. I stressed it in the following way: the take in which the Forester shoots is kept extended by one half of time unit (I scored the take) in relation to the preceding one, and to whose time units the audience had already been accustomed to. Regular repetition of cuts on the a specific episode of the film enables the audience to subconsciously predict the following course of action. The change of rhythm, its turning point or shifting the accent introduce the effect of unfulfilled expectation. By means of that (syncope) I obtained a link , I added energy because the change of a take does not occur when it is expected . At such moments motion energy, especially at a quick pace , results in tension and explosive jumps.

In the extension of time unit of a significant take, thus accented in the plot layer (Forester is shooting at Stranger), we deal with a moment halting the motion. It is perceived as if a prolonged take disturbed the balance of regular rhythmic progression, making it tight.

The following take bears a strong accent of syncopated motion because the accent has shifted by a half of time unit. Syncope in rhythmic motion creates energetic braking, halting its run for a while. It is in contrast to flowing and regular progress of rhythmic motion. That deviation of motion is the expression of disturbance not only of motional but psychological as well, expressed in the rhythm of lost balance.

As regards the motif of an escaping man, syncopated rhythm also expresses its sudden halt in his pursuing a goal (an escape). It is combined with music, which is disrupted at the dominant, and with the plot event – Forester’s shot at Stranger. The shot is fired at the end of the take of the aiming person, which results in explosive strike/(stroke) (of the accent)of the following take. A short sound of the shot (six frames) overlaps with the following take of Stranger, motionless in absolute silence as if halted by the shot.

The take is filmed in a very high bright key, which in image layer results in strong accent maintained by the “accent” of complete silence in sound layer. A loud shot followed by a deadly silence, high key in the image, Stanger being motionless after the “kocioł”, which had previously been present in image and sound (music off), music cut at the dominant and deadly silence in/on the close-up of the Stanger’s shadow, invisible face, tousled hair and alarming red colour, even more accented after the green complementary dominant of the previous take, result in the culminating accent of the film, its macrorhythm.

Further accented points, e.g. when following a scream a dangerous storm with lightening and thunderstorms begins, represent only lower levels of accentuation, by which the film in its cadence goes down to the end.

7.7. THE WAY/HOW I DIRECTED THE FILM MOUTH FULL OF EARTH

The most important for me is the will to transpose into image that layer of literature which is not of film characteristic.

Wojeciech Jerzy Has

The first most general question asked whenever adopting a certain piece of art into another medium is: how to express by means of another material that metaphysical essence which we call art? What should be done so that the basic, and at the same time the highest quality of work will not disappear in the course of adaptation. The records of such attempts tell us that in most instances it is what happens. A significant number of film adaptations of literary works unfortunately ends in disappointment. The most frequent conclusion drawn having seeing a film being the adaptation of literary work is that the book was better, deeper and more interesting. In fact the readers’ vision is more complete, richer than that of the director’s objectified on the screen.

The majority of film makers settle for more or less precise adaptation, that is summarizing the plot of the original literary work, and illustration of events by film means. Unfortunately, those are the most common requirements of producers, who, especially in commercial cinematography, assess the audience’s intellectual and emotional level as being very low and persistently provide it with adequate products.

I am convinced that the true adaptation of literature is only the one which succeeds not only in translating “something” from literature into film, but also brings in “something” itself. That “something” means a specific equivalent of an experience which the audience had gone through while receiving the literary work, its emotional and intellectual essence. In the majority of cases the literary original, if it is not a short drama or a short story, is too extensive a material for such a short form as film is. Thus there arises a problem of dramatic reduction of the existing material, which poses a risk of “cutting”, which might end up in a “slaughter”. The elimination of elements of any organized structure is not a simple thing because literary works, especially the quality ones, being most often subject to adaptation, have a very consistent structure and omitting even the slightest elements may lead to a “disintegration” of the whole “system”. Internal relations of artistic works, which may be the most complicated creations which the mind and human emotions create, are so ambiguous that during that process the disintegration is inevitable. The only way seems to be structuring anew in another material the essence of the original.

A lot of that which has been read must be forgotten. The most important thing is to memorize the character of the experience, motifs stimulating imagination, certain interesting characters and situations which we are going to use as bare material of specified characteristics.

It is obvious that there is a high correlation between a real event and its artistic transposition. It is unquestionable also that there is a complicated connection between the experiences of the artist caused by the perception of a certain artistic act and the counterpart of that experience created in another medium. Every medium has its own characteristics, its own specific means of expression, its own possibilities and a certain code. Literature – sonorous words and their rhythm, their syntactic structures, ambiguity and unspecific expressions, abundance of thoughts etc. Film offers sound and image in motion being basic carriers of information, meaning and emotion.

Individual adaptations, as every artistic act, are a problem for themselves and conditioned by the subject and the idea of the author of the adaptation. Of course, first appears the problem of a choice of a work suitable for transposition into a film medium. Contemplative or descriptive prose by nature devoid of kinetic dynamics, or abstract poems may pose a problem to be appropriately transposed into a film medium. Certain structural elements of the target medium, at least fragmentary, are necessary so that the author of the adaptation can transpose it into basic carriers of meaning and expression of the other medium. In short, there are no fundamentals which would be such in the new artistic creation, the fundamentals which would retain the characteristics of the partly formed material, being at the same time the element transposing the characteristics into the new creation.

I obviously have in mind adaptations for which the term is fully justified, not creations which are technically adopted to film where the film medium is used only as recording of certain, most often, dialogue scenes presented in front of the camera.

Following those general introductory considerations I am going to focus on the specific example of my film adaptation of Branimir Scenpanovic’s novel Mouth Full of Earth 13. I have no intention to analyze my film here because I believe that the author is not the proper person to do it. I shall only reveal certain intentions and ways by which I realized them in practice.

The first problem which arose while adapting the text was how to transpose into the specific language of film image a certain, created, metaphoric, poetic reality full of abstract reflections about life and death, passing, nostalgia and return to nature. How to show it by drastic specific film image while retaining sublimation, succinctness, ambiguity and fantastic dimension of the final scene of the novel so that the most important values will disappear like a soap bubble.

“[…] Suddenly we Heard a terrible, long moan. We froze in terror and amazement. It first seemed to us that it was an animal’s wheeze before death or some inhuman echo from other ages, from another reality. However, in this voice which quivered incredibly in invisible light dust there was so much pain and despair that it could belong only to a man. […] But Jacob and me managed to determine the place where it came from: it was a solitary rock several meters high. While we were rushing towards it, it was changing its shape not like a rock but like a fog : it resembled a mushroom or again a horse’s tooth with a hole. […]

He was singing and it surprised him that he could not recognize his own voice. Suddenly, he realized to his horror, that through his mouth – mouth full of earth – great-grandfather Joksim was wailing out from the darkness ominously announcing that ultimate death is taking him only then, the moment he lost his last male issue, for whom there was no longer hope! <<But I am saved – he thought – I’ve really escaped!>> And wanting to rise as soon as possible he barely moved at all. As the result of that single movement a strange image of the whole world which he had before his eyes vanished like a dust cloud, so that what was down noiselessly flew up, and everything which was up suddenly hit his open, blank eyes.

And indeed we found him on the rock. Stretched, on his back, he was lying in the grass totally naked. […] Staliśmy nad nim w milczeniu, całkowicie bezsilni. Właściwie już nic nie mogliśmy mu zrobić. Dopiero teraz był dla nas niedostępny i nietykalny. […] Looking at him, we were getting more and more convinced about that as on the long, scratched face, dirty with oily, yellow earth, but, nevertheless, beautiful we could find no spasm of pain, nothing apart from a smile of superiority, which made us despair, reminding us with stubborn, vindictive spitefulness that the man and everything connected with him will remain for us one, big mystery: his name and occupation, and where he came from, where he wandered, why he was running away so madly and why he died. […] In vain we tried to find any trace of his life. We opened clenched fists, but we didn’t find anything. His mouth was full of earth and some foul-smelling weed. All that was meaningless. That man already belonged to earth: long, fair hair mixed with grass, pollen carried by the wind was clinging to his stomach, thighs and a big penis, changing the colour of his skin. His feet were cut and bleeding, long arms, bent over his head reminded two broken sticks. There were ants in his ear. And maybe we would even have felt compassion or at least admiration that he died lonely, far away from his relatives, on that rock, where nobody will ever find him if it weren’t for the pity, dominating in his smile, strange as if earmarked only for us. […] Dusk was already falling, the landscape, the whole world was disappearing in darkness, apart from the single, rock on which Jacob and me – separated by the smile of a dead, naked man – were lapsing in more and more oppressive silence. ”[3]

Contemplating how to transpose the scene into a film image (and that so important fantastic aspect is a separate problem for film adaptation) I reached a conclusion that I have to make certain changes concerning the situation and plot flow, by which I would avoid a vulgar realization and trivial illustration. That what I had to retain in the film variant and what is more important than precise transposing of external layer of events, that which seems to me the most important are certain archetypal, eternal meanings and emotions which emanate from the whole novel, and especially from its end. That is why while shooting the film I decided on a certain undefined image of chasing a stranger, which in the run of the whole film I carefully measured out. At the same time I always framed him separately, with one exception, when he was relieving himself, which made his pursuers feel piqued, and which represents the basic impetus for further action (chase).

I arranged the situation organizing the space to a depth. Stranger is positioned in the foreground of the frame, and the two prosecutors further behind, and that is their only direct contact in the common space of the frame. That implies a conclusion of the real existence of Stranger, thus justifying the chase and making it credible. In the remaining cases Stranger appears alone and is presented, if possible, in silhouette, a shadow of a man, which is also to stress the fantastic or fantasmagorical dimension of the character so that the question whether it is a reality or the figment of imagination can still be valid.

The palette of colours of individual scenes based on human biopsychic structure is adjusted to it. All scenes with Stranger and Everlasting/Permanent Old Man (in the novel it is great-grandfather Joksim) are maintained in the cool blue and green range of colours. Blue is the colour of something inscrutable, endless distance, sublimation and spirituality, dreams, melancholy, distant longing. That range of colours carry dynamics and motion. Stranger, the blue man is a mirage – the figment of light and mountain air movement or fiction, imaginary character, the chasers’ abstract idea. The scenes with chasers are shot in the warm range of sunny autumn. The range is vivid, intense and concrete.

I will focus here on one of the fundamental problems of the adaptation – alternating and correlating of what is true with what is fantastic in their function to deepen expression and meaning. The film Mouth Full of Earth starts and ends with a take of impenetrable white. At the beginning, out of the whiteness a silhouette of a man (Stranger), going towards the camera appears, while in the final take of the film the walking away (Stranger) blends in the whiteness from which he emerged. The whiteness of the beginning and end of the film first of all specifies the fantastic plane of the film, secondly, the white motif itself implies specific meanings of the film: white is traditionally the sign of apparition and death, and also of birth by overcoming the permanent resistance. While, although it symbolizes nihility and silence, it is not always dead. It is also silence before the beginning, before the fulfillment of something. That coming, arising out of nothing, out of whiteness and melting in it suggests fantastic, unreal, imaginary background of Stanger.

Further realistic ways of showing that character are continually suppressed by the other dimension. It becomes clear at the beginning of the film, where the tendency towards creating a fantastic image of the world dominates. The first take showing all the pursuers sitting around the bonfire lost in thoughts after the finished chase (flash forward) is shot in an unreal atmosphere in which in the dead silence one line is said : “Maybe that man does not exist at all?”, which also verbally anticipates a fantastic aspect of that character. That take is followed by the take of a transparent figure, a shadow of a stranger looking equally unreal.

Throughout the film the plot of pursuers is treated as a realistic layer in which there is a lot of everyday , ordinary image of living. They eat, pollute the environment with waste, are aggressive and vindictive. In the majority of scenes with their participation there is nothing which would go beyond that which is everyday, real and human. An exception is only the already quoted scene by the bonfire from the beginning of the film, where a question is asked whether the man existed at all. That scene has a certain unreal feature, similarly to the motif of Stranger, with which the film begins, and with which it had to be agreed, justifying by that the so drastic effort, which flash forward is.

The real antithesis of pursuers is a fantastic character of Permanently Old Man- Stranger’s double or ancestor. In that way in the character of the Stanger two planes of meanings and expression of the film combine, the realistic and fantastic, between which a feedback exists. The realistic plane “suppresses”, “darkens”, “uncovers” the other, the fantastic one, while it “elevates’, “expands”, “deepens” the meaning of the first one.

The next problem which I observed while adapting was how to transpose rhythm and kinetics of events presented in the epic way into motion par excellence so that it will not become a trivial film race.

I used there some rules of kinetic and anthropometric arrangement of time and film space, which I had discussed in depth in this book, aiming at poetic sublimation of film plot kinetics and that what is daily, realistic. Precisely arranged plot and rhythm flow of kinesthetic factors represents a specific composition which organizes the realistic elements of an image of reality into a certain artistic creation through which emotions and meanings show through and soften like through a raster. The specific arrangement of kinesthetic elements of sound image results from a choice and order, which leads to a creation of specific strict forms, called kinesthetic motifs, phrases, periods, etc. Owing to such a structural and formal arrangement by which that kind of kinetics differs significantly from non-arranged film motion, it takes on specific expressive and semantic characteristics. As a result of that arrangement discipline the kinetic plot, and consequently, the author’s practice gain more sublime, higher rank. Such an arrangement discipline of the film’s kinesthetic structures sublimes, makes us feel certain motifs and subjects as strange, exciting, sophisticated, solemn etc.

I composed the whole flow of the film Mouth Full of Earth in the metre siatka metryczna consisting of eighteen frames, thus creating a specific time frame or time measure, in which the film’s rhythmic and plot flow develops.

I will stop at the short description of kinetics of the end of the chase, at the already mentioned scene of Stranger’s death, which is characteristic of the adopted method although verbal explication is its considerable simplification.

In order to have the effect of energy culmination (of a faster and faster chase), which is to lead to a sudden explosion, I arranged the sequence of shorter and shorter takes of the final part of the chase. At a certain stage the chase takes on a ritual and mechanical character. The editing of takes of the same lengths and their precise accordance with music measure contribute to it. That hallucination and mechanic period is followed by the peak of film’s macrorhythm: the shot fired by one of the pursuers (Forester) at a stranger. It is that explosion, the culminating point of dramatic effect and macrorhythm, which had been prepared for that moment. I prolonged the take , in which the Forester shoots at Stranger, by a half of time unit; to use the music expression, I enumerated/wypunktowałem the take in relation to the previous ones (of the same length), to which the audience had already become accustomed. Regular repetition of the same length, set at a certain film’s section, enables the audience to unintentionally predict the further sequence. Rhythmic irregularity and a turning point, which is created by a change of the accent (as there is no expected change of the take ), result in not meeting the expectation. Prolonging the take, that is changing the accent, I gained an increase in tension – the motion filled up with the potential energy, which aims at exploding at a certain moment. In such cases there is an explosive kinetic strike, especially at a quick tempo.

Fluctuation of motion, to which kinetic syncope leads, creates instability, disturbance of balance also on the psychological plane. In the motif of the escapee, of Stranger, syncopated rhythm expresses his sudden halting in achieving the aim (the escape).

At that point the tension reaches its peak by a clash of dynamic motion and static equilibrium, contrasting of complementary color dominant with neighbouring takes (cyan and red), opposing low and high tone key of the image, big sound dynamics and dead silence. All that creates the culminating accent of the film, the peak of its macrorhythm.

Further takes build a certain abstract scene of death – natural and inevitable melting in eternity. That blue stranger blends in with the nature and its elements. He walks away, disappearing in whiteness out of which he emerged.

I have discussed here certain means, using which I tried to avoid an irritating concreteness of film image, on the contrary – I tried to sublime it and provide it with characteristics of poetic evocation. The scene of Stranger’s death, which I referred to as an example, would have been, in my opinion, unconvincing and flat in film if I had it only transposed from the novel.

I understand adaptation of a literary work – as actually any other artistic act – as transposing the essence of experience by a specified medium, using external means : motion, colour, light, sound, word and silence in order to show others experience, pass on emotions felt by the author so that they can also be filled with them.

[1] There is no rule without exceptions