An Introduction to Film

that reflects everyday life. Realistic characters are

expected to do things that conform to our experi-

ences and expectations of real people. Artists in

every medium, however, make choices about what

aspects of “reality” to depict and how to depict

them. Realism, no matter how lifelike it might

appear, always involves mediation and, thus, inter-

pretation. In the ways it is created and the ways it

is perceived, realism is a kind of illusion.

If the characteristics listed here are one way to

define realism in the movies, then we can define

antirealism as a treatment that is against or the

opposite of realism. We can illustrate the difference

between realism and antirealism by contrasting

two portrait paintings. The first, The Hon. Frances

Duncombe by the eighteenth-century English

painter Thomas Gainsborough, realistically depicts

a recognizable woman. Its form is representational,

meaning that it represents its subject in a form that

conforms to our experiences and expectations of

how a woman looks. The overall composition of the

painting and the placement of the figure emphasize

unity, symmetry, and order. If you were to see the

painting firsthand, you would notice that Gainsbor-

ough worked with light, rapid brushstrokes and

that he used delicate colors. Compare this with a

second portrait, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2,

by the twentieth-century French artist Marcel

Duchamp, who worked in the styles of cubism,

futurism, dadaism, and surrealism.

Even in the largest sense of portraiture,

Duchamp’s work may not represent, to most peo-

ple, a recognizable woman. Duchamp has trans-

formed a woman’s natural appearance (which we

know from life) into a radically altered form of

sharp angles and fractured shapes. Clearly, the

twentieth-century painting is less representational

than its eighteenth-century predecessor. We say

“less representational” because although its form is

not completely recognizable, Duchamp’s represen-

tation has sufficient form for us to at least identify

it as a human being. If you were to see this painting

firsthand, you would notice that the figure of the

woman suggests an overall flatness, rather than the

round, human quality of Gainsborough’s figure, and

that the brushstrokes and the colors are bold,

rather than delicate.

and feelings. Others trust in a variety of historical,

political, sociological, economic, and philosophical

theories to provide a framework for understand-

ing. Still others rely on a combination of both

approaches. Realism in the movies basically over-

rides these approaches and implies that the world

it depicts looks, sounds, and moves like the real

world. It is also a way of treating subject matter

1

2

Technology and the appearance of realismMovies as

diverse as the stark drama L’ E n f a n t(2005; directors: Jean-

Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne; cinematographer: Alain

Marcoen) and the apocalyptic horror film Cloverfield(2008;

director: Matt Reeves; cinematographer: Michael Bonvillain)

create a sense of realism by employing camera formats and

techniques that audiences associate with “reality.” L’ E n f a n t

[1] is shot with a relatively smooth handheld technique on light-

sensitive (and, therefore, “grainy”) 16mm film stock for a look that

resembles that of professional documentary films. Cloverfield[2]

goes several steps further, shooting in a shaky handheld style and

degrading the video image to resemble amateur home movies——

the ultimate in unvarnished reality footage.

REALISM AND ANTIREALISM 57