Just because Bazin theorized it, don't make it necessarily so... But, the one long take I always think of is the beginning of Welles' "Touch of Evil"; for deep focus, generally "Citizen Kane" is cited; for both, the classic example is usually Renoir's "The Rules of the Game". enjoy. -----Original Message----- From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List on behalf of David Tetzlaff Sent: Sat 3/13/2004 2:31 AM To: [log in to unmask] Cc: Subject: long takes One of the central principles of film studies (or so it seems) is the distinction between a Bazinian realistic aesthetic on one hand, and a more Eisensteinian montage/presentational style on the other, with classical Hollywood film, or at least classical cutting, somewhere in the middle. The realist style is said to favor long takes and deep-focus cinematography, to preserve 'the ontology of the photographic image' by avoiding editing where possible. However, I can't seem to bring to mind any specific films that employ long takes that seem particularly realist to me. Most of the interesting long takes I can think of call attention to themselves by virtue of their length. For example, the long takes in Stranger Than Paradise seem more formalist to me than realist. So i have two questions. The first is practical: Can people recommend specific fiction films (and better specific scenes) where long takes are employed toward the end of a Bazinian realism? The second is theoretical: Have the representational markers of 'realism' changed. Is the absense of editing still what enables the integrety of a photographic images 'realness' (if it ever was)? I am thinking especially of 'Dogme' influenced films, which seem very invested in a kind of realism but have lots of cuts, and very obvious ones at that. My hypothesis would be that all this descends from Direct Cinema documentary, which established certain conventions of how moving-picture photography is used to capture life-as-it-actually-happens. The pragmatic necessities of Direct Cinema dictated often jerky, hand-held camera work, narrow depth of field, and often jerky edits -- which now seem almost universally deployed in any narrative that wants to seem 'real' and 'urgent', from the TV show 24 to the film Thirteen, just to take examples with numbers instead of names. Any thoughts? ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask] ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]