A Massacre in Miniature. D.W. Griffith. The Massacre / Le Massacre

 

presentation by Corry Shores
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[The following is quotation. My Commentary is in red.]

 

 

A Massacre in Miniature
D.W. Griffith
The Massacre

Le massacre

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema I: The Movement Image

Cinéma 1: L'image-mouvement

 

Ch 3

Montage

Montage

1b

The American School: Organic Composition and Montage in Griffith

L’école américaine : composition organique et montage chez Griffith

The insertion of the close-up in this sense does not merely involve the enlargement of a detail, but produces a miniaturisation of the set, a reduction of the scene (to the scale of a child, for example, like the baby who is present during the action of The Massacre). And, more generally, by showing the way in which the characters live the scene of which they form part, the close-up endows the objective set with a subjectivity which || equals or even surpasses it (not just the close-ups of soldiers which alternate with the long shots of the battle, or the terrified close-ups of the young girl chased by a Negro in Birth of a Nation, but also the close-up of the young woman who identifies with the images of her thought in Enoch Arden). [Deleuze, Cinema 1, 1986: 30c.d; 1986(2005): 31||32]

l'insertion du gros plan, en ce sens, n'opère pas seulement le grossissement d'un détail, mais entraîne une miniaturisation de l'ensemble, une réduction de la scène (à l'échelle d'un enfant, par exemple, comme le gros plan du bébé qui assiste au drame dans « Le massacre » ). Et, plus généralement, en montrant la manière dont les personnages vivent la scène dont ils font partie, le gros plan dote l'ensemble objectif d'une subjectivité qui l'égale ou même le dépasse (ainsi, non seulement les gros plans de combattants qui alternent avec les plans d'ensemble de la bataille, ou les gros plans effarés de la jeune fille poursuivie par le Noir dans « Naissance d'une nation », mais aussi le gros plan de la jeune femme qui s'associe avec les images de sa pensée, dans « Enoch Arden » ). [Deleuze Cinéma 1, 1985: 48b]

[In these clips we see the long shots of the battles, then close-ups of individuals within the battles. This is an organic relationship between part and whole. It is as though we are zooming in on a miniaturization of the scene. Then when it zooms out again, we see the whole while retaining  impressions of the intricacy of the parts.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Unlike previous entries this one cites both of the English translation editions. The earlier one is given as 1986. The newer one 1986(2005). Previously the newer one was listed just as 1986 and the older one was not cited.]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image.Transl. Hugh Tomlinson & Barbara Habberjam, Minnesota: University of Minnesota / Athlone, 1986.
 

 

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image.Transl. Hugh Tomlinson & Barbara Habberjam, London / New York: Continuum / Athlone, 1986[2005].

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 1: L'image-mouvement. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1983.