The real and the not so real.

A couple of days ago I saw the film Mademoiselle Chambon (1). While watching it I began to think why it appeared to be so real, or believable.

In my latest course we have discussed photography and that the staged photograph can be as strong a messenger as the more documentary photography can be. Even though the staged photograph might not be as real as the documentary one, the message might be better transmitted with a staged photograph.

In literature there is almost always a mix of true events and fantasy that is mixed together into something new. For literature to be successful it needs to connect to the reader, somehow. Because we do not read something that we don’t like to read, if we do not need to... The writer must get the right mixture of the real and the un-real and transform that into something believable. It’s easier to buy it, if it’s believable.

One of my favorite films is An american in Paris (2). The film is so good that it needs to get its own post... so I might return to it!
I’m fascinated by it because the only shots of actual Paris in the movie is the very first shots of the film which are taken from newsreels or travel journals of some sort. Directly when we get to Gene Kellys characters’ building where he lives, we have left the real Paris for a Hollywood soundstage. The film is staged in Paris, but is recorded in Hollywood. This is not something new in the film business, but I’m fascinated by it none the less.

A city like Paris that has been written about and painted and photographed over the years, might be a bit difficult to get a handle on. Because the image you get from reading, and watching films and looking at paintings might not be what you encounter when you actually get there. The image and the real collide. The same can be said for New York or any other city that is featured in books, or TV or films.
There is no wonder that the image and the real collide when one is actually real and the other might be a total fantasy. I’m really in for a surprise if I’m going to Paris and hoping that my stay there will be like the film An American in Paris... I’m not saying that it might not be like that, lets just say that the odds are against it...!

In conclusion, believability is based on actual facts, and fantasy mixed together into something new. The mixture is then read or watched and connects to the reader/viewer, where an image is formed. I think that the film Mademoiselle Chambon contains a great mixture of believability, of facts and fantasy that connects to the viewer, at least to me. And also great performances from the actors, that probably draws from their own lives, when portraying their characters.

Take care!


1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285246/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (Accessed 11 June 2014)
2 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043278/?ref_=nv_sr_1 (Accessed 11 June 2014)