The Importance Of Close-Up In Cinema

The medium of film is such a powerful tool, that it influences thehuman mind in a very subtle manner. It is so accessible that one can even watch them on their phones, holding it in their hands. It manipulates our daily life in such an unnoticeable manner. It does it through advertisement, television shows and films as well. It chooses to focus on particular narratives and gives so much importance to them that the audience not only becomes more informed, but it triggers thought in the audience and therefore moves them in some manner. A close-up is one such tool to use in cinema. A close-up of a face is so raw with emotion that, the proximity helps build this intimacy between the audience and the actor. The beginning of a close-up was merely used for the purpose of giving information, but through the years it developed as an artistic expression in cinema. I will trace the journey of the close up through several decades of film making. I will show the ways in which the close up has flourished and added meaning to cinema. The close-up however lost that artistic expression over time. It began to be used only for the purpose of utility or conveying information. So the question of the necessity of …show more content…
There were also telephoto lenses, which would have a shallow dept of field, so when they were pointed at the human face, they would only get probably get only one feature on the face in focus. Over the years, the close-up shot began to be used more artistically than as a shot for just information.(Schrader 2014) Carl Dreyer's 'The Passion of Joan of Arc'(Dreyer 1928) was primarily shot in close-ups. It often kept cutting from one close-up to the other revealing very little about the setting of the character but revealing more through their expressions itself and the way her troubled expression was contrasted with the villainous faces of the