Flaherty is known as the "Father of Documentary Film" because of its uniqueness. With the help of Bazin's words: "Nanuk of the North is still very interesting to this day", compared to the famous people of Griffith or Eisenstein at the time, Flaherty's film was not comparable to that at the time. However, with the passage of time, it is this documentary that can make the audience interesting to watch. Maybe people at that time did not see "North" as a documentary. The concept of documentary was not until 1930. Grierson Only established, the uniqueness of "North".
The first is that Flaherty does not follow the crowd. Flaherty does not consciously establish a unique aesthetic system, so it is difficult to see his stylized lens language in his subsequent documentaries;
Secondly, Flaherty's practice of integrating himself into the Eskimos is precisely because Flaherty has not been influenced by various doctrines and upholds a kind of innocence, so that he can live peacefully with the Eskimos and stay away from modern civilization. It made him lost, but he was far away from the aesthetics of the moment, adding permanent and unique values to the film;
Third, is a non-fiction performance. In "Introduction to Documentary Films", it is mentioned that "there are three prerequisites for the production of non-fictional behaviors: 1. real time, 2. real space, and 3. real needs. Only when these three conditions are met at the same time, the behavior itself can be It seems to be satisfied in "North", so the "acting" that people criticize is not so important. The behavior of the Eskimos is not to meet the needs of the camera, but to meet their own needs. ;
Finally, Flaherty's achievements in "North" did not carry over to his subsequent works, which also gave "North" a unique position in film history earlier.
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