— Overview
Realist film, in this material, is not simply a copy of everyday life. It is a way of looking that tries to show the truth of a situation with as little distortion as possible, cutting back on swollen feeling, artificial cutting, and dramatic incident, and drawing truth from small moments in ordinary days. Its roots are placed in mid-nineteenth-century French realist literature and painting — Zola and Flaubert, who turned away from heroic figures toward the poor and the workers, and treated art as a mirror.
When cinema arrived, that stance moved into images. The Lumière brothers’ Arrival of a Train (1895) is often named as an early type, a camera that recorded a slice of the world without a fictional plot; Workers Leaving the Factory is cited in the same spirit. Among later examples, De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948) is called a high point of the style. Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis (2002) looks at dignity and isolation through the relation of socially weaker people, including a person with a disability.
Bong Joon-ho’s Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) is a black comedy about city life and desire, with a cold realist gaze underneath. Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake (2016) follows an older man left aside in the British welfare system. Formalist film, by contrast, centers on form — composition, editing, color, light, sound — and remakes the world rather than recording it. The viewer is meant to notice the artifice and to think, not only to sink in.
Its intellectual ground is placed in early twentieth-century European expressionism. Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) does not show reality as it is: geometric sets, warped shadows, and an abnormal space make anxiety and madness visible. The two styles are compared as attitudes toward the world, not as a later festival tally.
— Contents and key concepts
A mirror, and the everyday
Realist film, in this material, is not simply a copy of everyday life. It is a way of looking that tries to show the truth of a situation with as little distortion as possible, cutting back on swollen feeling, artificial cutting, and dramatic incident, and drawing truth from small moments in ordinary days. Its roots are placed in mid-nineteenth-century French realist literature and painting — Zola and Flaubert, who turned away from heroic figures toward the poor and the workers.
When cinema arrived, that stance moved into images. The Lumière brothers’ Arrival of a Train (1895) is often named as an early type, a camera that recorded a slice of the world without a fictional plot; Workers Leaving the Factory is cited in the same spirit. Among later examples, De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948) is called a high point of the style. Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis (2002) looks at dignity and isolation through the relation of socially weaker people, including a person with a disability. Bong Joon-ho’s Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000) is a black comedy about city life and desire, with a cold realist gaze underneath. Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake (2016) follows an older man left aside in the British welfare system.
A frame that remakes the world
Formalist film centers on form — composition, editing, color, light, sound — and remakes the world rather than recording it. The viewer is meant to notice the artifice and to think, not only to sink in. Its intellectual ground is placed in early twentieth-century European expressionism.
Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) does not show reality as it is: geometric sets, warped shadows, and an abnormal space make anxiety and madness visible. The two styles are compared as attitudes toward the world, not as a later festival tally. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- Realist film as an attitude: show a situation with little distortion, from ordinary moments. Mid-nineteenth-century French realism (Zola, Flaubert). Lumière, Arrival of a Train (1895); Workers Leaving the Factory. De Sica, Bicycle Thieves (1948). Lee Chang-dong, Oasis (2002). Bong Joon-ho, Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000). Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake (2016). Formalist film remakes the world through form; early twentieth-century expressionism. Wiene, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Compared as attitudes, not as a later festival tally.
Last updated: 14 November 2026
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