World War One ended in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles. After four years of bloody war, France and it’s film industry was in tatters. The French film market largely supported the countries it shared a language with: Belgium, Switzerland as well as the French colonies. The only two film studios that were left after the war were Pathe Freres and Leon Gaumont. With the film industry in tatters, American cinema invaded with the works of Chaplin, Fairbanks, DeMille amongst others.
The French film market was looking for way to distinguish itself from the rest of the world. Knowing it couldn’t compete with the big elaborate films of Hollywood, filmmakers turned to inner drama and ways to explore the tortured psyche of man. This idea launched French Impressionist Cinema. French Impressionist Cinema is a period of filmmaking in France from 1919-1929, also known as the first avant-garde or narrative avant-garde. The movement is known for its use of pictorialism, montage and diffusion.
French Impressionist Cinema is unique in that it was never a concerted effort to coordinate films under a specific set of goals. Over the ten years of the movement, the films moved around the concepts of creating an experience that leads to an emotional impression. Impressionism focused on the theory of photogenie, which is concerned with the unique quality that objects take on when they are photographed. It focused on framing and optical effects instead of narrative storytelling.