Pictures and Moving Pictures: The Significance of Movement in “Wind”

“Wind” (Szél) is a short Hungarian film based on a 1951 photo taken by Lucien Hervé in Agincourt, France. Hervé’s photo shows three middle-aged women looking in the same direction, towards a scene that is not captured by the camera. Although these three figures are the focus of the photograph, their steadfast gaze draws our attention to what cannot be seen. What are these women looking at with such intense interest? The film “Wind” attempts to answer this question by completing the scene in a 360 degree rotation that allows us to see not only what these women saw, but also the entire setting of the event. The relation between the short film and the photograph shows us the power of the moving image: it captures more aspects of an event or experience than a photograph can. A photograph is limited to the ideas and emotions that can be evoked through a single image, but a film has multiple images, which means it can evoke complex ideas and emotions that develop and change over time. As “moving pictures” films always convey time and movement, or change, which means that its feelings and ideas are truer to our experience of the world. We always experience the world though change.

The film “Wind” illustrates the power of film by drawing our attention to the camera’s movement and its ability to establish an entire world. The movement of the camera establishes suspense as it moves away from the women’s gaze instead of towards the scene that they watch. In prolonging the time before we can see what these women see, the camera emphasizes the entire setting that belongs to this event: country homes surrounded by plains, waves washing against the shore, flocks of birds soaring in the sky, someone hauling hay in a cart. The only sound is the wind. We are drawn into the peaceful scene, which makes what follows more shocking and dramatic. As the camera pans towards the sun, backlighting a leafless tree and casting a long, dark shadow, the mood changes as we can finally see what the women are watching: the execution of four men. Three men hang lifelessly from posts as we observe a fourth man being hung. The camera captures the last, dying throes of the man as it pans back towards the women. The silence is broken by a faint, solemn song sung by a woman. Her gentle voice echoes the strange juxtaposition of tranquility and dread. We do not know anything about these women, the executed men, or the community executing them, but the film has established a strong impression that leaves us with a lasting mood. As the film fades into white and we see Hervé’s photograph, we are left to wonder at the power of the moving image to capture such a moment.