‘Mouchette’ & ‘The Old Man and the Sea’

Objectivity, in relation to art, cannot exist. Art is, in the most basic terms, an expression of an artist, and consequently subjective. However, the conceit of an “objective eye,” still technically a misnomer, can be illustrative of a genre of artist that supposes to present his or her subject(s) without explicit comment. Film and literature are especially conducive to this style because they traditionally describe a string of events. The artist’s method for description informs an audience as much or as little as the artist chooses. In Robert Bresson’s 1967 film Mouchette, and in Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novella The Old Man and the Sea, both men posit an “objective eye” — that is: they choose to inform the audience almost entirely of what occurs and rarely provide ancillary information such as internal thoughts or indications of consumer guidance.