Several famous films chose to forgo the familiar devices

Here’s something to remember as we approach the Oscars: When it comes to cinematic innovation,… Here’s something to remember as we approach the Oscars: When it comes to cinematic innovation, less is often more.

With the return of awards season, 2010’s most noteworthy movies are bound to fall under increasingly critical scrutiny, and their success in using an all-too-familiar set of elements — screenplay, actors, cinematography, music — will be debated into oblivion. It’s worth noting that some of the best films in history have triumphed not because they’ve skillfully exploited these elements but also because they’ve ignored them.

As proof, I’ve assembled a list of great movies that have attained immortality in spite of — or because of — the absence of a supposedly fundamental trait.

A movie with no cuts: “Russian Ark” (2002)

Boasting 2,000 actors, a lavish, expansive set and, most impressively, the longest single shot in film history, “Russian Ark” is one of the most awe-inspiring cinematic achievements in recent memory, “Avatar” be damned. Framed as the first-person wanderings of a man who can only be seen by his erudite French companion, Aleksandr Sokurov’s extravagant drama — filmed entirely in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg — is as much a lesson in Russian history as it is a graceful rumination on the passage of time.

It should be noted that a less well-known film, “PVC-1” (2007), was also filmed in a single take, though at 85 minutes, it clocks in slightly shorter than “Russian Ark.” And of course, this sort of technical athleticism isn’t limited to the art house: For more breathtaking sequences rendered in a single shot, see also the exhilarating multi-floor showdown in the martial arts movie “The Protector” (2005).

A movie with (almost) no movement: “La Jetée” (1962)

Toward the end of “La Jetée” — a 28-minute short about a man searching the past for a means of averting the end of the world — we see a woman in a bed open her eyes and smile. In a typical film, this would be unremarkable; in a film composed almost entirely of still photographs, the sight of her spreading grin is tantamount to a climax.

In fact, if this film abided by any sort of convention, it would have ended on such a consoling image. “La Jetée,” however, regresses into austere stills and somber narration and departs on a heavier, more poignant note. As one would expect from a movie formatted like a slideshow, it’s a bit of an enigma but one that has inspired countless filmmakers — including Terry Gilliam, who repurposed its plot for “12 Monkeys” (1995) — and countless cinephiles.

A movie with no dialogue: “The Red Balloon” (1956) and “The Triplets of Belleville” (2003)

Albert Lamorisse’s charming 34-minute short about a boy and his strong-headed balloon inhabits an idyllic mid-century Paris, one where banalities like dialogue are virtually nonexistent, and breathtaking visuals — the end sequence is particularly enchanting — are omnipresent. Needless to say, it’s a refreshing, if at times overly precious, break from cinematic convention.

For dissatisfied Francophiles, Sylvain Chomet’s “The Triplets of Belleville” — a zany, near-conversation-less animation that revels in the freedoms of the form — makes for a more unorthodox feature-length counterpart.

A movie with no protagonist: “M” (1931)

Perhaps the most well-known and revered film in this catalogue, Fritz Lang’s perfectly paced chronicle of a serial killer, and a city’s attempts to bring him to justice, deprives the audience of what is conventionally believed to be essential: someone to root for.

Not only are there no sympathetic characters — the closest thing to a “hero” is the scheming head of the criminal underground — but the movie refuses to center its attentions on any one figure. The result is a detached panorama of events, culminating in a trial scene that might leave some viewers, who previously felt no affinity for any party, suddenly on the killer’s side. Countless films since “M” have tackled the ambiguities of right and wrong, but none have done so with the same uncompromising objectivity.