2115 Midterm

Cold War

The period of political tension and military rivalry between the United States and its allies on one side and the Soviet Union and its allies on the other side, following World War II.

Communist spies

Individuals accused of working for the Soviet Union and engaging in espionage activities against the United States during the Cold War.

HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities)

A congressional committee that investigated alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and organizations suspected of having Communist ties.

Blacklist

A list of individuals or groups who are under suspicion, disfavor, or censure, often as a result of their political beliefs or associations, leading to exclusion from employment or other opportunities.

Hollywood Ten

A group of filmmakers who were cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted after refusing to testify about their alleged Communist Party membership before HUAC in 1947.

Loyalty oath

A pledge required by organizations or institutions to affirm allegiance and loyalty to a particular group, often used during the McCarthy era to identify and exclude suspected Communists.

Self-censorship

The act of suppressing or limiting one's own thoughts, ideas, or actions to conform to societal, political, or ideological norms, often as a result of fear of repercussions.

Television

A system for transmitting moving images based on electronic image analysis and synthesis, patented by Philo T. Farnsworth in 1930.

RCA

Attempted to pre-empt Farnsworth's television patents through litigation but lost in court in 1939, leading to licensing his patents for $1 million.

Hollywood vs

Hollywood faced competition from television, leading to a decline in movie attendance and the need for adaptation to survive.

Eastmancolor

A single-strip color process introduced in 1949, replacing Technicolor as the dominant color system in Hollywood by offering low-cost color production.

Cinerama

A multiple-camera/projector widescreen process introduced in 1952, creating a wide-field image projected on a vast wraparound screen with stereophonic sound.

Cinerama

A widescreen system that utilized a single-lens wide-film technology, including Ultra Panavision 70 and Super Cinerama, known for its deeply curved screen and limited usage worldwide.

Long-take aesthetic

An aesthetic shift in filmmaking focusing on longer-than-average takes, emphasizing composition in width and depth (mise-en-scène) over montage, allowing for cause and effect within a single frame.

Montage

Traditional film editing technique involving the assembly of shots to create a narrative, contrasted with the long-take aesthetic for its emphasis on fragmentation and lack of depth.

Production Code

A set of industry censorship guidelines in Hollywood that regulated film content until the 1960s, replaced by the MPAA ratings system for classifying films based on appropriateness for different age groups.

Blockbuster

Lavish, big-budget films of the 1950s and 1960s, characterized by their widescreen spectacle and excessive length, exemplified by productions like "Around the World in 80 Days" and "The Ten Commandments."

MPAA Ratings System

Film classification system introduced in 1968, assigning ratings like G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 to indicate the suitability of films for different audiences, replacing the Production Code's censorship approach.

Independent Production

Filmmaking outside the major studio system, gaining prominence in challenging the Production Code through films like "The Moon Is Blue" and "The Man with the Golden Arm," leading to the decline of the Code and the rise of a ratings system.

French Documentary Movement

Emerged in 1946 with films like Farrebique, focusing on real-life subjects like peasant life and art, influencing the next generation of French filmmakers.

Georges Franju

A master of French documentary cinema, deeply influenced by German Expressionism, known for films like "The Blood of the Beasts" and "Eyes without a Face," considered a surrealist.

Independent Production

Filmmakers like Jean-Pierre Melville and Agnès Varda worked outside the traditional studio system, using methods like location shooting and small crews, influencing the New Wave generation.

Alexandre Astruc

Introduced the concept of the caméra-stylo in 1948, advocating for filmmakers as authors (auteurs) and a new form of audiovisual language, breaking away from traditional narrative.

Cahiers du cinéma

A journal founded in 1951 by André Bazin and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, gathering young critics like François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, promoting the auteur theory and mise-en-scène over montage aesthetics.

Tradition of Quality

Refers to the postwar commercial scenarist tradition in French cinema that heavily emphasized plot and dialogue, with the scriptwriter being the key figure and the director having a secondary role.

Cinéma d’auteurs

Introduced by Truffaut as a counterpoint to the tradition of quality, it emphasized the personal vision and control of the director in filmmaking, highlighting the works of writer-directors like Gance, Vigo, Renoir, and American directors who managed to make personal statements despite studio restrictions.

Auteur Theory

Offers a schematic model for interpreting filmmaking by attributing cinematic creation to the director, addressing a methodological problem in film criticism and championed by the Cahiers critics turned filmmakers.

New Wave

Nouvelle Vague:Refers to a movement in French cinema characterized by independently produced films challenging the traditional system, enabled by changes in government aid laws in 1959, leading to a surge of new filmmakers and private producers.

Breathless

A film by Jean-Luc Godard, a key figure of the New Wave, known for its influential style including handheld camera shots, natural lighting, improvised plot and dialogue, and jagged, elliptical editing with jump cuts to disrupt spatial and temporal continuity.

Aesthetic Distance

The psychological effect created by New Wave films to remind the audience that they are watching a film, not reality, through techniques like jump cuts and handheld cameras.

Self-reflexive Cinema

New Wave cinema's characteristic of being aware of the filmmaking process and emphasizing the medium's unique language, focusing on the artificiality of film.

Metacinema

New Wave cinema as a form of film that reflects on the nature of film itself, often breaking the fourth wall and calling attention to its own construction.

Neorealism

A film movement that aimed to depict reality and everyday life, influencing directors like Fellini and Antonioni before they transitioned to more symbolic and stylized storytelling.

Mise-en-scène

Antonioni's technique of using the physical environment to express the psychology of characters, emphasizing the importance of the material surroundings in his films.

Sequence Shot

Antonioni used the sequence shot in L’avventura to equate film time with real time, where every scene in the film takes the same amount of time to occur on the screen as it would in empirical reality.

Widescreen Deep Focus

Antonioni employed widescreen deep focus to link his characters with their oppressive surroundings, transferring the psychological experience of the characters to the audience.

Psychological Adventure

Antonioni's films make the audience experience the characters' psychological journey, such as the long and tedious search for Anna, leading to a focus on the relationship of the searchers.

Symbolic Use of Color

Antonioni used color symbolically in films like The Red Desert, enhancing the sense of personal dislocation and chaos in the industrial landscape.

Existential Themes

Antonioni's films, like The Passenger, reflect existential themes by exploring the uselessness of human individuality and the tragic inability to communicate with others and oneself.

Italian Exploitation Genres

Italian cinema saw the rise of exploitation genres like peplum epics, spaghetti Westerns, and giallo horror films, which provided financial stability and training ground for future directors.

Peplum Films

Peplum films were sword-and-sandal epics inspired by classical mythology, featuring heroes like Hercules and Spartacus, and played a significant role in Italian cinema during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Spaghetti Westerns

Italian Westerns, known as spaghetti Westerns, gained international popularity, especially through Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, setting new standards in the genre with their stylized violence and unique settings.

Benshi

In Japanese cinema, the benshi played a crucial role as a narrator, providing voices for characters and commentary on the action, allowing for narrative coherence and diffuse storytelling.

Impact of Sound

The introduction of sound in Japanese cinema allowed directors to become the primary creative force, breaking the influence of benshi and aligning with the Western filmmaking approach.

Jidai-geki

Refers to period films set before 1868, encompassing subtypes like chanbara, historical romance, and ghost films.

Gendai-geki

Denotes films of contemporary life, including types like lower-middle-class comedy-drama, children's films, and yakuza-eiga.

Rashomon

A film by Akira Kurosawa based on conflicting narratives of an event, exploring the relativity of truth and human perception.

Teinosuke Kinugasa

A director known for beautiful period films in the 1920s.

Kenji Mizoguchi

A director whose films focused on the position of women in society and featured extended long takes and depth composition.

Yasujiro Ozu

A master of classical Japanese film known for his works post-World War II.

Akira Kurosawa

A renowned director who created masterpieces like Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood, elevating jidai-geki to an art form.

Toho

A production company that produced many of Kurosawa's films from 1952 to 1991.

Dersu Uzala

A film by Kurosawa portraying the friendship between an aging hunter and a young Russian surveyor, set in eastern Siberia.

Ran

Kurosawa's epic film based on King Lear, recognized as his most brilliant work internationally.

Kenji Mizoguchi

A Japanese filmmaker known for his masterpieces produced in the last six years of his life, focusing on themes like feudalism and the condition of Japanese women.

The Life of Oharu

A film by Mizoguchi, winner of the International Award at the 1952 Venice Film Festival, critiquing feudalism through the story of a seventeenth-century Kyoto prostitute.

Ugetsu

Another acclaimed film by Mizoguchi, set in the sixteenth century, exploring the realization of two men that wealth is not worth the love they abandoned.

Yasujiro Ozu

A Japanese director known for his focus on lower-middle-class family life and the impact of modernization on traditional Japanese culture.

Shomin-geki

A genre of social comedies focusing on the daily lives and relationships of lower-middle-class families, often depicted in Ozu's films.

Still lifes

Empty scenes in Ozu's films, reflecting Zen aesthetics and emphasizing the spaces between materials as integral to the work of art.

Bollywood

The Indian film industry, centered in Bombay, known for producing a large number of conventionalized musicals and mythological romances for a massive domestic audience.

Satyajit Ray

An Indian filmmaker of major international stature, known for his extraordinary talent and contributions to cinema.

Alam Ara

The first talking feature in India, a Hindi music drama that marked the beginning of a boom in the Indian film industry with the advent of sound.

Golden Age of “Hindustani” film

The period from 1940 to 1960 when Indian cinema experienced significant growth and artistic freedom, producing notable films like Mother India and Do bigha zameen.

Bollywood

Refers to the Indian Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, known for its musical productions and unique storytelling style.

Satyajit Ray

Renowned Indian filmmaker known for his neorealistic style and international acclaim, particularly for the Apu trilogy.

Parallel Cinema

Movement in Indian cinema that emerged as an alternative to mainstream commercial films, focusing on artistry and social issues.

Ritwik Ghatak

Bengali filmmaker known for his authentic alternative cinema and radical Marxist perspectives in films like "Pathetic Fallacy" and "Reason, Debate and a Tale."

Mrinal Sen

Prolific Indian filmmaker associated with the New Indian Cinema movement, notably for his film "Bhuvan Shome" that marked the beginning of parallel cinema.

Shyam Benegal

Indian director recognized for his socially conscious films like "Ankur" and "Nishant," bridging artistry with popular appeal in Indian cinema.

Regional Cinemas

Refers to the emergence of independent film industries in different regions of India, such as the southern new wave in Karnataka and Kerala.

Girish Karnad

Indian filmmaker known for his work in the Kannada-language industry, with films like "The Forest" contributing to the regional cinema movement.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Influential Indian filmmaker from Kerala, recognized for films like "Swayamvaram" and "Vidheyan" that delve into social issues and human relationships.

Bengali Parallel Cinema

Movement in Bengali cinema characterized by young Marxist directors like Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen, and Buddhadev Dasgupta, exploring political and social themes.

Tatami Shot

A cinematographic technique pioneered by Ozu where the camera is positioned at a low height, imitating the viewpoint of a spectator sitting on a tatami, creating a passive and contemplative mood.

Empathy Denial

Ozu's technique of denying viewers direct identification with the protagonists by using the tatami shot, making viewers witnesses of the characters' actions from a close yet distant point of view.

Carefree Youth

The initial state of the characters in "Jules and Jim," characterized by playfulness and spontaneity, which evolves into tragedy as they face maturity, war, family, and relationship challenges.

Love Triangle

The central theme in "Jules and Jim," involving a complex relationship between two best friends and a woman, exploring the transition from carefree youth to the complexities of adult relationships.

Aesthetic Evolution

Hou's conscious choice of using a static camera in "A Summer at Grandpa’s" due to logistical constraints, leading to a unique atmospheric quality and influencing the film's aesthetic direction.

Ugetsu Monogatari

Refers to "Rain Moon Stories" in Japanese, portraying the dangers of life during the civil war period in Japan.

Visual Storytelling

The film uses visual elements to depict the horrors faced by ordinary Japanese people during the civil war period, rather than relying solely on narration.

Mitsuguchi's Setting Change

Director Mitsuguchi shifted the setting of the original story to the civil war period in Japan, reflecting on the recent experiences of Japanese people post-Pacific war.

Mid Shot Technique

Mitsuguchi employs a straightforward storytelling approach with mid shots and fades to black, reminiscent of Hollywood cinema but rejecting many of its conventions.

Dual Protagonists

The film follows two couples, Genjiro and his wife Miyagi, and Genjiro's brother Tobey and his wife, showcasing the different reactions of characters to the impact of war.

Ambitions vs

The central theme revolves around men chasing their dreams, only to realize that true happiness lies in appreciating what they already have, cautioning against pursuing unrealistic ambitions.

Tragic Consequences

Both men in the story achieve their dreams but end up losing everything, leading to permanent damage in their lives and those around them.