Final for FLME 2700

Akira Kurosawa

Japanese filmmaker, had a career that spanned from the Second World War to the 1990s. Best known for his samurai epics.

Godzilla

Starting in 1954, the \___ series has become the longest-running film series in movie history. Its has been featured in 33 official films produced by Toho Company Ltd., many American-made Hollywood adaptations, and countless print media, television shows, video games, toys and other merchandise.

Anime

In 1963, the Astroboy television series was the first \___. Next hit \___ to come down the pike was Speed Racer In 1967.

Beyond TV there've been several highly popular films put out since in the mid 80s.

Carl Dreyer

Created The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), which, though a failure on its release, is now considered one of the great artistic works of the twentieth century. It was followed by Vampyr (1932) a mesmerizing horror fable, Day of Wrath (1943) an intense tale of social repression made during the Nazi occupation of Denmark and Ordet (1955) a shattering look at a farming family's inner religious world.

Ingmar Bergman

Yet his incredible run of successes in that era—including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and The Virgin Spring, haunting black-and-white elegies on the nature of God and death—merely paved the way for a long and continuously dazzling career that would take him from the daring "Silence of God" trilogy (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence) to the existential terrors of Cries and Whispers to the family epic Fanny and Alexander, with which he "retired" from the cinema. \___ died in July 2007, leaving behind one of the richest bodies of work in the history of cinema.

Expressionism

This genres elements (particularly sinister plots, horrific events, and chiaroscuro lighting) continued to be highlighted in German cinema throughout 1920's and into the 1930's.

Fritz Lang

Directed two of Pre-War Germany's most revered films; the science fiction classic Metropolis (1927) and psychological thriller M (1931). The Nazi Government offered him the job of head of the German Cinema Institute. He not only turned them down but fled the country. Over the next 20 years, he directed numerous American films. In the 1950s, in part because the film industry was in economic decline, and also because of his long-standing reputation for being difficult with, and abusive to, actors, he found it increasingly hard to get work.

Wim Wenders

A New German Cinema Director. Important works include Alice in the Cities, The American Friend, and Wings of Desire. Also successful and influential in more mainstream cinema, with films such as Paris, Texas and Buena Vista Social Club. Has directed music videos for U2. President of the European Film Academy.

Werner Herzog

Only feature film director to have filmed on every single continent, including Antartica. Long extended landscape shots are among his trademarks.

Wolfgang Petersen

Created Das Boot, which led to "Hollywood" success.

Italian Neo Realism

An emphasis on the value of ordinary people - in particular the poor
A preoccupation with Italy's Fascist past and its aftermath of wartime devastation
Used non-professional actors in major role
An avoidance of neatly or cleverly plotted stories
A dark and gritty sensibility that often focused on darker themes

Roberto Rossellini

This person's influential, documentary-like landmark film Open City (1945) formally introduced Italian Neo-realism. It's a gritty and realistic post-war film set in the underworld of war-time resistance, with the use of on-location cinematography, grainy low-grade black-and-white film stock and untrained actors in improvised scenes. This person wanted to portray the cruel atmosphere that existed during Nazi occupation and many of the film's narrative elements are based on actual events during this time.

Vittorio De Sica

The bycle Theives presents the pinnacle of the movement
Given and honorary Academy Award in 1950.

Federico Fellini

One of Italy's great modern directors, Federico Fellini was a larger than life maestro who created a personal cinematic style by combining surreal carnival images with incisive social critique. A flamboyant romantic, his films examine many different themes.

French New Wave

Created by film critics to give Directors creative control over their own work
Disdain for conventional editing
The long take: sequences extended beyond conventional limits using hand-held cameras
Shot on locations instead of studios
Improvisations added later by post-synchronization
Scripts were more personal and autobiographical, but the mise-en-scene was the place in the film where subjectivity really ruled.
Protagonists often loners who were misfits in society

Francois Tuffaut

became an auteur director with The 400 Blows, which won him the best director award at Cannes and led the French new-wave charge. He worked throughout the 60s with such thrilling works as Shoot the Piano Player and Jules and Jim. Continued directing with such other classics as Day for Night and The Last Metro until his life was tragically cut short at the age of 52.

Jean-Luc Godard

A pioneer of the French new wave. Breathless—his first and last mainstream success—has been mimicked by generations of filmmakers. As the 60s progressed, his output became increasingly radical until by 1968 he had forsworn commercial cinema altogether, forming a leftist filmmaking collective (the Dziga Vertov Group).

Alfred Hitchcock

At five years old, this director's father arranged to have him locked in a cell at the local police station for five minutes after he misbehaved giving him a lifelong interest in the subject of guilt. His early silent film The Lodger (1925) was a take on Jack the Ripper and Blackmail (1930) became the first British picture with sound. Then left England to direct many more films. Never won an Oscar.

David Lean

Great British film director, directed films including Brief Encounter, Lawrence of Arabia, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Doctor Zhivago. Then started to direct romantic melodramas, and then epics.

Merchant - Ivory

Team of an American-born director and Indian-born producer, as well as a screenwriter generated sophisticated, nostalgic, intelligent, and lush costume dramas beginning in the mid-80s.

James Bond

The most successful movie franchise in history. Men want to be just like him, women just want to be with him. Moviegoers around the world have spent more than $5 billion to watch 12 different actors play him in over 25 films and it there is no plans for an endgame.

Bollywood

features motion pictures filled with comedy, laughter and rock music, rather than dramatic scenes and sad songs.

Satyajit Ray

This person first film Pather Panchali (1955) established his reputation as a major film director and led to his masterpiece - The Apu Trilogy - a three-part tale of a boy's life from birth through manhood. \___ directly controlled most aspects of filmmaking, writing the screenplays, (many based on his own stories), designed the sets and costumes, operated the camera most of time, composed the music, and designed the posters. He died in 1992.

Luis Bunuel

Began his career as a member of the French surrealists. His first films, Un chien andalou and L'âge d'or, absurd and filled with violent sexuality, were collaborations with Salvador Dalí and were met with censorship. After years of working alternately in his native Spain (where his faux documentary Land Without Bread and, later, Viridiana were both banned), the United States, and Mexico, he made most of his late films in France, combining surrealist non sequiturs with attacks on the bourgeoisie, the church, and social hypocrisy in general.

Pedro Almodovar

The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker of his time arrived in Madrid in 1968 and couldn't study filmmaking because he didn't have the money to afford it. Besides, the filmmaking schools were closed in early 70s by Franco's fascist government. Instead, he found a job in the Spanish phone company and saved his salary to buy a Super 8 camera. From 1972 to 1978, he devoted himself to make short films with the help of of his friends. The "premieres" of those early films were famous in the rapidly growing world of the Spanish counter-culture.

Alejandro G. Inarritu

Mexican director and producer was expelled from school at age 16 and traveled to the United States to study filmmaking. His feature directorial debut, Amores perros (2000) was an international success; as was 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). \___ then co-wrote and directed the 2014 English-language Birdman which won him Oscars for best director and best screenplay. His follow up The Revenant (2015), based on a true story, again won him a second consecutive Oscar for his direction.

Guillermo del Toro

was able to parlay his childhood love of the macabre into a highly successful career as a filmmaker, making his feature debut in 1993 with Cronos. He helmed the comic-book adaptations Blade II and Hellboy before directing Pan's Labyrinth, an acclaimed, artfully distinguished film that was nominated for a Foreign Language Film Academy Award while winning several Oscars in other categories.

Alfonso Cuaron

Born on November 28, 1961, in Mexico City, Mexico, \___ helmed several movie and television projects before directing the erotic road film Y Tu Mamá También. After taking the reigns as director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, he received further critical acclaim with his dystopic drama Children of Men.

Peter Weir

began directing films in 1973, winning an international audience with the haunting and atmospheric movies. In 1985 he directed his first Hollywood film, Witness for which he received an Oscar nomination. Won several Oscar nominations for best director.

Gillian Armstrong

made her feature film directing debut with My Brilliant Career (1979) the first Australian feature length drama directed by a woman in 46 years. Often considered one of the highlights of the Australian period genre, the film won many awards including Best Film and Best Director at the Australian Film Institute awards that year and was invited into competition at Cannes in 1980.

Taika Waititi

was nominated for an Oscar for his 2004 short film Two Cars, One Night. His feature films Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film. He co-directed and co-starred in the 2014 horror comedy What We Do in the Shadows, which brought him further critical acclaim and recognition. He hit the jack pot with his highly acclaimed superhero film Thor: Ragnarok.

Star Wars

The movie game changer that led to a new era

Jaws

The other blockbuster but that wasn't as big and had limitations such as merchandising, terrifying children, and bad sequels.

Merchandising

Element 1 of Blockbusters
toys, apparel, etc...

young target audience

Element 2 of Blockbusters
includes repeat audience, and bringing the rest of the family along

Sequels/remakes

Element 3 of Blockbusters
making more films after the original one, or redoing one

High Concept

Element 1 of Megapictures
Have to have basic marketing hook, based on simple idea that can be easily understood and marketed.

Bankable Stars

Element 2 of Megapictures

Pre-Sold Properties

Element 3 of Megapictures

Special Effects

Element 4 of Megapictures

sold

How did studios get enough money to sell themselves?
They \___ themselves

Indie Film

Type of film
Classical Definition is term used for movies made outside of Hollywood
Real Definition is open to interpretation

Indies

Term used to describe
Cinematic movement against the corporate grain
With low production budgets and inexpensive marketing costs, these can discover the shifts in popular sentiment that will shape the direction of modern film.
Young directors, working in their 20s and 30s, are perceived to be more aligned with their generational sensibilities than older directors.

Funding

Elements /questions of Indies:
Does \___ from a major studio disqualify a film from the 'independent' category?

Audience

Elements /questions of Indies:
Cinephiles? A micro-targeted market segment?

Distrubution

Elements /questions of Indies:
Does it get a theatrical release? Does it play in multiplexes? Art house theaters?

Director/Writer/Actors

Elements /questions of Indies:
Auteur-driven film

Aesthetics

Elements /questions of Indies:
Does deviation from classical Hollywood conventions make a film independent?

Thematically

So what does typical Indie film look like? (1 word to describe what below means)
•Focus on the "offbeat" and "quirky"
•Marketed to audiences not served by Blockbusters
•More likely to have: Anti-heroes, Ambiguity, Non-Mainstream Values and Politics

Aesthetically

So what does typical Indie film look like? (1 word to describe what below means)
•Formal "flourishes" (i.e., discontinuous editing)
•But usually w/ some kind of narrative or character-based justification
•Strong personal vision of director
•Lower budgets
•Character Actors maybe even non-professionals

Oscar Mecheaux

produces The Homesteader, first of his 44 Independent features

United Artists

First indie American studio made by four giants of silent film era, after being fed up with major studios

David O' Selznick

resigns from MGM to start his own Indie Production Company. Four years later his Gone With the Wind shatters box office records.

John Cassavetes

directs the award-winning Shadows, an improvised film considered a landmark in the Indie movement.

George A. Romero

directs Night of the Living Dead on a budget of $ 114,000. It ends up grossing over $12,000,000.

Roger Corman

founds New World Cinema. For decades his low budget movies were the on set "film school" of such notables as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Jack Nicholson.

The Coen Brothers

Blood Simple, the first indie film from \___ (Joel & Ethan), opened to nearly universal acclaim. Since then they have written and directed Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and Barton Fink.

Steven Soderbergh

\___'s sex, lies, and videotape debuts at the newly named Sundance Film Festival (formerly the U.S. Film Festival). It's credited with helping inaugurate the indie filmmaking boom of the 1990s.

The Blair Witch Project

is shot as a mockumentary for $35,000. It grosses over $140 million.

Home Video Boom

Why Indies Grew:
1976: VHS introduced
1988: Majority of U.S. Households own VCR
1997: DVD Introduced; Netflix launches, currently at 23 million subscribers
2000: Hollywood takes in $20 billion in home video revenue (3x domestic box office)
2010: Blockbuster Video files for bankruptcy

Hollywood Funders Seek Niche Markets

Big pictures dominate, but there's still money on the table.

Indiewood

examples include Fox Searchlight, Fine Line, Focus Features, and Paramount Classics. Big studios trying to get into Indies.

Film Festivals

If you are an Indie, where you go to sell your films

Arty Indies

Explicitly reject style and narrative conventions of Hollywood
Emphasize loose narrative structure, characters and style
The success of Stranger Than Paradise (1984) recalled the European art cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. Jim Jarmusch's portrayal of cool bohemians recalled Beat cinema of the 1950s. The success of Stranger launched an indie trend towards artifice and stylization.

Off-Hollywood Indies

Some indie films were less avant-garde and used recognizable genres and sometimes featured stars. What pushed them \___ were their low budgets, risky subjects or storytelling strategies. The careers of Woody Allen and the late Robert Altman exemplify this trend. Started as highly praised studio filmmakers they were forced to work as independents in the 1980s and 1990s.

Retro Hollywood Indies

Modern Hollywood narrowed its genre base. Studios focused on SFX extravaganzas, action pictures, star-driven melodramas and romances, and gross-out comedies. This allowed Indies to exploit many traditional genres that Modern Hollywood ignored. Such as Low Budget Horror (A Nightmare on Elm Street), and Film Noir (The Usual Suspects).

DIY Indies

The selling points of a DIY pic are its unprofessional look and its lack of budget. The hope is studios will notice the independent wing of the industry and employ those who create DIY pics.

Cult Film

One that has acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans who enthusiastically champion films that are not generally acknowledged as worthy.

The Big Lebowski

There are films that are widely-viewed, and that have made a great deal of money, that can still be considered "cult". For example, \___ , has grossed well above its budget, and holds a large fan base. A "\--- Fest" is held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, where fans of the film come to dress up as their favorite characters to celebrate the film.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

\___ has been both condemned and celebrated as "the worst movie ever made." Critics love to mock everything from the film's comical dialogue to its not-so-special effects. Writer-director Ed Wood crafted the picture with undeniable passion. After Wood passed away in 1978, it became a huge success—but for reasons he probably never would've expected.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

opened to largely negative reviews and terrible box office. Later when a Greenwich Village NYC cinema played it at midnight it became a phenomenon.

Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings

Film that changed how Hollywood perceives the globalization of film market

Digital

Before \___, Filmmakers had to rent costly cameras and other equipment as well as buy and process film which cost buckets of $$$
After \___ Filmmakers could own their own HD quality cameras and had no processing fees
Same also goes for projectors in cinemas

Streaming

Through \___ we can now watch movies on our computers, phones, etc...

Exclusivity

The one problem with streaming platforms that could lead to it going astray

Race Films

1920s
While the portrayals of Blacks by White actors in blackface provided limited and highly stereotypical African American roles and characters in mainstream films, the "all-colored cast" films purposefully showcased positive depictions of African Americans.
These "\___" were produced for the segregated Black theaters across the country. "Race films" also showcased Black actors as protagonists in western, dramatic, and romantic features. These films were created for and marketed to African American audiences.

Oscar Micheaux

an African-American filmmaker who produced "race movies", showing all African-American casts in a variety of roles. first independent filmmaker

Blackface

Carried on unabated in mainstream films from Silent era into Talkies
Whites and Blacks both appeared in \___
Major stars appeared without irony
Practice on film really didn't end until mid 1950's

Demeaning Portrayals

The roles offered to African American actors in the 1930s and 1940s reflected African Americans in roles as musical performers or butlers, drivers, laborers, maids, and mammies.
These films also continued to celebrate romanticized ideas of the "Old South" and of the devoted servant. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, these domestic worker roles begin to be represented in urban households and settings.

Hattie McDaniel

first person of color to win an Oscar for acting in Gone With the Wind - 1939
'I'd rather make $700 a week playing a
maid than working as one.'

Disney

produced fantasia
knew it was playing with a loaded gun even before filming began. The NAACP released a statement that said "the production helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery ... [the film] unfortunately gives the impression of an idyllic master-slave relationship which is a distortion of the facts."
"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," Song of the South became an unlikely hit in three re-releases throughout the 1970s. But by the 1980s, when it was twice re-released theatrically, viewers brought a level of curiosity and nostalgia to it that blinded them to its true offensiveness.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

pushed to change how black characters were written and portrayed in mainstream hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

But through episodes of the Disneyland television series, and the omnipresence of "\___," Song of the South became an unlikely hit in three re-releases throughout the 1970s. But by the 1980s, when it was twice re-released theatrically, viewers brought a level of curiosity and nostalgia to it that blinded them to its true offensiveness.

1940s small changes, read the definition and understand it

In the 1940s and 1950s, movie-goers began to see a shift in the ways Black characters were written and portrayed in mainstream Hollywood films. One factor that contributed to the opening of film roles for African Americans was the involvement of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) within Hollywood itself.
Although the range of roles available for African America actors largely remained limited in mixed race films, major motion picture studios began producing films featuring well-known Black entertainers and musicians as leading protagonists in films with all-Black casts. However, most of these films were musicals.
Yet it seemed the only way Hollywood would produce a drama casting both blacks and whites in substantial roles was to make it (a) about a black white person passing as white and (b) showing most of the bigotry coming from African Americans.

stayed in his or her lane

So as long as a person of color played the game and "[6 words]" they could prosper in the film industry

Lena Horne

1st african american performer to sign a long term contract w/a major hollywood studio

Stepin Fetchit

Lincoln Perry's stage name; archetypal zip coon/servant character in the 1930s; lazy man with a soul; white audience loved him, shunned by blacks. he was first black performer to earn over a million dollars

Onscreen equality 1950s

•The growing momentum of the Civil Rights Movement brought more changes in Hollywood.
•The 1950s saw the advent of large productions featuring all-Black casts and the beginnings of a shift in the ways in which Black and White actors shared screen time.
•Beginning in the 1950s, the roles for Black actors would become more diverse with complex character development and would complement those of their White counterparts.

Civil rights in mainstream cinema 1960s

The 1960s were marked by a greater push back against the racial status quo, greater cast integration, and greater engagement with the meanings of race in the U.S.

Sidney Poitier

The first African American actor to win the Best Actor Award

Blaxploitation and breakthroughs 1970s

•In the 1970s the variety of opportunities open to African American actors, directors, writers, and producers continued to expand. The films from this decade, whether they were action, comedy, drama, documentary, horror or romance, presented Black audiences with new and multifaceted depictions of the Black community.
•\___[first word out of three], marked a significant change in how African Americans were presented in films. \___films directly confronted the older stereotypes of African Americans as servants, victims or criminals by envisioning African Americans as avengers. Many of the well-known \___films were action thrillers and featured extreme situations of violence, sex, and drug-use.

Feminist Cinema

minority voice 2

"the male gaze"

objectification in feminist cinema aka

"The Sex Symbol"

The objectified body is what Hollywood calls

Theda Bara

early silent famous "sex symbol" in hollywood

Mae West

early talkies famous "sex symbol" in hollywood started the blonde trend

Jean Harlow

1930s famous "sex symbol" in hollywood, really pushed the blond trend

Lana Turner

1940s famous "sex symbol" in hollywood

Marilyn Monroe

1950s famous "sex symbol" in hollywood

Pam Grier

1970s famous "sex symbol" in hollywood