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Introduction to Film History / Sven-Sander Paas

13.9. (Missed first week)

  • Last time 1903, Nickelodeons, filmmakers etc.

Today:

  • 1903-1920

  • Hollywood

  • France and Japan at a glance

  • Germany

  • Silent era films understandable by all since no dialogue needed (besides sub.cards)

Patent Wars

  • Edison, kinetograph

    — sued left and right, fighting for top billing

    — goons looking for patent breakers

  • Dickson, mutoscope

  • Blackon, vitagraph

  • Motion Pictures Patent Company (MPPC) 1908

    — start of monopoly, evetually becoming into the studio monopoly

    — films needed to be approved by MPPC to be shown

  • Independent Motion Company 1909

    — functioned away from Eddisons grasp

Hollywood(land)

  • Rural settlements around 1894

  • Film industry arrived in 1906

  • Joined LA in 1910

  • Majority of US films made there by 1915

  • Weather good, many different geographic locations to shoot in

  • The sign was put up in 1923

Good old racist DW Griffith :)

  • Born in 1875, Kentucky

  • Theatre background strting from 17

  • Joined Biograph theatre, after working for 6 months got to direct

  • 450 short films (61 in one year)

  • Pioneered cross-cutting, close-ups

  • Worked with cinematographer Billy Blitzer, influenced by his style

  • Birth of a Nation 1915

Clip: Those awful hats 1909

Birth of a Nation 1915

  • DW Griffith, first feature

  • Based on a novel called the Clansman

  • Shot originally in color, then remade in black and white (too costly for theater equipment)

  • Used clever editing ways, close ups, cross cuts, red tinting. Also repopularized KKK

  • Intolerance, 1916

    — Four parallel storylines (Contemporary drama of crime and redemption, Judean, French, Babylonian)

    — Griffiths answer to critics of Birth of the Nation (not apology, wanted apologies from them)

    — Huge sets, total cost of 2 million dollars (in their currency, not todays)

    — Huge impact in Soviet montage movement

    — Many AD’s from this movie became directors later on.

    Clip: Intolerance, 1916

    Oscar Micheaux 1884-1951

  • First African-American filmmaker

  • The Homesteader, novel 1919

  • +44 films as a producer, screenwriter and director

    First Stars

  • Max Linder 1883-1925, gentleman in highjinks, inspiration for Chaplin

  • Moved back to France, suicide in 1925

  • Florence Lawrence 1886-1938

  • US born

  • A producer said she was hit by a streetcar and died, but she turns up at the premieres and the audiences were enthralled

  • Also fades out of publicity, suicide.

    Clip: A Skaters Debut, 1905 (Max Linder)

    The Hollywood Star System

  • A method of creating, promoting and expoloiting stars in Hollywood films from the 1920’s to 1960’s

  • Expected behaviour from them, regime for discreet acting and voice.

  • Emphasis on image rather than acting.

    Early Japanese Film

  • Theatre adaptations

  • Like in traditional kabuki, shimpa, women played by men

  • They had a live narrator, benji. Music present.

  • Out of this was born the pure film movement, aiming to reform Japanese film. Wanted to stop having benji present. Wanted to aim for Hollywoods universal film language, understood by all regardless of language.

  • Pure film movement died out, benji became even more prevalent, like movie stars.

    Clip: Momijigari, 1899, Tsunekichi Shibata

  • Very trad. Kabuki, fan play etc.

    France

  • 1902-1909 Pathé era, 80-90% of world market

  • Vincennes before Hollywood

  • Leon Gaumont, Gaumont Film Company

  • Charles Pathé, Pathé Film Company

    — started newsreels

  • Abel Gance

    — J’accuse 1919

    — La Roue 1923

    — Napoleon 1927

    Clip: Pathé Newsreels

    Clip: Les Vampires (series), ep. The ring that kills 1915, Louis Feuillade

    — coreography!

Paul Wegner 1874-1948, German expressionism

  • The Student of Prague 1913

  • The Golem 1915

  • The Golem and the Dancing Girl 1917

  • The Golem: how he came into this world 1920

    Clip: The Golem

    — influenced upcoming scifi, like the Frankenstein films

German Expressionism

  • Mise-en-scene and heavy atmosphere

  • Long shadow effects

  • Artificial sets, with realistic details

  • Unexpected camera angles

  • Aims to evoke mystery, hallucinations and emotional distress

  • Slower pace than other films

20.9.

Today:

  • 1915-1930

  • Germany

  • Soviet union

  • Scandinavia

  • Documentaries

  • Comedy

Murnau

  • First directing “Der knabe in blau” , 1919

  • der Januskopf 1920

  • Visual effects, negative images

  • Mounted camera on a bike

  • Roller skated and filmed

  • Pantomime / the great impressionist

  • Got an offer from Fox Film Corp, moved to Hollywood

  • Made Sunrise 1926

  • Film Company with Robert Flaherty

  • Made Tabu 1931, died a week before premiere in a car crash

Kammerspielfilm (Kamarinäytelmä elokuva)

  • Film movement, 1920s

  • Lack of intertitles

  • Realist setting

  • Focus on character psychology

  • Notable films: the last laugh (Murnau), the passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)

Fritz Lang

  • Born in Vienna, Austria

  • Mother was jewish, then converted to catholism

  • WW1, injured in the eye and was shellshocked

  • First writing job at Decla film

  • Directing at UFA

  • Wrote together with his wife Thea von Harbou

  • Recurring themes of psychological conflict, paranoia

  • M, dr. Mabuse the gambler, Destiny

  • Metropolis, 21 million

    • industrialist, mass production

    • Art deco

    • Fascisim

    • Functionalist modernism

    • Set conditions were awful

    • Use of miniatures and mirrors, forcing a perspective

Scandinavia - Sweden

  • First golden golden age 1912-1924

  • Victor Sjöström 1879-1960

  • Greta Garbo 1905-1990

  • Georg af Stiller, Mauritz Stiller

Sjöström

  • Started out as an actor

  • The Phantom Carriage

  • He who gets slapped

  • The wind

  • New editing, mastered continuous editing

  • Invited to Hollywood, moved with Stiller and Mauritz

  • Returned back to Sweden to explore sound

Denmark

  • Benjamin Christensen

    • witchcraft through the ages 1922

    • Also acted in Häxan

  • Carl Theodor Dreyer

  • Asta Nielsen

Dreyer presentation →

Soviet montage theory:

  • Lev Kuleshov (Kuleshov effect)

  • Sergei Eisenstein

  • Dziga Vertov (a man with a movie camera)

  • Vsevolod Pudovkin

  • First film school in the world

Sergei Eisenstein

  • Montage methods (two neutral images colliding, creating a new third meaning that is not directly shown)

    • Metric montage

    • Rhytmic montage (dialogue, also Potemkins odessa stairs)

    • Tonal montage (visual or oral charasteristic that shots share e.g. mist from breath and clouds, scream to helicopter noise, baptism scene from The Godfather)

    • Intellectual montage (match cut from 2001 space odyssey, bone to satellite)

Dziga Vertov

  • A man with a movie camera

  • founding member of Kino eyes

Robert Flaherty

  • Nanook of the North

  • Moana

    → first use of word documentary was in a review of Moana

Charlie Chaplin, the tramp

  • 1915, The Tramp

  • World famous by 1918

  • Cofounded United Artists in 1919

  • First feature The Kidd 1921

Buster Keaton

  • Started out as an actor

  • Got started out in film after meeting Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle in 1917

  • Did his own stunts

  • The great stone face - got more laughs by looking serious

  • First role in Butcher Boy

  • The General 1926

27.9.

Entering sound films.

HW: Buster Keaton ”Sherlock Jr” + Dreyers ”Passion of Joan of Arc”

— Keaton broke his neck on the shoot of Sherlock Jr, discovered it after a month

Today:

Sound film in Hollywood and its development

  • Evne when there was no sound there was piano etc, but:

    — It wasn’t sunchronized

    — There was no dialogue (sometimes was read from behind the curtain)

    — There were no sound effects

  • Don Juan (1926), first movie with synchronized sound, no dialogue though

  • Sound-on-disc or Sound-on-film was main issue; disc meant there was a separate phonograph that needed to be played in sync

Sound-on-disc

  • Sync issues

  • Two separate devices interlocked

  • Discs wear out

  • Cheaper to record and play

  • Better audio quality

Sound-on-film

  • Film and audio on the same strip

  • Easier to edit and distribute

First sound films 1927

  • They’re coming to get me (short)

  • 7th heaven

  • Sunrise: A song of two humans (Murnau)

  • The Jazz Singer (with Al Jolson and blackface)

    — Audiences most blown away by the adlibbed parts by Jolson

    — No prewritten dialogue recorded so not technically a proper dialogue film but still considered the first talkie

Issues in the beginning:

  • Cameras were very loud

  • Recording done in an ice box on set

  • Very one directional mics, low opportunity for movement

  • Very expensive

  • Because of expenses, most smaller and rural theatres stuck to showing silent films for longer

  • Investing in sound risky, studios not fully onboard

  • Language, aka the difficulties in making the film understandable for global audiences

  • Voices - actors sounding different from audiences imaginations

Effect on jobs

  • Actors not sounding right to audiences

  • Sound department was created

  • Musicians no longer needed at theatres

  • Writers needed more than ever (dialogue)

    — Writers hired often already published authors (like Aldous Huxley)

Comedians and Sound

  • Harold Lloyd

    — Active with sound but fell behind

    — Out of touch

  • Buster Keaton

    — No issue with sound but his later movie flopped and he was kept on leash after that.

  • Laurel and Hardy

    — Originally worked separate

    — Joint forces when sound came, did well

  • The Marx Brothers

    — Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo

    — Physical gags, absurd situations.

    — ”Duck soup”, ”A night at the opera”

    — Pioneered slap-stick comedy

    — Peak popularity 30s and 40’s

Clip: Duck Soup, mirror scene

Charlie Chaplin and sound

  • Cautious of using sound.

  • ”City Lights” 1931

  • ”Modern Times” 1936, last silent film out of Hollywood, retired the Tramp character. Had a song with his sound in the film, despite being a silent mostly. His first words in film.

  • ”The Great Dictator” 1940

  • 1972 honorary Oscar, no other Oscars from his career.

Musicals

  • ”The Broadway Melody” 1929, first musical to get best picture

  • Busby Berkeley revitalized them in 1933, after them briefly dying out during the Great Depression. He was originally from Broadway, used dancers to create large geometric shapes through dance and swimming.

  • Mervin LeRoy, Gold Diggers of 1933

  • Musicals had a trend of dying out and making a come back in Hollywoods golden age

Clip from Footlight Parade (1933)

Clip from The Green Mile where they show a clip of Fred Astaire dancing and singing.

Sound and Talkies elsewhere:

  • ”I kiss your hand madame” (1929) first European talkie with Marlene Dietrich (no proper dialogue)

  • Blackmail 1929

  • The Song of Love 1930

  • Britain leading the way

  • France recording elsewhere, lagging in sound until 1932

  • Soviet union lagging severely

  • Japan still stubborn as they were earlier with Benshi

Fritz Lanf and sound and noir

  • Did very well with sound

  • ”M” 1931: Sound very natural, not overly edited.

  • ”The Testament of Dr.Mabuse” (Banned in Germany, for being anti-Nazi)

  • Escapes to Hollywood, makes more Noir

  • ”Fury” 1936

  • Lang wanted to depict a lot of goresome scenes (black people being lynched etc)

  • Made an anti-nazi group in film in the US

  • ”You only live once” 1937, trimmed harshly for unprecedented violence.

Gangster films

  • Kicked off during the Great Depression, decay of American society and moral due to economic crisis

  • A different kind of morality compared to silent films

  • Little Caesar 1930

  • The Public Enemy (1931)

  • Scarface (1932), the most violent movie to have come out. Fictionalized versions of Al Capone’s life during prohibition, Valentines Day Massacre etc. Depicted 43 murders. Released with a more moral title ”Scarface: the shame of the nation”

  • G-Men 1935

  • 1935 the gangster flicks came to an end (Motion Pictures Society, topic for next time)

Rebirth of Horror

  • Tod Browning

    • Dracula 1929 (Bela Lugosi)

    • Freaks 1932

    • Freaks destroyed Brownings career. Test screenings went awful, people fled and became unwell. Financial loss. Uses real people with disabilities.

  • James Whale

    • Frankenstein 1931

    • The Old Dark House 1932

    • The Invisible Man 1933

    • Bride of Frankenstein 1935

  • King Kong 1933

  • Dr.Jekyll and Mister Hyde 1931

Colour

  • Before most in use was tinting

    • Like red for devil in Häxan, blue for night and yellow for day in general

    • Hand colored

  • Kinemacolor (didnt fully show the whole spectrum of color”

    • A Visit to the Seaside 1908

  • Technicolor, where three different synchronized film strips shot simultaneously.

    • Very expensive

    • Only rented out cameras and crew, you couldn’t buy it

    • Reserved for for sure hit films

    • ”The Gulf Between”

    • ”The Wizard of Oz”

4.10.

Last weeks HW: Duck Soup + Frankenstein

Today; Europe

Surrealist Film

  • Salvador Dalí

  • Luis Bunuel

    • Un Chien Andalou 1929

    • L’age d’Or 1930

  • Jean Cocteau

    • The Blood of a Poet 1930

  • Man Ray

    • L’Etoile de Mer 1928 (Starfish)

French poetic realism

  • Display the world as it is, while making it more beautiful than reality in itself.

  • Jean Vigo

    • Zero for Conduct 1933

    • L’Atalante 1934

  • Pierre Chenal

    • Developed an interest in cinema and began writing film criticism

    • Career in filmmaking

      • Collaborated with his wife, Florence Marly, on several films

      • Directed his first feature film, "Le Mort en Fuite" (1936)

      • Known for his innovative and experimental approach to filmmaking

      • Explored various genres, including crime, drama, and psychological thrillers

    • Notable films

      • "Crime and Punishment" (1935)

        • Adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel

        • Received critical acclaim for its atmospheric cinematography and psychological depth

      • "Native Son" (1951)

        • Based on Richard Wright's novel

        • Addressed issues of racism and social inequality

      • "La Foire aux Chimères" (1946)

        • A film noir exploring themes of deception and betrayal

        • Considered one of Chenal's most accomplished works

    • Influence and legacy

      • Known for his contributions to the French poetic realism movement

      • Inspired future filmmakers with his innovative storytelling techniques

      • His films continue to be studied and appreciated by cinephiles and scholars

    • Later life and death

      • Moved to Argentina in the 1950s and continued making films

      • Retired from filmmaking in the 1970s

  • Julien Duviver

    • Julien Duvivier was a French film director.

    • He was born on October 8, 1896, in Lille, France.

    • Duvivier directed over 70 films during his career.

    • His films covered a wide range of genres, including drama, crime, and romance.

    • Duvivier's most famous films include "Pépé le Moko" (1937) and "La Belle Équipe" (1936).

    • He was known for his innovative storytelling techniques and visual style.

    • Duvivier's films often explored themes of human nature and social issues.

    • He worked with many notable actors, including Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan.

    • Duvivier's career spanned from the 1920s to the 1960s.

    • He received several awards and nominations for his work in the film industry.

  • Marcel Carné

    • Hôtel du Nord 1938

  • Jean Renoir

    • The Grand Illusion 1937 (WW1 prison camp)

    • The Rules of the Game 1938 (the game is life, the rules is class)

    • Debut 1923, starring his wife

Great Britain

  • Alfred Hitchcock

    • Worked from the bottom up in the film industry (art directing, AD-work)

    • The Lodger 1927

    • The Blackmail 1929

      • Began his tradition to use famous landmarks as backdrops

    • The 39 steps 1935

      • Introduces the Hitchcock MacGuffin

    • The Lady Vanishes 1938

    • Moves to the US, makes:

    • Rebecca 1940

    • Was very into German Expressionism, Murnau, Lang and etc.

The British Documentary Film Movement

  • John Grieson

    • Drifters 1929

    • Granton Trawler 1934

  • Hosuing Problems 1935 - HW

  • Night Mail 1936

Propaganda

  • G Men 1935 (glorifies the government, so internal)

  • Casablanca 1942 (antifascist)

  • Frank Capra

    • Why we fight (series made during the war 1942-45)

  • Mrs Miniver

  • Leni Riefenstahl (worked for Göbbels, Hitlers go to director)

    • Triumph of the Will 1935

    • Olympia 1938 (show casing the olympic games in Berlin)

Clip from the end of Olympia

Socialist Realism

  • A highly idealized portrait of life under communist rule

  • Chapaev 1934

  • The Youth of Maxim 1935

  • Alexander Nevsky 1938 (marks the return of Eisenstein, lost favor again later from Stalin)

  • Stopped importing films after 1941

Clip: Alexander Nevsky

Censors and Codes

  • The British Board of Film Censors BBFC

    • U (for all), A (adult content), H (Horrific, because Frankenstein)

  • The Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code)

    • 1922

    • Pre-code

    • Opted for selfrelgulation instead of government regulation, created code in 1922 (after William Hays, who created it over 8 years)

    • Companies ignored notes, being banned in some places was boosting marketing in ways.

  • Topics banned:

    • Murder / revenge killings

    • Seduction, rape

    • White slavery

    • Miscegenation

    • Disrespect of religion

    • Surgical operations

    • Apparent Cruelty to Children or Animals

  • Catholic Church intervened by boycotting, which led to production companies following the code from 1934.

Horrors downfall

  • Partly due to Code

  • Type casting issues, audiences bored

  • Political issues in Europe

    • War

    • Political tensions

  • Low budgets

    • Low because couldn’t be shown everywhere

  • Predictable stories and formulas

Clip: Invisible Agent 1942 (bad horror)

Westerns

  • Easy to make successful, ”good” morals, architypes

  • Raoul Walsh 1930

    • The Big Trail

  • John Ford alias John Martin, Sean Aloysiys Feeney

    • 150 films

    • 4 director oscars

    • Debut in 1917

    • 60+ silent films

    • The Iron Horse 1924, Western about intercontinental railroad

    • Mother Machree 1928 (first film with John Wayne)

    • The Informer 1935 (about Irish war of Independence)

    • The Stagecoach

    • The Grapes of Wrath 1940

    • War documentaries

Golden age of Hollywood

  • Frank Capra

    • It happened one night 1934

    • Broadway Bill 1934

  • Howard Hawks

  • 1939, the magic year for films (Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind etc)

  • Classic Hollywood visual narrative style

    • continuity editing

    • Permanence

    • Character driven struggles

      • Beginning, middle, end

      • Romance + secondary objective

    • Linear story

-

Last time: A summary of everything thus far (notes on Ipad)

1.11.

Film in the 1950’s

Ingmar Bergman 1918-2007

  • First film script “Torment” or “Frenzy” 1941

  • “Smiles of a Summer Night” 1955

  • “Wild Strawberries” 1957

    • Victor Sjöström’s final role.

  • “Seventh Seal” 1957

Michelangelo Antonioni 1912-2007

  • 1942-2004 active years in film

  • Worked in Rome for Cinema (official fascist magazine), but was fired shortly

  • Active in the resistance

  • First film “A Pilot Returns” with Roberto Rosselini

  • Neorealist documentary shorts like “People of the Po” 1947

  • Worked as an assistant director for Enrico Fulchignoni and Marcel Carné

  • First feature film Cronaca di un amore, broke away from Neorealism by depicting the middle class.

  • Le Amiche 1955 (his style begins to solidify with long takes, disconnected events)

    —> geometric composition, vertical, diagonal and converging lines

India: Parallel cinema

  • Alternative to Tollywood

  • Satayajit Ray (1921-1922)

    • Pather Panchali 1955

    • Aparajito 1956

    • The World of Apu 1959

  • Mrinal Sen 1923-2018

    • Neel Akasher Neechey 1959

  • Ritwik Ghatak 1925-1976

    • Meghe Dhaka Tara 1960

  • Highlighted societal issues

  • Affinity to rural setting

Literary post-war France

  • Marcel Carné

    • Children of the Paradise 1945

  • Jaen Cocteau

    • The Beauty and the Beast 1946

  • René Clément

    • The Forbidden Games 1952

  • Jacque Becker

    • Golden Helmet 1952

  • Georges Clouzot

    • The Wages of the Fear

    • Diabolique

  • Movies focusing on the literary classics, directed by already established directors

  • Cinema for papa

  • Focusing away from war and societal issues

Clip: Wages of Fear

Exceptions to previous:

  • Robert Bresson

  • Jacques Tati

    • Visual comedy, vaudeville, gags, props.

  • Max Ophüls

Hollywood fighting TV

  • Soldiers coming home, move to suburbs

  • Need for closer entertainment, no need to go all the way to the cinema

  • Studios buying control of TV studios

  • You can’t get on TV:

    • Colour (still a problem in theatres since expensive to make and show)

    • Widescreen

    • Stereophonic sound (came eventually to TV)

    • Adult themes (the last thing that helped theatres)

  • Technicolor loses monopoly, colour film becomes a lot cheaper

  • Hayes code begins to lose its power

  • Theatres introduce gimmicks:

    • 3D glasses

    • The Ghost viewer (special glasses to spot ghosts?)

    • “The Tingler” 1959 → special random seats which would electrocute the viewer

    • Drive-ins

    • Double features

  • Hitchcock’s “golden age”

    • Strangers on a train

    • “Alfred Hitchcock presents” tv-series

    • Rear Window

    • North by Northwest

    • Psycho

    • The Birds

    • Etc.

  • Billy Wilder 1906-2002

    • Became a screenwriter in Berlin, Nazism drove him away, went to Paris.

    • Snappy dialogue

    • Sunset Blvd.

    • Some like it hot

    • Etc.

Great Britains Free Cinema Movement 1956-1959

  • Free Cinema Manifesto aims were

    • To allow filmmakers to express themselves free of control by funding bodies or political parties

    • To allow filmmakers to find new ways of expression

    • To allow audiences to see a broad spectrum of films as well as making films accessible to them

    • To allow films to be more responsive to their environment in terms of both location shooting and funding

  • Clip: O Dreamland (Lindsay Andersson)

  • Notable directors: Lindsay Andersson,

Japanese Golden Age

  • Cinemas in ruins post-war

  • US influence

    • no more propaganda, feudalism and militarism

    • Export markets opening

    • Foreign body approval requirement

  • Rashomon 1950, Kurosawa. Won the golden lion, first Japanese film to be internationally recognised.

  • Tokyo Story is homework!

8.11.

1959-1969, Japan, France, great directors and maybe Czechoslovakia

Yasujiro Ozu

  • Directing debut Sword of Penitence (1927

  • Late Spring 1949

  • Tokyo Story 1953

Kenji Mizoguchi

  • 47 Ronin 1941

  • Woman of the Night 1948

  • Life of Oharu 1952

  • Ugetsu 1953

  • Sansho the bailiff 1954

Clips from Mizoguchi films

Akira Kurosawa 1910-1998

  • Rashomon 1950

  • Living 1952

  • Seven Samurai 1954

  • Throne of Blood 1957

  • etc.

  • Became very expensive to make when he became more famous, Touhou suggested he pitch in financially and get more creative freedom. He was happy with this and founded Kurosawa Production Company 1959 (major shareholders still Touhou)

  • Chanbara films

  • Yojimbo 1961

  • Sanjuro 1962 (sequel to Yojimbo)

  • High and Low 1963 (kidnapping film)

Clip: Everyframe a painting, Kurosawa

Frederico Fellini

  • Golden age of Italian cinema

  • Surreal imagery, nonlinear storytelling, avant-garde

  • Breakthrough film “La Strada” 1954

  • La Dolce Vita 1960

  • Fellini Satyricon 1969

  • 8 ½ 1963

Clip: 8 ½ opening

Nouvelle Vague / New Wave

  • Cahiers du Cinema critics (film journal)

    • Jean-Luc Godard

    • Eric Rohmer

    • Francois Truffaut

    • Claude Chabrol

    • Jacques Rivette

  • Rive Gauche (Left bank)

    • Agnès Varda

    • Alain Resnais

    • Chris Marker

    • Henri Marker

    • Henri Colpi

    • Jacques Demy

  1. Reject the studio

    • Get creative control

    • Shoot on location

  2. Challenging narrative

    • Break the 4th wall

    • Improvise

  3. Express complex ideas

    • Make the audience think

Clip: Hitchcock/Truffaut 2015

Francois Truffaut

  • The 400 Blows 1959

  • Shoot the Piano Player 1960

  • Jules and Jim 1962

  • Fahrenheit 451 1966

  • Stolen Kisses 1968

Clip: About Jules and Jim

Jean-Luc Godard

  • Breathless

  • Vivre sa vie

  • La mepris

  • Bande a part

  • Alphaville

  • Pierrot le fou

  • Week end

  • Dziga Vertov group

Clip: Pierrot le fou trailer

Agnès Varda

  • La Pointe Courte 1954

  • Cleo from 5 to 7 1962

Clip: Agnes Varda explained

Alain Resnais

  • Night and Fog 1956

  • Hiroshima mon amour 1959 (blend of documentary and fiction)

  • Last year in Marienbad 1961

  • Political

    • The War is Over 1966

    • Far from Vietnam 1967

  • Je t’aime, je t’aime 1968

Sehiy Paradzhanov

  • Soviet, Ukrainian and Armenian and Georgian film director/screenwriter/composer

  • Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 1965

  • The color of Pomegranates 1969

15.11.

Today: Czeckoslovakia, Yugoslavia and some other basic countries in New Wave

Czechoslovakian new wave or Czechoslovakian film miracle

  • Milos Forman

    • Black Peter 1963

    • Loves of a Blonde 1965

    • The Firemans Ball 1967

  • Vera Chytilova

    • Something different

    • Daisies

  • Jan Nemec

    • Diamons of the Night 1964

    • Pearls of the Deep 1966

    • A Report on the Party and Guests 1966

    • Oratorio for Prague 1968

Yugoslav Black Wave

  • Aleksandar Prerovic

    • I even met happy gypsies 1965

    • Three 1966

    • It rains in my village 1968

  • Krsto Papic

    • Handcuffs 1969

  • Zelimir Zilnik

    • Early works 1969

British New Wave / Kitchen Sink Realism

  • Karel Reisz

    • Saturday night and sunday morning 1960

  • Tony Richardson

    • A taste of honey 1961

    • The loneliness of the long distance runner 1962

  • Lindsay Anderson

    • The Sporting Life 1963

    • If… 1968

  • Ken Loach

    • Kes 1969

    Key Information for Kitchen Sink Realism:

  1. Originated in the 1950s in Britain

  2. Focuses on the lives of working-class individuals

  3. Portrays the harsh realities of everyday life

  4. Rejects idealized or romanticized portrayals

  5. Emphasizes social and political commentary

  6. Often explores themes of poverty, class struggle, and social inequality

  7. Influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism

  8. Key filmmakers associated with the movement include Tony Richardson and Lindsay Anderson

  9. Aims to provide a realistic and gritty portrayal of society

  10. Challenges traditional narrative structures and storytelling techniques.

Japanese New Wave (Nuuberu Baagu)

  • Shouhei Imamura

    • Pigs and Battleships 1961

    • The Insect Woman 1963

    • Intentions of Murder 1963

    • The Pornographers 1966

  • Susumu Hani

    • Bad Boys 1961

    • Nanami: The inferno of first love 1968

  • Nagisa Oshima

    • Night and fog in Japan 1960

    • Cruel story of youth 1960

Iranian New Wave

  • Dariush Mehrjui

    • The Cow 1968

  • Sohrab Shahid Saless

  • Kamran Shridel

    • Womens Prison 1965

  • Farrokh Ghaffari

    • South of the City 1958

    • Night of the Hunchback 1964

Third Cinema

  • Brazil

    • Cinema Novo

      • Nelson Pereira dos Santor

        • Barren Lives 1963

      • Ruy Guerra

        • The guns 1964

      • Glauber Rocha

        • Black God, White Devil 1964

  • Argentina

    • Grupo Cine Liberacion

      • Fersnando Solanas

      • Octavio Getino

        • The Hour of the furnaces 1968

  • Cuba

    • Imperfect Cinema

Festivals (The Big Five)

  • Venice 1932

    • Golden Lion Prize

  • Cannes 1938

  • Berlin 1951

  • Toronto 1978

  • Sundance 1978

Spaghetti Westerns

  • Sergio Leone

    • Fistful of dollars 1964

    • For a few dollars and more 1065

    • The good, the bad and the ugly 1966

    • Once upon a time in the west 1968

  • Sergio Corbucci

    • Django 1966

  • Giulio Petroni

    • Death rides a horse 1967

Giallo

  • Obsession 1943 (Visconti, maybe first Giallo)

  • Mario Bava

    • Black Sunday 1960

    • The girl who knew too much 1963

    • Blood and black lace 1964

  • Dario Argento

    • The bird with the crystal plumage (+ Suspiria but it isn’t a giallo)

Antonioni going international

  • L’avventura 1960

  • La notte 1961

  • L’eclisse 1962

  • The Red Desert 1964

  • Blowup 1966

  • Zabriskie Point 1970

Pier Paolo Pasolini

  • Accattone 1961

  • La ricotta 1963, short film that was banned by Italian state

  • The gospel according to St.Matthew 1964 (retold biblical stories in modern times, using eroticism etc, again in trouble)

  • Oedipus Rex 1968

  • Theorem 1968

  • Medea 1969

Bernarno Bertolucci

  • The Grimreaper 1962

  • Left school, studied film on his own.

  • Before the revolution 1964

  • The spiders stratagem 1970

  • The conformist 1970

6.12.

Left off in 60s and 70s, India, Senegal, New Hollywood

HW was Bonnie and Clyde, watch this week

Today:

60s, 70s, 80s, Germany, Australia, USA, Nigeria, China, Taiwan, France

New German Cinema

Werner Hertzog

  • Aguirre, the Wrath of God 1972

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

  • Fear eats the soul 1974

Wim Wenders

  • Kings of the Road 1976

Australian New Wave

  • Ted Kotcheff

    • Wake in Fright

  • Peter Weir

    • Picnic at hanging rock (HW)

  • Gillian Armstrong

    • My Brilliant Career

  • George Miller

    • Mad Max 2

  • Bruce Beresford

    • Breaker Morant

L.A. Rebellion

  • Began at UCLA, student movement in late 60s, early 70s

  • Students wanted to start an ethnographic studies program to establish realistic information on the situation for african americans etc.

  • Films were well received

  • Films were rebelling against Hollywood, but being made near Hollywood

  • Charles Burnett

    • Killer of Sheep

  • Billy Woodberry

    • Bless their little hearts

  • Julie Dash

    • Daughters of the Dust

No Wave 1976-1985

  • New York City, Lower east sideCop

  • Created rebellious, progressive films

  • Guerilla filming, low budget, shock value, humorous, improvisation

  • Lizzie Borden

    • Born in Flames

  • Jim Jarmusch

    • Permanent vacation

    • Stranger than paradise

    • Down by the law

    • Mystery train

Cinema of Transgression

  • Coined by Nick Zedd, made to outrage and shock, push boundaries

  • Strictly underground

  • Stole equipment

  • Didnt respect academic film making

  • Scott B and Beth B

  • Richard Kern

    • You killed me first

    • Fingered

  • Nick Zedd

  • Tessa Highes-Freeland

Cinemas frenemy: Video, 1980s

  • Video rentals

  • Secondary market to Hollywood, but lead to piracy

  • Competition between betamax and VHS

  • VHS won

  • Straight to video films

  • Nollywood born, embraced the video form

Chinas fifth generation

  • 5th graduated of the Beijing Film Academy

  • Used landscape and scale very well

  • Banned in China, received very well abroad

  • Lost funding by the 6th generation

  • Zangh Junzhao

    • One and Eight

  • Chen Kaige

    • Yellow Earth

  • Tian Zhuangzhuang

    • On the hunting ground

    • The horse thief

  • Zhang Yimou

    • Red Sorghum

    • Ju Dou

    • Raise the red lantern

Hong Kong New Wave

- 1st Wave

  • Ann Hui

  • Tsui Hark

  • John Woo

  • Patrick Tam

- 2nd Wave

  • Stanley Kwan

  • Mabel Cheung

  • Peter Chan

  • Fruit Chan

  • Wong Kar-Wai

  • Hong Kong cinema made for more international audiences, made to entertain.

  • Used guerilla methods

  • Films financed by presales

Taiwan New Wave

  • Struggled because Hong Kong cinema was so popular

  • Wanted to establish themselved from these films

First Wave

  • Hou Hsiao-hsien

    • A city of sadness

  • Edward Yang

    • In our time

    • Taipei Story

    • Yi Yi

Second Wave

  • Tsai Ming-Liang

    • Vive L’amour

  • Ang Lee

New Queer Cinema

  • Desert Hearts

  • Parting Glances

  • Maurice

  • Mala Noche

  • Paris is Burning

  • The Garden

  • Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Cinema du Look 1981-1994

  • Doomed love, those who dont belong, cool vibes

  • Only three directors

  • Jean-Jacques Beineix

    • Diva

    • Betty Blue

  • Leon Carax

  • Luc Besson

13.12.

Revision + presentations

Fassbinder

Hw: picnic at hanging rock

Kubrick

Lynch

Dogme 95

  • Danish film movement

  • Started by Lars Von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Kristian Levring, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen

  • Manifesto

  • Must be shot on location (google rest)

  • Was dissolved in 2005, some indie films are still being shot in this manner e.g. In south Korea

→ in the exam you must also fill in a timeline from a random list

So in short:

  • one random question from the list

  • Clip from a random film, where you must name the movement etc.

  • Question about a hw film of your choice

  • Timeline fill in

Timeline

1950

Parallel cinema

Japanese golden age

free cinema in Britain (free from studios)

1959:

French new wave (rejection of film tradition, on location, long dialogues, political, societal, editing played around with, something nonlinear)

Czechoslovakian new wave (Milos Forman, state funding)

Scandinavian revival

British new wave + kitchen sink realism (Ken loach )

Yugoslavian black wave

KitchenwesterIranian new wave

Japanese new wave

Cinema verite

Italian giallo+spaghetti (where main characters could be morally ambiguous or bad when not ok in Hollywood)

Hayes code dying out

New German cinema (fassbinder&co. 1962)

1967

New Hollywood (new wave in Hollywood, more power for directors)

1970s

Movie brats (Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas, blockbusters)

Senegal golden age

Australian new wave (film schools started, state funding, mad Max 2)

Bollywood resurgence

Blacksploitation

1980s

VHS vs beta max

Piracy but also more money via straight to video releases

Chinas 5th, period cinema, state didn't approve of them

L.A. Rebellion out of UCLA

Cinema du look

Introduction to Film History / Sven-Sander Paas

13.9. (Missed first week)

  • Last time 1903, Nickelodeons, filmmakers etc.

Today:

  • 1903-1920

  • Hollywood

  • France and Japan at a glance

  • Germany

  • Silent era films understandable by all since no dialogue needed (besides sub.cards)

Patent Wars

  • Edison, kinetograph

    — sued left and right, fighting for top billing

    — goons looking for patent breakers

  • Dickson, mutoscope

  • Blackon, vitagraph

  • Motion Pictures Patent Company (MPPC) 1908

    — start of monopoly, evetually becoming into the studio monopoly

    — films needed to be approved by MPPC to be shown

  • Independent Motion Company 1909

    — functioned away from Eddisons grasp

Hollywood(land)

  • Rural settlements around 1894

  • Film industry arrived in 1906

  • Joined LA in 1910

  • Majority of US films made there by 1915

  • Weather good, many different geographic locations to shoot in

  • The sign was put up in 1923

Good old racist DW Griffith :)

  • Born in 1875, Kentucky

  • Theatre background strting from 17

  • Joined Biograph theatre, after working for 6 months got to direct

  • 450 short films (61 in one year)

  • Pioneered cross-cutting, close-ups

  • Worked with cinematographer Billy Blitzer, influenced by his style

  • Birth of a Nation 1915

Clip: Those awful hats 1909

Birth of a Nation 1915

  • DW Griffith, first feature

  • Based on a novel called the Clansman

  • Shot originally in color, then remade in black and white (too costly for theater equipment)

  • Used clever editing ways, close ups, cross cuts, red tinting. Also repopularized KKK

  • Intolerance, 1916

    — Four parallel storylines (Contemporary drama of crime and redemption, Judean, French, Babylonian)

    — Griffiths answer to critics of Birth of the Nation (not apology, wanted apologies from them)

    — Huge sets, total cost of 2 million dollars (in their currency, not todays)

    — Huge impact in Soviet montage movement

    — Many AD’s from this movie became directors later on.

    Clip: Intolerance, 1916

    Oscar Micheaux 1884-1951

  • First African-American filmmaker

  • The Homesteader, novel 1919

  • +44 films as a producer, screenwriter and director

    First Stars

  • Max Linder 1883-1925, gentleman in highjinks, inspiration for Chaplin

  • Moved back to France, suicide in 1925

  • Florence Lawrence 1886-1938

  • US born

  • A producer said she was hit by a streetcar and died, but she turns up at the premieres and the audiences were enthralled

  • Also fades out of publicity, suicide.

    Clip: A Skaters Debut, 1905 (Max Linder)

    The Hollywood Star System

  • A method of creating, promoting and expoloiting stars in Hollywood films from the 1920’s to 1960’s

  • Expected behaviour from them, regime for discreet acting and voice.

  • Emphasis on image rather than acting.

    Early Japanese Film

  • Theatre adaptations

  • Like in traditional kabuki, shimpa, women played by men

  • They had a live narrator, benji. Music present.

  • Out of this was born the pure film movement, aiming to reform Japanese film. Wanted to stop having benji present. Wanted to aim for Hollywoods universal film language, understood by all regardless of language.

  • Pure film movement died out, benji became even more prevalent, like movie stars.

    Clip: Momijigari, 1899, Tsunekichi Shibata

  • Very trad. Kabuki, fan play etc.

    France

  • 1902-1909 Pathé era, 80-90% of world market

  • Vincennes before Hollywood

  • Leon Gaumont, Gaumont Film Company

  • Charles Pathé, Pathé Film Company

    — started newsreels

  • Abel Gance

    — J’accuse 1919

    — La Roue 1923

    — Napoleon 1927

    Clip: Pathé Newsreels

    Clip: Les Vampires (series), ep. The ring that kills 1915, Louis Feuillade

    — coreography!

Paul Wegner 1874-1948, German expressionism

  • The Student of Prague 1913

  • The Golem 1915

  • The Golem and the Dancing Girl 1917

  • The Golem: how he came into this world 1920

    Clip: The Golem

    — influenced upcoming scifi, like the Frankenstein films

German Expressionism

  • Mise-en-scene and heavy atmosphere

  • Long shadow effects

  • Artificial sets, with realistic details

  • Unexpected camera angles

  • Aims to evoke mystery, hallucinations and emotional distress

  • Slower pace than other films

20.9.

Today:

  • 1915-1930

  • Germany

  • Soviet union

  • Scandinavia

  • Documentaries

  • Comedy

Murnau

  • First directing “Der knabe in blau” , 1919

  • der Januskopf 1920

  • Visual effects, negative images

  • Mounted camera on a bike

  • Roller skated and filmed

  • Pantomime / the great impressionist

  • Got an offer from Fox Film Corp, moved to Hollywood

  • Made Sunrise 1926

  • Film Company with Robert Flaherty

  • Made Tabu 1931, died a week before premiere in a car crash

Kammerspielfilm (Kamarinäytelmä elokuva)

  • Film movement, 1920s

  • Lack of intertitles

  • Realist setting

  • Focus on character psychology

  • Notable films: the last laugh (Murnau), the passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)

Fritz Lang

  • Born in Vienna, Austria

  • Mother was jewish, then converted to catholism

  • WW1, injured in the eye and was shellshocked

  • First writing job at Decla film

  • Directing at UFA

  • Wrote together with his wife Thea von Harbou

  • Recurring themes of psychological conflict, paranoia

  • M, dr. Mabuse the gambler, Destiny

  • Metropolis, 21 million

    • industrialist, mass production

    • Art deco

    • Fascisim

    • Functionalist modernism

    • Set conditions were awful

    • Use of miniatures and mirrors, forcing a perspective

Scandinavia - Sweden

  • First golden golden age 1912-1924

  • Victor Sjöström 1879-1960

  • Greta Garbo 1905-1990

  • Georg af Stiller, Mauritz Stiller

Sjöström

  • Started out as an actor

  • The Phantom Carriage

  • He who gets slapped

  • The wind

  • New editing, mastered continuous editing

  • Invited to Hollywood, moved with Stiller and Mauritz

  • Returned back to Sweden to explore sound

Denmark

  • Benjamin Christensen

    • witchcraft through the ages 1922

    • Also acted in Häxan

  • Carl Theodor Dreyer

  • Asta Nielsen

Dreyer presentation →

Soviet montage theory:

  • Lev Kuleshov (Kuleshov effect)

  • Sergei Eisenstein

  • Dziga Vertov (a man with a movie camera)

  • Vsevolod Pudovkin

  • First film school in the world

Sergei Eisenstein

  • Montage methods (two neutral images colliding, creating a new third meaning that is not directly shown)

    • Metric montage

    • Rhytmic montage (dialogue, also Potemkins odessa stairs)

    • Tonal montage (visual or oral charasteristic that shots share e.g. mist from breath and clouds, scream to helicopter noise, baptism scene from The Godfather)

    • Intellectual montage (match cut from 2001 space odyssey, bone to satellite)

Dziga Vertov

  • A man with a movie camera

  • founding member of Kino eyes

Robert Flaherty

  • Nanook of the North

  • Moana

    → first use of word documentary was in a review of Moana

Charlie Chaplin, the tramp

  • 1915, The Tramp

  • World famous by 1918

  • Cofounded United Artists in 1919

  • First feature The Kidd 1921

Buster Keaton

  • Started out as an actor

  • Got started out in film after meeting Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle in 1917

  • Did his own stunts

  • The great stone face - got more laughs by looking serious

  • First role in Butcher Boy

  • The General 1926

27.9.

Entering sound films.

HW: Buster Keaton ”Sherlock Jr” + Dreyers ”Passion of Joan of Arc”

— Keaton broke his neck on the shoot of Sherlock Jr, discovered it after a month

Today:

Sound film in Hollywood and its development

  • Evne when there was no sound there was piano etc, but:

    — It wasn’t sunchronized

    — There was no dialogue (sometimes was read from behind the curtain)

    — There were no sound effects

  • Don Juan (1926), first movie with synchronized sound, no dialogue though

  • Sound-on-disc or Sound-on-film was main issue; disc meant there was a separate phonograph that needed to be played in sync

Sound-on-disc

  • Sync issues

  • Two separate devices interlocked

  • Discs wear out

  • Cheaper to record and play

  • Better audio quality

Sound-on-film

  • Film and audio on the same strip

  • Easier to edit and distribute

First sound films 1927

  • They’re coming to get me (short)

  • 7th heaven

  • Sunrise: A song of two humans (Murnau)

  • The Jazz Singer (with Al Jolson and blackface)

    — Audiences most blown away by the adlibbed parts by Jolson

    — No prewritten dialogue recorded so not technically a proper dialogue film but still considered the first talkie

Issues in the beginning:

  • Cameras were very loud

  • Recording done in an ice box on set

  • Very one directional mics, low opportunity for movement

  • Very expensive

  • Because of expenses, most smaller and rural theatres stuck to showing silent films for longer

  • Investing in sound risky, studios not fully onboard

  • Language, aka the difficulties in making the film understandable for global audiences

  • Voices - actors sounding different from audiences imaginations

Effect on jobs

  • Actors not sounding right to audiences

  • Sound department was created

  • Musicians no longer needed at theatres

  • Writers needed more than ever (dialogue)

    — Writers hired often already published authors (like Aldous Huxley)

Comedians and Sound

  • Harold Lloyd

    — Active with sound but fell behind

    — Out of touch

  • Buster Keaton

    — No issue with sound but his later movie flopped and he was kept on leash after that.

  • Laurel and Hardy

    — Originally worked separate

    — Joint forces when sound came, did well

  • The Marx Brothers

    — Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo

    — Physical gags, absurd situations.

    — ”Duck soup”, ”A night at the opera”

    — Pioneered slap-stick comedy

    — Peak popularity 30s and 40’s

Clip: Duck Soup, mirror scene

Charlie Chaplin and sound

  • Cautious of using sound.

  • ”City Lights” 1931

  • ”Modern Times” 1936, last silent film out of Hollywood, retired the Tramp character. Had a song with his sound in the film, despite being a silent mostly. His first words in film.

  • ”The Great Dictator” 1940

  • 1972 honorary Oscar, no other Oscars from his career.

Musicals

  • ”The Broadway Melody” 1929, first musical to get best picture

  • Busby Berkeley revitalized them in 1933, after them briefly dying out during the Great Depression. He was originally from Broadway, used dancers to create large geometric shapes through dance and swimming.

  • Mervin LeRoy, Gold Diggers of 1933

  • Musicals had a trend of dying out and making a come back in Hollywoods golden age

Clip from Footlight Parade (1933)

Clip from The Green Mile where they show a clip of Fred Astaire dancing and singing.

Sound and Talkies elsewhere:

  • ”I kiss your hand madame” (1929) first European talkie with Marlene Dietrich (no proper dialogue)

  • Blackmail 1929

  • The Song of Love 1930

  • Britain leading the way

  • France recording elsewhere, lagging in sound until 1932

  • Soviet union lagging severely

  • Japan still stubborn as they were earlier with Benshi

Fritz Lanf and sound and noir

  • Did very well with sound

  • ”M” 1931: Sound very natural, not overly edited.

  • ”The Testament of Dr.Mabuse” (Banned in Germany, for being anti-Nazi)

  • Escapes to Hollywood, makes more Noir

  • ”Fury” 1936

  • Lang wanted to depict a lot of goresome scenes (black people being lynched etc)

  • Made an anti-nazi group in film in the US

  • ”You only live once” 1937, trimmed harshly for unprecedented violence.

Gangster films

  • Kicked off during the Great Depression, decay of American society and moral due to economic crisis

  • A different kind of morality compared to silent films

  • Little Caesar 1930

  • The Public Enemy (1931)

  • Scarface (1932), the most violent movie to have come out. Fictionalized versions of Al Capone’s life during prohibition, Valentines Day Massacre etc. Depicted 43 murders. Released with a more moral title ”Scarface: the shame of the nation”

  • G-Men 1935

  • 1935 the gangster flicks came to an end (Motion Pictures Society, topic for next time)

Rebirth of Horror

  • Tod Browning

    • Dracula 1929 (Bela Lugosi)

    • Freaks 1932

    • Freaks destroyed Brownings career. Test screenings went awful, people fled and became unwell. Financial loss. Uses real people with disabilities.

  • James Whale

    • Frankenstein 1931

    • The Old Dark House 1932

    • The Invisible Man 1933

    • Bride of Frankenstein 1935

  • King Kong 1933

  • Dr.Jekyll and Mister Hyde 1931

Colour

  • Before most in use was tinting

    • Like red for devil in Häxan, blue for night and yellow for day in general

    • Hand colored

  • Kinemacolor (didnt fully show the whole spectrum of color”

    • A Visit to the Seaside 1908

  • Technicolor, where three different synchronized film strips shot simultaneously.

    • Very expensive

    • Only rented out cameras and crew, you couldn’t buy it

    • Reserved for for sure hit films

    • ”The Gulf Between”

    • ”The Wizard of Oz”

4.10.

Last weeks HW: Duck Soup + Frankenstein

Today; Europe

Surrealist Film

  • Salvador Dalí

  • Luis Bunuel

    • Un Chien Andalou 1929

    • L’age d’Or 1930

  • Jean Cocteau

    • The Blood of a Poet 1930

  • Man Ray

    • L’Etoile de Mer 1928 (Starfish)

French poetic realism

  • Display the world as it is, while making it more beautiful than reality in itself.

  • Jean Vigo

    • Zero for Conduct 1933

    • L’Atalante 1934

  • Pierre Chenal

    • Developed an interest in cinema and began writing film criticism

    • Career in filmmaking

      • Collaborated with his wife, Florence Marly, on several films

      • Directed his first feature film, "Le Mort en Fuite" (1936)

      • Known for his innovative and experimental approach to filmmaking

      • Explored various genres, including crime, drama, and psychological thrillers

    • Notable films

      • "Crime and Punishment" (1935)

        • Adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel

        • Received critical acclaim for its atmospheric cinematography and psychological depth

      • "Native Son" (1951)

        • Based on Richard Wright's novel

        • Addressed issues of racism and social inequality

      • "La Foire aux Chimères" (1946)

        • A film noir exploring themes of deception and betrayal

        • Considered one of Chenal's most accomplished works

    • Influence and legacy

      • Known for his contributions to the French poetic realism movement

      • Inspired future filmmakers with his innovative storytelling techniques

      • His films continue to be studied and appreciated by cinephiles and scholars

    • Later life and death

      • Moved to Argentina in the 1950s and continued making films

      • Retired from filmmaking in the 1970s

  • Julien Duviver

    • Julien Duvivier was a French film director.

    • He was born on October 8, 1896, in Lille, France.

    • Duvivier directed over 70 films during his career.

    • His films covered a wide range of genres, including drama, crime, and romance.

    • Duvivier's most famous films include "Pépé le Moko" (1937) and "La Belle Équipe" (1936).

    • He was known for his innovative storytelling techniques and visual style.

    • Duvivier's films often explored themes of human nature and social issues.

    • He worked with many notable actors, including Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan.

    • Duvivier's career spanned from the 1920s to the 1960s.

    • He received several awards and nominations for his work in the film industry.

  • Marcel Carné

    • Hôtel du Nord 1938

  • Jean Renoir

    • The Grand Illusion 1937 (WW1 prison camp)

    • The Rules of the Game 1938 (the game is life, the rules is class)

    • Debut 1923, starring his wife

Great Britain

  • Alfred Hitchcock

    • Worked from the bottom up in the film industry (art directing, AD-work)

    • The Lodger 1927

    • The Blackmail 1929

      • Began his tradition to use famous landmarks as backdrops

    • The 39 steps 1935

      • Introduces the Hitchcock MacGuffin

    • The Lady Vanishes 1938

    • Moves to the US, makes:

    • Rebecca 1940

    • Was very into German Expressionism, Murnau, Lang and etc.

The British Documentary Film Movement

  • John Grieson

    • Drifters 1929

    • Granton Trawler 1934

  • Hosuing Problems 1935 - HW

  • Night Mail 1936

Propaganda

  • G Men 1935 (glorifies the government, so internal)

  • Casablanca 1942 (antifascist)

  • Frank Capra

    • Why we fight (series made during the war 1942-45)

  • Mrs Miniver

  • Leni Riefenstahl (worked for Göbbels, Hitlers go to director)

    • Triumph of the Will 1935

    • Olympia 1938 (show casing the olympic games in Berlin)

Clip from the end of Olympia

Socialist Realism

  • A highly idealized portrait of life under communist rule

  • Chapaev 1934

  • The Youth of Maxim 1935

  • Alexander Nevsky 1938 (marks the return of Eisenstein, lost favor again later from Stalin)

  • Stopped importing films after 1941

Clip: Alexander Nevsky

Censors and Codes

  • The British Board of Film Censors BBFC

    • U (for all), A (adult content), H (Horrific, because Frankenstein)

  • The Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code)

    • 1922

    • Pre-code

    • Opted for selfrelgulation instead of government regulation, created code in 1922 (after William Hays, who created it over 8 years)

    • Companies ignored notes, being banned in some places was boosting marketing in ways.

  • Topics banned:

    • Murder / revenge killings

    • Seduction, rape

    • White slavery

    • Miscegenation

    • Disrespect of religion

    • Surgical operations

    • Apparent Cruelty to Children or Animals

  • Catholic Church intervened by boycotting, which led to production companies following the code from 1934.

Horrors downfall

  • Partly due to Code

  • Type casting issues, audiences bored

  • Political issues in Europe

    • War

    • Political tensions

  • Low budgets

    • Low because couldn’t be shown everywhere

  • Predictable stories and formulas

Clip: Invisible Agent 1942 (bad horror)

Westerns

  • Easy to make successful, ”good” morals, architypes

  • Raoul Walsh 1930

    • The Big Trail

  • John Ford alias John Martin, Sean Aloysiys Feeney

    • 150 films

    • 4 director oscars

    • Debut in 1917

    • 60+ silent films

    • The Iron Horse 1924, Western about intercontinental railroad

    • Mother Machree 1928 (first film with John Wayne)

    • The Informer 1935 (about Irish war of Independence)

    • The Stagecoach

    • The Grapes of Wrath 1940

    • War documentaries

Golden age of Hollywood

  • Frank Capra

    • It happened one night 1934

    • Broadway Bill 1934

  • Howard Hawks

  • 1939, the magic year for films (Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind etc)

  • Classic Hollywood visual narrative style

    • continuity editing

    • Permanence

    • Character driven struggles

      • Beginning, middle, end

      • Romance + secondary objective

    • Linear story

-

Last time: A summary of everything thus far (notes on Ipad)

1.11.

Film in the 1950’s

Ingmar Bergman 1918-2007

  • First film script “Torment” or “Frenzy” 1941

  • “Smiles of a Summer Night” 1955

  • “Wild Strawberries” 1957

    • Victor Sjöström’s final role.

  • “Seventh Seal” 1957

Michelangelo Antonioni 1912-2007

  • 1942-2004 active years in film

  • Worked in Rome for Cinema (official fascist magazine), but was fired shortly

  • Active in the resistance

  • First film “A Pilot Returns” with Roberto Rosselini

  • Neorealist documentary shorts like “People of the Po” 1947

  • Worked as an assistant director for Enrico Fulchignoni and Marcel Carné

  • First feature film Cronaca di un amore, broke away from Neorealism by depicting the middle class.

  • Le Amiche 1955 (his style begins to solidify with long takes, disconnected events)

    —> geometric composition, vertical, diagonal and converging lines

India: Parallel cinema

  • Alternative to Tollywood

  • Satayajit Ray (1921-1922)

    • Pather Panchali 1955

    • Aparajito 1956

    • The World of Apu 1959

  • Mrinal Sen 1923-2018

    • Neel Akasher Neechey 1959

  • Ritwik Ghatak 1925-1976

    • Meghe Dhaka Tara 1960

  • Highlighted societal issues

  • Affinity to rural setting

Literary post-war France

  • Marcel Carné

    • Children of the Paradise 1945

  • Jaen Cocteau

    • The Beauty and the Beast 1946

  • René Clément

    • The Forbidden Games 1952

  • Jacque Becker

    • Golden Helmet 1952

  • Georges Clouzot

    • The Wages of the Fear

    • Diabolique

  • Movies focusing on the literary classics, directed by already established directors

  • Cinema for papa

  • Focusing away from war and societal issues

Clip: Wages of Fear

Exceptions to previous:

  • Robert Bresson

  • Jacques Tati

    • Visual comedy, vaudeville, gags, props.

  • Max Ophüls

Hollywood fighting TV

  • Soldiers coming home, move to suburbs

  • Need for closer entertainment, no need to go all the way to the cinema

  • Studios buying control of TV studios

  • You can’t get on TV:

    • Colour (still a problem in theatres since expensive to make and show)

    • Widescreen

    • Stereophonic sound (came eventually to TV)

    • Adult themes (the last thing that helped theatres)

  • Technicolor loses monopoly, colour film becomes a lot cheaper

  • Hayes code begins to lose its power

  • Theatres introduce gimmicks:

    • 3D glasses

    • The Ghost viewer (special glasses to spot ghosts?)

    • “The Tingler” 1959 → special random seats which would electrocute the viewer

    • Drive-ins

    • Double features

  • Hitchcock’s “golden age”

    • Strangers on a train

    • “Alfred Hitchcock presents” tv-series

    • Rear Window

    • North by Northwest

    • Psycho

    • The Birds

    • Etc.

  • Billy Wilder 1906-2002

    • Became a screenwriter in Berlin, Nazism drove him away, went to Paris.

    • Snappy dialogue

    • Sunset Blvd.

    • Some like it hot

    • Etc.

Great Britains Free Cinema Movement 1956-1959

  • Free Cinema Manifesto aims were

    • To allow filmmakers to express themselves free of control by funding bodies or political parties

    • To allow filmmakers to find new ways of expression

    • To allow audiences to see a broad spectrum of films as well as making films accessible to them

    • To allow films to be more responsive to their environment in terms of both location shooting and funding

  • Clip: O Dreamland (Lindsay Andersson)

  • Notable directors: Lindsay Andersson,

Japanese Golden Age

  • Cinemas in ruins post-war

  • US influence

    • no more propaganda, feudalism and militarism

    • Export markets opening

    • Foreign body approval requirement

  • Rashomon 1950, Kurosawa. Won the golden lion, first Japanese film to be internationally recognised.

  • Tokyo Story is homework!

8.11.

1959-1969, Japan, France, great directors and maybe Czechoslovakia

Yasujiro Ozu

  • Directing debut Sword of Penitence (1927

  • Late Spring 1949

  • Tokyo Story 1953

Kenji Mizoguchi

  • 47 Ronin 1941

  • Woman of the Night 1948

  • Life of Oharu 1952

  • Ugetsu 1953

  • Sansho the bailiff 1954

Clips from Mizoguchi films

Akira Kurosawa 1910-1998

  • Rashomon 1950

  • Living 1952

  • Seven Samurai 1954

  • Throne of Blood 1957

  • etc.

  • Became very expensive to make when he became more famous, Touhou suggested he pitch in financially and get more creative freedom. He was happy with this and founded Kurosawa Production Company 1959 (major shareholders still Touhou)

  • Chanbara films

  • Yojimbo 1961

  • Sanjuro 1962 (sequel to Yojimbo)

  • High and Low 1963 (kidnapping film)

Clip: Everyframe a painting, Kurosawa

Frederico Fellini

  • Golden age of Italian cinema

  • Surreal imagery, nonlinear storytelling, avant-garde

  • Breakthrough film “La Strada” 1954

  • La Dolce Vita 1960

  • Fellini Satyricon 1969

  • 8 ½ 1963

Clip: 8 ½ opening

Nouvelle Vague / New Wave

  • Cahiers du Cinema critics (film journal)

    • Jean-Luc Godard

    • Eric Rohmer

    • Francois Truffaut

    • Claude Chabrol

    • Jacques Rivette

  • Rive Gauche (Left bank)

    • Agnès Varda

    • Alain Resnais

    • Chris Marker

    • Henri Marker

    • Henri Colpi

    • Jacques Demy

  1. Reject the studio

    • Get creative control

    • Shoot on location

  2. Challenging narrative

    • Break the 4th wall

    • Improvise

  3. Express complex ideas

    • Make the audience think

Clip: Hitchcock/Truffaut 2015

Francois Truffaut

  • The 400 Blows 1959

  • Shoot the Piano Player 1960

  • Jules and Jim 1962

  • Fahrenheit 451 1966

  • Stolen Kisses 1968

Clip: About Jules and Jim

Jean-Luc Godard

  • Breathless

  • Vivre sa vie

  • La mepris

  • Bande a part

  • Alphaville

  • Pierrot le fou

  • Week end

  • Dziga Vertov group

Clip: Pierrot le fou trailer

Agnès Varda

  • La Pointe Courte 1954

  • Cleo from 5 to 7 1962

Clip: Agnes Varda explained

Alain Resnais

  • Night and Fog 1956

  • Hiroshima mon amour 1959 (blend of documentary and fiction)

  • Last year in Marienbad 1961

  • Political

    • The War is Over 1966

    • Far from Vietnam 1967

  • Je t’aime, je t’aime 1968

Sehiy Paradzhanov

  • Soviet, Ukrainian and Armenian and Georgian film director/screenwriter/composer

  • Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 1965

  • The color of Pomegranates 1969

15.11.

Today: Czeckoslovakia, Yugoslavia and some other basic countries in New Wave

Czechoslovakian new wave or Czechoslovakian film miracle

  • Milos Forman

    • Black Peter 1963

    • Loves of a Blonde 1965

    • The Firemans Ball 1967

  • Vera Chytilova

    • Something different

    • Daisies

  • Jan Nemec

    • Diamons of the Night 1964

    • Pearls of the Deep 1966

    • A Report on the Party and Guests 1966

    • Oratorio for Prague 1968

Yugoslav Black Wave

  • Aleksandar Prerovic

    • I even met happy gypsies 1965

    • Three 1966

    • It rains in my village 1968

  • Krsto Papic

    • Handcuffs 1969

  • Zelimir Zilnik

    • Early works 1969

British New Wave / Kitchen Sink Realism

  • Karel Reisz

    • Saturday night and sunday morning 1960

  • Tony Richardson

    • A taste of honey 1961

    • The loneliness of the long distance runner 1962

  • Lindsay Anderson

    • The Sporting Life 1963

    • If… 1968

  • Ken Loach

    • Kes 1969

    Key Information for Kitchen Sink Realism:

  1. Originated in the 1950s in Britain

  2. Focuses on the lives of working-class individuals

  3. Portrays the harsh realities of everyday life

  4. Rejects idealized or romanticized portrayals

  5. Emphasizes social and political commentary

  6. Often explores themes of poverty, class struggle, and social inequality

  7. Influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism

  8. Key filmmakers associated with the movement include Tony Richardson and Lindsay Anderson

  9. Aims to provide a realistic and gritty portrayal of society

  10. Challenges traditional narrative structures and storytelling techniques.

Japanese New Wave (Nuuberu Baagu)

  • Shouhei Imamura

    • Pigs and Battleships 1961

    • The Insect Woman 1963

    • Intentions of Murder 1963

    • The Pornographers 1966

  • Susumu Hani

    • Bad Boys 1961

    • Nanami: The inferno of first love 1968

  • Nagisa Oshima

    • Night and fog in Japan 1960

    • Cruel story of youth 1960

Iranian New Wave

  • Dariush Mehrjui

    • The Cow 1968

  • Sohrab Shahid Saless

  • Kamran Shridel

    • Womens Prison 1965

  • Farrokh Ghaffari

    • South of the City 1958

    • Night of the Hunchback 1964

Third Cinema

  • Brazil

    • Cinema Novo

      • Nelson Pereira dos Santor

        • Barren Lives 1963

      • Ruy Guerra

        • The guns 1964

      • Glauber Rocha

        • Black God, White Devil 1964

  • Argentina

    • Grupo Cine Liberacion

      • Fersnando Solanas

      • Octavio Getino

        • The Hour of the furnaces 1968

  • Cuba

    • Imperfect Cinema

Festivals (The Big Five)

  • Venice 1932

    • Golden Lion Prize

  • Cannes 1938

  • Berlin 1951

  • Toronto 1978

  • Sundance 1978

Spaghetti Westerns

  • Sergio Leone

    • Fistful of dollars 1964

    • For a few dollars and more 1065

    • The good, the bad and the ugly 1966

    • Once upon a time in the west 1968

  • Sergio Corbucci

    • Django 1966

  • Giulio Petroni

    • Death rides a horse 1967

Giallo

  • Obsession 1943 (Visconti, maybe first Giallo)

  • Mario Bava

    • Black Sunday 1960

    • The girl who knew too much 1963

    • Blood and black lace 1964

  • Dario Argento

    • The bird with the crystal plumage (+ Suspiria but it isn’t a giallo)

Antonioni going international

  • L’avventura 1960

  • La notte 1961

  • L’eclisse 1962

  • The Red Desert 1964

  • Blowup 1966

  • Zabriskie Point 1970

Pier Paolo Pasolini

  • Accattone 1961

  • La ricotta 1963, short film that was banned by Italian state

  • The gospel according to St.Matthew 1964 (retold biblical stories in modern times, using eroticism etc, again in trouble)

  • Oedipus Rex 1968

  • Theorem 1968

  • Medea 1969

Bernarno Bertolucci

  • The Grimreaper 1962

  • Left school, studied film on his own.

  • Before the revolution 1964

  • The spiders stratagem 1970

  • The conformist 1970

6.12.

Left off in 60s and 70s, India, Senegal, New Hollywood

HW was Bonnie and Clyde, watch this week

Today:

60s, 70s, 80s, Germany, Australia, USA, Nigeria, China, Taiwan, France

New German Cinema

Werner Hertzog

  • Aguirre, the Wrath of God 1972

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

  • Fear eats the soul 1974

Wim Wenders

  • Kings of the Road 1976

Australian New Wave

  • Ted Kotcheff

    • Wake in Fright

  • Peter Weir

    • Picnic at hanging rock (HW)

  • Gillian Armstrong

    • My Brilliant Career

  • George Miller

    • Mad Max 2

  • Bruce Beresford

    • Breaker Morant

L.A. Rebellion

  • Began at UCLA, student movement in late 60s, early 70s

  • Students wanted to start an ethnographic studies program to establish realistic information on the situation for african americans etc.

  • Films were well received

  • Films were rebelling against Hollywood, but being made near Hollywood

  • Charles Burnett

    • Killer of Sheep

  • Billy Woodberry

    • Bless their little hearts

  • Julie Dash

    • Daughters of the Dust

No Wave 1976-1985

  • New York City, Lower east sideCop

  • Created rebellious, progressive films

  • Guerilla filming, low budget, shock value, humorous, improvisation

  • Lizzie Borden

    • Born in Flames

  • Jim Jarmusch

    • Permanent vacation

    • Stranger than paradise

    • Down by the law

    • Mystery train

Cinema of Transgression

  • Coined by Nick Zedd, made to outrage and shock, push boundaries

  • Strictly underground

  • Stole equipment

  • Didnt respect academic film making

  • Scott B and Beth B

  • Richard Kern

    • You killed me first

    • Fingered

  • Nick Zedd

  • Tessa Highes-Freeland

Cinemas frenemy: Video, 1980s

  • Video rentals

  • Secondary market to Hollywood, but lead to piracy

  • Competition between betamax and VHS

  • VHS won

  • Straight to video films

  • Nollywood born, embraced the video form

Chinas fifth generation

  • 5th graduated of the Beijing Film Academy

  • Used landscape and scale very well

  • Banned in China, received very well abroad

  • Lost funding by the 6th generation

  • Zangh Junzhao

    • One and Eight

  • Chen Kaige

    • Yellow Earth

  • Tian Zhuangzhuang

    • On the hunting ground

    • The horse thief

  • Zhang Yimou

    • Red Sorghum

    • Ju Dou

    • Raise the red lantern

Hong Kong New Wave

- 1st Wave

  • Ann Hui

  • Tsui Hark

  • John Woo

  • Patrick Tam

- 2nd Wave

  • Stanley Kwan

  • Mabel Cheung

  • Peter Chan

  • Fruit Chan

  • Wong Kar-Wai

  • Hong Kong cinema made for more international audiences, made to entertain.

  • Used guerilla methods

  • Films financed by presales

Taiwan New Wave

  • Struggled because Hong Kong cinema was so popular

  • Wanted to establish themselved from these films

First Wave

  • Hou Hsiao-hsien

    • A city of sadness

  • Edward Yang

    • In our time

    • Taipei Story

    • Yi Yi

Second Wave

  • Tsai Ming-Liang

    • Vive L’amour

  • Ang Lee

New Queer Cinema

  • Desert Hearts

  • Parting Glances

  • Maurice

  • Mala Noche

  • Paris is Burning

  • The Garden

  • Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Cinema du Look 1981-1994

  • Doomed love, those who dont belong, cool vibes

  • Only three directors

  • Jean-Jacques Beineix

    • Diva

    • Betty Blue

  • Leon Carax

  • Luc Besson

13.12.

Revision + presentations

Fassbinder

Hw: picnic at hanging rock

Kubrick

Lynch

Dogme 95

  • Danish film movement

  • Started by Lars Von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Kristian Levring, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen

  • Manifesto

  • Must be shot on location (google rest)

  • Was dissolved in 2005, some indie films are still being shot in this manner e.g. In south Korea

→ in the exam you must also fill in a timeline from a random list

So in short:

  • one random question from the list

  • Clip from a random film, where you must name the movement etc.

  • Question about a hw film of your choice

  • Timeline fill in

Timeline

1950

Parallel cinema

Japanese golden age

free cinema in Britain (free from studios)

1959:

French new wave (rejection of film tradition, on location, long dialogues, political, societal, editing played around with, something nonlinear)

Czechoslovakian new wave (Milos Forman, state funding)

Scandinavian revival

British new wave + kitchen sink realism (Ken loach )

Yugoslavian black wave

KitchenwesterIranian new wave

Japanese new wave

Cinema verite

Italian giallo+spaghetti (where main characters could be morally ambiguous or bad when not ok in Hollywood)

Hayes code dying out

New German cinema (fassbinder&co. 1962)

1967

New Hollywood (new wave in Hollywood, more power for directors)

1970s

Movie brats (Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas, blockbusters)

Senegal golden age

Australian new wave (film schools started, state funding, mad Max 2)

Bollywood resurgence

Blacksploitation

1980s

VHS vs beta max

Piracy but also more money via straight to video releases

Chinas 5th, period cinema, state didn't approve of them

L.A. Rebellion out of UCLA

Cinema du look

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