Alles Flashcards
Stylistic characteristics of expressionist cinema
Nightmarish, anxiety, horror, hypnosis, murders;
Importance of decor and mise-en-scene;
Confusing and high contrast;
Acting codes
Milestones in photography
1826 - Niepce: glass metal
1839 - Daguerre: silvereed copperplate
1839 - Talbot: Paper with silvernitrate
Muybridge, who that
Inventor of series photographs, like the horse in motion.
Why did they open so late?
Safety regulation, cinematograph act that introduced a license system that forced travel shows out of business.
Movements towards new hollywood
Further popularization TV; Decreasing cinema attendance; Succes of european arthouse cinema; Hollywood in crisis; Counter-culture
Thechnological conditions that allowed film to flourish
Scientific experiments on movement and optical perception; projection; photography; flexbile basis succesive projection
The main importance of soviet film
It’s a case of film and influence of the political, economical, ideological and cultural factors
Peepshow mode VS variety show model
Edison VS lumiere brothers. Watching ‘a film’ alone or with other audience
State censorship in Japan, a hella-lot of it
From the 1930s onward. By ministry of propaganda, demand for films that showed japans military strength. After pearl harbour even stricter guidelines and quota for producers. Then last the democratization of Japan, censorship by USA. NO glorifying of feudalism, imperialism or militarism.
Big studion 6 Universal
Specialized in B-movies, horror and fantasy.
The iconic potemkin step scene
Demonize the others, long duration for added drama, ‘story lines’ variation and confusion.
Why the downfall of neorealism?
Economic situation, rather unpopular, policy (law adreotti) and internal developments
Narration Potemkin
Non traditional, no real protagonist
From different varying perspectives: intelectual montage
characteristics of hollywood/classical films style
narrative linearity; continuity editing; cause and effect narration; identification; psychological characteristics; character-led narration
Big Studio 4 20th century fox
Strong budget and production control, rather conservative films, many b-movies.
Importnat names in expressionism
Fritz lang (metropolis) & Murnau (Nosferatu)
Why criticsm in the 1950s on the france film stystem
Film makers like Tati, Cocteau, Ophüls & Bresson showed possibilities for film as a means for personal expression, but:
Criticism on existing mainstream film system
Strongly hierarchical, union… difficult accessibility
No contemporary themes (e.g. youngsters)
Emphasis on producers and scriptwriters
camera stylo
personal and self-expressive films that become just as flexible and subtle as written language
Changes in Comdey eith the comming of sound
From slapstick and burlesque humor to more bourgeouis verbal comdey. screwball comedy, dialogue comedy.
Characteristics of the brighton school
More realism, slice of life;
Action and crime genres;
Narration;
‘Experiments’
Why was the was also high days for hollywood?
Support of the government, tax advantages, escapeism
Vertov
Formed kinoki, manifest against bourgeois cinema
1929: Man with the movie camera, a tribute to everyday life.
British cinema hat a _____ but ______
had a slower start but was very influencial, mainly for the development of narritive cinema. (1902-1908)
Why the move from NYC to Hollywood
Light, climate, setting, economic reasons
Kurosawa film ex
Rashomon
The inspiration for neorealism
French poetic realm, soviet cinema (expressive realism, ideological rather than stylistic) and the documentary tradition
The inventions of Edison (And Dickenson)
Phonograph;
Kinetoscope;
Kinetograph
Hollywoond involvement in WW2
Directors/actors/technicians in war servie;
Patriorric films, or films against facism;
OWI + BMPA
Ex films: hitchcock lifeboat + Capra’s why we fight
UFA =
The Universum Film Aktiengeselshaft.
National subsidized film conglomeration in germany. They did production, distribution and exhibition (and ofcource propaganda). During the weimar republic untill the end of WW2.
1970s, the big three and movie examples
Francis Ford Coppola, Godfather
George Lucas, Star Wars
Spielberg, Jaws
Characteristics of weimar cinema (3 influences)
Influence of Scandinavian cinema;
Influence on international developments;
Influence of intellectual developments and artistic avant-garde
Cinema as a consequence of
Social development;
entertainment;
technological developments
Big studio 5 RKO
Smalles one, often took risks, many b-movies and film noir/horror.
Big studio 3 Warner Bros
Working class, strict production process, genres were gangster/backstage musical/social realistic drama.
During the 1970s & 1980s new young independent filmmakers, also called _______
moviebrats
High concept film
A type of artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise.
Facts about potemkin
Comissioned
revolt on the battlehsip potemkin, , joining of the people in Odessa and bloody repression.
Iconic: Steps scene
3 styles in rashomon
Here and now: depth focus composition, deserted building and rain.
Lawsuit: Frontal camera, dusty/dry/sun/shadow
Flashback: many close-ups, broken sunlight, action, lively camera
Nature of primitive films
Short;
No story, cinema of attractions;
No editing;
Static
Bright school’s first continuity film
Rescued by rover, cecil hepworth
Constructivist editing, influence on cinema
Changing the order of editing images. change original relations of causality, time and space Autonomous causality Assembly (express a social idea) Means for alienation (other meaning)
Reason for the worldwide influence of the french new wave
demonstrated that it was possible to make exciting, dynamic and innovating films outside of a established production sytem
Italian cinema before neorealism
Mussolini strong state influence, facist control
growing film production and culture;
very diverse: historical drama/comedie/semi-documentary
Blockboosting:
forcing exhibitors to rent a studio’s not so popular films alongside the sure box-office seller.
Big studio 1 MGM
Most prestigous, spectacular entertainment, professionally excellent.
New wave characteristics
Young generation French film makers, period 1958-1962; relatively few means; against film conventions; self reflection young themes no clear-straightforward style
Opening of permanent theathers was from ____ onward
1904, nickelodeons
Fame potemkin
International avant garde, reputation of soviet cinema enlarged, Goebbels glorification
When was kabuki film replaced with director filmen which genres emerged?
- Two broad genres:
Jidai-geki: a historical film from before 1868
Gendai-geki: contemporary films
Typecasting
Individual actors are chosen for their appearance, social types.
Big studioo 2 Paramount
Most european and sophisticated, emphasis on directors.
The problem of succesive projection
There was a need for stand still and movement, maltese cross was the solution
Melies stylistic characteristics
Static; Profilmic; Tableaux cinema; Fixed 'point of view'; Manipulation space and time; Fantasy genre
important inventions in the first footsteps of projection
shadow plays, magic latern, zootroop,
The MPPC made diverse agreements about
Import, exhibition, only 1 distribution company and film stock, various standards and equipments.
Kuleshov
Prerevolutionary films, also agitki.
Kuleshov effect
Lumiere brothers
started with study of kinetoscope;
1895 first private screening;
Primitive film characteristics;
Film ex: factory workers leaving the factory, arrivee d’un train en gare
Important directors in the 1930s-1940s
Sternberg, Ford, Hawks, Hitchcock, Welles
Three times political awakening in potemkin
first, awekining of the sailor against abuse. Second, awakening solidarity odessa citizens. Third, Baltic fleet
la politique des auteurs
describes the position of cahiers du cinema as one that argued the works of favored directors as that of film ‘auteurs’
Dismantlement of the studio-machine. How did the labour practices change?
Outsourcing;
Creative centralization;
Changing star system (change in salaries, perfomrance capture);
Runaway productions
Soviet film under lenin
‘Film is important’, agitki, 1919 nationalisation, recovery and more import
Vitaphone
Designed by western-electric bell labratories. Sound on disc. Warner only one interested, Don Juan
What is the societe film d’art
prestige to attract middle and higher classes, film ex: l’assassinat du duc de Guise
Melies, who
Magician at a theathre;
First staged films and actualites filmees;
Trick films;
A trip to the moon!
production code administration
enforcement of the production code in films, a set of moral guidelines AKA censorship.
PMR vs IMR (5)
Theatrical VS verismiltude Two Dimensional VS Three dimensional Emphasis on action VS characterisation, depth, psychology Presentation VS representation ... VS fabula construction
western influences on japanese cinema
1920s -> naturalism, wester narration: soul on the road (murata)
1930a -> influence expressionism, avant garde group: A page of madness (Kinugasa)
Maltese cross =
(or Geneva drive) a gear mechanism that translates a continous movement into an intermittent rotary motion.
Post war cinema in france, cinema de qualite characteristics
hierarchical, literary sources, power of the scriptwriter.
Some ‘auteurs’ Cocteau, Ophüls, Bresson, Tati
Challenges of the post war period
Crisis, social unrest, economic demands, no more direct governmetn support, strikes.
problems with antitrust legislation
Negative aspects of the arriving of sound?
Visual story telling of the silent era films dead?
immovable microphone
limited camera movement (because of a soundbooth)
flat lighting
Visconti, who?
Film obsessione, a blueprint for neorealism. Also ‘La terra trema’ a commisioned by the communist party. Later turning away from neorealism with his own style, as in ‘Death in venice’.
Mise-en-scene Potemkin
Geomertrical, contrast
Intensive use of light and shadow
Direction of movements
Characteristics of new hollywood cinema
extend traditions, try new things, update b-movies
Ex film: Bonnie and Clyde (arthur penn) & Carrie (De Palma)
Three new wave dudes and film examples
Truffaut: the 400 blows
Resnais: Hiroshima mon amour
Godard: Breathless
Examples of neorealism film
Bicycle thieves, Vittorio de Sica. Peak and internation breakthrough.
Controversy potemkin
Soviet propaganda,
Brutal images,
Homosexuality?
Characteristics ‘life of a fireman’
Editing of existing stock + own recordings;
parallel editing
Modifying the classical studio style film
location filming, long focal length lens, faster and flashier editing, wordless montage scenes with (pop)music and slowmotion
Classic film characteristics
Descriptive;
chronological;
canonization and tradition of ‘great men’ histtory;
film as art
Names in film criticism, france.
Astruc (camera stylo) and Bazin
Studio system
A method of film production and distribution dominated by a small number of big conglomerates
Ozu, who
Made very similar films. ex: Odyssey, tokyo story.
Themes: lower middle class, traditional japanese culture and clash with modernity.
Style is very consequent, little camera movement from a low position.
Known for empty images.
Eisenstein
Agitator agit trains
Educated by kuleshov
from theatre to cinema
Film ex: Strike, Potemkin
Revisionist film
1970s-1980s; analytical; Macro and micro analysis; De mythologization and decanonization; non-teleologically; scientific approach
Tendency films
socially conscious left leaning films
Star system
faces (no names!) to the studios
The fascination soviet cinema had with editing; editing not only for the development of the story but also:
Experiments with image transitions;
Editing as expressive means, intellectual labour;
Grifith as inspirtation.
Exapmles of Bright school movies and producers
George Smith - Grandma’s reading glass
James Williamson - Big swallow & fire
Background neorealism
faster revitalization after the war than the rest of europe, resistance against conventional cinema.
Change of the cinema audience
From diverse to vulgar to bourgeouis
Problematic conservation in film due to
Nitrate fil;
low commercial value and low cultural status
Films of Edwin S porter
Life of an american fireman, the great train robbery
mumblecore
a subgenre of independent film characterized by low budget production values and amateur actors, heavily focused on naturalistic dialogue
Cahiers du cinema
A young generation of critics against cinema de pappa. Film as an art form, more mise-en-scene (against editing).
Characterustics of ‘the great train robbery’
Creation of space depth;
Camera angle no longer frontal;
camera movement, panning;
Why the decline of Melies?
too much repetition, audience got tired of tableaux cinema. Also competition of the narrativre film and Pathe.
Production of america was smaller because (around 1907)
Chaos in patent struggle;
copyright issues;
piracy;
harsh competition from big conglomerates;
attacks by political and religous reformers
The evolvement of a flexible basis
Photos were immovable, they needed a flexible basis for film. First celluloid and the Kodak ‘the roll’.
Characteristics of german expressionist cinema, plus an example (4)
Very diverse;
Resistant against bourgeois art, codes of representation and realism;
From 1919-1924;
Ex: Das Kabinet des Dr Caligari (Wiene)
Earliest japanese cinema
Longer primitive period
Kabuki conventions became film conventions
Benshi important role, narration also alongside film
Kinematoscope
a device that showed movement through sucession of images, shown as recurring series in a drum-like instrument
MPPC =
Motion picture patent company, led by Edison. 16 actors to maintain dominant position.
4 issues in studying film history
Canonization
Selection
eurocentrism
accesability
Kammerspielfilm
a type of German film that offers an intimate, cinematic portrait of lower middle class life
Precursors in film were
Muybridge, Marey (chronophotagraphy), reynaud (prxinoscope)
The succes of Rashomon
Golden lion in venice, Start internationalization Japanese cinema
Stylistic characteristics neorealism
Emphasis on the ordinary, simplicity, social realities, pverty and pessimism. Often non professional actors and open endings.
