Exam 2 - Directors

Question 1

Francois Truffaut

1932-1984

Answer 1

Film Movement: French New Wave
Films: The 400 Blows (1959); Shoot the Piano Player (1960); Jules and Jim (1961)
Style: His films were based on central artistic idea of freedom in human relationships and film technique

Question 2

Jean-Luc Godard

1930 -

Answer 2

Film Movement: French New Wave
Films: Breathless (1959); Vivre Sa Vie (1962); Contempt (1963)
Style: Inconsistent/Eclectic; Sudden deaths; Brechtian devices and politics

Question 3

Alain Resnais

1922 -

Answer 3

Film Movement: French New Wave
Films: Hiroshima mon amour (1959); Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Style: Literary Premise; Different from other Nouvelle Vague directors; Not improvised/spontaneous; Themes on effect of time, memory

Question 4

Agnès Varda

1928 -

Answer 4

Film Movement: French New Wave
Films: The Beaches of Agnes; Cleo from 5 to 7; Faces Places
Style: Unique visual style based on her past w photography; Attention to detail; Social Commentary (often feminism); Filmed on location

Question 5

Louis Malle

1932-1995

Answer 5

Film Movement: French New Wave
Films: The Silent World (1956); Elevator to the Gallows or Frantic (1957)
Style: Most eclectic of French New Wave; Studied Political Science; Moral complexities & illogical characters

Question 6

John Cassavetes

1929-1989

Answer 6

Film Movement: Hollywood Renaissance; American Auteurs
Films: Faces (1968); Minnie and Moskowitz (1971); A Woman Under the Influence (1973)
Style: Narrative cinema; documentary shooting styles; filmmaking as personal statement; Explorations of unstylized behavior of character (began as television actor)

Question 7

Woody Allen

1935 -

Answer 7

Film Movement: Hollywood Renaissance; American Auteurs
Films: Annie Hall (1977); Bananas (1971); Sleeper (1973)
Style: Acted in his films as single character (with different names); Dry, offbeat comedy; Irony; Observational; (Jewish “schlemiel” concept)

Question 8

Robert Altman

1925-2006

Answer 8

Film Movement: Hollywood Renaissance; American Auteurs
Films: The Long Goodbye (1973); MASH (1970)
Style: 2 Narrative sizes - Small close study of people who live bizarre lives & broad study of American institutions; Authenticity of human interaction; Perceptive scrutiny

Question 9

Francis Ford Coppola

1939-

Answer 9

Film Movement: Hollywood Renaissance; American Auteurs
Films: Patton (1970) [Another war movie released the same year as MASH (Altman)]; The Godfather (1972); Apocalypse Now (1979)
Style: Lifelong commitment to cinema; Cinema Verite; Clever use of sound; Cinematic power; American epics

Question 10

Martin Scorcese

1942 -

Answer 10

Film Movement: Hollywood Renaissance; American Auteurs
Films: Mean Streets (1973); Taxi Driver (1976); Raging Bull (1980)
Style: Tense urban sensibility; Explosive scenes with illusions of improvisation and chaos; Fast, violent, meditative; attention to technical quality; Voice over narrators

Question 11

Terrence Malick

1943 -

Answer 11

Film Movement: Hollywood Renaissance; American Auteurs
Films: Badlands (1973); Days of Heaven (1978)
Style: Film poet; meditation & philosophy; Violent narratives; visual imagery; voice-over narrators

Question 12

Brian De Palma

1940 -

Answer 12

Film Movement: Hollywood Renaissance; American Auteurs
Films: Greetings (1968); Carrie (1976); Scarface (1983)
Style: Offbeat projects; reflexive parodies; horror; gangster pictures; thrillers; themes of doubling and disguise

Question 13

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

1946-1982

Answer 13

Film Movement: Das neue Kino
Films: The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979); The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972); Mother Kuster’s Trip to Heaven (1975); Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1973)
Style: Stylized, statuesque, highly patterned visual world; Brechtian themes; Themes of power; Examinations of political, psychological, or moral implications; 3 social settings - stifling tawdry world of working class, hard shiny world of the rich and famous, detached elegance of the world of the past; Lack of human comfort/charm

Directed Films in a dozen years and died of drug overdose

Question 14

Werner Herzog

1942 -

Answer 14

Film Movement: Das neue Kino
Films (doc & fictional): Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972); Land of Silence and Darkness (1971); Signs of Life (1968); Heart of Glass (1976)
Style: Spiritual, mystical, dreamlike; Deep pull to natural, untamed settings; German Romanticism; Special attention to score & sound

Question 15

Wim Wenders

1945 -

Answer 15

Film Movement: Das neue Kino
Films: The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1971); Kings of the Road (1976); Paris, Texas (1984); Wings of Desire
Style: Themes of American film and culture; austerity, rigorous, long & loose; Homages of American cinema;

Question 16

Volker Schlondorff
(1939 - )

Answer 16

Film Movement: Das neue Kino
Films: Michael Hohlhaas (1969); The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)
Style: Stylish literary adaptations; political melodrama, irony

Margarethe von Trotta (then-wife) wrote his scripts

Question 17

Margarethe von Trotta

1942 -

Answer 17

Film Movement: Das neue Kino
Films: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975); Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (1979)
Style: Confrontational/controversially feminist films; versatile style

Wrote scripts for Volker Schlondorff (then-husband)

Question 18

Gillian Armstrong

Answer 18

Film Movement: Australia’s New Wave
Films: My Brilliant Career (1979); Little Women (1994); Star Struck (1983)
Style: Explores the way female characters learn to define and express themselves; Comic directing; female gaze

Question 19

Bruce Beresford

1940 -

Answer 19

Film Movement: Australia’s New Wave
Films: ‘Breaker’ Morant (1980); Driving Miss Daisy (1989); Tender Mercies (1983)
Style: independent productions with low budgets, excellent scripts, superb acting

Question 20

George Miller

Answer 20

Film Movement: Australian New Wave
Films: Mad Max (1979) & sequels
Style: futuristic fantasies that bend genre; setting of Australian outback

Question 21

Peter Weir

1944 -

Answer 21

Film Movement: Australian New Wave
Films: The Last Wave (1977); Gallipoli (1981); Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Style: Themes of aboriginal retribution; quiet, subversive power; supernatural

Question 22

Fred Schepisi

1939 -

Answer 22

Film Movement: Australian New Wave
Films: The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (1978); The Devil’s Playground (1976); Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
Style: Political themes of Australia’s exploited aborigines; Rebellion & Punishment

“Most widely praised of Australian filmmakers of this ‘Golden Age’”

Question 23

Peter Jackson

1961 -

Answer 23

Film Movement: New Zealand
Films: Bad Taste (1987); The Frighteners (1996); Lord of the Rings trilogy
Style: Groundbreaking effects teams, rich visuals, solid performances; (early films) black comedies and outrageous horror

Question 24

Jane Campion

1955 -

Answer 24

Film Movement: New Zealand
Films: Sweetie (1989); The Piano (1992); The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Style: Themes - women whose means of expression are met with rejection

Question 25

David Cronenberg

1943 -

Answer 25

Film Movement: Canada
Films: Shivers (1975); Scanners (1980)
Style: Horror themes, evolution of the flesh/ consciousness; nature and psychology

Question 26

Ted Kotcheff

Answer 26

Film Movement: Canada
Films: Outback (1971); First Blood (1982)
Style: Intense and thoughtful violence; battles of moral values and self-definition; heroes at war with the world around them

Question 27

Jim Sheridan

Answer 27

Film Movement: Ireland
Films: My Left Foot (1989); The Field (1990); In the Name of the Father (1993)

Irish playwright

Question 28

Neil Jordan

Answer 28

Film Movement: Ireland
Films: The Company of Wolves (1984); Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Style: Visual imagination & wit; stylistic genre materials