Film as a modernist-period art (focus upon 1914-1950)

Question 1

Social influences that led to modernism:

Answer 1

• urbanization/city life - industrialization - rapid social change
• horrors of World War I: science/tech as destructive rather than leading to utopia
• new ideas enter popular culture: relativity (Einstein) - psychology (Freud) - evolution (Darwin)

Question 2

Modernist art:

Answer 2

• tends to reject the optimism, sentimentalism, and traditional morality of the previous era
• it instead asks “what is the world really like?” in context of rising disillusionment and nihilism
• has an emphasis on subjectivity and introspection
• may call attention to the artwork itself, rather than what the art is meant to represent

Question 3

Examples of Modernist

Answer 3

Scarface (dir. Howard Hawks, 1932)
Baby Face (dir. Alfred E. Green, 1933)

Question 4

Film itself is a fragmented illusion:

Answer 4

• rapid playback of many individual still frames creates the appearance of motion
• the film’s audience is granted a viewpoint into an imaginary space

Question 5

Additional social factors at the birth of American sound cinema, 1927-1934:

Answer 5

• Black Tuesday (the Stock Market Crash of 1929) leads to the Great Depression, and growing
  public skepticism of traditional beliefs about personal success, achievement, and self-reliance
• the resulting financial hardships and strain lead to a growing dissolution of American families
  and lower marriage rates
• in a nod to the times, audiences demanded “realism,” and film producers catered to this, often
  exploring dark and complicated themes rather than pure escapism

Question 6

Additional social factors at the birth of American sound cinema, 1927-1934:

Answer 6

• these films often question the social structure, and the advent of sound cinema makes films feel
  more tangible and visceral than the earlier silent films
• film content was only regulated by local laws and what audiences would tolerate, not through
  any systematic censorship of the entire film industry

Question 7

Prevalent film genres of early Hollywood talkies:

Answer 7

• social problem films: evils of unregulated capitalism, political corruption, tragic economic
  struggles of families
• violent crime films: gangster, prison, and chain gang films
• melodramas: breakdown of marriages, adultery, “fallen woman” films
• horror and science fiction films that dealt with adult societal themes
• dramas and comedies that addressed the above themes