Film Final: Movie Screenings

Question 1

Sunrise (director/year/elements/historical significance)

Answer 1

Muranu, 1928
international cinema, sound cinema, german expressionism, naturalism, two-ness, classical, tracking shots, early classical hollywood, impossible image, frame being framed

worked w/ Carl Mayer for movie, German film made in Hollywood, universal, american/german, brings together trends of silent era with sound

Question 2

The Great Gabbo (director/year/elements/historical significance)

Answer 2

James Cruze, 1929
early sound cinema, self-reflexivity, american cinema, live performances

elements of silent cinema with sound cinema, bad sound quality,

Question 3

Steamboat Willie (director/year/elements/historical significance)

Answer 3

Walt Disney/Ub Iwerks, 1928
pre-code animation, sound cinema, early animation, first motion picture animation, introduced mickey mouse

Independent studio, sound in characters and for special effects

Question 4

M (director/year/elements)

Answer 4

Fritz Lang, 1931

use of sound in silence in an expressive way, to show suspense/emotion, early sound film, german cinema, light motif

Question 5

His Girl Friday (director/year/elements/historical significance)

Answer 5

Howard Hawks, 1940

based on The Front Page, creativity with Hays code, lots of dialogue, auteur, post-code screwball sound comedy, fast paced, chaos

Question 6

Scarface (director/year/elements/historical significance)

Answer 6

Howard Hawks, 1932
gangster film, classical hollywood cinema, Hawks as the figure of the screenwriter

depictions of Italians, glorifying criminals, controversial, made film companies decide to enforce hays code, vernacular modernism/the urban scoundrel

Question 7

Detour (elements)

Answer 7

Edgar Ulmer, 1945
film noir, label not given to film, distinct style elements, neorealist, main characters dies halfway through film, gritty, tragic themes

Question 8

Frankenstein

director/year/elements/historical significance

Answer 8

James Whale, 1931
horror genre, old fashioned franchise, theme and style break rules, “otherness”, sound effects, mise-en-scene (dirt hitting lid of coffin), marketing, transition between old and new silent films, uncanny monster, jump cuts, broke editing rules

universal studios as horror movie guys

Question 9

Meshes of the Afternoon (director/year/elements)

Answer 9

Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, 1943
experimental film, independent film, not narrative but some story, about observations

not hollywood, story not main focus, own budget, own work, not hollywood

Question 10

The life and death of a hollywood extra (director/year/elements)

Answer 10

Robert Florey, 1927
experimental film, independent film, shows classism is flexible, hollywood criticizing itself, cheap, merciless hollywood

Question 11

Citizen Kane (director/year/elements)

Answer 11

Orson Welles, 1941
anti-classical film, realism, depth of field, editing, showed ceilings, long shots, scenes flow together smoothly, eliminates intercutting, simplification

Question 12

The rules of the game (director/year/elements/historical significance)

Answer 12

Jean Renoir, 1939
narrative film, french poetic realism, french realism, metaphor/allegory for how bourgeois saw the war, depth of field, moral corruption, banned in France for showing how bougois society saw WWII

characters placed freely, freeing of action, open universe, killing of animals equal to killing of humans, metaphor for WWII, Danse Macabre music essential for flow of film

Question 13

Ossessione (elements)

Answer 13

Lunchino Visconti, 1943

gritty adaption of mystery/romance novel, shot on location, banned in fascist italy, neorealist, gritty, italian cinema, romantic

Question 14

Rome Open City (elements/historical significance)

Answer 14

Robert Rossellini, 1945

politcial agenda film for historical portal/for action (enemy troops still in italy when released), anti-nazi

italian cinema, location shooting, neorealism and hollywood themes, melodrama, collective narration, good vs. bad, unknown futures for characters, protagonist killed halfway through film , emotional

Question 15

Bicycle Thieves (director/year/elements)

Answer 15

Vittorio De Sica, 1948

desperate, poor, gritty, neorealism, resistance to revolution, complication, camera abandons characters, unknown, no solution, urgency for characters, free space use, dubbing, open ended ending

Question 16

Pather Panchali (director/year/elements/historical significance)

Answer 16

Satyajit Ray, 1955

influences in india and abroad, western-styled education growing up, inspired by bicycle thieves, most famous international Indian film

about immersion, influences from art, not traditional Indian cinema, international cinema, location shooting, suffering, social issues, realism, art cinema, point of view shots, eyes/faces, global neorealism, realistic

submitting everything by reason, western reality of indian cinema, identity, open and closed spaces, contrast between modern/knowledge and family/culture/traditions

Question 17

Rashomon (director/year/elements)

Answer 17

Akira Kurosawa, 1951

was released internationally and was successful, but criticized in japan for being too western

total war, takes place in ancient kyoto, city as shadow, tokyo pre/post war, failure of moderity, art cinema, alternative japanese cinema

shootig in the sun directly, focuses on light as much as characters, impossible space, mobile camera, japanese cinema, audience as judge

Question 18

the robe (elements)

Answer 18

henry koster, 1953

first cinemascope film, overwelming, exciting

Question 19

How to Marry a Millionaire (elements)

Answer 19

Jean Negulesco, 1953

cinemascope, Marilyn Monroe, first film shot in cinemascope, “engulf”

Question 20

Lola Montez (director/year/elements)

Answer 20

Max Ophuls, 1955
director as auteur, own distinct recognizable style, 35mm, cinemascope, extravagant, symbolism, lavish, colorful, balanced, two, post war historical film

auteur film, french cinema, romance

Question 21

Rear Window (director/year/elements)

Answer 21

Alfred Hitchcock,

meta-cinematic, classic hollywood cinema, cinema about cinema, art cinema, auteur

Question 22

Snow White/Minnie the Moocher/Housecleaning Blues

director/years/elements/historical significance

Answer 22

Snow White: 1933, Fleischer, pre-hays code, live performance, sexual betty boop
Minnie the Moocher: 1932, Fleischer, pre-hays code, live performance, artistic creativity
Housecleaning Blues: 1934, Fleischer, post Hays code, boop more conservatively dressed, traditional roles, less sexual references

Question 23

Dracula (year/director/elements/historical significance)

Answer 23

Tod Browning, 1931
first universal monster, early sound film, american cinema, horror film, use of sound to make film scarier, significant voice, better flow than frankinstein