FILM HISTORY 3 : CONTEMPORARY CINEMA Flashcards
Name the president of the United States from 1981-1989. He had become famous from being a B-Movie actor in action films during the 1930s & 40s.
RONALD REAGAN
The advent of what new device added yet another diversion(like the television in the 1950s) with which movie theaters had to compete with. Hint: The way movies were screened, the number of revival movies houses declined, as well as how movies were filmed, windscreen processes diminished because this new invention allowed audiences to have most of film history at their finger tips.
VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDER
Major studios started rebuildling what type of structure that included owning the production company, distribution rights and exhibition theaters. By the end of the 1980s, the studios owned 3,500 of the countries 22,000 theaters
VERTICAL INTEGRATION
The top 10 box office performers of the 1980s were all men. The return to conservative “traditional”values in the 1980s did not bode well for female actresses & directors who had a difficult time finidng good work in the 1980s. Name three of the top male 1980s star moneymakers.
HARRISON FORD, DAN AYKRYD, EDDIE MURPHY
The 1980s was a decade of big money and military spending both of which were what people wanted to see at the movies. The riches 20% of the U.S. accounted for 44% of the income while the poorest 20% received only 4.6% of the income. Close to 3 million Americans were homeless, mostly consisting of Vietnam veterans, women and children and who are still barely surviving to this day. What Charles Dickens line can sum up the decade’s ironic dilemma?
“IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES; IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES”
The War Film. Name the actor who helped re-invent the glory and the proudest American post-Vietnam War, with his recurring portrayals of the “common man” characters Rocky Balboa & John Rambo.
SYLVESTER STALLONE
With Steven Spielberg as his mentor, this energetic protege brought a comedic zest to family friendly creating the Back to the Future trilogy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the ingenious amalgam of live action and animation, which served as both a tribute to and rebirth to classical animation.
ROBERT ZEMECKIS
Name the “Actress of the 1980s (&the 1990s)” best known for her diverse roles like SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982( playing tragic, comedic and courageous women and has now (by 2012) been nominated 17 times wining 3 Oscars.
MERYL STREEP
What 1975 film is know as the “godfather of summer blockbusters”?
JAWS
Achieving his biggest popular success with Vietnam war film PLATOON (1986) winning best picture, director and editing, this film maker had been working for a full decade having won an Oscar for his screenplay MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (1978) quest conservative status quo polarized audiences, yet was the perfect counter-balance to the patriotic flag-waving blockbusters i.e. TOP GUN (1986( & RAMBO : FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985)
OLIVER STONE
This New York filmmaker opened the world’s eyes to the complexities in the modern ghetto neighborhood. his first film SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT (1986) was a breath of fresh air about a woman who explains why she doesn’t need to commit to one man. His film DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) is an unsentimental critique of bigotry from black, white, brown and yellow! His combination of brilliant comic timing, improve acting, melodrama and inventive camera techniques makes him one of the most exciting film makers of the decade!
SPIKE LEE
This independent film maker began as a novelist and screenwriter writing screenplays for B_movies (PIRANHA, 1978 and ALLIGATOR, 1980) and using the money to make his own films that explored historical and social troubles with a Marxist analysis of capitol and labor (MATEWAN, 1987, and EIGHT MEN OUT, 1988). Unfortunately, the decade mainstream audience was not interested in these subtle and subversive stories.
JOHN SAYLES
Attending the California Institute of the Arts, with a major in animation, this director worked with Disney initially and made his feature film debut with the off beat comedy PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. His weird sensibilities are fable-like with a fondness for the bizarre and grotesque yet presented in an accessible childlike way. ONe of the 1980s biggest box office successes was his comic adaptation of BATMAN (1989)
TIM BURTON
Explain what happens to the three characters at the end of JAWS 1975.
Chief Brody
Captain Quint
Biologist Hooper
Chief Brody - Shoves a pressurized scuba tank into the sharks mouth and shoots in.
Capt. Quint - gets eaten and killed by the shark
Biologist Hooper - He ends the ocean with scuba gear in a sharp proof cage and escapes
Actor of FIRST BLOOD (1982)
SYLVESTER STALLONE
Actor of COMMANDO (1985)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Actors of JAWS (1975)
ROBERT SHAW
ROY SCHEIDER
RICHARD DREYFUS
Actor of TOOTSIE (1982)
DUSTIN HOFFMAN
Actress of TERMINATOR (1984)
LINDA HAMILTON
Actor and Actress of BATMAN (1989)
MICHAEL KEATON
KIM BASSINGER
Actor of BATMAN (1989)
JACK NICHOLSON
Why does Buggin’ Out decide to boycott Sal’s Pizzeria in DO THE RIGHT HING (1989)
because sal would not put “brothers” on the wall of fame
What does Mookie decide to do in the riot at the end of DO THE RIGH THING (1989) Be specific.
He throws a trash can through the window of Sal’s pizzeria.
Name the actors from DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)
JOHN TURTURRO
DANNY AIELLO
SPIKE LEE
ROSIE PEREZ
What does 40 year old actor Michael do to get an acting job in Sydney Pollack’s TOOTSIE?
He dresses up as a woman and does not accept the directors choice of her being too “soft” for the part
How does Michael fix the dilemma that he’s in at his job at the end of TOOTSIE? Be Specific.
During the live show he reveals to the audiences that he is Dorothy Michael’s twin brother.
Actor and Actress of THE FLY (1986)
JEFF GOLDBLUM
GEENA DAVIS
Actress of ALIENS (1986)
SIGOURNEY WEAVER
Actor of PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES (1987)
STEVE MARTIN
JOHN CANDY
Actor of PLATOON (1986)
CHARLIE SHEEN
Actor and Actress of RAISING ARIZON (1987)
NICHOLAS CAGE
HOLLY HUNTER
Actor and Actress of BLUE VELVET (1986)
LAURA DERN
KYLE MACLAUCHLAN
British cinema in the 1980s was a blending of the old (literate scripts, first rate actors, class consciousness) and the new (an obsession on the recent past due to a resentment by many toward the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher). Much of the cinema released during this time connecting to the “old” was related to a certain type of tradition that emphasized “period films, with picturesque rural homes questioning class, county and God issues.
MASTERPIECE THEATER
Name the producer and director who have been making films together for close to 50 years in England. Their film A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1986) finally found a large audience and was a surprising financial and critical success grossing over $50 million internationally and receiving eight nominations, winning three.
PRODUCER - ISMAIL MERCHANT
DIRECTOR - JAMES IVORY
The Britis cinema of the “new” was a continuation of what 1960s movement, which emphasized working-class life in a relatic style often backed by a Marxist ideology. What was new about these 1980s films was that many of these “left-wing” films had a fresh and exciting style often influenced by expressionistic and surreal genres like film noir.
KITCHEN SINK MOVEMENT
Name the most critically acclaimed and admired of the new Britist filmmakers. His earliest TV films were shot in the streets, quickly and cheaply. Once he teamed up with screenwriter Hanif Kureishi, the two found aperfect ethnic, class and sexual tensions between Pakistani immigrants and wroking-class Brits. They followed this up with amazing SAMMY AND ROSIE GET LAID (1987)
STEPHEN FREARS
Spain’s genuine poet, this matter of fact surrealist prefers exploring melodramatic female protagonists often through the influence of soap operas and experimental films, which he used to “makes you look at our human situations with irony.” His hyper-stylized world wonderfully becomes this concept of “camp”. His film WOMAN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988) is a perfect example.
PEDRO ALMODOVAR
The Netherlands produced a major talent with this Dutch filmmaker making two similarly structured films exploring the gritty truths of young people: SOLDIER OF ORANGE (1979) about a group of wealthy college students and their reaction to the Nazi occupation and SPETTERS (1980) which unsentimentally exposes generation gaps, battle of the sexes drug addiction and moral drift. Before coming to the USA and making his inspired sci-fi classic ROBOCOP (1987), his film THE FOURTH MAN (1984) was a stylistic masterpiece.
PAUL VERHOEVEN
Filmmaker Jamie Uys’ unusual mock documentary about a bushman who finds a Coke bottle charmingly explores the contrast between whites and black in South Africa, which was a huge financial hit for 3rd World cinema.
THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY
This revolutionary Turkish filmmaker was one of the country’s most famous actors and yet he was sent prision for 18 years for his political beliefs. While in prision he insruced Serif Goren to co-direct YOL (1981) exposing the injustices towards women in Turkey.
YILMAZ GUNEY
Name the most promising filmmaker to emerge from Japan in the 1980s was a comic humanist who made 10 films in 13 years, all satirizing Japanese culture. His film TAMPOPO (1986) looked at Yakuza, foodies and cinema. Also name his “partner-in-crime” who starred in most of his films and brought an important “everywoman” ingredient to the screen.
JUZO ITAMI
NOBUKO MIYAMOTO
Name the Actor of THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY (1980)
N!XAU
Actor of Actress of WOMAN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988)
ANTONIO BANDERAS
CARMEN MAURA
Actor of POLICE STORY
JACKIE CHAN
Actress of ROOM WITH A VIEW (1986)
HELENA BONHAM-CARTER
Actor of HENRY V (1989)
KENNETH BRANAGH
Actor of ANOTHER COUNTRY (1984)
COLIN FIRTH
Actor of MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE (1986)
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS
Actor and Actress of TAMPOPO (1986)
TSUTOMU YAMAZAKI
NOBUKO MIYAMOTO
Actor of CINEMA PARADISO (1988)
PHILIPPE NOIRET
At the beginning of CINEMA PARADISO (1988), a 36 year-old Salvatore is told that someone has died? Name of person who died. Explain who he is.
Alfredo. Alfredo is the projectionists.
Name the Italian director of CINEMA PARADISO (1988), who started as a freelance photographer, became a documentary filmmaker andultimately won and Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1988.
GIUSEPPE TORNATORE
The 1970s began in turmoil and ended in a return to what type of values, best illustrated perhaps by the agenda of the ROnald Regan years in the 1980s. For some, this symbolized a trip from darkness to light. For others, it represented the transformation of a great promise into a defining 1980s phrase, “diminished expectations.”
conservative/traditional values
Name the “elder stateman” of the directs who cam einto their own in the 1970s. he too started as a TV director in the 1960s but when he finally was given a major studio film M.A.S.H. (1970), he broke many rules like deemphasizing plut, showcasing characters, revising genre expectations with a humorous pessimism and overlapped dialogue, often with a large ensemble cast.
ROBERT ALTMAN
Name the most prestigious filmmaker of the 1970s, winning Oscars from Best Picture for THE GODFATHER (1972) and THE GODFATHER II (1974) as well as the Grand Prize at Cannes for THE CONVERSATION (1974). The films were all made with extreme details and were cast of mostly unknowns to guarantee a sense of authenticity.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
Name the 1970s director who graduated from NYU’s film program, started as an editor and transitioned into making Independent violent and personal films based in little Italy of New York. His films are technically elegant while showing very gritty and inarticulate characters. His most personal films MEAN STREETS (1973), TAXI DRIVER (1976) and RAGING BULL (1980) are all masterfully designed character studies, yet he himself was not celebrated with Oscar until his 2006 film THE DEPARTED.
MARTIN SCORSESE
Born and raised in New York, this comedian started writing joke as a teenager for 1950s TV. He turned to doing stand up himself in the 1960s and even though he hated it, he perfected it. He then transitioned to writing scripts for Broadway and the silver screen, even beginning to star and direct himself. His persona as a small, frail, klutzy, cowardly, sex-obsessed, Jewish, intellectual was celebrated unanimously with ANNIE HALL (1977) when it won an Oscar for Best PIcture. He has since made a movie every year for almost 40 years.
WOODY ALLEN
On the basis of some 8mm/16mm student films that this film freak had made as a teenager in Airzon, this 21 year old was hired by MCA to direct TV episodes. THis confident charming and clever cinephile convineced the studio to let himdirect a couple of “chase” movies DUEL (1971) and SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974). He then was assigned an adaptation of the book JAWS (1975), which became highest money-maker of all time. Each of his films following he has been able to choose to make including CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1978), RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) and E.T. : THE EXTERA TERRESTRIAL (1982)
STEVEN SPIELBERG
Name the screenwriter/actor who tapped into the late 1970s desire to be less cynical and more optimistic with his blockbuster ROCKY (1976), which was directed by John Avildsen, emphasized preserving, hard work and sincerity.
SYLVESTER STALLONE
Actor of NETWORK (1976) *Best Actor
PETER FINCH
Actor of THE GODFATHER (1972) *Best Picture
AL PACINO
Actor and Actress of ANNIE HALL (1977) *Best Picture, Director, Script and Actress
WOODY ALLEN
DIANE KEATON
Actor oF Network (1976)
WILLIAM HOLDEN
Actress of NETWORK (1976) *Best Actress
FAYE DUNAWAY
Actor of ROCKY (1976) *Best Picture, Directing, Editing
SYLVESTER STALLONE
Actor of APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) - Benjamin Willard (*Best Cinematography and Palme D’Or)
Martin Sheen
Actor of APOCALYPSE NOW (197() - Walter E. Kurtz
MARLON BRANDO
Actor of APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) - Bill Kilgore
ROBERT DUVALL
Two intelligence officers (one played by a very young Harrison Ford) approach Willard with an assignment: He is to find follow the Nung River into a remote Cambodian jungle and do what?
KILL KURTZ
At the end of APOLOCYPSE NOW (1979), on the eve of Willard achieving his goal, what do the villagers do in their ceremony?
SLAUGHTER A WATER BUFFALO
Write the statement from NETWORK (1976) that Howard Beale (prophet or maniac?) ignited many people to shout in the film and can be looked as a mantra (phrase of truism) of the 1970s.
“I’M SO MAD AND I WON’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE”
The slow release pattern in baroque movie palaces by Hollywood was replaced in the 1990s by multiplexes screening the same blockbuster in (how many) theaters widening the gap for Independent films getting recognized in mainstream outlets.
2,500
Name the type of special effects that films like JURASSIC PARK (1993) and Pixar’s TOY STORY (1995) debuted to 1990s audiences.
INITIALS - CGI
COMPUTER GRAPHIC IMAGING
By the end of the 1990s, the average cost of the Hollywood film was $53.4 million with marketing being bumped up to $25 million per film. But even if a film made over $100 million very little profit was returning to the production company. Name the defining 1997 film of the 1990s that became the most commercially successful film in history under these ironic circumstances.
TITANIC
Name the female filmmaker who delivered two of the biggest office grossing fils of the era: BIG (1988) and A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992), one exploring an adolescent man and the other delivering a wonderfully historic feminist lesson.
PENNY MARSHALL
Continuing to make a “relationship” movie every year, beginning in the late 1960s and throughout the 1990s, there is no other auteur in cinema history who can match the diversity and sheer volume of output. Finding an international audience while American audiences were put off by his breakup and custody scandal, such min classics as ALICE (1990), BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994) and DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (1997) had a huge influences on pessimistic upcoming young filmmakers.
WOODY ALLEN
And even the historically taboo subject of homsexuality found a mainstream audiences with Mike Nichols’ film (1996), an American remake of LA CAGE AUX FOLLIES about a happily “married” gay couple who are forced to play being straight creating a long overdue sympathetic representation of a subject Hollywood and America was very much afraid of.
THE BIRD CAGE
Considered to be the foremost filmmaking talent of the generation, name the filmmaker who made such popcorn classics as the JURASSIC PARK trilogy as well as maturing with war epics such as SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993) and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998). And although his films tend toward the “bravura displays of stylistic virtuosity in excess” as well as over reliance on cliched and patronizingly sentimental music, his total command of the language of images is pretty much as good as it gets.
STEVEN SPIELBERG
Struggling with achieving mainstream success continued for this 1970s auteur in the 1990s. His consistent exploration of New York, gangsters and transcendence earned him the moiker by some critics as “the greatest living director.” His films about the mob: GOODFELLAS (1990) and CASINO (1995) were brilliant yet too violent for most while his masterful adaptation of Edith Wharton’s THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993) and his spiritual exploration o the Dali Lama KUNDUN (1997) were the opposite…too restrained.
MARTIN SCORSESE
Who wrote the screenplay for THELMA AND LOUISE (1991)
CALLIE KHOURI
This versatile actor turned director achieved major success in the 1990s while also creating some missteps (or misunderstood movies). His crowning achievenment THE UNFORGIVEN (1992) is not only a deeply felt revisionist Western, but its beautifully directed and morally profound. Adapting the romantic THE BRIDGES OF MADISION COUNTY (1995) foudn this American icon building his reputation as a filmmaker as much as an actor.
CLINT EASTWOOD
Name the “interesting” Sci-Fi Quitology (five films) that each can stand alone due to the talented directs who helmed each entry while at the same time exploring a similiar story. The directors include Ridley Scott (1979), James Cameron (1986), David Fincher (1992), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (1997) and Scott again (2012).
ALIEN
Actor of THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998)
JIM CAREY
Actor of FOREST GUMP (1994)
TOM HANKS
Actor of MEN IN BLACK (1997)
WILL SMITH
Actresses of THELMA and LOUISE (1991)
SUSAN SARANDON
GEENA DAVIS
Actors of THE BIRDCAGE (1996)
NATHAN LANE
ROBIN WILLIAMS
Actors of THE UNFORGIVEN (1992)
MORGAN FREEMAN
CLINT EASTWOOD
Actress of BASIC INSTINCT (1992)
SHARON STONE
Actress and Actor of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
JODI FOSTER
ANTHONY HOPKINS
Actors of CASINO (1995)
ROBERT DINERO
JOE PESCI
Name the board, who every year perserves 25 “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films.” The board emerged in 1988 to help protect movies under the constitution from being lost, destroyed, colorized, “pan and scanned” etc.
NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY
Name the film festival that actor Robert Redford started in 1978 showcasing Independent films. Its original name was the US Film Festival
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
Name the low budget 1989 film that finally put Robert Redford’s film festival on the map for being the premiere showcase for Independent films in the US. The film was shocking, intriguing and era-defining. Also…name the director who was the major kick started to the Independent movement int he 1990s.
FILM - SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPES
DIRECTOR - STEVEN SODERBERG
Toward the end of the 1990s, Independent films were becoming quite successful and expensive. Name the producer who were a throwback to the classic movie studio, known for yelling loudly and would reedit the films if they get necessary. Best Picture winner of the 1998 that cost nearly $40 million. Made by Miramax and Universal.
BOB AND HARVEY WEINSTEIN
Name the low budget 1999 film that initial costs were only $25,000 and won over Robert Redford’s film festival in 1999. By utilizing home video, student filmmaking and an inventive marketing campaign utilizing a website on the Internet (Ad to that %25 million dollar studio budget) and the film accrued over $250 million.
SLACKER
The look and feel of Hollywood films made in the 1990s began to have an indistinguishable style. The era of Hollywood auteurs seemed muddled. The screenplays were clever and witty but what “completely dictated which films were made”?
DIALOGUE
Name the TExan filmmaker whose nontraditional first film SLACKER (1991), which had no main character, but casually floated from one to the next, won the best film at the most important Independent film festival in 19991. He later directed DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)
RICHARD LINKLATER
Name the Portland Independent filmmaker, who sparked the 1990s Queer cinema movement with his exploration of troubled youth with a creative and cinematic style like MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991) while he concurrently makes Hollywood hits like GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997) to foot his pet personal projects.
GUS VAN SANT
This Los Angeles video store clerk wrote and directed a handful of ultra-violent, neo-noirs in the 1990s, which emphasize “a rich, rather theatrical dialogue that can sound humorously incongruous coming out o the mouths of his crooks.” His films Reservoir Dogs (1992), PULP FICTION (1994) and JACKIE BROWN (1997) combine a “voluptuous visual style, bleak, nihilistic humor and offbeat casting.”
QUENTIN TARATINO
This young Rolling STone writer went undercover into high school to write FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH 1982) and helped set the tone of his career, taking ordinary situations and creating a “painstaking observation and character development” as in JERRY MAGUIRE (1997) and ALMOST FAMOUS (2002).
CAMERON CROWE
Actors of MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991)
KEANU REEVES
RIVER PHEONIX
Actor and Actress of SEX, LIES and VIDEOTAPES (1989)
ANDI MCDOWELL
JAMES SPADER
Actor and Actress of PULP FICTION (1994)
JOHN TRAVOLTA
UMA THURMAN
Actors and Actress of FARGO (1996)
STEVE BUSCEMI
WILLIAM MACY
FRANCES MCDORMAND
