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Film History > Midterm > Flashcards

Midterm Flashcards

1
Q

Daguerreotype

A

Silver plates that the first pictures were printed on

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2
Q

Kinetograph & Kinetoscope

A
  • An early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window.
  • The kinetograph captured the motion, and the kinetoscope allowed one to view it
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3
Q

Cinematograph

A
  • An early movie projector (1894)
  • invented by the Lumiere Brothers
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4
Q

Thomas Edison

A
  • Optical Phonograph 1888
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5
Q

Eadweard Muybridge

A
  • 1872, he captured the first moving picture
  • He was doing motion studies to see if all four of a horses feet are ever off the ground at the same time when it runs
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6
Q

Cinema of Attractions

A
  • Address the audience directly
  • Invites the viewer to look, pointing to things, asking us questions
  • Very little character or narrative
  • Emphasizes the act of display
  • Solicits viewer curiosity
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7
Q

Nickelodeons

A
  • Store front movie theaters where people could watch movies for a nickel
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8
Q

Studio System

A

-1917-1948
- When 5 majors and 3 minors ruled the market over films

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9
Q

Classical Hollywood Cinema

A
  • 1917-1960
  • Share similar approaches to storytelling
    -Style is a result of production structures of the Studio System
  • Editing is meant to be not distracting
  • Characters are clearly defined, causal agents (they do things)
  • Plot centers around clearly defined goals
  • Time is subordinated to the plot (what you see is dictated by the needs of the plot)
  • Plot structured around cause and effect
  • Closure!
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10
Q

Vertical Integration

A
  • When a studio owns the means of production, distribution, and exhibition
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11
Q

Paramount Decision

A
  • 1948 decision that ruled Paramount (and the rest of the big studios) as a monopoly, therefore ending the Studio System
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12
Q

Mode vs Genre

A
  • Mode: A style; thematic components and recurring themes transcends drama and has many different plots
  • Genre: shares plots, characters, subject matter, themes, and settings
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13
Q

The man in the grey flannel suit

A

A man who is losing his identity/purpose and blending into the crowd/status quo

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14
Q

Rosie the Riveter

A
  • A government campaign to encourage women to work during WW2
  • inspired a social movement that increased working women in the US by 57%
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15
Q

temps perdu

A
  • Narrators tell you the ending of the film at the beginning
  • “lost time”
  • creates a sense of irretrievable past, predetermined fates, and hopelessness
  • they have seen it all
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16
Q

high key/low key lighting

A
  • Lowkey lighting is less bright light
  • grey lighting is turned down
  • obscures, not glamorous/flattering, harsh, and direct
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17
Q

Night for night shooting

A

Mysterious and scarier

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18
Q

Day for night shooting

A

shot during the day with a blue filter because the cameras couldnt get a good image in total darkness

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19
Q

“Hard Boiled” Novels

A
  • violent, sexual, scandalous
  • private detectives
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20
Q

Fordism

A

assembly line production in postwar America

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21
Q

Canted frame

A

titled to convey that things are out of wack

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22
Q

White Flight

A

Postwar when white populations left the city and moved to the suburbs

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23
Q

Liminal spaces

A

betwixt or between; things happen here that wouldn’t happen in other spaces

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24
Q

femme fatale

A
  • killer woman
  • gorgeous, alluring
  • the protagonist falls in love with her
  • she plays him
  • ambiguous if she loves him back
  • she leads to his demise
  • women are threats against men
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25
Q

Who were the major Japanese Film Studios post WW2?

A
  • Toho
  • Daiei
  • Schuchiku
  • Nikkatsu
  • Toei
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26
Q

Japanese New Wave

A
  • Youth Culture becomes an important market after WW2
  • late 50s-70s
  • Rejection of tradition
  • characters have sex, do drugs, etc
  • critical of Japanese society
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27
Q

Bushido

A
  • way of the warrior
  • codified set of virtues that all Samurai are supposed to follow
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28
Q

Gi

A

(rectitude, justice, righteousness, integrity)

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29
Q

Yuki

A

(heroic courage, valor, bravery)

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30
Q

Jin

A

(compassion, humanity, charity, benevolence)

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31
Q

Rei

A

(respect, courtesy, etiquette, civility)

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32
Q

Makoto

A

(honesty, sincerity)

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33
Q

Meiyo

A

(honor, dignity)

34
Q

Chugi

A

(duty & loyalty)

35
Q

Ronin

A
  • “wave man”
  • a masterless samurai
  • a wanderer with no home
36
Q

Giri/ninjo

A
  • Duty versus human feeling
  • Human feeling that goes against social obligations
  • The samurai must make sacrifices in favor of one or the other
37
Q

Mono no aware

A
  • An empathy with the world
  • perspective of someone who is a relaxed observer taking in and accepting the world around them
  • pure, emotional response to the world
  • the “ahness” of things/life/love
38
Q

Nostalgic Samuari Drama

A
  • Focuses on a ronin
  • Offers a clear moral world (you know who is good/bad)
  • Heroes linked with nature
  • Antagonist is a large group
  • Being a samurai is about honor even in death
  • Like the American Western genre
  • Samurai do good deeds in exchange for food
  • giri/ninjo
39
Q

Anti-Feudal Drama

A
  • Arose out of explosive issues in 1959-60 due to the Mutual Security Pact which forced Japan’s prime minister to resign
  • Fear about returning to a system they were under in the past
  • Heroes begin as men of rank
  • The hero is tragic because he ends up destroying the system he once loved
  • Heroes are linked with society
  • Antagonist is a large group
  • more pessimistic
40
Q

Zen Fighters

A
  • Actual historical figures/legends
  • The hero has a disdain for his life and the lives of others
  • ignores/transcends social context
  • hand-to-hand combat; the best fighters don’t need swords
41
Q

Sword Film

A
  • Hugely popular but considered low brow
  • Most violent
  • nihilistic
  • similar to American gangster movies and hardboiled novels
  • Protagonist and antagonist are liked and well matched
  • blur the distinction between fact of history and idea of history
42
Q

4 films that kickstarted French New Wave

A

Jean Luc Godard: (Breathless)

Francois Truffaut: (The 400 Blows)

Claude Chabrol: Le Beau Serge (The Good Serge) & Les Cousins (The Cousins)

43
Q

Jump cut

A

when the camera’s position moves only slightly (less than 30 degrees) between cuts this creates a jump or jerk on screen

44
Q

30 degree rule

A

Every camera position should be varied by at least 30 degrees from the previous one

45
Q

Direct address

A

When a character in a film looks at the camera and speaks directly to the audience

46
Q

Long take

A

when a film goes a very long time without cutting the shot

47
Q

“Art Film”

A
  • Against the classical narrative mode
  • realism and authenticity
  • characters lack goals
  • authorial expressivity (auteur)
  • ambiguity
48
Q

Cahiers du Cinema

A
  • “cinema notebook”
  • group of French filmmakers
  • criticized contemporary French cinema
  • engaged with styles and themes of films
  • developed the concept of the film auteur
  • criticized the ‘cinema of quality’ formulaic prestige pictures that were often adaptations of novels
49
Q

Auteur

A
  • A director’s unique distinctive style; putting a personal stamp on your film; a cohesive, personal style
  • Defined by a core of meanings or thematic motifs; specific style appearing from film to film
  • Granted respect to Hollywood films and directors
50
Q

Avance sur recettes system

A
  • Advance on receipt
  • the French state was financially supporting the film industry
  • Large pool of talent; many unknown directors got a chance to make films
  • The moviegoing public was receptive to them and wanted to talk about film in a serious way
51
Q

The Left Bank

A
  • Chris Maker (La jefe, 1962)
  • Alain Resnais (Hiroshima, Mon Amor, 1959)
  • Agnes Varda (Cleo from 5 to 7, 1962)
  • Jacques Demy (Umbrells of Cherbourg, 1964)
52
Q

Characteristic of a French New Wave film?

A
  • Self reflexivity
  • Ambiguous endings
  • handheld camera
  • “Fast” film stock
  • Available light
  • On Location Shooting
  • Replacement of editing with camera movement
53
Q

social problem film

A
  • issue being addressed has to be something considered a problem in the current moment
  • tries to generate sympathy for the issues
  • offers individual rather than systemic solutions
54
Q

realism

A
  • has no set standards
  • means movies/TV shows that look like documentaries
  • associated with documentary conventions
  • about the “perception” of the real
  • use of new subjects
  • address a group that hasn’t received much on-screen attention
  • focus on the everyday
  • excess of detail; things that arent moving the plot forward
55
Q

Dalton Duty

A
  • AKA the Dalton Tax
  • Post WW2 in Britain
  • 75% tax on all foreign film imports
  • Hollywood responds with British film boycott
  • Tried to decrease the desire for imported films
56
Q

poetic realism

A

authenticates and poeticizes

57
Q

Characteristics of a “kitchen sink” film

A
  • Black and white
    • On location shooting in working class milieu
    • Fast film stock
    • “Excess” of detail
    • “Long shot of our town from that hill
  • Use of unknowns and/or nonprofessional actors
    • Focus on “angry young man”
    • Open ending
  • everyday subjects
  • low budget
  • Documentary aesthetics such as long takes and imperfect lighting
58
Q

British “Kitchen Sink” Cinema (aka, New Wave, New Cinema) 1959-1963

A
  • Inspired by the 1930s British Documentary movement and the Free Cinema Movement
  • Usually had an “angry young man” protagonist
59
Q

1930s British Documentary Movement

A
  • government funded
  • produced until WW2
  • no central artistic theory; more about impact
  • socially responsible, educational, or instructional
  • highlighted the working class and its struggles
  • aimed to create political reform
  • often contained reenactments
  • big critique of what was presented/shaped by the middle and upper classes
60
Q

Free Cinema Movement

A
  • mid 50s
  • tried to get rid of the elitist middle/upper class influence on working class documentaries
  • belief in freedom, importance of everyday people, and significance of everyday
  • the image speaks
61
Q

Angry young man

A
  • coined mid 50s
  • diverse novelists and playwrights writing about class issues
  • characters are unhappy with the status quo and they are outspoken about it
  • celebrate the working classes
  • very frank
  • kicked off in 1956
  • Look Back in Anger, John Osbourne
62
Q

Closed text vs. open text

A
  • closed text: the ending is resolved, we understand what happens, there are a limited number of meanings
  • open texts: the meaning is open-ended and ambiguous; it can be interpreted many ways
63
Q

“cinema of hunger”

A
  • cinema novo
  • suffering creates violence
  • emphasis on social issues
  • foreign observers enjoy class/poverty tourism
64
Q

“camera as gun”

A
  • the camera is a gun that can shoot 24 frames per second
  • the camera is an inexhaustible expropriator of image-weapons
65
Q

1968

A
  • Time of social upheaval
  • Martin Luther King assassinated
  • Bobby Kennedy assassinated
  • riots over the Vietnam war
  • College students were really involved in politics
  • Mai Lai Massacre US soldiers killed civilians and photos of it circulated
66
Q

Major Filmmaking Regions in Africa

A

North African Cinema: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt (commercial)

Sub-Saharan: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria (Nollywood), South Africa (commercial)

67
Q

Colonial

A
  • Political/economic control over a dependent country
  • “dominant” population goes into a territory, claims it as their own, and overtakes it
68
Q

Post-colonial

A

used to describe a country that has gained their independence from colonial countries

69
Q

Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment (BEKE)

A
  • 1935-1937
  • Linking people of different languages through cinema
  • 35 films
  • Films about “helping” the people; pros of getting vaccinated or better sanitation
  • actors could be black but not always
70
Q

British Colonial Films Unit

A
  • 1939-1955
  • similar goals to BEKE
  • intervention, not entertainment
71
Q

Wolof

A

the local Senegalese dialect in Black Girl

72
Q

Magical realism

A
  • formal departure from the constraints of the dominant mode of representation
  • accept magical occurrences as a part of everyday reality
73
Q

FESPACO (Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou)

A
  • 1909
  • largest film exhibition venue in Subsaharan Africa
  • half a million people attend
74
Q

First Cinema

A
  • commercial films made for profit and entertainment (classical Hollywood cinema)
  • passive viewer
  • bourgeois worldview
  • reality as conceived by the ruling classes
  • closed text
75
Q

Second Cinema

A
  • alternative to first cinema
  • non-standard language i.e., non traditional cinema techniques
  • draws attention to itself as film
  • cultural decolonization
  • art cinema
  • experimental but not explicitly political
  • trapped inside the fortress
  • upper-class audience
76
Q

Third Cinema

A
  • made by countries under colonial powers
  • populations doing the talking
  • questions structures of power
  • aims for the liberation of the oppressed
  • challenges viewers to reflect
  • interaction amongst masses
  • education and dialogue
77
Q

Fourth Cinema

A
  • indigenous cinema
  • produced by the indigenous population of a particular country
  • tied to ‘fourth world nations’
78
Q

General Characteristics of “New Hollywood” Cinema

A

New narrative structures and strategies
Different “world view”
More violent, more sexual
Films become more creatively daring
Film School Generation
Pastiche & Nostalgia

79
Q

Breaking the Production Code

A
  • European films being imported were looser with their violent/sexual content and this influenced American filmmakers and audiences
  • The Moon is Blue (1953): two men competing to have sex with a virgin
  • Otto Preminger released the film without the production code seal of approval and people still went to see it
  • Low-budget exploitation films were able to get into low-rent theaters
  • Jack Valenti is made head of MPAA in 1966 and decides to abolish the production code
    -
80
Q

Violence after the Production Code

A
  • slow motion
  • squibs
  • color
  • ‘realistic’; real world/person on person violence
  • use of real time long takes
  • visible/audible signs of a victim’s pain
  • the more we perceive a victim to suffer, the more violent something feels to us
81
Q

catharsis

A

viewers can purge socially destructive impulses in the safe realm of art to the benefit of society as a whole

82
Q

slow motion montage

A
  • Kurosawa and Peckinpah use slow motion to accentuate moments of violence
  • different cameras running simultaneously at different speeds to produce a depicted violence that looks both spastic and balletic and to extend ferocity of action

Film History (4 decks)

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