MIDTERM Flashcards
three important concepts to remeber is when the time the film was ____, _____, _____
made, set, and our own time period we’re viewing it
When was Nosferstu set/ made?
set- 1838
made-1922
Who directed Nosferatu?
F.W Muranua
What is so Important about 1922 when Nosferatu was made?
Film was made 4 years after ww1 when there was lots of devestation, death, etc
When Nosferatu was set in 1838 it was a time when germany thought about
unification
and flexed military muscle, and was also a cultural
power house (Hegel, Goethe, Marx)
In germany in 1838 it was during the heyday of?
Romanticism: Gothic Novel, Love as theme changiong role of love in social sphere
In Nosferatu the film debunks some of the thematic notions unique to romanticism, what is one major one?
the idea that the
individual goes off to conquer nature or
another land (Hutter off to the land of
vampires and robbers) is undermined by the
outcome of the undertaking, his rather
ridiculous failure. All he brings back is disease.
Post ww1 what sort of things were people feeling ingermany / what were they deasling with
The mega death of troops
Whole generation bearing the marks of trauma of the trenches which makes them question long held values, religion, morality
How many casualties did the german army face in ww1?
65% of their 11 million men mobilized
What important political happenings were taking place in 1922 germany
- economic crisis
- Weimar republic
- the modern woman(right to vote)
- Mass impersonal death
Because Knock (real estate agent) and the Vampire are connected what might this say about money?
It and capitalism are implicated in the film as a form of secularized evil which is part of the nihlism and mega death and wars
How do we interpret this film today in 2017 according to speck?
Masculinity in crisis
The way a film is Narrated is based on..?
Conventions that are not universal for other cinemas nor across time in a given cinema
The way a film is shot also depends on?
Conventions
What is the first image we see in Nosferatu?
The manuscript
First actual shot is of..?
The town
The first actual shot is indicitive of?
In specks mind, gender relations and power
Who are the main characters in the film?
Ellen, Hutter, Knock and Count Orlock
What is the First Image of Hutter?
Looking in the mirror. Unconventional image of masculinity
Also Later he stretched and yawns afeter being bitten
In art history what are the typical differences between Male identifying folks and female identifying folks?
Women with mirrors and men stand
Nosferatu’s powers are filmic and his space is
constructed through filmic technique. That is,
his power is specific to the medium of film: What are some examples of this in the film?
Stop motion
time lapse
printing and negative
framing
Nosferatu is arguably the first?
Vampir film
When did M Come out and Who directed it?
Fritz Lang German cinema 1931
The real horro of this film lies in the way the killer?
Looks at you and the way he is framed
M is Arguably the first ___ film that really reflects on it being a _____ film
sound
How does M use off screen sound?
Sound bridges
also the effwect of the disconnect from what we see and what we hear
What two major concepts arise from M in this class?
Milieu and Habitus
What is Milieu
Physical and social setting
What is Habitus?
Set of dispositions and learned values. language culture etc
What pervades all Mileus?
Capitalism
According to Focault the police in M have the BioPower and technological advancements at their disposal but are blind to?
Some clues
T O F?
Most importantly, he brings on a convergence of
criminals and law enforcement to the point of a role
reversal. The criminals act like a police force by
assigning beggars to stand patrol. Meanwhile, the
police pose as tax-collectors, lying in order to invade
the private space of apartments, which where found
due to accessing records from the mental hospital.
T
Who Directed Battleship Potempkin and when did it come out?
Sergei Eisenstein// 1925
Who directed Triumph of the Will and when did it come out?
Leni Riefenstahl
What inspired Battleship Potemkin?
Potemkin a reenactment solicited by the
Communist party of events that led to the
October revolution
What was the most famous scene in Battleship Potemkin and best example of dialecttecal Montage
Odessa step sequence
Stalin Banned Potemkin t o f?
t
The dialectic in Philosophy means?
not only are
external events of the world so structured,
thought itself functions this way
in relation to dialectic, thesis and antithesis are supposed to yeild?
Synthesis
Some dialecticcs remain unresolved but reflect shifting of positions or in other words?
An ongoing dynamic
The dialectical syatem ios projected onto the?
Brain
What does Dialectical Montage also effect?
Abstract creation
In the words of Eisenstein art is always?
Conflict
Why is art always conflict to Eisenstein: 4 reasons?
- Social Mission
- Art’s Nature
- Art’s Methodology
4.Because art is always challenging you to look critically and
teaching you to think, it is inherently, on a very basic ontological
level, political.
The logic of organic form in collision with the logic
of rational form produces the dialectic of the
Art Form
How does the dialectic of art translate
specifically to the filmic art?
Montage
What is Montage
The idea derives from the collision or articulated
conflict between two shots independent of one
another
Drama of form, not just of content or plot
Not a blending of the two, but “explosion” of a third
into concept born of two elements
A transcendental result
Derived from the very foundations—optical– of art
Impression of incongruity produces effect of
movement
In pictoral Represaentations how is montage achieved?
Throough dynamic effect in apprehension of the whole
What is the visual counterpoint?
A syntax composed not of elements but of
cells or molecules - performs and expressive task in three ways
What are the 3 phases of an expressive task?
is
formulated in the dialectic of the title 2. is
formed spatially in the conflict within the shot
– and 3. explodes with the growing intensity of
the conflict montage between the shots.”
Dialectical montage is an intellectual montage, it is
openly political (“take up your arms and fight
injustice”). The social conflict (those who own the
means of production vs. those who do not) is broken
down to the smallest possible conflict. Everything in
the image reflects the conflict. t o f?
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Potemkin can kind of be seen as a ?
Propaganda film
What is the diffence between facisat and communist propoganda?
Facist is always retro
communist is the future
Many, so-called “arthouse” directors – such as
Godard and Fassbinder – insert dialectical
conflicts into their films as antidote to what
they see as
“Capitalist Propoganda
Italian Neo realism was?
A cinematic Movement incoorporating elements of realism that developed in post ww2 italy
Neorealism had lots of innfluence on future movements such as?
French new wave and italian avant garde
Notable neorealist include?
De sica, visconti, rossellini
What are the General Charecteristics of a neorealist film?
- Shooting on Location
- Lay Actors
- Told from perspective of ordinary people
- Post war italy themes poverty and desperation
- Children are innocent of situation
What is realism?
An objection to the romanticism art movement which (although some caveat about how to projecvt an objective reality without bias) projected an objective reality and not an exaggertaed form of reality
What six major concepts make something neo realist then?
- Truth and Accuracy
- Fidelity to human spirit and political situation
- subjective experience.. those of poor and working class
- political films
- Humanism
- Pedagogy of conflict
When did the neorealist movement take off and with what film?
Rome open city by Robberto Rossellini 1946
When did Neorealism end?
1952
What does reverse Pieta mean in rome, open city?
It is an allusion to the famous piece of art of christ being taken down fromm the cross
In rome open city the camera is held at the height of the?
Child who walks through the city
In rome open city there are no..?
Establishing shotss
In relation to french cinema in the 30’s its not what its told but how it is?
Filmed
In relation to french cinema in the 30’s The camera is an
“INTERESTED VIEWER”
In relation to french cinema in the 30’s The shots are what?
Unhollywood
In relation to french cinema in the 30’s there is an importance of?
Framing
In relation to french cinema in the 30’s hpw are there shifts in perspectives?
ss
Doxa refers to the acquired (i.e. “born with”),
fundamental, unconscious beliefs and fundamental
values of a group of people t o f
t
Who created the terms habitus milieu and doxa?milieu and doxa
Pierre bordue
Jean renior made?
As a film director and actor, he made more
than forty films from the silent era to the end
of the 1960s.
In relation to Reniors film technique how does he use the camera?
not just invisible or neutral observer and provider of
basic, “first-degree” information; it is deployed in a self-conscious
manner that invites the viewer to actively interpret what he or she
sees
In relation to Reniors film technique how does he use Painterly Film Making?
We are reminded that there is an
instrument that tells us the story. The film (that is the text) is
aware of what it lets us see and what happens in the off-screen
space.
In relation to Reniors Film Techniqe how is he self reflexive?
A typical Hollywood film will make you forget that
there is an off-screen space. “We,” that is the camera eye, are
everywhere, where the action is.
French poetic realism is defined more by what than national identity?
Class belongings
Who Directed the raven and when did it come out?
Clouzot and 1943`
The raven was a film that had to be careful with its critque because it was?
Under occupation and censorship by nazi germany
Decent characters all hide some dirty secret or are carrying on
affairs, petty thievery, etc.
TRUST: no one trusts anyone
Spying and informing
Collective attacks on chose scapegoat
The “good” are tainted; the “ugly” or “bad” are actually good,
show spine and are ethical when they really need to be
Doctor Vorzet, a pillar of the community, is not only a cynic; he is
the parasitic origin of the contagion at the heart of The Raven. The
healer is making the community ill.
His guilt meets the murderous justice of the widow, motherhood
wronged
Open references to extra-marital affairs by seemingly decent
people, to abortion, to drug addiction
yes
In the Raven the Contaigon engulfs who?
Everyone
In relation to the Raven and Tragedy what themes are trotted out in this film?
The conflict of love v duty
In the Raven the man of principles is?
is the tragic hero, who also proclaims the evil is necessary
The raven makes usage of« la nuit américaine », what is it?
a technique of
filming day for night that allows the viewer to see in
the darkness of this artificial night.
What are the other main techniques used and found in the raven
Fetish shots
POV (point of view)
Use of sound, especially ambient sound. The
latter gains significance with successive
scenes: the children heard outside are a
reminder of the very future that must not be
sacrificed to the present!
The Raven also posses some proto-?
Noir characteristics
How does the raven posses some proto noir characteristics?
DENISE: The femme fatale
Tonal lighting stark contrast of blacks and whites,
What does the term French New Wave refer to?
refers to a
group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s
and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neo-realism
and classic Hollywood cinema of the forties
and fifties.
What were some of the influences of the French New Wave?
Neorealism
Film Noir
French filmmakers like renior
filmmakers like fritz Lang
What are some things that arise from french new wave and production constraints?
Produced on tight budgets
Leads to innovative techniqes and experimentation
film stock used in jarring ways
often shot in friends apartment or in the streets
What is Cahiers du Cinema?
French film magazine where young french new wave directors started out as critics so they know their film history and know how to read a film
What arises as a result of the young french new wae directors being film critics and knowing lots about film?
They are thus highly intellectualized and
intellectual filmmakers, engaging in debate on
and off the screen.
French new waves themes mention both _____ anbd ___
Disgust and Nihilism which come from post war antagonisms and the threat of the cold war
New wave filmmakers use film to come to termsw with what?
Contemporary politicalsituation
In the french new wave cinema becomes what kind of tool in the contemporary political landscape?
Cinema becomes a way of posing questions regarding inequality of
classes and genders; the practice of torture in the war in Algeria;
consumerism and alienation of the individual in the capitalist
system; the loss of difference in a world that is being reduced to a
flatness of the same.
What Major terms came out of the french new wave
Mise en scene and the auter
In relation to the french new wave framing is done through?
Intertexts
In relation to the french new wave there is experimentation with?
Genre and color
also editing- jump cuts
What does it mean for the city to be a protagonist in new wave films?
It was used as a re discovery of paris
How else did new wave directors use the city?
As a narrator and Identity, guiding the camera and audience throguh tensions and reistance and highlighting ever fluctuating human identity a
In new wave films they are largely composed of?
Reaction shots and sub plots
In new wave films the narrative and endings are?
Fragmented and open ended
What are the main film techniques employed by the french new wave?
Self-referentiality
Jump cuts
Filming in the dark and in natural light
Filming on location
Use of travelling shots and the long-take
Use of jazz score and ambient sound
Addressing the audience
Dynamic shots
What is a jump cut?
looks like a shjot with frames missing in the middle
Who directed breathless and when did it come out?
Goddard 60
Who directed close up and when did it come up?
Abbas Kiroastami 1990
In close up the actors are actually?
The people involved in the real story retelling it themselves
In close up, The trial, is filmed and _____ by the director
staged
In close up the camera is best described as?
An interested participant observer that renders a multiplicity of perspectivies
In close up can we trust anyone? Can we trust a director who is fearing ?
Censorship
In relation to close up and class what character is from the lower class?
Sabzian
In relation to Close up and class what is the family considered to be?
Used to be upper middle class
In close up the camera gives us pointers about the family: what are they?
The way they live, how they dress and talk and the jobs they should have
In close up how does the journalist change from the beginning to end? How might this touch on themes of truth?
Beginning: wants to be percived as an ethicxal reporter of iranian gov
end: Basically like anyu paparizi who seek to sensationalize and stay viable’ in a competitive* profession*
In close up: T O F:
When the family realizes that they are dealing with an impostor, the tables are turned. They humiliate Sabzian by bringing a journalist home who identifies him as an impostor and he is then taken away by the police.
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The family’s act of exposing the fraud effectively makes them his doubles, because they have ?
perpetuated a fiction, just like him, that of still believing him, when in fact they no longer do
During the trial in close up how does the social environment oif the courtroom deliniate gender and sexual dynamics?
The women are in the second row and their opinion is not sought
Is the Judge affected by the camera in the courtroom?
Yes he is playing a more beneveloent and merciful father figure
In relation to Close up and Pedagogy what is Kirostami trying to relay?
everybody in the film is guilty
Wha does everyone in the film have in common in Close Up?
A shared desire “to be” (i.e. to be perceived) as something other than what they are within the narrow confines of their prescribed positions
What do we learn in close up?
We learn not to trust anybody’s attempt to “tell the truth” (including the director)
What does the film affirm about truth in Close up?
The Truth that has currency in a given regime, is actually just an accepted fiction. The film paradoxically affirms the plurality of “truths” that come to light through constructed fictions.
In relation to the History of Spanish Cinema, what movie denoted the beginning and who directed it?
1929: Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog)
Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali
In An Andalusian Dog what is one Iconic Image?
: the moving clouds followed by a cut (technical) and a cut (literal)
An Andalusian Dog is Anti-?
Clerical Patriarchy and Authoriative
In the Devastating civil war of 1936-39 in spain who won and who lost
won- Conservative pro catholic nartionalists
Lost- Liberals socialists anarchists communists
Who Directed Black Girl and what year did it come out?
Sembene 1966
When was Post colonial Director Sembene born?
1923 in casamance (Senegal)
What is Ousmane Sembene often called?
Father of African Film
What other proffession did sembene pursue before becoming a direcotr?
Writer
What book did sembene write before Directing
Le docker Noir Written in french
What was sembene concerned with?
Social Change
Why did semeben decide to direct films?
Wnated to get his message across to folks who may have been illiterate at the time
What were some of semebene’s recurring themes?
Colonialism and post colonialism, the failings of religion, critique of african bourgeoisie, strength of african women
What were some Post colonial challeneges to dominant mode modes of representation?
- Hollywood and other cinemas aimed at entertainment
- Engrained Power structures (Hewirarchiacal, heteronormative
- Western ideologies of beauty myths, order and value
What were the stratagies of post colonial cinema
Blending of fiction and documentary
handheld camera often lay actors
aims at education and political change
evokes oral tradition
Shows devastating effects of colonial past
What could you compare post colonial cinema to?
Neorealism and the new wave
What were some major themes in Sembene’s “Black Girl”
-Fetish and fetishism
Gender relations
Dominant Language v dominanting language
Power strctures
Stereotypes and stereotyping
Link of colonial past and postcolonial present
In relation to Japanese Cinema, The fact that most American film scholars who work on Japanese cinema can not speak and understand Japanese makes Japanese cinema in their iteration the site of ?
Cultural Projection
Japanese cinema fulfilled the role of the other perfectly – it looked exotic and felt “different.” However, Japanese cinema was influenced by ?
European and American Films
In relation to Japanese Cinema and Crisis, What was the most important event for the aesthetics of japanese cinema?
Nuclear attack
In relation to Japanese cinema and Crisis all of the “ Grand Narratives” do what?
Fail after total defeat of imperial japan
Who diurects rashomon and what year does it come out?
Akira Kurosowa, 1950
In Rashomon nobody …?
Tells the truth
An important point in the narrative of Rashomon to be consdered in terms of there is no true retelling of the event. could be seen as?
An aesthetic working through of as main traumatic event like the aAtomic Bomb
Notably, the rain is black and the buildings appear less than ruins, more like Hiroshima after the attack, blown to pieces.
The inhabitants seem disoriented
In relation to Japanese Cinema and Western Influences especially looking at Kurosawa he was influenced by ?
Western Ideasand cinemas
What is an example of Kurosawa’s influences?
Red harvestr 1929- Kurosawa translated this into his own with his film yojimbo
Kurosawa avoids relativism with aesthetic means in this film by giving us
Visual Clues we have to readf
Like a detective, we ?
walk through the crime scene, interviewing eye witnesses, trying to figure out what might have happened.
The camera’s point-of-view: ?
Audience is placed in the space of the judge
There is an explanation for the film’s four differing eyewitness accounts, but
there is no solution
Kurosawa counters the dangers of nihilism in this film by ending with a very basic gesture what is this?
Compassion, wood cutter takes abandoned baby
What is the Rashomon Effect?
The Rashomon effect is a term that has been used by a number of different scholars, journalists and film critics to refer to contradictory interpretations of the same events by different persons, a problem that arises in the process of uncovering truth. The phrase derives from the movie Rashomon, where four witness’s accounts of a rape and murder are all different.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_effect
In relation to Hong Kong’s History, in 1898 under the terms of the convention for the extension of hong kong territory what happened?
Britain obtained a 99 year lease of lantau island and the adjacent northenr lands which became known as the new terroitories
During the first halfd of the 20th century hong kong was a free___
Port serving as an entrpot of the british empire
In hong kong the british introduced an ?
Educational system based on their own model.
In conjunction with its military campaign, the Empire of Japan invaded Hong Kong on
Dec 8 1941. the result was british and canadian defenders surrendering control of the colony to japan
What sort of consequences came about as a result of the japanese occupation of Hong Kong?
, civilians suffered widespread food shortages, rationing, and hyper-inflation due to forced exchange of currency for military notes.
, because of the scarcity of food, the population of Hong Kong had dwindled from 1.6million in 1941 to 600,000 in 1945, when the United Kingdom resumed control of the colony: T O F?
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wHAT HAPPENED ON jULY 1 1997 IN Hong Kong?
Transfer of Soverigenty from UK TO Poples republic of ChinaOfficially ending 156 years of colonial rule
What did china suffer the same year Prc took office
Economic crisis and H5N1 Avian Influenzea breakout virus
As a resut of this history in Hong Koing how doies this relate to “Aesthetic Trabnslation?”
-Hybridity (Asian European)
- In betweened
Almost Schizophrenic
The characters in Wong Kar-Wai’s films are?
ofyem portrayed voyeuristically through appertures or framed tby doorways and windows
Often Unwilling to make decisions
What is the meaning behind Kar-Wai’s Framing?
Its an allegory for po`litical dynamics of society at large
How does Music and Color Play a role in Wong Kar-Wai’s Films?
Color is often Rich and Saturated- reminds viewer film opens a space of longing and desire
Non-naturalistic color
Shoc of news reel
Music
What is the meaning of non naturalistic color in wong kar wai’s films?
Indicates film is a memory space and image from the past that has now been actualized
What role does the news reel play in Kar-Wai’s Films?
This is history this is reality
What does music represent in Wong Kar Wai’s Films?
Permenant repition signals that notihing changes everything is stuck in the same rhythm forever
What year did Wong Kar wai release In the mood for love?
2000
In, In the mood for love time is?
Handled as an eternal presenrt
and
a recurring theme of the missed moment
How is the dream like effect achieved in in the mood for love?
Optical printer by priniting each frame twice
Indications of Kar wai’s Auteurism?
Director improvises the story, often in collaboration with the actors
A voyeuristic camera (lurking, peering around corners)
Jump-cuts and “fake” point-of-view shots
Use of same actors and references to his other films
Freeze frame and voice-over
Playing with gene-conventions: Is this a Film Noir? A Drama?
In relation to Chinese Cinema and censorship, you have to do what to get your point across?
Trtick the censor or be subtle in a way that won’t stand oput to censor
In relation to Chinese Cinema and censorship, Censors read litterally, so directors use?
Allegory to get point across
In relation to Chinese Cinema and censorship, the audience has the necessary frame of reference to read?
Allegory
The literal translation of allegory is?
Speaking diffeently than on the market
The history of Chinese Cinema could be seen as a series of political ruptures whose origin is extra-cinematographic.: T O F?
T
Recent Chinese films (i.e. the so-called “Sixth Generation”) films are often banned in China and depend on WHAT FOR EXPOSURE AND FUNDING?
iNTERNATIONAL CIRCUTS
Who Directed “The World” And when did it come out
Jia Zhangke, China, 2005
“The World” Is a film that is set and mostly filmed in a real?
Amusement park
“The world” is told in a (what kind of narrative structure?
Fragmented bewcause it relfects life in post modernityq
The world is filmed in what kind of format?
Widescreen uses it to show sbsence of an unobstrcuted view
What does the world movie Criticize?
Criticizes globalization. The postmodern landscape is flat and without history. Chinese dancers in Bollywood costumes move to Samba Pop elevator muzak.
One of the couples “travels,” that is, flies up the Eiffel tower on a video screen: The only place the couple can be happy together is in a simulacrum. Everything is deterritorialized.
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What is a Simulacram?
is pure simulation, a copy of sth. that does not exist)
