History of Film
1) Landmarks
Film is the youngest of all the art forms, scarcely a century old compared to painting or music, which have origins from thousands of years ago. Throughout our study of the history of film, you will find that film has borrowed heavily from other art forms. An obvious example is the craft of acting, originating in theater. The effective use of color and light, or the composing of elements within a frame are principals of painting. What really sets film apart though, is the ability to tell a compelling story that grips the emotions of an audience and holds their interest for a couple of hours. And American narrative films have achieved the greatest financial success in terms of worldwide box office ticket sales. Avatar is the number one film internationally grossing 2.7 billion dollars.
Of the top box office films of all time, the first 153 films on this list (IMDB.com) are American films or American co-productions with other countries (Harry Potter and James Bond films with the UK for example). The first non-American film is a UK film, The King’s Speech, coming in at number 154. The first non-English language film on this list, number 382, is a Japanese animated film, Howl’s Moving Castle. These are staggering statistics, which brings us to the most important thing you need to know about American film from day one: film is a business first, an art form almost as an afterthought. The bottom line is the revenue generated by ticket sales (the box office). Think of film as a product in the marketplace like any other commodity: automobiles, toothpaste, handbags. Think of studios as factories that design, produce and distribute film as a product. Think of the competition for consumer dollars in the marketplace of entertainment: sports, leisure activities, music, computer games, surfing the web, television, and the thousands of apps available on your cell phone. Why make the effort to go see a movie in a theater when you can do the same thing in your pajamas at home?
So film is the history of what? Economics or social/political developments or technology or business or culture or media or entertainment or government policies? The general answer is all of the above. For example in Module Five, the censorship of film content represented by the Production Code Administration resulted in the disappearance of gangster films a couple of decades. The challenge of television in the 1950's inspired studios to make more color films because TV was broadcast only in black and white.
It's a good idea to do the reading in the text book before you screen the clips and movies. As you watch the "Landmarks of Cinema" remember that the progression of the clips is chronological. Give special attention to the works of the following individuals: Muybridge, the Lumiere Bros. "actualities", Edwin Porter's The Great Train Robbery, Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon, and Griffith's A Girl and Her Trust.
We will study the films of the following directors:
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
'actualities'
Static camera
Chronological events
Narrative 'cause and effect'
First narrative story
Genre: Sci Fi
innovative editing techniques
Kinetiscope
Editing techniques:
Variety of shots: close, medium, and long
Variety of camera angles
Variety of length of shots
Increase tempo to increase drama
Resources Chapters 1-4 in the text
Landmarks of Early Film 1894-1913
Learning Activities Analysis of film using checklist
Read chapters 1 – 4
View Landmarks
Review the following short films:
The Great Train Robbery
A Trip to the Moon
A Girl and Her Trust
Lumiere Bros. "actualities"
Griffith. A Girl and Her Trust.
1) Griffith's innovative editing techniques can be found in the film "The Warriors." There are a lot of speaking especially in the beginning of the film that uses camera angles and distance shots Griffith perfected.The variety of length of shots are certainly present throughout the film. Dialogue between the gangs are shot specifically to add tension during the disagreements with each other. The fighting and running scenes certainly cover a different pace that is appropriate to capture the intended rush and excitement. "Planting" is definitely evident in the film. Starting early in the film where the main character Swan is attacked by a rival gang, he picks up a knife. Nothing is said why he picked it up or what his use for it was. At the end of the film, he uses the same knife to stop a rival gang leader from shooting him which saves his life and clears the name of his gang which is the "payoff".
2) A Trip to the Moon is considered one of the first narrative films in history because a narrator explains every detail from character's names, actions, and settings that takes place. It also effectively gave a chronological story that the audience can follow The broad camera views can make it so that you will miss the many small actions being performed because there is so much going on at the screen all at once. Certain objects, strange beings, and inventions may not be understood because an audience could be seeing it for the first time. The narration proves useful to point out the relevant points to give the audience the main idea of what is going on. There is very little confusion with the aid of the narrator, and it sufficiently makes it so that you would only need to view the short film only once. This breakthrough in film helped revolutionize how stories would be told on screen.
2) Silent Film Comics
Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were two of the greatest silent film comics the world has ever seen. Their specialty was 'slapstick' comedy, a very physical style of comedy that generates universal laughter because it is purely visual. There is no dialog and thus no need for subtitles. The viewer can concentrate on the characters interacting on the screen. Jerry Lewis and Eddie Murphy have acknowledged Chaplin's influence on them. Jim Carey and Adam Sandler have borrowed heavily from Chaplin and Keaton. The Three Stooges are another obvious example.
'Slapstick' requires great athleticism by the performer. The body is sacrificed to achieve a laugh: slaps, hits, kicks, falls, trips, stumbles and tumbles. Neither Chaplin nor Keaton used a stuntman. They did it all.
Another element employed more by Chaplin than Keaton in their storytelling was a narrative device known as 'pathos' which is the attempt to gain audience sympathy or empathy for the characters and their situations and to increase the viewer's emotional investment in the story.
Chaplin was the master of 'pathos' with his screen persona known as 'the little tramp'. Since most of the world's population is somewhat poor, the 'tramps' appeal was truly international. They could certainly relate to the 'tramp's social and economic challenges but could also live vicariously through the 'tramps' small victories over the wealthy and elite members of society. The 'tramp' was a social chameleon, he could move up and down the social scale with ease. The image of the 'tramp' is iconic; his costume, makeup, and physical mannerisms are unique and have been copied more than any other iconic figure. The 'tramp' had the short little stub of a moustache long before Hitler.
Keaton's success, on the other hand, was limited to the United States. His screen persona was 'the great stoneface', a persona that did not endure the test of time. Many of his films featured stories that represented U.S. culture and history which did not interest audiences outside America. The General takes place during the Civil War and refers to a locomotive not a military officer.
Another major difference between Chaplin and Keaton was in the business management of their careers. When Chaplin had a contract with the Mutual Film Company (1917-18), it was for one year and 12 films and he had complete creative control. Chaplin also composed the music for most of his films. He made over a million dollars in 1918, and a year later, was a founding member of United Artists, which gave him complete economic control over his films. To achieve this type of autonomy in Hollywood is rare.
Keaton's first film was in 1917 and although he enjoyed artistic control with a few of his films, he was always under contract to a studio.
Define 'slapstick' comedy and recall examples from the films you viewed.
Explain why 'slapstick' comedy has universal appeal.
Identify the social institutions satirized or made fun of by Chaplin.
Compare the screen characters played by Chaplin and Keaton
Elaborate on why Chaplin became an international star and Keaton did not.
Define 'pathos' and describe how it is employed differently by Chaplin and Keaton in their respective films.
Explain the universal appeal of Chaplin's 'little tramp' character.
Resources Readings: Textbook, chapters 5 and 6.
Instructor's lecture notes.
Instructor's viewing tips.
Screenings: The General (Buster Keaton); Easy Street (Charlie Chaplin)
Learning Activities Do the readings first.
Using the instructor's viewing tips as a guide, view the films.
The General The setting of the film is the American Civil War. If you are not familiar with the background and history of this conflict, a brief Google search for general information will be helpful.
Easy Street
1) Chaplin and Keaton show similarities in physical comedy with Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon where he plays a Chinese man named Chon Wang. Wang enters the bar looking for Owen Wilson's character Roy and a bar fight occurs. He maneuvers around using the environment around him as tools such as when he rips off the moose horns which were on display as an unexpected weapon. Jackie's character shows his resourcefulness to outwit opposing antagonists like Chaplin's character in Easy Street against the bully and Keaton's character in The General with using available tools to counter obstacles. Adam Sandler in the film Little Nicky uses the style technique of "Pathos" with his character. The audience can sympathize with him because he is a sweet person, but has a speech impediment and disfigured jaw. I personally feel compelled to root for him because his two devious brothers bully him for being different.
2) Chaplinesque can be found in the film Twin Dragons starring Jackie Chan. Jackie plays two characters who are twin brothers, but have two completely different personalities. He plays one brother named Boomer who is very aggressive, physical, and is quite the troublemaker. On the other-hand, he plays John Ma who is a respected intellectual refined in the arts of music. The way they speak and act is portrayed completely different in scenes when they are shot together and separately. Jackie Chan is capable of diversifying his role to fit the character that is intended for the scene of the film. You see Boomer switch environments with John Ma, and see the reactions of the friends being confused because they look exactly the same but act differently. In Chaplin's film Easy Street, he was a tramp who actually disrespects the police but later changes into joining the police and becoming a respectable town hero.
3) Genres and Stylistic Expression
Let's review the historical time period of 1914 – 1918 World War I
First of all, this war took place in Europe, not on American soil, and consequently the American film industry thrived and began its world wide domination of the box office. Chaplin's career blossomed during this time.
Griffith made the first feature length film of approximately 190 minutes, Birth of a Nation in 1915, just twenty years after film originated as a novelty with the Lumiere one minute 'actualities'.
Back to Chaplin. Keep in mind, that the film business in the US is a commercial enterprise. Chaplin sold more movie tickets internationally than any other movie actor. Any film with Chaplin's name on it had a great chance to make money. The marketing concept of 'movie star' certainly had its origins with Chaplin. Today, a 'Tom Cruise" movie or a 'Will Smith' movie will automatically sell tickets because they both have huge international fan bases.
1918 – 1927
Now let's look at the the time period from the end of WWI (1918) to the first sound film produced in 1927, The Jazz Singer. Two countries, Germany and Russia, emerged from World War I with devastating losses in property and human life and their film industries severely crippled. They were in no position to compete with the US in the commercial film marketplace. Yet both countries would make significant contributions to the growth of film as an art form and a means of communication during this decade.
Germany German Expressionism was an art movement that began in Germany after WWI and influenced visual art forms including film. It is important to film for several reasons.
Both Metropolis and Dr. Caligari are examples of films produced entirely in the studio. Everything you see is artificially designed and constructed to create the 'world' of the film where the story takes place.
Film as a Business? Or a government controlled enterprise. Film had become big business in the US. The star system (Chaplin) and the studio system form the backbone of this lucrative enterprise.
The film industries in Germany and Russia were owned, operated, and controlled by the government. Ufa was the film arm of the German government. In the early days of Ufa, directors enjoyed relative freedom in making their films, but by the time Hitler came to power, he employed the medium as a means of propaganda, not entertainment.
After the Russian Revolution overthrew the Czar in 1917, Lenin's goal for the new government was to educate the massive and illiterate Russian population through films. He did not see film as a form of entertainment or a commercial opportunity.
An example is The Battleship Potemkin which was based on a failed 1905 uprising against the Czar in the port city of Odessa. The purpose of the film was to commemorate a heroic yet unsuccessful revolutionary effort in order to invoke patriotism and sense of nationalistic pride. The film does not feature an individual hero, played by a famous actor, but rather celebrates the Russian people as a courageous nation.
Russia's Contribution to the World Film Community Expanding the Principals of Editing
Griffith's editing style always served the story first, and was designed to engage the emotions, to create fear, anticipation, excitement, and finally a happy ending.
Griffiths cinematic goal was basically to entertain the audience.
Three Russian filmmakers served to change the aesthetic nature of editing:
Kuleshov, Eisenstein, Pudovkin And the one thing that links the three of them is an editing philosophy that emphasizes the active INTELLECTUAL participation of the viewer as opposed to passive EMOTIONAL responses.
KULESHOV'S idea of an intellectual cut was to create visual metaphors. For example, in one shot you see a mob of people forcing their way into already overcrowded subway cars. In the next shot, you see a herd of cattle stampeding across a field. By juxtaposing these two shots without explanation, the viewer must draw their own conclusions about the significance or meaning.
EISENSTEIN believed theme was more important than story.
PUDOVKIN'S films allowed the viewer more emotional access in terms of identifying with the main character, but there was always a political theme underneath the narrative. At the end of the film, the viewer has been educated along with the protagonist and experienced a new political awareness.
Explain the differences between the film industries of the US and Germany in the 1920's.
Define 'German Expressionism'.
Illustrate the concept of German Expressionism with examples from Metropolis
Identify elements of the Sci-Fi Genre from Metropolis.
Resources Readings: Textbook, Chapters 7 and 8
Textbook, Glossary of Terms
Instructor's Lecture Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screenings: Metropolis (Fritz Lang); The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films, read Chapters 7 and 8 in the textbook.
Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips.
After viewing the films, review the still photographs and the commentary in the textbook from Chapters 7 and 8 that correspond to the films.
Metropolis A few conventions of Sci-Fi to look for in the film.
Futuristic World
Dystopian Society
Advanced Technology
Christian/Catholic religious symbolism.
The Virgin Mary
The son (Jesus Christ) functioning as a mediator.
Theme of love and forgiveness.
The Battleship Potemkin Study the editing choices that Eisenstein makes to create dramatic tension. For example, the shot of the maggot covered meat followed by a close up reaction of a sailor.
Study the 'Odessa Step Sequence' (the soldiers marching and shooting the panic stricken civilians). Notice Griffith's editing influence to create drama and tension, for example the variety of shots, the variety of camera angles, the use of close ups for the civilians, the length of shots, and the creativity of employing the shadows of the soldiers to create style.
1) I completely agree that Metropolis was "all eyes and no brain". It seemed to me that the film heavily concentrated in depicting interesting environments. The futuristic setting looked very eye appealing, but I really did not get the sense of intellectual depth. Characters seem to act naturally prancing about with each other. Nothing really knowledgeable appears in the film. Shots of the people wearing different clothing which represents the wealth and classes of society are not new concepts to ponder about. The separation is obvious with the rich living in the high ground with beautiful skyscrapers, and the poor working class living underground. The film depicts an advanced technological civilization that share social disparities in most societies because of corruption and unequal power. The characters did not do anything out of the ordinary that would make me think. The inventor with the missing hand said nothing thought provoking. I do not believe him creating a robot has any relevance to the film requiring that the audience needs a brain to understand.
2) I disagree with Eisenstein's position of Battleship Potemkin being more intellectual than emotional. The propaganda shown in the film of how vicious the government reprimands people for their disobedience, and show how rebellion is futile just makes me sympathize emotionally for the people. The graphic horror of the militia hurting mothers and babies really doesn't teach me a lesson intellectually. With my perspective, I felt the film was driven emotionally as to why the sailors had an uprising. It was just plain ridiculous arguing whether or not the meat was edible for consumption. The sailors may have been reacting emotionally to being given rotten meat as food, but it was fair because they know the meat would make them sick. It was just unbelievable how the officer tried to play off that the maggots in the meat were reasonable. The film shows that an argument is won through physical force which would make it not intellectual at all.
4) Warner Bros. Sound Films
The principal difference between 'silent' films and 'sound' films is that 'sound' films have dialogue. 'Silent' films contain everything but dialogue, thus the term 'talkies' for films with dialogue. This transition in the film industry to dialogue is a great illustration of film history determined by technology. Dialogue films were not possible to produce until the technology existed. Two different sound systems were developing simultaneously during the 1920's. 'Sound on Disc' relied on a separate disc to play along with the film, and the main problem was synchronizing the sound to the picture. If the disc did not maintain consistency with the film, then you have the sound of a door slamming after you've already seen the door close. On the other hand, 'Sound on film' (today's standard) was much more consistent and reliable because the sound track exists on the film stock itself.
Warner Bros. and Fox were the two studios who aggressively pursued the technology to produce sound films. Warner Bros. probably gets the credit from many film historians for making the first sound film because The Jazz Singer was tremendously successful at the box office and audiences now preferred 'talkies' so the other studios followed suit.
The transition to 'talkies' meant that theaters needed to be equipped with sound systems and by 1929, over 9000 movie houses were converted at a large cost to the studios.
Proof that movie goers loved 'talkies'? In 1927, there were roughly 60 million tickets sold per week, and by 1929, box office admissions had almost doubled to 110 million per week.
There were, however, a couple of negative consequences of the transition to 'talkies'.
Camera movement became limited and static. Cameras were big, bulky, and noisy. Sound proof booths were designed to mute the camera noise so dialog could be recorded, resulting in an immobile camera.
Microphones were hidden in props, furniture, and light fixtures and actors became static as well because they had to speak clearly into the mike.
Many actors lost their jobs. Looking good on camera is one thing, lacking a pleasant speaking voice means you are now out of a job.
Warner Bros and I Am A Fugitive From A Chaingang Film as a business: Product differentiation is the key to marketing. Why is a Ford a better buy than a Chevrolet? Why is a Warner Bros film more appealing than a Paramount film? In the end, it comes down to personal taste and preference.
Warner Bros made films that appealed to the working class. Paramount made films that attracted more sophisticated viewers (higher social and economic class). Many of Paramount's films were adapted from stage plays or classic novels.
Chaingang by its title alone suggests the audience will not be arriving in limos and tuxedos. This film represents a Warner Bros sub-genre specialty – social realism. It is based on an autobiography of a man who served honorably in the military and as a civilian got caught up in the bureaucracy of the justice and penal system. The film totally sympathizes with the protagonist, James Allen, and is an example of how a film can effect social change, because the public and political pressure applied to the institutions responsible for Allen's plight, forced them to modify their policies.
Paul Muni, the actor who plays James Allen, was a big star at the time, and he had a screen persona of a tough guy with a sensitive side, which Warner Bros certainly capitalized on with this film.
Learning Outcomes Explain the difference between a 'silent' film and a 'sound' film.
Discuss the success the Disney Co. enjoyed by focusing on animation.
Who is 'Steamboat Willie'?
Why did Warner Bros aggressively pursue 'sound' film production.
Illustrate the sub-genre of 'social realism' with examples from Chaingang.
Resources Readings: Chapter 9
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor's Lecture Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screenings: I Am A Fugitive From A Chaingang (Mervyn Leroy)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
Read Chapter 9 in the textbook.
Consult the Glossary of Terms
Read the instructor's viewing tips.
Fugitive From a Chain Gang Social Realism represents the gritty and harsh conditions of life for the average working class person. This is a no nonsense approach to storytelling. The protagonist is presented in a very sympathetic manner, and if you can't relate to Paul Muni's character, it will be a tedious film.
Remember, one of the key elements of narrative film is to engage the audience emotionally, so even if you can't relate to the main character, Warner Bros is hoping you can empathize with his situation.
1) I believe Paul Muni's performance was splendid, and not over the top at all. It was well acted in ensuring the audience is engaged with the character James Allen. In life, misfortunes occur to just about everyone and it does not matter what class or social status you are in. It would be awful to any person who had honesty and integrity to lose a clean reputation. Being able to relate to Paul Muni's character gives us a reason to care and hope for him to succeed. The way Allen makes decisions on life is similar to a lot of people in reality because people want to all live a self-fulfilling life, but are prisoners working a job that makes them miserable. He acted very believable from wanting to change professions, but receiving very little support. The dialogue between him and Pete about the hamburger was a unique example in conveying a humorous personality of Allen that seemed natural. Every action from fleeing in fear during the robbery to being mentally shocked in prison are normal responses from ordinary people.
2) The theme social injustice works for me completely in regards to the film. Paul Muni's character James Allen was wrongly accused and shows that the system is blind when serving justice. The film indeed challenges the morality of society. The prison guards depicted in the film mistreated all of the workers by abusing them to do labor which is shown to be too much for Allen that he passes out. They seemed quite adamant and sure that James Allen was not innocent. It seemed like a witch hunt that had no reasoning or logic but heavily influenced by society labeling. Humans are not perfect but in society it is essential to be the ones who are always right. When Allen is wrongfully labeled as a fugitive, it destroyed his way of life to do any of the things he wanted to pursue passionately. Allen was an innocent man who was treated badly in prison, but the film makes a point that no human deserves to be punished to a bloody mess.
5) Studio System and the PCA
The Hollywood Studio System Think of a factory. Think of a product. Individual studios like Paramount functioned like factories whose products were films. Each studio was essentially a separate factory. Each studio had the same division of labor: departments that had specific functions like make up, costume, or camera. Most of the key members of various departments were under contract. Contracts for actors were often five years in length. If you worked for Fox, for example, you could not act in a Paramount film unless Paramount gave you permission. If you were writer, your work was the property of the studio that employed you. Compare this with a novelist who owned the copyright of their book. Look inside a book jacket and check out who owns copyright. Look at the ending credits of a film, and you notice that copyright is owned by the studio that produced it.
The general business model for the studios was known as 'vertical integration'. This meant that each studio owned the means of production, distribution and exhibition (theaters). This is basically a monopoly. When a group of companies control everything, it is an oligopoly. In a lawsuit, US vs Paramount in 1946, the government forced the studios to sell their theaters to break up the oligopoly. We will study this further in Module 8. From about 1930 to 1945, the studios were incredibly powerful and totally controlled the film industry in the US.
The Production Code Administration 1930 was the year the production code was written primarily for the benefit of the US government. Film, unlike any other form of entertainment came under scrutiny as a potentially corrupting force of public morality, thus the rating system and the PCA.
As a recent historical event, music has been saddled with parental warning labels for certain types of music, but who has ever let this toothless roadblock deter them?
1929 110 million tickets sold per week
1932 90 million tickets sold per week
1934 60 million tickets sold per week
1930 16 thousand theaters in operation across the US
1934 11 thousand theaters in operation across the US
As you can see, film as a business had a serious revenue drop in 1934 as the Great Depression took is toll on movie attendance. Also in 1934, the Catholic Legion of Decency presented a petition to Hollywood with millions of signatures, threatening to boycott movies if Hollywood did not enforce some type of moral censorship.. Facing a further disastrous loss of income, Hollywood enforced the Code. Remember that the Catholic Church had much greater influence and stature back in the old days.
The enforcement of the Code had immediate effects on film. One, the 'gangster' films were no longer a viable genre because the Code forbade the glorification of crime and criminals. The sassy, sexy Mae West screen persona was a no-no, and her career was never the same.
The PCA would maintain its censorship grip on the industry until the 1960's when social and economic circumstances broke the power of the Code.
Learning Outcomes
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
It Happened One Night
1) In my opinion, the qualities displayed by the character Peter Warne played by Clark Gable in "It Happened One Night", more than qualifies to be a star in any era. His acting was superb in the scene when Shapeley played by Roscoe Karns is pestering Claudette Colbert's character Ellie in the train. Peter does not appreciate the insulting sexist treatment Ellie is taking so he interrupts Shapeley. He convinces him that Ellie is his wife so he can have a seat with her and shut the guys mouth. Shapeley apologizes and feels very embarrassed for his rude actions. We all know that Ellie is not his wife, but I would be fooled by his eloquent acting if I saw just this scene. His charm and wit would make him a star today. People of today love to relate to charismatic interesting characters especially if they make the film fun and humorous. He acts so masculine and confident in front of Ellie in the scene when he is undressing. Many actors of today need to be comfortable when they perform in every situation, which he shows as he smokes a cigar and lays on a bed. Another quality is his assertiveness with telling Ellie what to do. Peter made her decision for her to not buy the chocolate in the train, and getting her out of the bed in the morning as she was awed of him preparing all her necessities. The gentlemen persona of Clark Gabe is imitated throughout film history because it is a quality many men aspire to be.
6) Technicolor is an interesting study of film history as a business and technological innovation.
Business/Technology: The Technicolor Corporation was formed in 1915. Color film stock as we know it today did not exist then. They shot on black on white film stock with unique Technicolor cameras through red and green filters that of course represented only two colors: red and green. When the raw film stock was developed in the Technicolor film processing lab, special dyes were applied to bring out the colors.
By 1922, Technicolor had developed a three color system (red, green, blue) that is the standard today. Red, green and blue are the three primary colors of the natural world. For thirty years (1922 – 1952) Technicolor had a monopoly on the color process until Eastman Kodak introduced a cheaper alternative. The Wizard of Oz and Fantasia are examples of Technicolor films.
The brief examples of 'color' you saw in The Great Train Robbery (ladies' dresses during the dance number and the red smoke from the pistols firing) was the result of labor intensive efforts. Each frame of film was color tinted individually by hand and because film runs through the projector at 24 frames per second, this adds up to a lot of time and human labor.
Let's say you wanted to make a color film back in the days before Kodak became a competitor in 1952. Your only choice was to use Technicolor. And these are the Technicolor business terms.
Unlike Warner Bros. who made gritty, social realistic films for the working class,
MGM made films that temporarily eased the economic hardships of the Depression for the average middle class family. (Do you pack up the family to go see Fugitive From a Chain Gang or The Wizard of Oz)?
MGM films best represent American middle class cultural values of the Depression decade of the 1930's.
The Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz is based on a book of the same title written by L. Frank Baum. Ironically, the book is written as a political allegory, not a fairy tale or a fantasy. The book was published in the late 1890's with the intention of electing William Jennings Bryan to the US Presidency. In the book, the Wizard represents the House and the Senate in Washington DC, the tinman represents factory workers, the scarecrow represents the farmers and the lion represents Bryan himself. Baum thought that Washington politicians had lost touch with the common people (farmers and factory workers) and believed that Bryan offered hope because he was not a member of the East Coast elite.
Baum's book is long forgotten, but the movie has achieved cultural immortality.
The cast: Dorothy Judy Garland (only 16 years old)
Scarecrow Ray Bolger
Tinman Jack Haley
Lion Bert Lahr
Oz Frank Morgan
Fantasia Another Technicolor film, Fantasia is a Disney animated movie.
Although it did not do well at the box office in 1940, it has enjoyed success and popularity in recent years. It was very innovative for its time, experimenting with image and music within a non-narrative structure. And the lack of story is what hurt this film at the box office, because viewers were used to narrative films and Fantasia was too abstract. Today's viewers may simply see it as a series of music videos. It does, however, feature a very early Mickey Mouse in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
Learning Outcome
Glossary of Terms from the textbook
Instructor's Notes and Viewing Tips
Screening: The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
Fantasia (Algar and Armstrong, 1940)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
The Wizard of Oz Each of the characters has a desire they believe the Wizard can fulfill. These desires help to define each character and allow the viewer to identify with the Lion for example because perhaps you share the same desires and feelings. And if you do, then it makes the journey to Oz more interesting for you. There are a few possible thematic interpretations to consider as you watch.
These are the only two selections you are required to watch for this module.
1) The moral of the story to the Sorcerer's Apprentice is that you shouldn't take what doesn't belong to you. He did not stay the course, but rather wanted to take the easy way out without earning the great power. This theft lead to Mickey tampering with unknown powers that he did not fully understand. The consequence was that the power ended up becoming too overwhelming to control, and worked for him unfavorably. The beginning of the film depicted the old wise wizard who created something dark in an image of a bat. He shows his understanding with wielding the power that he is capable of controlling it by changing it to something beautiful in an image of a butterfly. With Mickey, he represents the youth in society that is lazy and does not yet understand the importance of hard work and integrity. In the end, it is the old wise wizard who sets everything right and pushes his apprentice to get back to work the right way.
2) My favorite character in “The Wizard of Oz” would have to be Dorothy. Perhaps, there is just something about Dorothy being an orphan and not having much other than her dog Toto. She symbolizes young innocence within the world. As the film progresses, she grows much more mature by appreciating what the journey has in truth rewarded her. I feel she is very positive when she encourages her new friends the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion to journey with her. She relates very well to kids in general growing up, and experiencing struggles that must be overcome. Dorothy could be described as the kid who gets along with everybody for the most part, because of her willingness to help others as well as herself. Her newfound friends learn to find inner strength in themselves, because of the urgency to protect each other from danger that was after them. Dorothy is the guiding force in the story. Without her, many of the characters would be lost or stuck in the same position due to rust.
7) Classic Hollywood Cinema
Introduction and Overview The essence of Classic Hollywood Cinema is the narrative concept of the '3 act structure': a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, told chronologically.
Action/Adventure
Sci Fi
Western
The Western The Wild West -- cowboys, horses, good guys, bad guys, the sheriff, small towns, the saloon, main street, shootouts and gunfights on main street, the last wide open frontier, late 1800's, bank robbers, train robbers, hired guns, horse thieves, bordellos, whores with hearts of gold, and usually a protagonist who operates alone.
The Western made John Wayne and Clint Eastwood international superstars.
The Western made John Ford a legendary director.
American culture made the Western.
Love of freedom, self-reliance, the spirit of independence, good overcoming evil, doing the right thing, persevering, fighting to the end, never giving up, self-sacrifice –
these are the themes found in Westerns and personified in characters played by Wayne and Eastwood.
These themes are also predominant in many action/adventure films. Viewers love a character they can root for and identify with.
Today's John Wayne? Will Smith. Agree/Disagree?
Casablanca Humphrey Bogart – another sullen, moody loner with a strong personal code of justice. Casablanca is set in Morocco during WWII and is the story of Rick, the owner of a bar in the city of Casablanca. Rick, like the United States, has an isolationist attitude about the war in Europe and elects to remain neutral. But circumstances soon require him to make a decision.
Warner Bros produced Casablanca and a long time WB producer, Hal Wallis, was the force behind the success of this picture. It won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Curtiz) and Best Screenplay (Epstein Brothers). Humphrey Bogart was nominated for Best Actor.
This film began life as an unproduced stageplay titled "Everybody Comes to Rick's" that Warner Bros purchased and the Epstein Brothers wrote the screenplay. Bogart was under contract to Warners, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid were under contract to Selznick International Pictures and were 'loaned' by Selznick to Warners for this film.
During this time period, the power to get films made was in the hands of studios and a small number of producers. Then in the 1950's, Kirk Douglas was one of the first actors to parlay his star power into an independent production company and he exercised his freedom from studio contracts to not only select what films he wanted to make, but to produce them as well.
Most major stars today have their own production companies.
Learning Outcomes List some important components of the Western as a genre.
What are some of John Ford's achievements as a film director?
Explain how Bogart's character in Casablanca represents the United States?
How does John Wayne's iconic screen persona reflect American cultural values?
Resources Readings: Textbook Read pp. 191-195 and pp. 231-232 John Ford
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor's Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screening: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
Read pp. 191-195 in the textbook
Consult the Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Read the Instructor's Notes
Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips.
In the film Casablanca, I agree that love should be sacrificed for a higher purpose because it helps all of humanity in this film against unjust causes lead by the Nazi revolution. The film truly depicts the genuine love Rick and Ilsa had for each other especially when their song was played in the piano by Sam. The pain and hurt Rick was feeling is measured by the abundant consumption of alcohol he takes in at the bar. We see Ilsa is very sensitive to Rick's feelings that she still comes to visit him rather than just leaving him a letter saying that she cannot see him. Victor, the man Ilsa is married to, and the leader who is fighting for a just cause against the Nazi revolution needs her love. Love is shown to be a slight distraction to Rick from the common good of removing the Nazi regime out of power. He is convinced to help the lady from Bulgaria that wants to go to America because of her love speech. He was was unconvinced initially to help refugees which was a primary focus for him, but he understands what it is like to be in love with a person which made him decide to help. In the end, he acted in the best interest for the one he loved, and allowed her to go with another man he helped escape to be safe in America. Audiences prefer to see happy endings, and this was a good sacrifice in favor of the resistance. If the ending turned out otherwise, the love may just be temporary and a majority will be affected negatively.
*8) US vs Paramount
Introduction and Overview Let's review some major historical events. (You don't have to memorize the year)
HUAC Hollywood 10 Black List During the Depression years of the 1930's, there were producers, writers, directors and actors in Hollywood who were members of the American Communist Party. Russia and the US were not enemies at this time, if fact, we were allies against Germany during WWII. The atrocities committed by Joseph Stalin (purging millions of Russians) was not know to the world until after WWII at which time Russia and the US became enemies and the 'Cold War' officially began. 'Cold War' is a war of words, not actual fighting, but remember that Russia also had nuclear weapons and threatened to use them.
This dark cloud of fear hanging over America was manifested in the "Red Scare", the search for American Communists who were now viewed with great suspicion as potential traitors because they had allegedly infiltrated our government, schools, and of course, the movie business for the purpose of subverting democracy and overthrowing the US government.
House Un-American Activities Committee This was a special committee formed in the US House of Representatives and composed of congressmen, to investigate alleged Communist activities in the Hollywood film industry. Certain producers, directors, writers and actors were subpoenaed by HUAC to testify about their affiliation and relationship (past and present) with the Communist Party and to identify anyone who may have membership or connections to the Communist Party.
Hollywood Ten In 1947, ten individuals from Hollywood (writers, directors, actors, producers) refused to testify about their alleged Communist affiliations and were held in contempt of Congress and sentenced to one year in prison. Two of the ten decided to cooperate with HUAC and named the names of their co-workers in Hollywood. The two who talked, resumed their careers, the eight who did not talk, stayed in prison, and their Hollywood gigs were finished for the most part.
Black List If you were named or suspected as a Communist Party member or sympathizer, your name went on a 'Black List' (unofficial of course) and studios did not hire you.
HUAC continued their search for Communists in Hollywood until 1954.
Elia Kazan, director of A Streetcar Named Desire, testified in 1952 fully aware of the consequences for the people he identified, and he named names. His career continued. Those he named were done. On the Waterfront is Kazan's defense and justification for cooperating with HUAC. So the film becomes more than just a 'story' or just 'entertainment'. There is an agenda behind it and Kazan admits it. His HUAC testimony and the subsequent film he made in his own defense polarized the film community as well as the nation.
Rise of Television
Learning Outcomes What were the consequences for the studios after they lost US vs Paramount?
Discuss the responses of Hollywood to the challenge of Television in the 1950's?
Why did the 'Hollywood Ten' go to prison?
List the components of a 'Freed Musical' found in Singin' in the Rain.
Resources Readings: Textbook Chapter 12
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor's Introduction Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screening: On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
Singin' in the Rain (Donen and Kelly, 1952)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
Read Chapter 12 in the textbook.
Consult the Glossary of Terms
Read the Instructor's Notes
Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips
Discussion On the Waterfront: One definition of 'bad acting' is when it is obvious that the actor is 'acting', when the viewer can tell that it is a 'performance'. Many film historians believe that Marlon Brando's role in this film radically changed the nature of the acting profession because he gave such a 'real' and 'true to life' performance. How would you compare his acting style to the performances of a couple of actors in the films we've seen in class so far?
On the Waterfront Producer Sam Spielberg Oscar
Director Elia Kazan Oscar
Screenplay Budd Schulberg Oscar
Marlon Brando Oscar Best Actor
Eva Marie Saint Oscar Best Supporting Actress
Karl Malden
Lee J. Cobb
Rod Steiger
Brando plays a dock worker who works for a corrupt union boss and witnesses a murder and wrestles with his conscience about what to do.
Brando is an example of a 'Method Actor', a school of acting founded by Konstantine Stanislavski in Russia and taught by Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler in the US. James Lipton hosts a TV show on Bravo that broadcasts from the Actor's Studio (the school) in New York.
The core of 'Method Acting' is finding an emotion like anger or sadness in your own past life experience and parlaying it into your character role. Theoretically, this gives a greater sense of truth or reality to the performance because the emotion is more 'real'.
Actors who consider themselves "Method" include Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Al Pacino and Paul Newman, who recently passed away.
Singin' in the Rain [MGM (review pp. 226-227 in the textbook)]
Stanley Donen co-director
Gene Kelly co-director, leading role
Donald O'Conner
Debbie Reynolds
Cyd Charisse
Rita Moreno
This is an example of a 'film' within the film. It is the story of a silent film production company and the cast making the transition from 'silent' to 'sound' (dialogue) film.
Don (Gene Kelly) and Lina (Jean Hagen) are a romantic silent film screen couple who must make the transition to a musical 'sound' film. There are a couple of complications. First, Lina is in love with Don in real life, and second, her voice is going to be dubbed in the film by another actress (Debbie Reynolds) who Don likes in real life.
The film includes many memorable song and dance numbers, including the title song. Singin' in the Rain is certainly a theme of optimism.
9) Italian Neo Realsim and French New Wave
Introduction and Overview Neo Realism Mussolini was the dictator of Fascist Italy and a German ally at the beginning of WWII, but by the end, Mussolini was dead, and the Italian people were thrilled to be liberated by the US from the German occupation of their country. They were also anxious to rehabilitate their reputation as a freedom loving nation, and making non-Fascist films was certainly one way of doing that, but Italy's film industry was almost destroyed during the war. The country suffered enormous losses of life and property. Out of the rubble of a wrecked country and film industry came a filmmaking style that would influence the world and be remembered in history as Italian Neo Realism.
This film movement was brief, maybe ten years from the mid 40's to the early 50's, but it launched many new directors and the Neo Realism model was exported all over the world creating opportunities for independent filmmakers who otherwise would be left out in the cold waiting for a studio to respond.
Neo Realism films did well at the box office outside Italy, particularly in the US. The films were not popular in Italy, because they dealt with real social issues like poverty and unemployment, and the average Italian was struggling to just get by as you will see in Bicycle Thief.
These are the key elements of Neo Realism
Roberto Rossellini (father of the actress Isabella Rossellini, her mother was Ingrid Bergman of Casablanca, yes that Ingrid Bergman, they were both married at the time but not to each other, but that's another story)
Rossellini's Neo Realism film trilogy: Germany Year Zero, Paisan, and Open City.
Vittorio De Sica: Neo Realism film trilogy: Shoe Shine, Bicycle Thief, and Umberto D.
Federico Fellini: Screenwriter before he became a director. La Strada but probably best known for the movie 8 ½ which came out in the 60's.
Cesare Zavattini: Screenwriter of numerous Neo Realism films.
French New Wave (1958-1967) France did not suffer the same massive destruction of their cities like Italy (Paris was untouched), but their film industry during the war was totally controlled by the German occupation. By the 50's, French films had returned to the status quo of studio controlled productions of adaptations and material from other sources, not original screenplays. Breaking out of this mold was a group of young filmmakers whose films now constitute what history refers to as The French New Wave.
Godard and Truffaut were film critics for a scholastic French film journal ('Cahiers du Cinema') when they made their first films. The key principals of the New Wave were similar to Neo Realism and the French model had a direct influence on the independent film movement of the 60's in the US.
Do you even think of film as an equal to the other art forms?
Learning Outcomes Identify some of the key principals of Neo Realism in Bicycle Thief.
Describe the main character and his problems in The 400 Blows.
Illustrate examples of 'social issues' presented by Truffaut in The 400 Blows.
Resources Readings: Textbook Read Chapter 13
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor's Introduction Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screening: Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948); The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
Read Chapter 13 in the textbook.
Consult the Glossary of Terms
Read the Instructor's Notes
Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips.
Discussion
Lamberto Maggiorani father
Enzo Staiola son
Cesare Zavattini screenplay
Vittorio De Sica director
The film is shot on location just after WWII when poverty and unemployment are rampant throughout Italy. The father and the son are played by non professional actors and there is no narrative story in the sense that we are used to. We follow the misadventures of the father trying to provide for his family and his predicament represents the social and economic issues facing Italy as a nation as it tries to rebuild after the war.
The 400 Blows Review pp. 257-259 in the textbook.
Jean Pierre Leaud Antoine Doinel
Like in Bicycle Thief, again we follow the misadventures of the protagonist, this time a 13 year old boy who just can't seem to get it right. Do you sympathize with Antoine as he stumbles through the film. Do you agree with the filmmaker that social institutions have failed him: the school system and its form of punishment, his situation at home with a stepfather and a mother he knows preferred an abortion, and the reform school?
The film's title, The 400 Blows, comes from an old French expression:
How many blows does it take for a boy to become a man? Answer - 400
10) National Cinemas
Introduction and Overview A national cinema represents the film industry and cultural identity of a specific country: Italy, France, Japan, Mexico etc.and for this module, we will consider the country of Sweden.
It is helpful to recognize some key differences between Hollywood and the rest of the world. Most countries consider film to be an art form and provide government subsidies to seed new filmmakers. Many countries have a national film school to nurture young talent. On the other hand in the US, the tuition at top film schools like NYU and USC is ridiculously high, government grants and subsidies do not exist and the film industry is commercially oriented.
The films of Ingmar Bergman are 'art films'. They appeal to a very limited audience in the US so distribution is minimal because box office is minimal. Outside the US, Bergman's films do fairly well at the box office. His films attract an international audience who appreciate 'art films'. They do not expect to be passively 'entertained', they enjoy the challenge of active intellectual participation.
His films are more like great literature in the sense that you are challenged to examine life in general and then introspectively, your own life. Do not expect the comforts of narrative storytelling where the plot is clear, events and situations can be taken literally, and the ending of the film will be closed (the goal is achieved, the problem is solved).
Bergman's are character driven films. They are studies of human nature and behavior and relationships. The characters are not heroic, but there is a nobility to be found in their humanity.
Wild Strawberries is an allegory (a term from literature).
An allegory is a story in which characters, things, events, and ideas have symbolic meaning. This type of story requires viewer participation: thinking, analyzing, and searching for meaning, interpreting the material and arriving at your own conclusions. This represents an 'open' ending of a story.
Bergman passed away just last year at the age of 89. Some of his better known films are
11) Decline of PCA
Introduction and Overview Independent film production increased significantly during the 60's and there were many factors that contributed to the decreasing number of studio film productions.
The Sound of Music was a hit, so Fox made more musicals.
These were the results:
The 1960's was probably one of the most socially volatile ten year period in US history.
Here is a brief summary of a very deadly decade.
1963-- President Kennedy assassinated
1963 --Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech
1964 -- Civil Rights Act enacted by Congress outlawing segregation
1965 – US combat troops deployed in Vietnam
1966 --The end of the Production Code, the beginning of the MPAA rating system
1967-- President Lyndon Johnson decides not to seek re-election
1968-- Bobby Kennedy assassinated
1968-- Martin Luther King assassinated
1968-- Democratic National Convention Chicago riots
1968-- Richard Nixon elected President
1968-- 'May 68' French students march, French trade unions join protest
1968-- US Troop strength reaches maximum of 535,000 in Vietnam
1969-- Massive Anti war protests in US and several international cities
1971-- Four students killed on campus of Kent State by National Guard
1973-- Nixon resigns as US President
12) Blockbuster
The films of these directors have made piles of money, and one in particular, Jaws, was responsible for a new Hollywood term : the Blockbuster.
Jaws was produced for 12 million. Domestic gross was 260 million, international gross was 210 million for a box office total of 460 million. 12 million made 460 million.
Star Wars, 1977, budget: 13 million. International gross: 797 million.
13 million makes 797 million? Ladies and Gentleman: Start your film engines….
"Blockbuster" is an economic term that refers to monster box office numbers.
But advertising your film as a 'blockbuster' does not necessarily make it so.
A big budget, a big star, and a brilliant marketing plan do not guarantee the film will achieve 'blockbuster' profits. Ask the makers of Stealth for example.
The following elements are often found in box office 'blockbuster' films.
Genre: action/adventure
Big name international star power like Will Smith
Release:
Major summer holiday-weekend opening
Open on 3-4000 screens in the US.
Open simultaneously in major international cities around the world
Major marketing campaign: TV ads, Taco Bell affiliation, action figures
Taco Bell or McDonalds or fill in the blank, are examples of corporate sponsorship.
The ideas of 'street buzz' or 'word of mouth' are obsolete because the marketing blitz is so complete, you are aware of the film from every possible media source.
Jaws
Novel: Peter Benchley
Director: Steven Spielberg
Roy Scheider
Robert Shaw
Richard Dreyfuss
Hitchcock believed that the most powerful source of fear and terror was the individual viewer’s imagination. People do not respond equally to the same visual stimuli. If you reveal the shark at the beginning of Jaws, all the viewers are not going to be afraid or shocked. Some may be terrified, others may not. But on the other hand, if you wait for an hour to finally show the shark, aren’t people going to get bored waiting for it?
Not if you show evidence and the terrifying consequences of the shark’s presence without actually revealing the shark himself.
13) Influencing Social Change
INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW
'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'
Like Neo Realism, this is a film that deals with a social issue: Unacceptable conditions that existed in government mental health facilities and the questionable treatment of patients. The novel, written by Ken Kesey, reflects his experiences in one such institution, and Michael Douglas was instrumental in getting the material made into a film.
A narrative film appeals to a greater audience than a documentary about the same subject. This film served to raise the awareness level of the average viewer, generate media coverage, build political pressure, and changes were eventually made in mental health facilities. For example, the ‘Lobotomy’ was outlawed as a medical procedure on mental patients.
Movies CAN effect social change.
Film History as the History of Technology
In the early 1980’s, videotape was introduced. To put this innovation in perspective, consider that during the Vietnam War, all the news and documentary footage was shot on film, generally on 16mm stock, while back home, consumer cameras used 8mm film stock. What do all types of film stock have in common? A trip to the film lab for development, which means that there is a waiting or a turnaround period of time. So if there are mistakes or problems with the footage, you don’t know about it until at least a day’s time has gone by. Videotape by definition, does not require development. You press ‘rewind’ and you can see instantaneously what you just shot.
Which leads us back to “Film as a Business”. Videotape rentals and sales represent a new and golden opportunity to generate more revenue for theatrically released films. It also represents an opportunity for filmmakers to make a film, not worry about a distribution deal for theatrical release and market it directly as a video product.
Let’s say you made a film before 1980 and it bombed at the box office in and out of the US and it aired a few times on network television. Now what? Count your losses.
Let’s say you made a film in 1990 and it suffered a negative box office fate. There are many more options to recover your investment and maybe even make a profit--
Pay Per View on Cable - Airing on a Cable station like HBO or Showtime –
DVD rentals at Blockbuster, and DVD sales of your film.
Let's say you made a film in 2010 and it did poorly in the cinemas, there is still hope--
Streaming, downloading, rental, purchase of your film through Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, Vudu, etc.
LEARNING RESOURCES
Textbook Read Chapter 18
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor’s Introduction Overview
Instructor’s Viewing Guide
Screening: ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ Milos Forman 1975
DISCUSSION
In what ways did McMurphy influence the other patients?
VIEWING GUIDE
Novel: Ken Kesey
Producer: Michael Douglas (Oscar)
Director: Milos Forman (Oscar)
Screeenplay: Bo Goldman (Oscar)
Cinematography: Haskell Wexler (Oscar nominated)
McMurphy: Jack Nicholson (Oscar, lead actor)
Nurse Rached: Louise Fletcher (Oscar, lead actress)
Martini: Danny Devito
Taber: Christopher Lloyd
14) Film School Generations
Introduction and OverviewGeorge Lucas (USC) and Francis Coppola (UCLA) and Martin Scorsese (NYU) are 'first generation' film school graduates from the 60's and early 1970's. Their successful careers made film school a viable avenue into the film business. The study of film at the University level has gone from a Liberal Arts elective to Bachelor and Masters and even Phd programs. Eight years ago, here at UNLV, film became a Major course of study offered through the College of Fine Arts. Today there are over 500 Majors in the Film Department.
Spike Lee (NYU) and John Singleton (USC) represent 'second generation' film school grads. Although one of Lee's NYU student films won a Student Academy Award for Merit, the beginnings of his international reputation as a director began with an award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival for She's Gotta Have It, a black and white feature made on 16mm film shot on location on a budget of less than 165k with a cast of unknown actors including the screen debut of the female protagonist. This is not a studio film, it is a personal film that employs many of the key principals of Italian Neo Realism and French New Wave.
She's Gotta Have It is a character driven film revolving around the female protagonist's desire to be free and independent of men who want to control her and her sexuality. European audiences welcomed Lee as a new cinematic voice and today he enjoys immense international respect as a director.
Quentin Tarantino enjoyed a similar path to success on the road that passes through the Cannes Film Fest. His second film, Reservoir Dogs, screened in 1992 and acquired a small distribution deal from Live Entertainment at the Festival. His next film, Pulp Fiction, won the Cannes Gold Palm for Best Picture in 1994 and achieved big box office numbers in the US, but the point is that European audiences embraced Lee and Tarantino first, and then American distribution companies gave them a chance.
Lee's relationship with Hollywood is strained at best, he makes no secret of his dissatisfaction with the way they do business and portray African Americans in films. At the end of the day, Lee makes the films he wants to make. And one reason why Lee controls his own film destiny is because shortly after NYU, he founded his own film production company, Forty Acres and a Mule.
John Singleton grew up on the West Coast in South Central LA while Spike's childhood was spent in Brooklyn. Their films reflect their different backgrounds and experiences which give their stories a sense of truth and realism that may not otherwise exist. Boyz N the Hood reflects Singleton's experiences in South Central, Do the Right Thing represents Lee's experiences in Brooklyn.
Singleton wrote Boyz N the Hood as a student at USC. Columbia bought the script and John fought for the right to direct it. By the time he graduated, he had a three picture deal with Columbia to write and direct. This film trilogy consisted of: Boyz N the Hood, Poetic Justice and Higher Learning. At the age of 24, Singleton was the youngest person ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Director for Boyz N the Hood. He was also nominated in the Best Screenplay category. Not bad for your first film.
In my opinion, he made a masterpiece in 1997 called Rosewood, and somehow it slipped through the cracks and very few people saw it. But check it out if you have the chance.
Film History as History of TechnologyVCR's and VHS tapes are museum objects. DVD's have replaced them. In the near future, your personal film collection will exist as files on the hard drive of your computer and people will be sharing movie files like they share music files.
When DVD was a new technology, film production companies would release a given film on DVD and that's basically what you got, the film itself. You liked the film so you bought it. Then the production company releases a "director's cut" of the film. Maybe you buy it. Then they release a 'special edition' DVD with interviews with the actors and behind the scenes footage. Do you buy it? Then they release an 'anniversary' edition that includes deleted scenes and audio commentary from the director. Do you buy it? Then they release a 'limited edition' box set that includes a couple other films by the same director. Do you buy it? Then…yes, film is a business.
The future of the film business, I believe, will be determined by digital technology. I think film stock will be replaced by cameras that record images directly to a hard drive (the Panasonic P2 camera can already do this). Theaters will exhibit films digitally not with film projectors, thus no need for film development labs. And film editing will be done digitally on computers, oh wait a sec, that's already happened!
Film is the youngest of all the art forms, scarcely a century old compared to painting or music, which have origins from thousands of years ago. Throughout our study of the history of film, you will find that film has borrowed heavily from other art forms. An obvious example is the craft of acting, originating in theater. The effective use of color and light, or the composing of elements within a frame are principals of painting. What really sets film apart though, is the ability to tell a compelling story that grips the emotions of an audience and holds their interest for a couple of hours. And American narrative films have achieved the greatest financial success in terms of worldwide box office ticket sales. Avatar is the number one film internationally grossing 2.7 billion dollars.
Of the top box office films of all time, the first 153 films on this list (IMDB.com) are American films or American co-productions with other countries (Harry Potter and James Bond films with the UK for example). The first non-American film is a UK film, The King’s Speech, coming in at number 154. The first non-English language film on this list, number 382, is a Japanese animated film, Howl’s Moving Castle. These are staggering statistics, which brings us to the most important thing you need to know about American film from day one: film is a business first, an art form almost as an afterthought. The bottom line is the revenue generated by ticket sales (the box office). Think of film as a product in the marketplace like any other commodity: automobiles, toothpaste, handbags. Think of studios as factories that design, produce and distribute film as a product. Think of the competition for consumer dollars in the marketplace of entertainment: sports, leisure activities, music, computer games, surfing the web, television, and the thousands of apps available on your cell phone. Why make the effort to go see a movie in a theater when you can do the same thing in your pajamas at home?
So film is the history of what? Economics or social/political developments or technology or business or culture or media or entertainment or government policies? The general answer is all of the above. For example in Module Five, the censorship of film content represented by the Production Code Administration resulted in the disappearance of gangster films a couple of decades. The challenge of television in the 1950's inspired studios to make more color films because TV was broadcast only in black and white.
It's a good idea to do the reading in the text book before you screen the clips and movies. As you watch the "Landmarks of Cinema" remember that the progression of the clips is chronological. Give special attention to the works of the following individuals: Muybridge, the Lumiere Bros. "actualities", Edwin Porter's The Great Train Robbery, Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon, and Griffith's A Girl and Her Trust.
We will study the films of the following directors:
- Muybridge
- Lumiere Bros
- Edwin Porter
- Georges Melies
- D W Griffith
- Thomas Edison
- Part II -- Griffith 'father of editing'
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
- Define the concept of parallel editing in Porter's film.
- Evaluate Griffith's innovative editing techniques.
- Associate the individual and the achievement:
'actualities'
Static camera
Chronological events
Narrative 'cause and effect'
First narrative story
Genre: Sci Fi
innovative editing techniques
Kinetiscope
Editing techniques:
Variety of shots: close, medium, and long
Variety of camera angles
Variety of length of shots
Increase tempo to increase drama
Resources Chapters 1-4 in the text
Landmarks of Early Film 1894-1913
Learning Activities Analysis of film using checklist
Read chapters 1 – 4
View Landmarks
Review the following short films:
The Great Train Robbery
A Trip to the Moon
A Girl and Her Trust
Lumiere Bros. "actualities"
- camera is static, it does not move, it remains on a tripod simply recording whatever is in the frame.
- filmed material is basically moments of "reality" (Workers Leaving the Factory) but then you can detect a bit of "directing" in the clips of the snowball fight and the water hose sequence.
- the camera is static, it simply records the action taking place on what is obviously a stage. You can see another example of how early cinema is rooted in theater.
- all the action and movement is generated by the actors or special visual effects (the aliens disappearing in a puff of smoke), the camera does not contribute to the illusion of movement.
- The camera is static, all the action is generated within the frame by the actors and special effects (smoke from the pistols).
- The storytelling and editing device called cross cutting or parallel action. This is a property that is unique to film: it is the ability to cut or switch back and forth between two or more locations within a simultaneous time frame, thus maintaining the continuity of the story and giving the viewer important information that is taking place in two different locations. For example, at the beginning of the film, we see the young lady inside the train office and then the bad guys outside the office, we cut back and forth between her and the bad guys which serves to increase dramatic tension.
Griffith. A Girl and Her Trust.
- You have seen how film has borrowed from the other art forms, with Griffith, you will see the one aspect of storytelling that is unique to film: editing.
- Notice how Griffith perfects the idea of 'cross cutting' (refer to Porter) by using a moving camera, a greater variety of camera angles, a variety of camera distances to the subject (a long shot: you can view the whole body of the actor, medium shot: approximately from the waist up to the face, and the close up of the actors face.
- Variety of length of shots. Notice at the beginning of the film, the time length of most of the shots are longer than at the end during the chase scene. Griffith intentionally shortens the length of these shots to increase the tension and drama of the chase. Think of this idea in terms of music: a ballad is slow and moody, while punk rock is fast and frenzied. Or think about dance; a slow romantic dance compared to the mosh pit at a punk show.
- 'planting' and 'payoff' This is a device where an action or a prop is introduced (planted) early in the film and 'pays off' at some point during the film. Two examples from the film:
- Planting: the hero kisses the girl in her office early in the film. Payoff: She kisses him at the end of the film for rescuing her.
- Planting: The hero buys a sandwich for no apparent reason early in the film. Payoff: He shares it with her after the bad guys are defeated.
1) Griffith's innovative editing techniques can be found in the film "The Warriors." There are a lot of speaking especially in the beginning of the film that uses camera angles and distance shots Griffith perfected.The variety of length of shots are certainly present throughout the film. Dialogue between the gangs are shot specifically to add tension during the disagreements with each other. The fighting and running scenes certainly cover a different pace that is appropriate to capture the intended rush and excitement. "Planting" is definitely evident in the film. Starting early in the film where the main character Swan is attacked by a rival gang, he picks up a knife. Nothing is said why he picked it up or what his use for it was. At the end of the film, he uses the same knife to stop a rival gang leader from shooting him which saves his life and clears the name of his gang which is the "payoff".
2) A Trip to the Moon is considered one of the first narrative films in history because a narrator explains every detail from character's names, actions, and settings that takes place. It also effectively gave a chronological story that the audience can follow The broad camera views can make it so that you will miss the many small actions being performed because there is so much going on at the screen all at once. Certain objects, strange beings, and inventions may not be understood because an audience could be seeing it for the first time. The narration proves useful to point out the relevant points to give the audience the main idea of what is going on. There is very little confusion with the aid of the narrator, and it sufficiently makes it so that you would only need to view the short film only once. This breakthrough in film helped revolutionize how stories would be told on screen.
2) Silent Film Comics
Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were two of the greatest silent film comics the world has ever seen. Their specialty was 'slapstick' comedy, a very physical style of comedy that generates universal laughter because it is purely visual. There is no dialog and thus no need for subtitles. The viewer can concentrate on the characters interacting on the screen. Jerry Lewis and Eddie Murphy have acknowledged Chaplin's influence on them. Jim Carey and Adam Sandler have borrowed heavily from Chaplin and Keaton. The Three Stooges are another obvious example.
'Slapstick' requires great athleticism by the performer. The body is sacrificed to achieve a laugh: slaps, hits, kicks, falls, trips, stumbles and tumbles. Neither Chaplin nor Keaton used a stuntman. They did it all.
Another element employed more by Chaplin than Keaton in their storytelling was a narrative device known as 'pathos' which is the attempt to gain audience sympathy or empathy for the characters and their situations and to increase the viewer's emotional investment in the story.
Chaplin was the master of 'pathos' with his screen persona known as 'the little tramp'. Since most of the world's population is somewhat poor, the 'tramps' appeal was truly international. They could certainly relate to the 'tramp's social and economic challenges but could also live vicariously through the 'tramps' small victories over the wealthy and elite members of society. The 'tramp' was a social chameleon, he could move up and down the social scale with ease. The image of the 'tramp' is iconic; his costume, makeup, and physical mannerisms are unique and have been copied more than any other iconic figure. The 'tramp' had the short little stub of a moustache long before Hitler.
Keaton's success, on the other hand, was limited to the United States. His screen persona was 'the great stoneface', a persona that did not endure the test of time. Many of his films featured stories that represented U.S. culture and history which did not interest audiences outside America. The General takes place during the Civil War and refers to a locomotive not a military officer.
Another major difference between Chaplin and Keaton was in the business management of their careers. When Chaplin had a contract with the Mutual Film Company (1917-18), it was for one year and 12 films and he had complete creative control. Chaplin also composed the music for most of his films. He made over a million dollars in 1918, and a year later, was a founding member of United Artists, which gave him complete economic control over his films. To achieve this type of autonomy in Hollywood is rare.
Keaton's first film was in 1917 and although he enjoyed artistic control with a few of his films, he was always under contract to a studio.
Define 'slapstick' comedy and recall examples from the films you viewed.
Explain why 'slapstick' comedy has universal appeal.
Identify the social institutions satirized or made fun of by Chaplin.
Compare the screen characters played by Chaplin and Keaton
Elaborate on why Chaplin became an international star and Keaton did not.
Define 'pathos' and describe how it is employed differently by Chaplin and Keaton in their respective films.
Explain the universal appeal of Chaplin's 'little tramp' character.
Resources Readings: Textbook, chapters 5 and 6.
Instructor's lecture notes.
Instructor's viewing tips.
Screenings: The General (Buster Keaton); Easy Street (Charlie Chaplin)
Learning Activities Do the readings first.
Using the instructor's viewing tips as a guide, view the films.
The General The setting of the film is the American Civil War. If you are not familiar with the background and history of this conflict, a brief Google search for general information will be helpful.
Easy Street
- Chaplin satirizes organized religion at the beginning of the film.
- He makes fun of the police and then takes a job as a cop.
- Chaplin grew up in poverty in the slums of London, and the setting of this film reflects Charlie's childhood.
- In the scene where Chaplin as the cop, pulls the street lamp over the bully's head, it is a gas lamp (methane, I believe), not electric, so the bully is actually overcome by inhaling gas.
1) Chaplin and Keaton show similarities in physical comedy with Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon where he plays a Chinese man named Chon Wang. Wang enters the bar looking for Owen Wilson's character Roy and a bar fight occurs. He maneuvers around using the environment around him as tools such as when he rips off the moose horns which were on display as an unexpected weapon. Jackie's character shows his resourcefulness to outwit opposing antagonists like Chaplin's character in Easy Street against the bully and Keaton's character in The General with using available tools to counter obstacles. Adam Sandler in the film Little Nicky uses the style technique of "Pathos" with his character. The audience can sympathize with him because he is a sweet person, but has a speech impediment and disfigured jaw. I personally feel compelled to root for him because his two devious brothers bully him for being different.
2) Chaplinesque can be found in the film Twin Dragons starring Jackie Chan. Jackie plays two characters who are twin brothers, but have two completely different personalities. He plays one brother named Boomer who is very aggressive, physical, and is quite the troublemaker. On the other-hand, he plays John Ma who is a respected intellectual refined in the arts of music. The way they speak and act is portrayed completely different in scenes when they are shot together and separately. Jackie Chan is capable of diversifying his role to fit the character that is intended for the scene of the film. You see Boomer switch environments with John Ma, and see the reactions of the friends being confused because they look exactly the same but act differently. In Chaplin's film Easy Street, he was a tramp who actually disrespects the police but later changes into joining the police and becoming a respectable town hero.
3) Genres and Stylistic Expression
Let's review the historical time period of 1914 – 1918 World War I
First of all, this war took place in Europe, not on American soil, and consequently the American film industry thrived and began its world wide domination of the box office. Chaplin's career blossomed during this time.
Griffith made the first feature length film of approximately 190 minutes, Birth of a Nation in 1915, just twenty years after film originated as a novelty with the Lumiere one minute 'actualities'.
Back to Chaplin. Keep in mind, that the film business in the US is a commercial enterprise. Chaplin sold more movie tickets internationally than any other movie actor. Any film with Chaplin's name on it had a great chance to make money. The marketing concept of 'movie star' certainly had its origins with Chaplin. Today, a 'Tom Cruise" movie or a 'Will Smith' movie will automatically sell tickets because they both have huge international fan bases.
1918 – 1927
Now let's look at the the time period from the end of WWI (1918) to the first sound film produced in 1927, The Jazz Singer. Two countries, Germany and Russia, emerged from World War I with devastating losses in property and human life and their film industries severely crippled. They were in no position to compete with the US in the commercial film marketplace. Yet both countries would make significant contributions to the growth of film as an art form and a means of communication during this decade.
Germany German Expressionism was an art movement that began in Germany after WWI and influenced visual art forms including film. It is important to film for several reasons.
- It represented a radical new freedom for individual artistic expression because it was an abrupt departure from "realism" and "realistic" depictions of characters and mainstream narrative stories. Expression sought to visually express interior states of mind. The setting of 'Dr. Caligari' is a place of fantasy, dream, imagination and psychological horror. The director and his team (costume, makeup, set design, camera, lighting) were free to fully express their imaginations. They were not limited by the idea of 'reality' or 'realism'. This is a radical shift in storytelling. We are exiting reality and entering a world of abstraction where the director attempts to depict psychological states of mind and moods as opposed to simply expressing a basic human emotion. The result is a stylistic film: a story with a unique point of view and the distinct visual signature of the storyteller.
- German Expressionism is the visual foundation of 'film noir', a genre that was popular in the US during the 1940's and 50's. A couple of recent examples of 'film noir' are Sin City and V For Vendetta. The visual similarities are striking: exaggerated shadows, dark tone, characters who live on the emotional edge. You could also argue that German Expressionism is the primary influence for many comic book "worlds" not to mention graphic novels, the literary source for the above mentioned films.
- Horror as a genre. Every genre has a distinct set of rules or conventions. As a viewer, when you watch a horror film, you have a series of expectations which basically define 'horror' as a genre. What do you expect to see? Monsters, blood, gore? Terrified innocent characters?
- Science Fiction as a genre. What are the rules of this genre? What are your expectations of a sci fi film? Compare your expectations with the conventions of sci-fi outlined in the Instructor's Viewing Tips section.
Both Metropolis and Dr. Caligari are examples of films produced entirely in the studio. Everything you see is artificially designed and constructed to create the 'world' of the film where the story takes place.
Film as a Business? Or a government controlled enterprise. Film had become big business in the US. The star system (Chaplin) and the studio system form the backbone of this lucrative enterprise.
The film industries in Germany and Russia were owned, operated, and controlled by the government. Ufa was the film arm of the German government. In the early days of Ufa, directors enjoyed relative freedom in making their films, but by the time Hitler came to power, he employed the medium as a means of propaganda, not entertainment.
After the Russian Revolution overthrew the Czar in 1917, Lenin's goal for the new government was to educate the massive and illiterate Russian population through films. He did not see film as a form of entertainment or a commercial opportunity.
An example is The Battleship Potemkin which was based on a failed 1905 uprising against the Czar in the port city of Odessa. The purpose of the film was to commemorate a heroic yet unsuccessful revolutionary effort in order to invoke patriotism and sense of nationalistic pride. The film does not feature an individual hero, played by a famous actor, but rather celebrates the Russian people as a courageous nation.
Russia's Contribution to the World Film Community Expanding the Principals of Editing
Griffith's editing style always served the story first, and was designed to engage the emotions, to create fear, anticipation, excitement, and finally a happy ending.
Griffiths cinematic goal was basically to entertain the audience.
Three Russian filmmakers served to change the aesthetic nature of editing:
Kuleshov, Eisenstein, Pudovkin And the one thing that links the three of them is an editing philosophy that emphasizes the active INTELLECTUAL participation of the viewer as opposed to passive EMOTIONAL responses.
KULESHOV'S idea of an intellectual cut was to create visual metaphors. For example, in one shot you see a mob of people forcing their way into already overcrowded subway cars. In the next shot, you see a herd of cattle stampeding across a field. By juxtaposing these two shots without explanation, the viewer must draw their own conclusions about the significance or meaning.
EISENSTEIN believed theme was more important than story.
PUDOVKIN'S films allowed the viewer more emotional access in terms of identifying with the main character, but there was always a political theme underneath the narrative. At the end of the film, the viewer has been educated along with the protagonist and experienced a new political awareness.
Explain the differences between the film industries of the US and Germany in the 1920's.
Define 'German Expressionism'.
Illustrate the concept of German Expressionism with examples from Metropolis
Identify elements of the Sci-Fi Genre from Metropolis.
Resources Readings: Textbook, Chapters 7 and 8
Textbook, Glossary of Terms
Instructor's Lecture Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screenings: Metropolis (Fritz Lang); The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films, read Chapters 7 and 8 in the textbook.
Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips.
After viewing the films, review the still photographs and the commentary in the textbook from Chapters 7 and 8 that correspond to the films.
Metropolis A few conventions of Sci-Fi to look for in the film.
Futuristic World
Dystopian Society
Advanced Technology
Christian/Catholic religious symbolism.
The Virgin Mary
The son (Jesus Christ) functioning as a mediator.
Theme of love and forgiveness.
The Battleship Potemkin Study the editing choices that Eisenstein makes to create dramatic tension. For example, the shot of the maggot covered meat followed by a close up reaction of a sailor.
Study the 'Odessa Step Sequence' (the soldiers marching and shooting the panic stricken civilians). Notice Griffith's editing influence to create drama and tension, for example the variety of shots, the variety of camera angles, the use of close ups for the civilians, the length of shots, and the creativity of employing the shadows of the soldiers to create style.
1) I completely agree that Metropolis was "all eyes and no brain". It seemed to me that the film heavily concentrated in depicting interesting environments. The futuristic setting looked very eye appealing, but I really did not get the sense of intellectual depth. Characters seem to act naturally prancing about with each other. Nothing really knowledgeable appears in the film. Shots of the people wearing different clothing which represents the wealth and classes of society are not new concepts to ponder about. The separation is obvious with the rich living in the high ground with beautiful skyscrapers, and the poor working class living underground. The film depicts an advanced technological civilization that share social disparities in most societies because of corruption and unequal power. The characters did not do anything out of the ordinary that would make me think. The inventor with the missing hand said nothing thought provoking. I do not believe him creating a robot has any relevance to the film requiring that the audience needs a brain to understand.
2) I disagree with Eisenstein's position of Battleship Potemkin being more intellectual than emotional. The propaganda shown in the film of how vicious the government reprimands people for their disobedience, and show how rebellion is futile just makes me sympathize emotionally for the people. The graphic horror of the militia hurting mothers and babies really doesn't teach me a lesson intellectually. With my perspective, I felt the film was driven emotionally as to why the sailors had an uprising. It was just plain ridiculous arguing whether or not the meat was edible for consumption. The sailors may have been reacting emotionally to being given rotten meat as food, but it was fair because they know the meat would make them sick. It was just unbelievable how the officer tried to play off that the maggots in the meat were reasonable. The film shows that an argument is won through physical force which would make it not intellectual at all.
4) Warner Bros. Sound Films
The principal difference between 'silent' films and 'sound' films is that 'sound' films have dialogue. 'Silent' films contain everything but dialogue, thus the term 'talkies' for films with dialogue. This transition in the film industry to dialogue is a great illustration of film history determined by technology. Dialogue films were not possible to produce until the technology existed. Two different sound systems were developing simultaneously during the 1920's. 'Sound on Disc' relied on a separate disc to play along with the film, and the main problem was synchronizing the sound to the picture. If the disc did not maintain consistency with the film, then you have the sound of a door slamming after you've already seen the door close. On the other hand, 'Sound on film' (today's standard) was much more consistent and reliable because the sound track exists on the film stock itself.
Warner Bros. and Fox were the two studios who aggressively pursued the technology to produce sound films. Warner Bros. probably gets the credit from many film historians for making the first sound film because The Jazz Singer was tremendously successful at the box office and audiences now preferred 'talkies' so the other studios followed suit.
The transition to 'talkies' meant that theaters needed to be equipped with sound systems and by 1929, over 9000 movie houses were converted at a large cost to the studios.
Proof that movie goers loved 'talkies'? In 1927, there were roughly 60 million tickets sold per week, and by 1929, box office admissions had almost doubled to 110 million per week.
There were, however, a couple of negative consequences of the transition to 'talkies'.
Camera movement became limited and static. Cameras were big, bulky, and noisy. Sound proof booths were designed to mute the camera noise so dialog could be recorded, resulting in an immobile camera.
Microphones were hidden in props, furniture, and light fixtures and actors became static as well because they had to speak clearly into the mike.
Many actors lost their jobs. Looking good on camera is one thing, lacking a pleasant speaking voice means you are now out of a job.
Warner Bros and I Am A Fugitive From A Chaingang Film as a business: Product differentiation is the key to marketing. Why is a Ford a better buy than a Chevrolet? Why is a Warner Bros film more appealing than a Paramount film? In the end, it comes down to personal taste and preference.
Warner Bros made films that appealed to the working class. Paramount made films that attracted more sophisticated viewers (higher social and economic class). Many of Paramount's films were adapted from stage plays or classic novels.
Chaingang by its title alone suggests the audience will not be arriving in limos and tuxedos. This film represents a Warner Bros sub-genre specialty – social realism. It is based on an autobiography of a man who served honorably in the military and as a civilian got caught up in the bureaucracy of the justice and penal system. The film totally sympathizes with the protagonist, James Allen, and is an example of how a film can effect social change, because the public and political pressure applied to the institutions responsible for Allen's plight, forced them to modify their policies.
Paul Muni, the actor who plays James Allen, was a big star at the time, and he had a screen persona of a tough guy with a sensitive side, which Warner Bros certainly capitalized on with this film.
Learning Outcomes Explain the difference between a 'silent' film and a 'sound' film.
Discuss the success the Disney Co. enjoyed by focusing on animation.
Who is 'Steamboat Willie'?
Why did Warner Bros aggressively pursue 'sound' film production.
Illustrate the sub-genre of 'social realism' with examples from Chaingang.
Resources Readings: Chapter 9
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor's Lecture Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screenings: I Am A Fugitive From A Chaingang (Mervyn Leroy)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
Read Chapter 9 in the textbook.
Consult the Glossary of Terms
Read the instructor's viewing tips.
Fugitive From a Chain Gang Social Realism represents the gritty and harsh conditions of life for the average working class person. This is a no nonsense approach to storytelling. The protagonist is presented in a very sympathetic manner, and if you can't relate to Paul Muni's character, it will be a tedious film.
Remember, one of the key elements of narrative film is to engage the audience emotionally, so even if you can't relate to the main character, Warner Bros is hoping you can empathize with his situation.
1) I believe Paul Muni's performance was splendid, and not over the top at all. It was well acted in ensuring the audience is engaged with the character James Allen. In life, misfortunes occur to just about everyone and it does not matter what class or social status you are in. It would be awful to any person who had honesty and integrity to lose a clean reputation. Being able to relate to Paul Muni's character gives us a reason to care and hope for him to succeed. The way Allen makes decisions on life is similar to a lot of people in reality because people want to all live a self-fulfilling life, but are prisoners working a job that makes them miserable. He acted very believable from wanting to change professions, but receiving very little support. The dialogue between him and Pete about the hamburger was a unique example in conveying a humorous personality of Allen that seemed natural. Every action from fleeing in fear during the robbery to being mentally shocked in prison are normal responses from ordinary people.
2) The theme social injustice works for me completely in regards to the film. Paul Muni's character James Allen was wrongly accused and shows that the system is blind when serving justice. The film indeed challenges the morality of society. The prison guards depicted in the film mistreated all of the workers by abusing them to do labor which is shown to be too much for Allen that he passes out. They seemed quite adamant and sure that James Allen was not innocent. It seemed like a witch hunt that had no reasoning or logic but heavily influenced by society labeling. Humans are not perfect but in society it is essential to be the ones who are always right. When Allen is wrongfully labeled as a fugitive, it destroyed his way of life to do any of the things he wanted to pursue passionately. Allen was an innocent man who was treated badly in prison, but the film makes a point that no human deserves to be punished to a bloody mess.
5) Studio System and the PCA
The Hollywood Studio System Think of a factory. Think of a product. Individual studios like Paramount functioned like factories whose products were films. Each studio was essentially a separate factory. Each studio had the same division of labor: departments that had specific functions like make up, costume, or camera. Most of the key members of various departments were under contract. Contracts for actors were often five years in length. If you worked for Fox, for example, you could not act in a Paramount film unless Paramount gave you permission. If you were writer, your work was the property of the studio that employed you. Compare this with a novelist who owned the copyright of their book. Look inside a book jacket and check out who owns copyright. Look at the ending credits of a film, and you notice that copyright is owned by the studio that produced it.
The general business model for the studios was known as 'vertical integration'. This meant that each studio owned the means of production, distribution and exhibition (theaters). This is basically a monopoly. When a group of companies control everything, it is an oligopoly. In a lawsuit, US vs Paramount in 1946, the government forced the studios to sell their theaters to break up the oligopoly. We will study this further in Module 8. From about 1930 to 1945, the studios were incredibly powerful and totally controlled the film industry in the US.
The Production Code Administration 1930 was the year the production code was written primarily for the benefit of the US government. Film, unlike any other form of entertainment came under scrutiny as a potentially corrupting force of public morality, thus the rating system and the PCA.
As a recent historical event, music has been saddled with parental warning labels for certain types of music, but who has ever let this toothless roadblock deter them?
1929 110 million tickets sold per week
1932 90 million tickets sold per week
1934 60 million tickets sold per week
1930 16 thousand theaters in operation across the US
1934 11 thousand theaters in operation across the US
As you can see, film as a business had a serious revenue drop in 1934 as the Great Depression took is toll on movie attendance. Also in 1934, the Catholic Legion of Decency presented a petition to Hollywood with millions of signatures, threatening to boycott movies if Hollywood did not enforce some type of moral censorship.. Facing a further disastrous loss of income, Hollywood enforced the Code. Remember that the Catholic Church had much greater influence and stature back in the old days.
The enforcement of the Code had immediate effects on film. One, the 'gangster' films were no longer a viable genre because the Code forbade the glorification of crime and criminals. The sassy, sexy Mae West screen persona was a no-no, and her career was never the same.
The PCA would maintain its censorship grip on the industry until the 1960's when social and economic circumstances broke the power of the Code.
Learning Outcomes
- Outline the reasons why Hollywood decided to enforce the Production Code.
- Define 'oligopoly' and 'vertical integration' and apply them to Hollywood's business model.
- Discuss the PCA and its effect on Hollywood film content.
- Identify Will Hays.
- Readings: Chapter 11 in the textbook.
- Glossary of Terms in the textbook.
- Instructor's Lecture Notes
- Instructor's Viewing Tips
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
- Read Chapter 11 in the textbook.
- Consult the Glossary of Terms
- Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips.
It Happened One Night
- 'Screwball Comedy' is a genre that gained popularity during the 1930's.
- These were goofy, romantic stories featuring a male and a female lead that would inevitably end up together, but with many humerous and often absurd omplications along the way. The dialog is fast paced, and at times difficult to follow. Clark Gable wore a white tank top in the film that started a fashion trend for men.
1) In my opinion, the qualities displayed by the character Peter Warne played by Clark Gable in "It Happened One Night", more than qualifies to be a star in any era. His acting was superb in the scene when Shapeley played by Roscoe Karns is pestering Claudette Colbert's character Ellie in the train. Peter does not appreciate the insulting sexist treatment Ellie is taking so he interrupts Shapeley. He convinces him that Ellie is his wife so he can have a seat with her and shut the guys mouth. Shapeley apologizes and feels very embarrassed for his rude actions. We all know that Ellie is not his wife, but I would be fooled by his eloquent acting if I saw just this scene. His charm and wit would make him a star today. People of today love to relate to charismatic interesting characters especially if they make the film fun and humorous. He acts so masculine and confident in front of Ellie in the scene when he is undressing. Many actors of today need to be comfortable when they perform in every situation, which he shows as he smokes a cigar and lays on a bed. Another quality is his assertiveness with telling Ellie what to do. Peter made her decision for her to not buy the chocolate in the train, and getting her out of the bed in the morning as she was awed of him preparing all her necessities. The gentlemen persona of Clark Gabe is imitated throughout film history because it is a quality many men aspire to be.
6) Technicolor is an interesting study of film history as a business and technological innovation.
Business/Technology: The Technicolor Corporation was formed in 1915. Color film stock as we know it today did not exist then. They shot on black on white film stock with unique Technicolor cameras through red and green filters that of course represented only two colors: red and green. When the raw film stock was developed in the Technicolor film processing lab, special dyes were applied to bring out the colors.
By 1922, Technicolor had developed a three color system (red, green, blue) that is the standard today. Red, green and blue are the three primary colors of the natural world. For thirty years (1922 – 1952) Technicolor had a monopoly on the color process until Eastman Kodak introduced a cheaper alternative. The Wizard of Oz and Fantasia are examples of Technicolor films.
The brief examples of 'color' you saw in The Great Train Robbery (ladies' dresses during the dance number and the red smoke from the pistols firing) was the result of labor intensive efforts. Each frame of film was color tinted individually by hand and because film runs through the projector at 24 frames per second, this adds up to a lot of time and human labor.
Let's say you wanted to make a color film back in the days before Kodak became a competitor in 1952. Your only choice was to use Technicolor. And these are the Technicolor business terms.
- Rent Technicolor cameras
- Employ Technicolor camera operators
- Employ a Technicolor 'consultant'
- Use Technicolor makeup on the actors
- Use Technicolor film processing labs
Unlike Warner Bros. who made gritty, social realistic films for the working class,
MGM made films that temporarily eased the economic hardships of the Depression for the average middle class family. (Do you pack up the family to go see Fugitive From a Chain Gang or The Wizard of Oz)?
MGM films best represent American middle class cultural values of the Depression decade of the 1930's.
- optimism: hope that the economy and (life) will get better
- materialism: dreams of an upper class life style
- romantic escapism: movies that make you forget your troubles for 2 hours
The Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz is based on a book of the same title written by L. Frank Baum. Ironically, the book is written as a political allegory, not a fairy tale or a fantasy. The book was published in the late 1890's with the intention of electing William Jennings Bryan to the US Presidency. In the book, the Wizard represents the House and the Senate in Washington DC, the tinman represents factory workers, the scarecrow represents the farmers and the lion represents Bryan himself. Baum thought that Washington politicians had lost touch with the common people (farmers and factory workers) and believed that Bryan offered hope because he was not a member of the East Coast elite.
Baum's book is long forgotten, but the movie has achieved cultural immortality.
The cast: Dorothy Judy Garland (only 16 years old)
Scarecrow Ray Bolger
Tinman Jack Haley
Lion Bert Lahr
Oz Frank Morgan
Fantasia Another Technicolor film, Fantasia is a Disney animated movie.
Although it did not do well at the box office in 1940, it has enjoyed success and popularity in recent years. It was very innovative for its time, experimenting with image and music within a non-narrative structure. And the lack of story is what hurt this film at the box office, because viewers were used to narrative films and Fantasia was too abstract. Today's viewers may simply see it as a series of music videos. It does, however, feature a very early Mickey Mouse in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
Learning Outcome
- What was the main reason why Fantasia did not fare well at the box office.
- List some of the business conditions that Technicolor forced producers to accept in order to make a color film.
- Discuss how the movie, The Wizard of Oz, is different from the book it is based on.
- Illustrate some of the elements of a 'musical' in The Wizard of Oz.
Glossary of Terms from the textbook
Instructor's Notes and Viewing Tips
Screening: The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
Fantasia (Algar and Armstrong, 1940)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
- Consult the Glossary of Terms
- Read the Instructor's Introduction/Lecture Notes
- Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips.
The Wizard of Oz Each of the characters has a desire they believe the Wizard can fulfill. These desires help to define each character and allow the viewer to identify with the Lion for example because perhaps you share the same desires and feelings. And if you do, then it makes the journey to Oz more interesting for you. There are a few possible thematic interpretations to consider as you watch.
- The very American concept of 'self reliance'. This is the land of opportunity, if you want something, go get it, you are responsible for your own destiny.
- 'There's no place like home' Dorothy's mantra, but also the post WWI US isolationist position regarding Europe until late 1941 when America entered WWII.
- Dorothy's rite of passage from childhood to adulthood.
- And my favorite theme: Dreams can come true.And a fun fact about this film's cultural influence. Toto, the popular rock band from the 80's, took their name from Dorothy's dog, Toto. Another fun fact: one of the band's hit songs, Rosanna, was written about the actress, Rosanna Arquette, after she broke the lead singer's heart.
These are the only two selections you are required to watch for this module.
1) The moral of the story to the Sorcerer's Apprentice is that you shouldn't take what doesn't belong to you. He did not stay the course, but rather wanted to take the easy way out without earning the great power. This theft lead to Mickey tampering with unknown powers that he did not fully understand. The consequence was that the power ended up becoming too overwhelming to control, and worked for him unfavorably. The beginning of the film depicted the old wise wizard who created something dark in an image of a bat. He shows his understanding with wielding the power that he is capable of controlling it by changing it to something beautiful in an image of a butterfly. With Mickey, he represents the youth in society that is lazy and does not yet understand the importance of hard work and integrity. In the end, it is the old wise wizard who sets everything right and pushes his apprentice to get back to work the right way.
2) My favorite character in “The Wizard of Oz” would have to be Dorothy. Perhaps, there is just something about Dorothy being an orphan and not having much other than her dog Toto. She symbolizes young innocence within the world. As the film progresses, she grows much more mature by appreciating what the journey has in truth rewarded her. I feel she is very positive when she encourages her new friends the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Lion to journey with her. She relates very well to kids in general growing up, and experiencing struggles that must be overcome. Dorothy could be described as the kid who gets along with everybody for the most part, because of her willingness to help others as well as herself. Her newfound friends learn to find inner strength in themselves, because of the urgency to protect each other from danger that was after them. Dorothy is the guiding force in the story. Without her, many of the characters would be lost or stuck in the same position due to rust.
7) Classic Hollywood Cinema
Introduction and Overview The essence of Classic Hollywood Cinema is the narrative concept of the '3 act structure': a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, told chronologically.
- Act I (the beginning) Introduction of the main character, his/her problems or goals.
- Act II (the middle) Development of the plot, growth of the character, hurdles and obstacles to solving his/her problems and achieving goals.
- Act III (the ending) Conclusion of the story, success or failure of the protagonist, resolution to conflicts, answers to questions. (American audiences prefer happy endings)
Action/Adventure
Sci Fi
Western
The Western The Wild West -- cowboys, horses, good guys, bad guys, the sheriff, small towns, the saloon, main street, shootouts and gunfights on main street, the last wide open frontier, late 1800's, bank robbers, train robbers, hired guns, horse thieves, bordellos, whores with hearts of gold, and usually a protagonist who operates alone.
The Western made John Wayne and Clint Eastwood international superstars.
The Western made John Ford a legendary director.
American culture made the Western.
Love of freedom, self-reliance, the spirit of independence, good overcoming evil, doing the right thing, persevering, fighting to the end, never giving up, self-sacrifice –
these are the themes found in Westerns and personified in characters played by Wayne and Eastwood.
These themes are also predominant in many action/adventure films. Viewers love a character they can root for and identify with.
Today's John Wayne? Will Smith. Agree/Disagree?
Casablanca Humphrey Bogart – another sullen, moody loner with a strong personal code of justice. Casablanca is set in Morocco during WWII and is the story of Rick, the owner of a bar in the city of Casablanca. Rick, like the United States, has an isolationist attitude about the war in Europe and elects to remain neutral. But circumstances soon require him to make a decision.
Warner Bros produced Casablanca and a long time WB producer, Hal Wallis, was the force behind the success of this picture. It won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Curtiz) and Best Screenplay (Epstein Brothers). Humphrey Bogart was nominated for Best Actor.
This film began life as an unproduced stageplay titled "Everybody Comes to Rick's" that Warner Bros purchased and the Epstein Brothers wrote the screenplay. Bogart was under contract to Warners, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid were under contract to Selznick International Pictures and were 'loaned' by Selznick to Warners for this film.
During this time period, the power to get films made was in the hands of studios and a small number of producers. Then in the 1950's, Kirk Douglas was one of the first actors to parlay his star power into an independent production company and he exercised his freedom from studio contracts to not only select what films he wanted to make, but to produce them as well.
Most major stars today have their own production companies.
- The Passion of the Christ was produced by Mel Gibson's company, and most recently, Apocalypto.
- Jerry Bruckenheimer is an example of a contemporary producer with incredible power and influence in both film and TV.
Learning Outcomes List some important components of the Western as a genre.
What are some of John Ford's achievements as a film director?
Explain how Bogart's character in Casablanca represents the United States?
How does John Wayne's iconic screen persona reflect American cultural values?
Resources Readings: Textbook Read pp. 191-195 and pp. 231-232 John Ford
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor's Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screening: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
Read pp. 191-195 in the textbook
Consult the Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Read the Instructor's Notes
Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips.
In the film Casablanca, I agree that love should be sacrificed for a higher purpose because it helps all of humanity in this film against unjust causes lead by the Nazi revolution. The film truly depicts the genuine love Rick and Ilsa had for each other especially when their song was played in the piano by Sam. The pain and hurt Rick was feeling is measured by the abundant consumption of alcohol he takes in at the bar. We see Ilsa is very sensitive to Rick's feelings that she still comes to visit him rather than just leaving him a letter saying that she cannot see him. Victor, the man Ilsa is married to, and the leader who is fighting for a just cause against the Nazi revolution needs her love. Love is shown to be a slight distraction to Rick from the common good of removing the Nazi regime out of power. He is convinced to help the lady from Bulgaria that wants to go to America because of her love speech. He was was unconvinced initially to help refugees which was a primary focus for him, but he understands what it is like to be in love with a person which made him decide to help. In the end, he acted in the best interest for the one he loved, and allowed her to go with another man he helped escape to be safe in America. Audiences prefer to see happy endings, and this was a good sacrifice in favor of the resistance. If the ending turned out otherwise, the love may just be temporary and a majority will be affected negatively.
*8) US vs Paramount
Introduction and Overview Let's review some major historical events. (You don't have to memorize the year)
- 1938 US Government sues Paramount and other studios to break up their 'oligopoly'
- 1939 Germany invades Poland WWII begins in Europe
- 1939 Television is introduced at the New York World's Fair
- 1939 The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind are released
- 1941 United States enters WWII
- 1942 Casablanca is released
- 1945 WWII ends
- 1946 US vs Paramount concludes with studios forced to sell theaters
- 1948 – 1954 HUAC Hearings: suspected Communists in Hollywood
- 1947 Hollywood Ten
- 1951 Eastman Kodak introduces cheaper 3 color film stock than Technicolor
- 1952 Singin' in the Rain released
- 1954 On the Waterfront released
HUAC Hollywood 10 Black List During the Depression years of the 1930's, there were producers, writers, directors and actors in Hollywood who were members of the American Communist Party. Russia and the US were not enemies at this time, if fact, we were allies against Germany during WWII. The atrocities committed by Joseph Stalin (purging millions of Russians) was not know to the world until after WWII at which time Russia and the US became enemies and the 'Cold War' officially began. 'Cold War' is a war of words, not actual fighting, but remember that Russia also had nuclear weapons and threatened to use them.
This dark cloud of fear hanging over America was manifested in the "Red Scare", the search for American Communists who were now viewed with great suspicion as potential traitors because they had allegedly infiltrated our government, schools, and of course, the movie business for the purpose of subverting democracy and overthrowing the US government.
House Un-American Activities Committee This was a special committee formed in the US House of Representatives and composed of congressmen, to investigate alleged Communist activities in the Hollywood film industry. Certain producers, directors, writers and actors were subpoenaed by HUAC to testify about their affiliation and relationship (past and present) with the Communist Party and to identify anyone who may have membership or connections to the Communist Party.
Hollywood Ten In 1947, ten individuals from Hollywood (writers, directors, actors, producers) refused to testify about their alleged Communist affiliations and were held in contempt of Congress and sentenced to one year in prison. Two of the ten decided to cooperate with HUAC and named the names of their co-workers in Hollywood. The two who talked, resumed their careers, the eight who did not talk, stayed in prison, and their Hollywood gigs were finished for the most part.
Black List If you were named or suspected as a Communist Party member or sympathizer, your name went on a 'Black List' (unofficial of course) and studios did not hire you.
HUAC continued their search for Communists in Hollywood until 1954.
Elia Kazan, director of A Streetcar Named Desire, testified in 1952 fully aware of the consequences for the people he identified, and he named names. His career continued. Those he named were done. On the Waterfront is Kazan's defense and justification for cooperating with HUAC. So the film becomes more than just a 'story' or just 'entertainment'. There is an agenda behind it and Kazan admits it. His HUAC testimony and the subsequent film he made in his own defense polarized the film community as well as the nation.
Rise of Television
- 1939 seemed like a harmless year for Hollywood when this new invention by RCA called the Television was introduced as a novelty at the New York World's Fair.
- 1941 also seemed harmless for Hollywood when CBS became the first broadcasting entity to begin telecasting.
- 1946 was a great year for movie attendance, averaging 100 million tickets per week, but in 1949, attendance dropped to 70 million weekly.
- Something else happened in 1949 – 1 million TV sets were sold in the US.
- 1951 10 million TV sets in America.
- 1956 50 million TV sets in America.
- introduction of the widescreen format
- (do you want to see an image on a 10 inch screen in black and white OR
- on a larger than life movie screen in color?
- 1955 half of all films are now made in color
- withhold TV rights to screen Hollywood movies until 10 years after theatrical release
- (see the movie now in a theater or wait 10 years to see it on TV)
- distribute more independent films
- relax the Production Code restrictions in film content
Learning Outcomes What were the consequences for the studios after they lost US vs Paramount?
Discuss the responses of Hollywood to the challenge of Television in the 1950's?
Why did the 'Hollywood Ten' go to prison?
List the components of a 'Freed Musical' found in Singin' in the Rain.
Resources Readings: Textbook Chapter 12
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor's Introduction Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screening: On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
Singin' in the Rain (Donen and Kelly, 1952)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
Read Chapter 12 in the textbook.
Consult the Glossary of Terms
Read the Instructor's Notes
Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips
Discussion On the Waterfront: One definition of 'bad acting' is when it is obvious that the actor is 'acting', when the viewer can tell that it is a 'performance'. Many film historians believe that Marlon Brando's role in this film radically changed the nature of the acting profession because he gave such a 'real' and 'true to life' performance. How would you compare his acting style to the performances of a couple of actors in the films we've seen in class so far?
On the Waterfront Producer Sam Spielberg Oscar
Director Elia Kazan Oscar
Screenplay Budd Schulberg Oscar
Marlon Brando Oscar Best Actor
Eva Marie Saint Oscar Best Supporting Actress
Karl Malden
Lee J. Cobb
Rod Steiger
Brando plays a dock worker who works for a corrupt union boss and witnesses a murder and wrestles with his conscience about what to do.
Brando is an example of a 'Method Actor', a school of acting founded by Konstantine Stanislavski in Russia and taught by Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler in the US. James Lipton hosts a TV show on Bravo that broadcasts from the Actor's Studio (the school) in New York.
The core of 'Method Acting' is finding an emotion like anger or sadness in your own past life experience and parlaying it into your character role. Theoretically, this gives a greater sense of truth or reality to the performance because the emotion is more 'real'.
Actors who consider themselves "Method" include Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Al Pacino and Paul Newman, who recently passed away.
Singin' in the Rain [MGM (review pp. 226-227 in the textbook)]
Stanley Donen co-director
Gene Kelly co-director, leading role
Donald O'Conner
Debbie Reynolds
Cyd Charisse
Rita Moreno
This is an example of a 'film' within the film. It is the story of a silent film production company and the cast making the transition from 'silent' to 'sound' (dialogue) film.
Don (Gene Kelly) and Lina (Jean Hagen) are a romantic silent film screen couple who must make the transition to a musical 'sound' film. There are a couple of complications. First, Lina is in love with Don in real life, and second, her voice is going to be dubbed in the film by another actress (Debbie Reynolds) who Don likes in real life.
The film includes many memorable song and dance numbers, including the title song. Singin' in the Rain is certainly a theme of optimism.
9) Italian Neo Realsim and French New Wave
Introduction and Overview Neo Realism Mussolini was the dictator of Fascist Italy and a German ally at the beginning of WWII, but by the end, Mussolini was dead, and the Italian people were thrilled to be liberated by the US from the German occupation of their country. They were also anxious to rehabilitate their reputation as a freedom loving nation, and making non-Fascist films was certainly one way of doing that, but Italy's film industry was almost destroyed during the war. The country suffered enormous losses of life and property. Out of the rubble of a wrecked country and film industry came a filmmaking style that would influence the world and be remembered in history as Italian Neo Realism.
This film movement was brief, maybe ten years from the mid 40's to the early 50's, but it launched many new directors and the Neo Realism model was exported all over the world creating opportunities for independent filmmakers who otherwise would be left out in the cold waiting for a studio to respond.
Neo Realism films did well at the box office outside Italy, particularly in the US. The films were not popular in Italy, because they dealt with real social issues like poverty and unemployment, and the average Italian was struggling to just get by as you will see in Bicycle Thief.
These are the key elements of Neo Realism
- low budgets – save money anyway you can like conserving film
- shooting on location documentary style (not in a studio)
- non professional actors (ordinary people, not movie heroes)
- non-sync sound (dialogue and sound recording is not synced to camera)
- social themes and issues (not necessarily narrative stories)
Roberto Rossellini (father of the actress Isabella Rossellini, her mother was Ingrid Bergman of Casablanca, yes that Ingrid Bergman, they were both married at the time but not to each other, but that's another story)
Rossellini's Neo Realism film trilogy: Germany Year Zero, Paisan, and Open City.
Vittorio De Sica: Neo Realism film trilogy: Shoe Shine, Bicycle Thief, and Umberto D.
Federico Fellini: Screenwriter before he became a director. La Strada but probably best known for the movie 8 ½ which came out in the 60's.
Cesare Zavattini: Screenwriter of numerous Neo Realism films.
French New Wave (1958-1967) France did not suffer the same massive destruction of their cities like Italy (Paris was untouched), but their film industry during the war was totally controlled by the German occupation. By the 50's, French films had returned to the status quo of studio controlled productions of adaptations and material from other sources, not original screenplays. Breaking out of this mold was a group of young filmmakers whose films now constitute what history refers to as The French New Wave.
Godard and Truffaut were film critics for a scholastic French film journal ('Cahiers du Cinema') when they made their first films. The key principals of the New Wave were similar to Neo Realism and the French model had a direct influence on the independent film movement of the 60's in the US.
- low budgets
- shooting on location documentary style
- non pro actors, new talent, up and coming talent
- post sync sound (much of the dialog and sound recorded in post production)
- social themes, genre subversion, character driven (mostly original scripts)
Do you even think of film as an equal to the other art forms?
Learning Outcomes Identify some of the key principals of Neo Realism in Bicycle Thief.
Describe the main character and his problems in The 400 Blows.
Illustrate examples of 'social issues' presented by Truffaut in The 400 Blows.
Resources Readings: Textbook Read Chapter 13
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor's Introduction Notes
Instructor's Viewing Tips
Screening: Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948); The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
Learning Activities Before viewing the films:
Read Chapter 13 in the textbook.
Consult the Glossary of Terms
Read the Instructor's Notes
Read the Instructor's Viewing Tips.
Discussion
- The 400 Blows - Do you believe Antoine is responsible for his behavior or are there mediating circumstances such as the failure of social institutions and a broken family life?
- Bicycle Thief - What is your opinion of the ending of the film? How would you have ended it differently without sacrificing the Neo Realism principle of 'social realism'?
Lamberto Maggiorani father
Enzo Staiola son
Cesare Zavattini screenplay
Vittorio De Sica director
The film is shot on location just after WWII when poverty and unemployment are rampant throughout Italy. The father and the son are played by non professional actors and there is no narrative story in the sense that we are used to. We follow the misadventures of the father trying to provide for his family and his predicament represents the social and economic issues facing Italy as a nation as it tries to rebuild after the war.
The 400 Blows Review pp. 257-259 in the textbook.
Jean Pierre Leaud Antoine Doinel
Like in Bicycle Thief, again we follow the misadventures of the protagonist, this time a 13 year old boy who just can't seem to get it right. Do you sympathize with Antoine as he stumbles through the film. Do you agree with the filmmaker that social institutions have failed him: the school system and its form of punishment, his situation at home with a stepfather and a mother he knows preferred an abortion, and the reform school?
The film's title, The 400 Blows, comes from an old French expression:
How many blows does it take for a boy to become a man? Answer - 400
10) National Cinemas
Introduction and Overview A national cinema represents the film industry and cultural identity of a specific country: Italy, France, Japan, Mexico etc.and for this module, we will consider the country of Sweden.
It is helpful to recognize some key differences between Hollywood and the rest of the world. Most countries consider film to be an art form and provide government subsidies to seed new filmmakers. Many countries have a national film school to nurture young talent. On the other hand in the US, the tuition at top film schools like NYU and USC is ridiculously high, government grants and subsidies do not exist and the film industry is commercially oriented.
The films of Ingmar Bergman are 'art films'. They appeal to a very limited audience in the US so distribution is minimal because box office is minimal. Outside the US, Bergman's films do fairly well at the box office. His films attract an international audience who appreciate 'art films'. They do not expect to be passively 'entertained', they enjoy the challenge of active intellectual participation.
His films are more like great literature in the sense that you are challenged to examine life in general and then introspectively, your own life. Do not expect the comforts of narrative storytelling where the plot is clear, events and situations can be taken literally, and the ending of the film will be closed (the goal is achieved, the problem is solved).
Bergman's are character driven films. They are studies of human nature and behavior and relationships. The characters are not heroic, but there is a nobility to be found in their humanity.
Wild Strawberries is an allegory (a term from literature).
An allegory is a story in which characters, things, events, and ideas have symbolic meaning. This type of story requires viewer participation: thinking, analyzing, and searching for meaning, interpreting the material and arriving at your own conclusions. This represents an 'open' ending of a story.
Bergman passed away just last year at the age of 89. Some of his better known films are
- The Seventh Seal
- Persona
- Cries and Whispers
- Fanny and Alexander
11) Decline of PCA
Introduction and Overview Independent film production increased significantly during the 60's and there were many factors that contributed to the decreasing number of studio film productions.
- A radically changing social climate also eroded the power and influence of the PCA.
- The influence of Italian Neo Realism and the French New Wave.
- The rise of television in the US
- The continuing erosion of box office revenue (1962 was a new low)
- Movie misfires at Fox (following a huge box office hit)
The Sound of Music was a hit, so Fox made more musicals.
These were the results:
- 1967 Dr. Doolittle Cost: 20 million Box Offiice: 6m
- 1968 Star Cost: 15 m Box Office: 4m
- 1969 Hello, Dolly! Cost: 25m Box Office 15m
- 1970 Tora Tora Tora Cost: 25m Box Office: 14m
The 1960's was probably one of the most socially volatile ten year period in US history.
Here is a brief summary of a very deadly decade.
1963-- President Kennedy assassinated
1963 --Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech
1964 -- Civil Rights Act enacted by Congress outlawing segregation
1965 – US combat troops deployed in Vietnam
1966 --The end of the Production Code, the beginning of the MPAA rating system
1967-- President Lyndon Johnson decides not to seek re-election
1968-- Bobby Kennedy assassinated
1968-- Martin Luther King assassinated
1968-- Democratic National Convention Chicago riots
1968-- Richard Nixon elected President
1968-- 'May 68' French students march, French trade unions join protest
1968-- US Troop strength reaches maximum of 535,000 in Vietnam
1969-- Massive Anti war protests in US and several international cities
1971-- Four students killed on campus of Kent State by National Guard
1973-- Nixon resigns as US President
12) Blockbuster
The films of these directors have made piles of money, and one in particular, Jaws, was responsible for a new Hollywood term : the Blockbuster.
Jaws was produced for 12 million. Domestic gross was 260 million, international gross was 210 million for a box office total of 460 million. 12 million made 460 million.
Star Wars, 1977, budget: 13 million. International gross: 797 million.
13 million makes 797 million? Ladies and Gentleman: Start your film engines….
"Blockbuster" is an economic term that refers to monster box office numbers.
But advertising your film as a 'blockbuster' does not necessarily make it so.
A big budget, a big star, and a brilliant marketing plan do not guarantee the film will achieve 'blockbuster' profits. Ask the makers of Stealth for example.
The following elements are often found in box office 'blockbuster' films.
Genre: action/adventure
Big name international star power like Will Smith
Release:
Major summer holiday-weekend opening
Open on 3-4000 screens in the US.
Open simultaneously in major international cities around the world
Major marketing campaign: TV ads, Taco Bell affiliation, action figures
Taco Bell or McDonalds or fill in the blank, are examples of corporate sponsorship.
The ideas of 'street buzz' or 'word of mouth' are obsolete because the marketing blitz is so complete, you are aware of the film from every possible media source.
Jaws
Novel: Peter Benchley
Director: Steven Spielberg
Roy Scheider
Robert Shaw
Richard Dreyfuss
Hitchcock believed that the most powerful source of fear and terror was the individual viewer’s imagination. People do not respond equally to the same visual stimuli. If you reveal the shark at the beginning of Jaws, all the viewers are not going to be afraid or shocked. Some may be terrified, others may not. But on the other hand, if you wait for an hour to finally show the shark, aren’t people going to get bored waiting for it?
Not if you show evidence and the terrifying consequences of the shark’s presence without actually revealing the shark himself.
- Shark Attack--opening scene of the girl thrashing and dieing in the ocean
- Shark Attack-- blood in the water
- Shark Attack-- surf board with giant teeth marks
- Shark Attack-- panic as everyone races out of the water onto the beach
- Shark Attack-- close ups of screaming mothers who can’t find their kids
- The different scenes of people talking about the shark.
- The authorities trying to restore order
- Looking for the shark out at sea (are we really safe on this boat)?
- Cross cutting between scenes of calm and quiet, then panic and hysteria
- The shark even has his own music theme. When you hear it, you know he’s around and something bad is about to happen.
- During the first hour of the film, Spielberg has increased dramatic tension without revealing the shark. This is a great illustration of why Spielberg is a master storyteller.
13) Influencing Social Change
INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW
'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'
Like Neo Realism, this is a film that deals with a social issue: Unacceptable conditions that existed in government mental health facilities and the questionable treatment of patients. The novel, written by Ken Kesey, reflects his experiences in one such institution, and Michael Douglas was instrumental in getting the material made into a film.
A narrative film appeals to a greater audience than a documentary about the same subject. This film served to raise the awareness level of the average viewer, generate media coverage, build political pressure, and changes were eventually made in mental health facilities. For example, the ‘Lobotomy’ was outlawed as a medical procedure on mental patients.
Movies CAN effect social change.
Film History as the History of Technology
In the early 1980’s, videotape was introduced. To put this innovation in perspective, consider that during the Vietnam War, all the news and documentary footage was shot on film, generally on 16mm stock, while back home, consumer cameras used 8mm film stock. What do all types of film stock have in common? A trip to the film lab for development, which means that there is a waiting or a turnaround period of time. So if there are mistakes or problems with the footage, you don’t know about it until at least a day’s time has gone by. Videotape by definition, does not require development. You press ‘rewind’ and you can see instantaneously what you just shot.
Which leads us back to “Film as a Business”. Videotape rentals and sales represent a new and golden opportunity to generate more revenue for theatrically released films. It also represents an opportunity for filmmakers to make a film, not worry about a distribution deal for theatrical release and market it directly as a video product.
Let’s say you made a film before 1980 and it bombed at the box office in and out of the US and it aired a few times on network television. Now what? Count your losses.
Let’s say you made a film in 1990 and it suffered a negative box office fate. There are many more options to recover your investment and maybe even make a profit--
Pay Per View on Cable - Airing on a Cable station like HBO or Showtime –
DVD rentals at Blockbuster, and DVD sales of your film.
Let's say you made a film in 2010 and it did poorly in the cinemas, there is still hope--
Streaming, downloading, rental, purchase of your film through Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, Vudu, etc.
LEARNING RESOURCES
Textbook Read Chapter 18
Glossary of Terms in the textbook
Instructor’s Introduction Overview
Instructor’s Viewing Guide
Screening: ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ Milos Forman 1975
DISCUSSION
In what ways did McMurphy influence the other patients?
VIEWING GUIDE
Novel: Ken Kesey
Producer: Michael Douglas (Oscar)
Director: Milos Forman (Oscar)
Screeenplay: Bo Goldman (Oscar)
Cinematography: Haskell Wexler (Oscar nominated)
McMurphy: Jack Nicholson (Oscar, lead actor)
Nurse Rached: Louise Fletcher (Oscar, lead actress)
Martini: Danny Devito
Taber: Christopher Lloyd
14) Film School Generations
Introduction and OverviewGeorge Lucas (USC) and Francis Coppola (UCLA) and Martin Scorsese (NYU) are 'first generation' film school graduates from the 60's and early 1970's. Their successful careers made film school a viable avenue into the film business. The study of film at the University level has gone from a Liberal Arts elective to Bachelor and Masters and even Phd programs. Eight years ago, here at UNLV, film became a Major course of study offered through the College of Fine Arts. Today there are over 500 Majors in the Film Department.
Spike Lee (NYU) and John Singleton (USC) represent 'second generation' film school grads. Although one of Lee's NYU student films won a Student Academy Award for Merit, the beginnings of his international reputation as a director began with an award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival for She's Gotta Have It, a black and white feature made on 16mm film shot on location on a budget of less than 165k with a cast of unknown actors including the screen debut of the female protagonist. This is not a studio film, it is a personal film that employs many of the key principals of Italian Neo Realism and French New Wave.
She's Gotta Have It is a character driven film revolving around the female protagonist's desire to be free and independent of men who want to control her and her sexuality. European audiences welcomed Lee as a new cinematic voice and today he enjoys immense international respect as a director.
Quentin Tarantino enjoyed a similar path to success on the road that passes through the Cannes Film Fest. His second film, Reservoir Dogs, screened in 1992 and acquired a small distribution deal from Live Entertainment at the Festival. His next film, Pulp Fiction, won the Cannes Gold Palm for Best Picture in 1994 and achieved big box office numbers in the US, but the point is that European audiences embraced Lee and Tarantino first, and then American distribution companies gave them a chance.
Lee's relationship with Hollywood is strained at best, he makes no secret of his dissatisfaction with the way they do business and portray African Americans in films. At the end of the day, Lee makes the films he wants to make. And one reason why Lee controls his own film destiny is because shortly after NYU, he founded his own film production company, Forty Acres and a Mule.
John Singleton grew up on the West Coast in South Central LA while Spike's childhood was spent in Brooklyn. Their films reflect their different backgrounds and experiences which give their stories a sense of truth and realism that may not otherwise exist. Boyz N the Hood reflects Singleton's experiences in South Central, Do the Right Thing represents Lee's experiences in Brooklyn.
Singleton wrote Boyz N the Hood as a student at USC. Columbia bought the script and John fought for the right to direct it. By the time he graduated, he had a three picture deal with Columbia to write and direct. This film trilogy consisted of: Boyz N the Hood, Poetic Justice and Higher Learning. At the age of 24, Singleton was the youngest person ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Director for Boyz N the Hood. He was also nominated in the Best Screenplay category. Not bad for your first film.
In my opinion, he made a masterpiece in 1997 called Rosewood, and somehow it slipped through the cracks and very few people saw it. But check it out if you have the chance.
Film History as History of TechnologyVCR's and VHS tapes are museum objects. DVD's have replaced them. In the near future, your personal film collection will exist as files on the hard drive of your computer and people will be sharing movie files like they share music files.
When DVD was a new technology, film production companies would release a given film on DVD and that's basically what you got, the film itself. You liked the film so you bought it. Then the production company releases a "director's cut" of the film. Maybe you buy it. Then they release a 'special edition' DVD with interviews with the actors and behind the scenes footage. Do you buy it? Then they release an 'anniversary' edition that includes deleted scenes and audio commentary from the director. Do you buy it? Then they release a 'limited edition' box set that includes a couple other films by the same director. Do you buy it? Then…yes, film is a business.
The future of the film business, I believe, will be determined by digital technology. I think film stock will be replaced by cameras that record images directly to a hard drive (the Panasonic P2 camera can already do this). Theaters will exhibit films digitally not with film projectors, thus no need for film development labs. And film editing will be done digitally on computers, oh wait a sec, that's already happened!