1918-1928: The Triumph of American Film…

• Citizen Kane (1941) dir. Orson Welles
  • worked creatively with light
  • used a production line system
• The Thief of Bagdad (1924) dir. Raoul Walsh
  • made Bagdad decorative
  • costume design started becoming more complex
  • makeup artists progressed
  • engineers progressed- new lights, new dollies, new cameras, etc.
  • states theme upfront
  • classical and romantic
  • Hollywood’s “claim to fame”
• Desire (1936) dir. Frank Borzage
• Gone with the Wind (1939) dir. Victor Fleming
• Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) dir. Mervyn LeRoy
• Singin’ in the Rain (1952) dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
  • shadows had light
• The Maltese Falcon (1941) dir. John Huston
  • sharper shadows
  • harder lighting
• The Scarlet Empress (1934) dir. Josef von Sternberg
  • Paramount style
  • glamorous
• The Cameraman (1928) dir. Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton
  • fascination with cameras
  • Keaton was the greatest comic image maker
• One Week (1920) dir. Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
  • helped define silent cinema
  • movies are about looking
• Sherlock Jr. (1924) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Buster Keaton
• Three Ages (1923) dir. Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
  • uses overhead shots
  • creative camera position
• Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965) dir. John Spotton
  • improvised and made decisions on the spot
• The General (1926) dir. Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
  • comedy set in the Civil War
  • pattern of jokes
  • climax “most stunning visual event in a film”
• Divine Intervention (2002) dir. Elia Suleiman
  • filmed in deadpan
  • finds grumpiness funny
• Limelight (1952) dir. Charlie Chaplin
  • Keaton shared the screen with Chaplin
  • rehearses a comic movement before filming
• City Lights (1931) dir. Charlie Chaplin
  • shows how his mind works
  • improvises
  • Soviets thought of him as a Marxist
• The Kid (1921) dir. Charlie Chaplin
  • recreated Chaplin’s childhood
  • film humanized comic cinema
  • huge hit around the world
• Bad Timing (1980) dir. Nicolas Roeg
  • tried to show the unconscious lives of his character
  • hands suggest real feelings
• The Great Dictator (1940) dir. Charlie Chaplin
  • musical number
  • makes a buffoon of Hitler but does so classily
• Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953) dir. Jacques Tati
  • inspired by Chaplin
• Toto in Color (1953) dir. Steno
  • in Italy, Toto became popular by inspiration from Chaplin
• Awaara (1951) dir. Raj Kapoor
  • models his screen character likes Chaplin’s characters on the street
• Sunset Boulevard (1950) dir. Billy Wilder
  • shows Chaplin as a master
• Some Like It Hot (1959) dir. Billy Wilder
  • used Chaplin techniques as well
• Luke’s Movie Muddle (1916) dir. Hal Roach
  • comedian most influenced by Chaplin in the 20’s
  • almost too much like Chaplin
• Haunted Spooks (1920) dir. Alfred J. Goulding and Hal Roach
• Never Weaken (1921) dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
  • plays a “nerd” and uses stunts
  • “ballsy dreamer”
• Safety Last! (1923) dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
  • most influential film
  • climax is climactic and an action packed comedy
• I Flunked, But… (1930) dir. Yasujirō Ozu
  • influenced by the “ballsy dreamer”

…And the First of its Rebels

• Nanook of the North (1922) dir. Robert Flaherty
  • longest nonfiction story in the history of film
  • about psychology and mythic struggle against the elements
  • huge hit around the world
  • made headlines
  • documentary as a viable genre was born
• The House Is Black (1963) dir. Forough Farrokhzad
  • used tracking shots
• Sans Soleil (1983) dir. Chris Marker
  • fictional commentary put with nonfiction film
• The Not Dead (2007) dir. Brian Hill
  • interview that turned into poems
• The Perfect Human (1967) (shown as part of The Five Obstructions) dir. Jørgen Leth
  • documentary that was remade 5 times
• The Five Obstructions (2003) dir. Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth
• Blind Husbands (1919) dir. Erich von Stroheim
  • filmed himself square on looming out of the dark
• The Lost Squadron (1932) dir. George Archainbaud and Paul Sloane
  • realism
• Greed (1924) dir. Erich von Stroheim
  • portrays emotions like agony and greed
  • 9 months of shooting
  • actors pushed their limits
  • budget of 1.5 million
• Stroheim in Vienna (1948)
  • returns to Vienna to film because he was not allowed to in Hollywood anymore
  • Vienna is his hometown
• Queen Kelly (1929) (shown as part of Sunset Boulevard) dir. Erich von Stroheim
  • movie never saw the light of day
• The Crowd (1928) dir. King Vidor
  • more realism and romanticism
  • static shots
  • plain clothes for the actress to add to the realism
  • first film to use New York as a setting
  • 7 various endings
  • main character is eventually lost in the crowd
  • showed energy of cities
• The Apartment (1960) dir. Billy Wilder
  • shows perspective with a wide shot of all the desks at a office in New York
• The Trial (1962) dir. Orson Welles
  • used the same techniques as The Apartment
• Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) dir. Yakov Protazanov
  • realism
  • angles
  • captures the idea of cities
  • unlike other films in the 20’s
• Posle Smerti (1915) dir. Yevgeni Bauer
  • uses an open door to create a slit on screen
  • source light is in the shot
  • uses natural light
  • a shot with deep space
  • intense light beam for “death” scene
  • pessimistic films
• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • challenged mainstream cinema
  • actress had never been in a movie
  • filmed only in close up
  • filming was done in silence
  • no depth
  • no glare on actress’s face
  • wanted the scene to have conviction
• Ordet (1955) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • purity of churches formed Dreyer’s eye
• The President (1919) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • simpify/purify images ina protestant ways
  • sets were cluttered
  • wanted to soften the imagery
• Vampyr (1932) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • shadows agaisnt a white wall
  • lots of whitness for effect of simplicity
• Gertrud (1964) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • Dreyer’s last film
  • films throug a white scrim to make the actress look as if she’s in heaven
• Dogville (2003) dir. Lars von Trier
  • setless film
  • opposite of romantic Hollywood cinema like the The Thief of Bagdad
• Vivre sa vie (1962) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
  • film seen in the film was The Passion of Joan of Arc