Lesson 08:Lesson 08:The Art FilmThe Art Film

Professor Aaron Baker

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Previous LecturePrevious Lecture

• Approaches to Film Authorship

• Steven Soderbergh’s Film Traffic (2000)

Today’s LectureToday’s Lecture

• Art-Film Narration-Objectivity

-Subjectivity

-Authorial Commentary

• Central Station (1998)

• History of the Art Film

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Antonioni’s Antonioni’s L’AvventuraL’Avventura (1960) (1960)

Hollywood Vs. Art CinemaHollywood Vs. Art Cinema

• Continuity• Causal, Spatial,

Temporal Clarity• Genre• Utopian• Avoidance of Choice• Invisible Style

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• Gaps• Ambiguity• Less Genre• Realism

-Objective

-Subjective (Form)

• Authorial Commentary

Part I: Art-Film Narration - Part I: Art-Film Narration - ObjectivityObjectivity

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Bicycle Thieves Bicycle Thieves (1948)(1948)

Hollywood RealismHollywood Realism

• Everything Fits • Strong Cause/Effect• Protagonists Solve

Problems, Achieve Goals

• Justice, Love, Reward

• Happy Ending6

Art Film RealismArt Film Realism

• Complexity

• World Unknown, Absurd

• Episodic Events

• Indeterminate Form:-Long Takes

-Abrupt Cutting

• Viewer Interprets7

Y Tu Mama Tambien Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)(2001)

• Alienated Characters

• Challenge of Communication

• Actual Locations

• Hand Held Camera

• Available Light

• Non Professional Actors

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Objective RealityObjective Reality

Real TimeReal Time

• Slower Pacing

• Long Takes

• Less Plot Ellipsis of Story Time

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CheChe (2008) (2008)

Less Cause and EffectLess Cause and Effect

• Gaps

• Chance

• No Deadlines

• Characters Lack Motives, Clear Traits

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Mission Impossible II Mission Impossible II (2000) (2000) Racing to stop bioterrorism.Racing to stop bioterrorism.

Episodic StructureEpisodic Structure

• Events Simply Occur

• Less Causal Linkage

• Parallelisms

• We Compare Agents, Attitudes, Situations

• Viewer Judgment

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The Edge of Heaven The Edge of Heaven (2007)(2007)

Part II: Art-Film Narration - Part II: Art-Film Narration - SubjectivitySubjectivity

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The desert conveys the rejection and The desert conveys the rejection and dislocation felt by Amelia in dislocation felt by Amelia in Babel Babel (2006)(2006)

Mise-en-Scene and Character Mise-en-Scene and Character SubjectivitySubjectivity

• How we see the film’s world expressesmental states of characters.

• Point of View Shots• Light, Color• Editing

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Character More Than PlotCharacter More Than Plot

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• Boundary Situation

• Self Discovery

• “Private Individual’s awareness of fundamental human issues” – Bordwell

• ExistentialismStanley Tucci’s character Stanley Tucci’s character chooses creativity over money in chooses creativity over money in Big Night Big Night (1996)(1996)

StylizationStylization

• Character Subjectivity

• Authorial Commentary

• Extreme wide angle in

Do Right Thing: Intense feelings of character or filmmaker’s judgment?

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TrafficTraffic

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• Blue tint in Cincinnati scenes:– Actual Quality Light

(Realism)– Expression Judge’s

Temperament (Subjectivity)– Authorial Commentary

(Character’s Arrogance)

Bordwell: Different Motives Bordwell: Different Motives Create Ambiguity Create Ambiguity

“A realist aesthetic and an expressionist

aesthetic are hard to merge. The art film

seeks to solve the problem in a sophisticated way; through ambiguity. .

. . . . Put crudely, the procedural slogan of

art-cinema narration might be: ‘Interpret

this film . . . to maximize ambiguity.’”

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• Contrasts with Hollywood Resolution/Happy Ending

• Questions Not Answers

• “The ‘open’ ending . . . of the art cinema . . .will not divulge the outcome” --Bordwell

Open EndingOpen Ending

Director Fatih Akin:Director Fatih Akin:

“If the characters

returned to

Germany, perhaps

the ending would

be neater. But I like

open endings.”

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Part III: Art-Film Narration - Part III: Art-Film Narration - Authorial CommentaryAuthorial Commentary

"I wish you a disturbing evening!" This is how Michael Haneke, who won Best Director award at Cannes in 2005 for Caché (Hidden), introduced his films at a festival in London.

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Narration ForegroundedNarration Foregrounded

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• Open Ending = Story Unfinished

• Self Conscious Narration

• Film is not real life but a representation of it.

• Flashbacks, Flashforwards

• Filmmaker as Commentator

Art Film AuteurArt Film Auteur

• Interviews

• Criticism

• Festivals

• Awards

• Marketing Device

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David LynchDavid Lynch

Journalistic Writing: Fatih AkinJournalistic Writing: Fatih Akin Fatih Akin is a German film director of Turkish descent. He was born in Hamburg in 1973 and studied visual communications at the city's College of Fine Arts. He made his first film, Short Sharp Shock (1998), and won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival with his 2004 film Head- On, which brought him to the attention of international audiences. His latest film, The Edge of Heaven, won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

- From Spiegel Online

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Belatedness Belatedness

• Arriving “Late in the Game”• Anxiety of Influence, Harold Bloom• Art filmmakers know history of cinema

(Filmschool, VCRs, DVDs) • “The more you know, the more you

understand the gap that separates you from the great tradition, and the more you fret about what you can contribute” --David Bordwell

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Response to AnxietyResponse to Anxiety

• References, Allusions to Other Films

• Films Built from Other Movies As Well As Reality

• Show Cinematic Knowledge and Taste

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About About Edge of HeavenEdge of Heaven

• “One scene involving children and a firearm seems almost a direct allusion to Iñárritu’s [Babel]”

--Peter Keough in The Boston Phoenix

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Part IV: Part IV: Central Station Central Station as Art Filmas Art Film

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Complexity/UnknownComplexity/Unknown

• Rio de Janeiro• Poverty • Dora, Retired

Schoolteacher• Josue, orphan• How will they

survive?

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Episodic EventsEpisodic Events

• Dora Writes Letters• Josue’s Mother Killed• Robbery in Station• Dora Attempts to Sell Josue• Trip to Find His Father

.

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Objective RealityObjective Reality

• Brazil, Fifth Most Populus Country in World

• Has One Third of Population in Latin America

• Extreme Economic Inequality• Most of Its 200 Million Poor• Dora’s and Josue’s lives represent this

condition

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Influence of Italian NeorealismInfluence of Italian Neorealism

• Decade After WW II• Italy Empoverished by

War• Real Locations,

Available Light• Non Professional

Actors• Challenges Faced by

Working People ShoeshineShoeshine (1946) (1946)

Central Station Central Station in Neorealist Stylein Neorealist Style

• Real Locations, Available Light (Central do Brasil)

• Non Professionals (Vincius de Oliveria)

• Challenges Faced by Working People (Dora’s “Retirement”, Finding Josue’s Father)

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Clip #1: Robbery in Train StationClip #1: Robbery in Train Station

• Poverty and Crime

• Police Violence As Social Control in Brazil

• Realism in subject, Location and Long Take

• Please watch clip from Central Station.

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Finding Josue’s Father in Finding Josue’s Father in SertaoSertao

• Escaping the City • Backcountry in

Portugese• Dry, desert region

of Northeast Brazil• 67% Illiterate• Per Capita Income

$2000

Director Walter SallesDirector Walter Salleson the Sertao:on the Sertao:

“During the location scout, I was surprised. . . .we were ceaselessly invited to sleep over, to share a room . . . some food, by people who barely subsist.”

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Subjective LandscapeSubjective Landscape

• We see beautiful landscape of Sertao as Dora’s better side emerges

• Trip with Josue is her “boundary situation” of self discovery

• Please watch clip # 2

People’s StoriesPeople’s Stories What is great about the stories from the people in Central do Brasil is that they are so forthcoming, genuine and unfettered, . . . Only much later, . . . Dora goes through her conversion and discovers the need for telling those stories . . . .Dora’s realization that the stories of the people are the source of identity and at the same time the expression of these neo-realist stories are economically viable, even if it is only through her letter writing. --Felix Rebolledo

www.offscreen.com/biblio/phile/essays/central_brasil37

Art Film AuthorshipArt Film Authorship

• Walter Salles• MFA University of

Southern California • Central Station Nominated

Best Foreign Film 2003• British Newspaper The

Guardian: Salles One of Top 40 Directors in World

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Part V: History of the Art FilmPart V: History of the Art Film

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Roots in ModernismRoots in Modernism

• 1920s

• Expressionism

• Surrealism

• Workings of the Mind

• Form

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Critical DiscourseCritical Discourse

• Analysis of Art Film Ambiguity

• Journals and Books

• College and University Courses

• Europe = Art

• U.S. = Commerce

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Critic John SimonCritic John Simon

Post WW II ExistentialismPost WW II Existentialism• Auteur Theory

• Director As Creative Individual in Absurd World

• Viewer Same Creative Responsibility

• College Educated Audience

• Art Houses 42

New HollywoodNew Hollywood

• Decline of Studio System 50s-60s/Young Audience

• Influence of Art Film Style/French New Wave

• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)• Independent Cinema

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SummarySummary

• Art-Film Narration-Objectivity

-Subjectivity

-Authorial Commentary

• Central Station (1998)

• History of the Art Film

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Luis Bunuel’s Luis Bunuel’s ViridianaViridiana (1961) (1961)

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Discussion QuestionDiscussion Question

• After you see Central Station, on the eboard answer the following question as well as respond to a classmate.

• What is the film’s strongest art-film tendency: – Objective reality– Subjective reality– Authorial commentary

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End of Lesson 8End of Lesson 8

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