SP 471 American Film History Week 4

8/14/2019 SP 471 American Film History Week 4

1/36

European Cinema

Europe after WWI

Industry lagged

behind Certainty of pre-war

times challenged inmatters of class, art,

spirituality &politically

Unemployment in the Weimar Republic


2/36

European Cinema

Russia

Influence of Lenin

Filmmakers such asVsevolod Pudovkin

and Sergei

Eisenstein

Montage

Eisensteins Battleship

Potemkin (1925) &

Pudovkins Mother(1926)


3/36

European Cinema

Montage

2. A synonym for editing.

3. An approach to editing

developed by the Sovietfilmmakers of the 1920ssuch as Pudovkin andEisenstein; it emphasizesdynamic, oftendiscontinuous,

relationships betweenshots and the juxtapositionof images to create ideasnot present in either shotby itself


4/36

European Cinema

France

Abel Gance

Wildly experimentalin form & length

Napoleon (1927)


5/36

European Cinema

Germany

Huge influence on

American Cinemaas so many

filmmakers fled the

Nazis

Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang,

Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak


6/36

European Cinema

Expressionism: atheory or practice inart of seeking todepict the subjectiveemotions andresponses thatobjects and events

arouse in the artist


7/36

European Cinema

Not about realism

Visually expressing

the inner emotion,psychology &

spirituality

Distorted reality for

emotional effect


8/36

European Cinema

Film

Robert Wienes

The Cabinet of Dr.

Caligari(1919)

Sets are distorted,

artificial, shadowy,

and disorienting.


9/36

European Cinema

Expressionism

heavily influenced

film noir&Hitchcock, Welles

and many other

directors

The Maltese Falcon,

The Wrong Man,,

Citizen Kane & Children

of Men


10/36

European Cinema

The Weimar

Republic

1919-1933 Economic difficulty

combined with

thriving arts scene

Threepenny Opera & Burning Currency for Warmth


11/36

European Cinema

Universum Film AG

F.W. Murnau

G.W. Pabst Fritz Lang

Josef von Sternberg

Billy Wilder

Lotte Reiniger


12/36

European Cinema G.W. Pabst, 1885-1967

Most successful,artistically & financially

Famous for

collaboration withAmerican actressLouise Brooks

Pandoras Box(1928)

Diary of a Lost Girl(1929)

Returned to Germany &made films during thewar which proved a

problem later


13/36

European Cinema

Josef von Sternberg,1894-1969

The Blue Angel, 1930

First German talkieEnglish and Germanversion shot at thesame time

Gave us MarleneDietrich


14/36

European Cinema

Lotte Reiniger,

1889-1981

Silhouette animator Oldest surviving

animated feature

film

The Adventures of Prince Achmed(1926)
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15/36

European Cinema

F.W. Murnau, 1888-1931

Emigrated to Hollywood in1926

Sunrise (1927) filmed inMovietone Sound on Film -music and effects only

Breakthrough process &

tracking shots Special Academy Award

forBest Picture, Uniqueand Artistic Production

Nosferatu, 1922 & Sunrise, 1927


16/36

European Cinema

Ernst Lubitsch, 1882-1947

Sophisticated

comedies European sensibility

Relied on the raisedeyebrow and not the

specifics

Ninotchka, Three Women & The Shop Around the Corner


17/36

European Cinema

Billy Wilder, 1906-2002

Started as ascreenwriter

Went on to becomeone of the greatest

Hollywood directorsever


18/36

European Cinema

The Lubitsch Touch

Billy Wilder always kept a

sign hanging in his office

that asked, "How wouldLubitsch do it?

At his funeral, Billy Wilder

noted: "No more

Lubitsch." William Wyler

answered: "Worse thanthat - no more Lubitsch

films."

Some Like it Hot


19/36

European Cinema

Fritz Lang, 1890-1976

Started as artist

Went into the filmbusiness at UFA

Broke out with Destiny

(1920) & Dr Mabuse,

the Gambler(1921)

Went on to a long

career in Hollywood

Vital in the development

offilm noir


20/36

European Cinema

Metropolis

1927

Ground-breaking

Science Fiction Bankrupted studio

1/4 film lost

Original version has not

been seen sincepremiere

Additional footage foundlast year in Brazil


21/36

European Cinema


22/36

European Cinema

Blade Runner


23/36


24/36

European Cinema

"Schufftan Process

Angled mirrors to

combine miniatureswith actors


25/36

Sound

The Jazz Singer

(1927)

First full length

picture with sound

sequences

The first all talking

picture was released

the next year (Lightsof New York)

Theatres rushed to

convert to sound


26/36

Sound

Vitaphone 1926-

1930

Sound on disc


27/36

Sound

Sound on film


28/36

Sound

Setback to

cinematic

innovation Could not move

camera


29/36

Sound

Some actors

could

Janet Gaynor, Ronald Coleman,

Greta Garbo & Carol Lombard


30/36

Sound

Some actors could

not make the

transition

Mary Pickford, John Gilbert & Clara Bow


31/36

Sound

Chaplin was richenough to do whathe wanted and

continued to makesilents - City Lights(1931)

Many peoplethought the art

was lost with thecoming of sound.


32/36

Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard(1950)

Dir. by Billy Wilder,written by Wilder &

longtime collaboratorCharles Brackett

With Gloria Swanson areal silent star who nevermade the transition totalkies

Probably first filmnarrated by a dead man(William Holden)


33/36

Sunset Boulevard

Gloria & Gloria


34/36

Sunset Boulevard Stars who played

themselves:

H.B. Warner, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson


35/36

Sunset Boulevard Stars who played

themselves:

Cecil B. DeMille, Director and Hedda Hopper, Gossip Columnist


36/36

Sunset Boulevard Eric von Stroheim played

a version of himself (hecalled it that goddamnedbutler part)

His last Hollywood film,Queen KellywithSwanson from which herlover, Joe Kennedy (yes those Kennedys), hadhim fired from, is used asone of NormaDesmonds films

Documents

SP 471 American Film History Week 4