The Evolution of Film

This blog is dedicated to my COM123 (screen studies) course. My journal, My perspective. By Sam Kaar

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Lecture 13 Overview

Dogme 95; perhaps the last significant movement in film in the 20th century

-          Formed in 1995 in Copenhagen

-          Embraced technological advances in filmmaking

-          shares some intention with the ideas behind the French New Wave that also sought to put filmmaking in the hands of people rather than corporations

            “I swear to submit to the following set of rules drawn up and confirmed by DOGME 95:

1.     Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).

2.     The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot).

3.     The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place).

4.     The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).

5.     Optical work and filters are forbidden.

6.     The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)

7.     Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)

8.     Genre movies are not acceptable.

9.     The film format must be Academy 35 mm.

10.  The director must not be credited.

11.  Furthermore I swear as a director to refrain from personal taste! I am no longer an artist. I swear to refrain from creating a ‘work’, as I regard the instant as more important than the whole. My supreme goal is to force the truth out of my characters and settings. I swear to do so by all the means available and at the cost of any good taste and any aesthetic considerations. Thus I make my VOW OF CHASTITY” Copenhagen, Monday 13 March 1995 On behalf of DOGME 95 Lars von Trier; Thomas Vinterberg”

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Film Review: Valley of Saints

The first film set in the endangered lake communities of Kashmir, Valley of Saints blends fiction and documentary to allow and insight into their world. The Valley of Saints follows Gulzar, a young boatman and his friend, as they attempt to escape their war and poverty ridden town. Along the way they meet a scientist, Asifia; a woman braving the curfew to investigate pollution levels. Both men fall for her and rivalries emerge, threatening their boyhood friendship and even their plan of escape. Despite the films desperate feel and clear message, I found that Musa Syeed has captured the beauty in something so dismal. 

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Film Review: Dead Europe

This film follows the story of a gay photographer who, following his father’s suicide and returning his ashes to Greece, discovers a darker side to Europe. Director Tony Krawitz’s portrayal of Europe can be seen as metaphorical for the current financial struggles in the European society. The vivid depictions of gay sex, sex slavery, racism and overall darkness was extremely confronting and quite unpleasing. The decay is essentially transmitted straight through the screen as this dark and disturbing drama has a grimy feel to it and an ever-present sense of dread. I’m not sure how I felt about this film, as something as confronting as this left me rather startled.

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Movie Review: Salad Fingers: Friends

Salad fingers follows the story of a green human who enjoys the feeling of rusty spoons. In this episode we meet his friends-  the finger puppets. soon he realises he’s left a fish in the oven and summons a child to reach it for him. he notices a sharp metal spike sticking out of the wall so he stabs himself because he likes to see his own blood, once this happens he passes out and completely forgets about the child in his oven.  in the film we dive deep into Salad Fingers’ conscience and see one of his finger puppets, full size and distorted in a meat freezer. When salad fingers awakens he is a lot paler due to blood loss, and his house is smoky from the dead child in his oven. This film is bloody  and twisted. I enjoyed this however; the ability to use distorted music and a slow talking character to generate fear is a style not many would be able to accomplish. 

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Film Review: Butterflies

Butterflies is a stop motion animation. It’s a time consuming yet amazing art form and has been executed perfectly in this short film.  This film is quite dark and about a young poor artist being offered a job that would get her money but ruin her imaginative ability. I really enjoyed this film and its mechanical feel. The rapidly rotting flesh of dying butterflies is a visual metaphor for the extinguishment of hope – it's  quite visceral and disturbing tro be honest. Creative block is a feeling that most artists can relate to, and there’s obviously at least something of an autobiographical slant to Peppard’s film. But the movie is ultimately reaffirming, demonstrating how through embracing our creative side, we can rise up into the light.

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Film Review: Barbara

Barbara is a Cold War thriller by Christian Petzold and follows the story of Barbara; a Berlin doctor who was banished to an Eastern German rural hospital as punishment for applying for an exit visa. As her lover plans her escape, Barbara must lay low and wait whilst avoiding friendships. She eventually becomes less defensive and befriends Andre, even though she is still not sure whether he is a spy or not. This film depicts humankinds need and desire for survival. Though Barbara starts out cold and hostile (and understandably so) I was able to see and almost feel  for her  as she progressed through this emotional journey.

An interesting film and well worth a watch 

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Movie Review: A Liars Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Charlie Chapman

The animated film A liars Autobiography is composed of a series of  contrasting animation techniques and styles e.g. 2D and 3D techniques, with narration from left over audio tapes from Chapman himself as well as the cast of Monty Python. The film was surprisingly crude- filled with sex, violence and hints of alcoholism. The film was aethetically very surreal and quite unique. Some highlights of the film include the cast arriving for Python meetings in which the scene is reimagined with them as monkeys, comically graphic sex scenes, and surreal flights which finds Chapman wandering around space, and even sipping spirits with the Queen. Visual technqies included stop motion, cell, 2D, 3D and more, all of which have have very different styles which can cause some episodes to be better than others. The interviews and tv clips were the only thing that held the film together as it kept it slighlty in reality and about a real person.

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Movie Review: Rust and Bone

Rust and Bone, directed by Jaques Audiard is a film about the relationship between whale trainer Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) and street fighter Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts). With no money to his name Ali arrives in Antibes with his 5 year old son, to stay with his sister Anna. Ali gets a job as a bouncer at a nightclub where he runs into Stephanie, a whale trainer. Very early in the film Stephanie suffers a terrible accident and loses both her legs, falling into a depression. The story then is about how they figure out their physical, financial and/or emotional problems as separate people and ultimately together.  

Overall the cinematography aswell as the score are amazing. they work really well together. To me the film seems to be very emotionally based.

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Cloud Atlas: Movie Review

Cloud atlas, directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski is the most expensive independant film to date, and whilst being confusing, it is still very interesting and a joy to watch.

  The plot goes like this: "The reincarnation of a soul travels through time beginning with the diary of a potential slave-owner voyaging across the Pacific in 1849, then a talented composer writing letters to a lover in the Britain's 1930s, followed by a reporter investigating a corrupt case about a US nuclear power-plant in the 1970s, succeeded by a publisher's comical entrapment in a nursing home in 2012, followed by a clone's thrilling escape and rebellion in 2144's Korea, and finally a tribesman fighting cannibals in Hawaii in a post-apocalyptic world past 2300. Each story challenges the corrupt normalities of the time, changing the course of history, and shaping the future through acts of kindness, big and small" Written by Ivan Escobedo.

This movie is highly based on contrast, with a mix of action, romance, drama and sci fi. The intention of the film  was to put forth the idea that one soul is one person and how the same 'person' can react in different time periods and environments. In my opinion this was comunicated to the audience quite poorly. It was a  little bit too complicated to understand.

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Lecture 11 Overview:

Introduction/ changes in America in the 1960s:

- Most studios were taken over by large corporations. e.g. Warner Brothers, Paramount etc.

- Most of the filmmakers who created Hollywood either retired or died, allowing new executives to take their place.

- European Films began to be widely seen in Art House cinemas

- Almost all major studios reportes losses: losing a cumulative $600 million.

- the cheaper cost of on-location filming encouraged more location shoots

- censorship was loosened, enabling more sex and violence to be shown on screen.

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Lecture 10 Overview

Swedish Cinema and Ingmar Bergman:

Bergman began making films in the mid 1940's but the film that brought him to international attention was 'Smiles of a Summer Night' (1955). Common themes in Bergman's films are:

- the search for the meaning of life

- the role of the artist in society

- men's and women's inability to communicate with each other

- the search for god

-the emotional cruelty of human beings

The reason people took note of Bergman was that he took subject matter which no one thought filmable, and presented them to an audience and made great films out of them. His use of cinema technique to take human problems and psychological themes and then create movies from them was not normal and it drew the audience's attention. Persona: Persona as a film was confusing and I didn't know what meanings were intended for the audience to make of it; what was it telling me, what was its intentions, its ultimate meaning. I seems that Bergman had deliberately left the storytelling for the audience to work out. As a contemporary viewer it left me confuse drather than enlightened due to it's abstract qualities.

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Lecture 9 Overview

In the 1950s and 1960s, non hollywood cinema blossomed artistically like no other time since silent film.

Europes two leading filmmaking countries during this period were France and Italy.

France and the French new wave:

- The new wave is a term for a group of filmmakers of the late 1950's and 1960's. although never a formally organised movement, the new wave film- makers were linked by their rejection of classical cinema, their youth, their inexperience and their knowledge of film history.

Examples of the new wave:

- Directors who also wrote screenplay

- use of improvisation in dialogue

- natural lighting instead of lighting setup

- natural locations rather than a studio

- cast of non professional actors

- Existential themes, such as the acceptance of absurdity of human existence.

- Use of jump cuts (removing a section of a continuous shot).

Influence of the French New wave:

the most overwhelming impact of the french new wave was the way it showed that film lovers could simply go out ther eand start making there own films (or so it seemed).

British new wave also emerged in the late 1950's to  early 1960's. it reinvigorated british cinema which had been seen as going downhil for quite some time.

Breathless: Directed by Jean-Luc Godard and with a budget of only $90,000. The film follows Michel, a wanna-be gangster who steals a car and kills a policeman, ultimately ending in Paris trying in seducing a beautiful American blonde woman who doesn't know hes a criminal. When on the run his lover learns that Michel murdered a policeman, is married to another woman and also has several aliases. she betrays him and Michel accepts his grim fate as he is shot to death in the film’s closing scene. The movie was one of the earliest, most influential works of the French New Wave

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Lecture 8 Overview

Film Noir:

Is a term a term invented by the french to descibe a type of Hollywood film made during the 1940s and 1950s, and the words actually mean 'dark film'. Film Noirs tend to have a dark, sombre look and a cynical pessimistic mood. they are usually set in a dark underworld  of crime and corruption. Visually the films are different to that of classical cinema, being heavily influenced by expressionism.

Common Visual Elements of Film Noir:

- Black and white photography

- extreme camera angles

- Use of low light

- Lots of scenes that take place at night time and/ or in dark interior settings

Common narrative elements of film noir:

- use of voice over

- tough, cynical dialogue and attitudes from the characters

- flashbacks instead of linear narrative

- use of unsympethetic characters such as doomed heroes, detectives,  psychopaths, courrupt wealthy people and so on.

The key period of Film Noir was around 1941 to 1955.

Double Indemnity: - An excellent film that I quite enjoyed, even though it was black and white. The film has great dialogue; sharp, clever lines are tossed back and forth between characters and it is as amusing today as it would have been when it was made.

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Lecture 7 Overview

Neo Realism:

Is a term used to describe a movement  in Italian Cinema that began in 1942. It is characterized by films that represented everyday life through a compromise between the real and the documentary.

Features of Neo realist Cinema include:

-          Employing real people in the set rather than actors

-          Shooting on location rather than in a studio

-          Using real life stories rather than amazing ones.

-          Avoids neat storylines, instead uses stories that have loose, episodic structures that evolve naturally.

-          Shooting style similar to that used in a documentary. Use  of natural light, hand held cameras, etc.

Neo Realism grew out of the destruction of Itlay in world war Two as a result of which Italian filmmakers were often forced to use real locations and non- actors out of necessity.

Features of Neo Realism ideology:

-          Emphasis on the value of ordinary people

-          Preoccupation with Italy’s fascist past and the war

-          Compassion and a refusal to make easy moral judgments

-          Emphasis on emotions rather than ideas

-          Criticism towards the harshness and  brutality of the legal authorities

Neo realism was influential because:

-          It established the International reputation of Italian Cinema

-          It encouraged film makers to shoot films outside the studio.

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Lecture 6 Overview

CITIZEN KANE (directed by Orson Welles, 1941) is one of the most influential films ever produced. This was Welles’s first feature film. The film was an attempt to combine all the various forms of movie making into one.

-       Orson Welles shows the fragments of the life of Charles Kane, through  non-conventional Hollywood narration.

-       Unlike traditional Hollywood narrative, citizen Kane combines non-linear narrative and storytelling from multiple viewpoints.

-       This enabled the development of Kane's inner self and the film could look at mankind’s needs of power, greed, lust and anger, creating a less than heroic character who was/ is more true to life. 

  Classical Hollywood cinema:

-       uses classical narration which progresses through psychological motivation.

-       Flashbacks are used as an allowable manipulation of time as it furthers/ deepens the narrative.

-       Built on the principle of ‘invisible style’ or ‘continuity editing’.

-       The camera and sound do not draw attention to themselves

-       Classic Hollywood Cinema stems from the "golden age of Hollywood" between 1927 and 1963.

-       Action addressed towards camera

-       Three point lighting is used

-       Has a distinctive narrative plot: start middle, end

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Lecture 5 Overview

La Grande Illusion:

A 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir. I personally found the characterization very different to what I am used to yet it was an accurate representation of the people at that time period. I also found it interesting at just how big a difference there is between the POW camp displayed in this movie in comparison with the more standard WW2 themed modern movies were POW camps are displayed as hellish and unforgiving places.

French Poetic Realism:

- It is called poetic because of heightened aesthetics which sometimes draw attention to aspects of the film.

- Is recreated realism e.g. stylized and produced in a studio, rather than the realism of a documentary for example.

-  Overall tone of bitterness and nostalgia

- usually presents a fatalistic view of life with the characters living on the margins of society who have a struggling life with a chance of love but fail and end with death or disillusionment.

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Lecture 4 Overview

Russian Formalism

States:

- That you can transfer nothing from a novel to screen except bare plot. 

- Film is a natural extension of theatre and therefore literature as well. 

- There are elements of film influenced by literature, yet not dependant upon it.

- There are other elements of film that remove it completely from the restraints of literature. Explores the limitations of: 

- the relationship between narrative and non-narrative elements - as well as their functions and interdependence

Battleship Potemkin is a 1925 russian formalist silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein. It presents us with a dramatised version of the mutiny that happened in1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers of the tsarist regime. Eisenstein wrote the film to be a revolutionary propaganda film. He edited the film in such a way so as to produce the greatest emotional response, this was done so the viewer would feel sympathy for the rebellious sailors and hatred for their cruel overlords. I found that by cutting between the fearful faces of the citizens and the faceless troops in their uniform, Eisenstien created the perfect memorable argument for the people against the czarist state.

The film twists historical events and expresses them for an assigned purpose.