american film history i, week 4 - expressionism

8/8/2019 American Film History I, Week 4 - Expressionism

1/32

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


2/32

European Cinema Russia

Lev Kuleshov the

Father of SovietCinema and the

Kuleshov Effect

The viewers

interpretation isdetermined by

context (or

sequence)


3/32

European Cinema Russia

Influence of Lenin

and the Revolution Filmmakers such as

Vsevolod Pudovkin

and Sergei

Eisenstein

Eisensteins Battleship Potemkin

(1925) & Pudovkins Mother(1926)


4/32

European CinemaMontage

1. A synonym for editing.

2. 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


5/32

European Cinema France

Abel Gance

Wildly experimentalin form & length

Napoleon (1927)


6/32

European Cinema Germany

Huge influence on

American Cinema asso many filmmakers

fled the Nazis

Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang,

Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak


7/32

European Cinema Expressionism: a

theory or practice in

art of seeking todepict the subjectiveemotions andresponses thatobjects and eventsarouse in the artist


8/32

European Cinema Not about realism

Visually expressing

the inner emotion,psychology &

spirituality

Distorted reality for

emotional effect


9/32

European Cinema Film

Robert Wienes

The Cabinet of Dr.

Caligari(1919)

Sets are distorted,

artificial, shadowy,

and disorienting.


10/32

European Cinema Expressionism

heavily influenced

film noir& Hitchcock,Welles and many

other directors

The Maltese Falcon,

The Wrong Man,,

Citizen Kane & Children

of Men


11/32

European Cinema The Weimar

Republic, 1919-

1933 Economic difficulty

combined with

thriving arts scene

Threepenny Opera & Burning Currency for Warmth


12/32

European Cinema Universum Film AG

F.W. Murnau

G.W. Pabst

Fritz Lang

Josef von Sternberg

Billy Wilder

Lotte Reiniger


13/32

European Cinema G.W. Pabst, 1885-1967 Most successful,

artistically & financially

Famous for collaboration

with American actressLouise Brooks

Pandoras Box(1928)

Diary of a Lost Girl(1929)

Returned to Germany &made films during thewar which proved aproblem later


14/32

European Cinema Josef von Sternberg,

1894-1969 The Blue Angel, 1930

First German talkieEnglish and Germanversion shot at the sametime

Gave us Marlene Dietrich


15/32

European Cinema Lotte Reiniger,

1889-1981

Silhouette animator Oldest surviving

animated feature film

The Adventures of Prince Achmed(1926)


16/32

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, Unique andArtistic Production

Nosferatu, 1922 & Sunrise, 1927


17/32

European Cinema Ernst Lubitsch, 1882-

1947 Sophisticated

comedies European sensibility

Relied on the raisedeyebrow and not thespecifics

Ninotchka,

Three Women &

The

Shop Around the Corner


18/32

European Cinema Billy Wilder, 1906-

2002

Started as ascreenwriter

Went on to becomeone of the greatestHollywood directors

ever


19/32

European Cinema The Lubitsch Touch

Billy Wilder always kept a

sign hanging in his office

that asked, "How would

Lubitsch do it?

At his funeral, Billy Wilder

noted: "No more

Lubitsch." William Wyler

answered: "Worse thanthat - no more Lubitsch

films."

Some Like it Hot


20/32

European Cinema Fritz Lang, 1890-1976

Started as artist

Went into the film

business 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


21/32

European Cinema Metropolis

1927

Ground-breaking Science

Fiction Bankrupted studio

1/4 film lost until recently -Additional footage found avault in Brazil

Original version has notbeen seen since premierealthough with the foundfootage, the film is nowonly missing about 10minutes


22/32

European Cinema


23/32

European Cinema

Blade Runner


24/32

European Cinema


25/32

European Cinema "Schufftan Process

Angled mirrors to

combine miniatureswith actors


26/32

European Cinema Expressionism

heavily influenced

film noir&Hitchcock, Welles

and many other

directors

The Maltese Falcon,

The Wrong Man,,

Citizen Kane & Children

of Men


27/32

European Cinema The Look

Stark black & white

chiaroscuro (Italian forlight-dark) Physical effects of light

on surfaces

Dark and light with littlegray

Excessive shadows

Low key

High Contrast

Out of the Past, 1947

T-Men, 1947


28/32

European Cinema The Heroes or anti-heroes

Cannot escape their past or

human nature

Conflicted

Morally ambiguous

Protagonist often doomed to

repeat past mistakes or pay

for recently made mistakes

The Big Sleep, 1946


29/32

European Cinema Female archetypes

The Good Girl

Trustworthy

Loving Reliable

The Femme Fatale

Duplicitous

Predatory

Tough Gorgeous

Independent

Out of the Past, 1947


30/32

European Cinema M(1931)

M short for Mrder,German for murderer

Invented the psycho-killergenre

Written while the real killerstill on the loose

Used real criminals asextras


31/32

European Cinema Threw Peter Lorre down

the stairs about a dozentimes

Groundbreaking use ofvoiceover

Irving Thalberg of MGMarranged a screeningsaying they should bemaking films like this

although he also said henever would have made afilm about a child-killer


32/32

Film Noir The Big Heat(1953) dir.

by Fritz Lang

Part of the Starring Glenn

Ford, Gloria Grahame and

Lee Marvin

Inverts the classic femme

fatale who ruins everyones

life One of his later (second

wave of his American

career) optimistic films

american film history i, week 4 - expressionism

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