masters of european formalist cinema: art films from buñuel to bergman
TRANSCRIPT
Masters of European Formalist Cinema:
Art Films from Buñuel toBergman
・ Luis Buñuel (1900-1983 Spanish/Mexican)・ Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007 Sweden)・ Federico Fellini (1920-1993 Italy)・ Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007 Italy)・ Robert Bresson (1901-1999 France)・ Jacques Tati (1908-1982 France)
Luis Buñuel • Luis Buñuel - friend of Salvatore Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca
• Founded film club in Madrid and wrote film reviews
• Entered film producing circles in Paris and made his first film Un Chien Andalou in 1928
• Film of instinct, Freudian and Surrealistic
Luis Buñuel’s Surrealism
• Left Spain after fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Found difficult to get work in US, he settled in Mexico. Returning to Europe after the war, he made a series of films attacking the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie and the church.
• The Discreet Charm of Bourgeoisie (1972)
Luis Buñuel’s Surrealism
• Written by Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière, and directed by Buñuel, the film is a satire about a group of bourgeois friends trying to have dinners together.
• Surrealistic images; Surrealistic occurring (episodes)
• Story within story; dream within dream
Luis Buñuel’s Surrealism
• Dream (surrealistic) elements - satire of bourgeois manners, concerns, preoccupations and hypocrisy.
• One lunch is postponed as the host and hostess have a sex outdoors - not because they cannot control their urge but suppressing it they admit they have it
Luis Buñuel’s Surrealism
• In one failed dinner party, the group of middle class diners are seen on stage but one of them, Henri, is unable to memorize his lines.
• Fear of humiliation in front of the public.
Luis Buñuel’s
Surrealism
• In one dream, the South American ambassador of a fictional country shoots his host for insulting his country. He does so not because the insult is untrue but you do not say such things in public.
• Absurdity of pride, public manners, and etiquette
Federico Fellini
• Fellini is the most original and independent film director with the most distinctive film style.
• Helped inaugurate Neorealismo as a screenwriter but developed his own distinctive cinema style when he became a director.
Dreams in Federico Fellini
Recurring motifs and themes • Circus, festivals, music halls, parades, marches• Clowns, angelic figures, holy fools
Dreams in Federico Fellini
• Whores, nurturing mother figures, large women
Dreams in Federico Fellini
• Childhood and young adulthood memories and recollections
Dreams in Federico Fellini
• Mesmerizing images since his childhood
Dreams in Federico Fellini
• Empty seashores, desolate roads, deserted town squares at night
Dreams in Federico Fellini
• Characters at their most bizarre
Dreams in Federico Fellini
• Hallucinatory or dreamlike imagery• Jungian realization that his ‘extrasensory’ per
ceptions are the psychic manifestation of the unconscious
• Oneiric
8 1/2 (1963)
Magic of Ingmar Bergman• Bergman’s films are noted f
or the bleak depiction of human vulnerability, loneliness and torment.
• Several stages of Bergman’s directorial career.
• Psychological tension, religious anguish, sexual guilt, and other spiritual torment are presented through oneric and magical images.
Ingmar Bergman
• Wild Strawberries (1957) - meditation of old age and the regret and guilt of adolescence
Ingmar Bergman
• Study of narcissistic but confused and alienated characters Persona (1966)