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World Film History I, 1

World Film History I, 1. Introduction to Film History Moving image before cinema Early French cinema. Registration in 2007-2008. World Film History I-II courses together with the History of Television course form an entity registered as Tet1030e (8 op = 8 ECTS) in the new curriculum

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World Film History I, 1

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  1. World Film History I, 1 Introduction to Film History Moving image before cinema Early French cinema

  2. Registration in 2007-2008 • World Film History I-II courses together with the History of Television course form an entity registered as Tet1030e (8 op = 8 ECTS) in the new curriculum • Within the old curriculum these courses can be registered as Tet121 (2ov), Tet122 (2ov) and Tet 123 (1ov) respectively. This can be done even if one of these codes has already been used.

  3. Completing the three courses • Completing the course involves seeing films at the Finnish Film Archive and from other sources • All three history courses are completed preferably by writing study diaries. It is also possible to write two essays on topics related to the issues discussed during the lectures. • The diaries or essays must be submitted in printed form on Monday two weeks after the last lecture of each course (+ Christmas week). Henry Bacon’s pigeonhole is located in the main building, new side, 4th floor • Minimum length of the texts for each three section is 12 sheets, i.e. about. 22 000 characters • Check the joint homepage for all three courses

  4. Describing: What? Who? Where? When? • What films have been made in different historical situations and circumstances? • What are these films like? How do they differ from other films? • Who financed them? Who made them? Who appear in them? • In what technical, economical, social, cultural and ideological conditions were they made? • What kind of trends and movements have there been? How have they been defined?

  5. Explaining: How? Why? • The aim is to explain how and why things have developed the way they have on the bases of known facts and reasoned argumentation about historical development in respect of a given point of view or views. • Much of film history is about decisions made in order to solve certain problems. These decisions have been influenced by factors related to aesthetic, ethical, ideological, political, practical, technical, financial and other concerns an influences. Which of these have been the most decisive? • As it is not possible to capture any historical issue in all its complexity we must focus on representative or otherwise significant phenomena. • What is relevant in view of the questions we are making?

  6. Some subdivisions of film history I • Aesthetic history concentrates mainly on canonized and influential works, i.e. ones that are generally thought to be artistically significant or influential. It is usually organized according to directors or visionary producers, sometimes according to actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, editors ... • History of film style: How have certain norms come into use, become more or less stabilized and developed thus guiding style on various levels.How have national and international trends emerged?

  7. Some subdivisions of film history II • History of film production, distribution and exhibition: How have technical, economical and practical factors and considerations enabled and condition the making and distributing of certain kinds of films? More specialized questions include technical history, studio history, financing, legal battles, censorship etc. • Reception and film culture: What have films meant to people in various social configurations? What have their roles been in their lives? • Film in relation to society: What kind of ideological concerns have films reflected or propagated? How has cinema been controlled?

  8. The available material • Much of the primary material (films) has been lost – more than ¾ of silent films. The remaining copies are often imperfect. • Secondary material (scripts, other production related material, programme notes, reviews and articles, memoirs, private correspondence etc.) fill in some of the gaps and offer crucial additional information. • Archival work began in France in the 1930s. • The study of early cinema which began in the 1970-80s has revolutionized our understanding of this phase. • Films have been distributed in different forms, say, a sexually more frank version in Europe than in the USA. • Traditional film history has focused to a great extent on canonized films at the expense of popular cinema. This has slowly changed but a lot still needs to be revised.

  9. Periods and turning points (a sketch) • Formation and early silent film • The emergence of feature film and the formation of the classical Hollywood style • The rise of the studio system and mature silent film • The breakthrough of sound film • Early sound film • Film during the Second World War • The last phase and fall of the studio era • The new waves • Contemporary cinema

  10. Moving pictures before films • Magic lantern • Joseph Plateau, Simon Stampfer: Phenakistiscope (1832) • Zoetrope (1833) • Émile Reynard: Praxinoscope (1877). Bands of drawings rear projected on a screen • Various phantasmagoria techniques: fantascope, megascope etc.

  11. Optical toys

  12. Phenakistiscope disc

  13. Phantamasgoria projection

  14. Phantasmagoria projector

  15. Gothic nightmares

  16. Eearly innovators and innovations • Eadweard Muybridge shoots horses (1878) • Etienne Marey • fusil photographique (1882) • chronophotograph (1888) • George Eastman & Henry M. Reichenbach (?) • transparent, flexible film material (1889) • Thomas Edison & W.K.L. Dickson • kinetoscope (1891) • peepshows since (1894) • Louis & Auguste Lumière • Cinématographe • first public screening at Grand Café in Paris 28.12.1895

  17. Famous Lumière films • La sortie des usines Lumière, 1895 • Arrivée d'un train en gare à la Ciotat, 1895 • Barque sortant du port, 1895 • Repas de bébé, 1895 • L'arrosseur arrosé, 1895 • Demolition d’un mur, 1896

  18. Georges Méliès • Après le bal, 1897 • L'affaire Dreyfus, 1899 • L'homme orchestre, 1900 • L'homme à la tête de caoutchouc, 1901 • Escamotage d'une dame chez Robert Houdin • Le couronnement d'Edouard VII, 1902 • Voyage à la lune, 1902 • Voyage a travers l’impossible, 1904

  19. The great French film producers • Charles Pathé: Pathé Frères • founded in 1896 as a phonograph enterprise • film production since 1901 • studio headed by Ferdinand Zecca 1902 • Léon Gaumont: Gaumont • founded in 1895 as a phonograph enterprise • film equipment since 1896 • sound and colour experiments • major director Alice Guy

  20. Early French film genres • Outdoor scenes • Comical sketches • Trick films (à la Méliès) • Sports and acrobatics • Historical scenes, news items, military scenes • "Scènes grivoises d'un caractère piquant" • Dances and ballets • Dramatic and realistic scenes • Féeries (fairytale melodrama) • Religious and biblical topics • Kinephotographic scenes (attempts at combining sound and image) • Miscellaneous scenes

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