1 / 36

Film History

Week 6 | Date: 2/22/12 | International Cinema Through World War II | Reading: Short History of Film 5. Film History. The Gangster Film European Film Josef von Sternberg Leni Riefenstahl The Three Jeans: Vigo Renoir Cocteau. Film History.

laird
Download Presentation

Film History

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Week 6 | Date: 2/22/12 | International Cinema Through World War II | Reading: Short History of Film 5 Film History

  2. The Gangster Film • European Film • Josef von Sternberg • Leni Riefenstahl • The Three Jeans: • Vigo • Renoir • Cocteau Film History

  3. Special Topics in Film Studies: The Gangster Film Film History Gangster Film

  4. Little Caesar(MervynLeRoy, 1930; 79m) Film History Gangster Film

  5. Film History Edward G. Robinson Gangster Film

  6. Film History Edward G. Robinson Gangster Film

  7. Film History Mervyn LeRoy (1900-1987) Gangster Film

  8. Public Enemy(William Wellman, 1931; 83m) Film History Gangster Film

  9. Film History James Cagney Gangster Film

  10. Film History Gangster Film

  11. William Wellman (1896-1975) Film History Gangster Film

  12. Scarface(Howard Hawks, 1932; 83m) Film History Gangster Film

  13. Howard Hughes, Producer Film History Gangster Film

  14. Ben Hecht, Screenwriter Film History Gangster Film

  15. Howard Hawks (1896-1977) Film History Gangster Film

  16. Film History Gangster Film

  17. European Films • Democratic? • Pace • High Culture? • Sophisticated Themes • Art or Genre? • More Ambitious • The Hollywood Ending Film History

  18. Josef von Sternberg (Austrian, 1894-1969) • Underworld (1927) • Blue Angel (1930) • Morocco (1930) • Blonde Venus (1931) • Shanghai Express (1932) • The Scarlet Empress (1934) Film History

  19. Josef von Sternberg • Grew up in abject poverty on the streets. • His Underworld was one of the first gangster films. • Worked often with Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich (see next slide). • Most of his films are melodramas. Film History

  20. Josef von Sternberg “The iconographic figure of Marlene Dietrich was created by Josef von Sternberg. . . . She starred as the eternal femme fatale in different guises in seven of his films, among the most sensuous, bizarre, exotic, and unnaturalistic films in cinema” (368). Marlene (Maximillian Schell, 1984) Watch scenes from The Blue Angel on the course blog. Film History

  21. Leni Riefenstahl (Germany, 1902-2003) • The Blue Light (1932) • Triumph of the Will (1935) • Olympia (1938) Watch Triumph of the Will in its entirety on the course blog. Film History

  22. Film History • Leni Riefenstahl • Began as an actress (The Blue Light was a mountaineering film. • Hitler was so impressed he offered her unlimited resources to be his filmmaker at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally. • Filmed the 1936 (Jesse Owens) Olympics. • Lived a long life, most of which was spent as a photographer, most interested in anthropological subjects.

  23. Leni Riefenstahl Watch Triumph of the Will in its entirety on the course blog. Film History

  24. Film History • Jean Vigo (France, 1905-1934) • Zero de Conduite1933) • L’Atalante(1934) Watch Zero de Conduit in its entirety on the course blog.

  25. Jean Vigo • The son of an anarchist who died in prison. • Vigo was as anti-authoritarian as his father. • Huge influence on Truffaut, Godard, Lindsey Anderson. • Died of tuberculosis. Watch Vigo on the course blog. Film History

  26. Film History • Jean Renoir (France, 1894-1979) • Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) • Grand Illusion(1937) • The Human Beast (1938) • Rules of the Game (1939) Watch a trailer for Rules of the Game and Renoir’s own intro on the course blog.

  27. Jean Renoir • Got into filmmaking to make his wife (Catherine Hessling) a star. • First films in the Silent Era. • Adapted quickly and well to talkies. • Worked often with the great French actor Michel Simon. • “Renoir’s cinema is egalitarian: there are no heroes or villains” ( 353). • His films “a unique blend of emotions and moods, realism, fantasy, tragedy, and farce” (353). • Worked in America during WW II. Film History

  28. Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). • Son of the great Impressionist painter—together one of the greatest father/son teams in the history of art. Film History Renoir Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil

  29. Jean Renoir • Sopranos’ creator David Chase cites him as a major influence—especially this line from The Rules of the Game: Watch a trailer for Rules of the Game and Renoir’s own intro on the course blog. Well, it would help me not to see anything more, for what’s good, and what’s bad. Because, you see, on this earth there is one thing which is terrible, and that is that everyone has their own reasons. – Octave in Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game Film History

  30. Jean Cocteau (France, 1889-1963) • The Blood of a Poet (1930) • Beauty and the Beast (1945) • Orpheus (1950) • The Testament of Orpheus (1960) Watch Cocteau on the course blog. Film History

  31. Jean Cocteau • First film made at 41. • Friends with such famous artists as Picasso. • Testament of Orpheus largely autobiographical. Film History

  32. Jean Cocteau • Believed film was a form of poetry. • His great theme: the poet caught between the real and the imaginary. The cinema is substantially and naturally poetic. . . . it is dreamlike, because it is close to dreams, . . . and not only that but things in themselves are profoundly poetic: a tree photographed is poetic, a human face photographed is poetic because physicality is poetic in itself, because it is an apparition, because it is full of mystery, because it is full of ambiguity, because it is full of polyvalent meaning, because even a tree is a sign of a linguistic system. But who talks through a tree? God, or reality itself. Therefore the tree as a sign puts us in communication with a mysterious speaker. Therefore, the cinema by directly reproducing objects physically . . . is substantially poetic. This is one aspect of the problem, let's say pre-historic, almost pre-cinematographic.—Pier Paolo Passolini “Poetry is indispensable. I wish I knew what for.—Jean Cocteau Passolini Film History

  33. Jean Cocteau Film History

  34. Jean Cocteau Film History

  35. Film History Jean Cocteau

  36. Film History Jean Cocteau Watch Cocteau on the course blog.

More Related