Chapter 9: Cinema in an International Frame

1. Chapter 9: Cinema in an International Frame

2. The International Auteur Cinema • Auteurism • Film is an art • The director as artist • 1950s-1960s • Emergence of ‘art cinema’ centered on key international auteurs • Michelangelo Antonioni • Ingmar Bergman • Luis Bunuel • Federico Fellini • Akira Kurosawa

3. Michelangelo Antonioni • Theme of lovelessness and alienation among the middle and upper classes • Images that offer precise visual statements of this theme • The Trilogy: • L’avventura • La Notte • L’eclisse

4. Ingmar Bergman • Intense psychological focus on spiritual and emotional distress • Close collaboration with cinematographers and stock company of actors • The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries become classics of the art cinema • The Trilogy: • Through a Glass Darkly • Winter Light • The Silence

5. Luis Bunuel • Film productions in Mexico, Spain, France, the U.S. • Surealism • Opposition to bourgeois morality • Celebrating anarchy and impulse • Un Chien Andalou – a classic of surrealist film • Film style assaults cinema’s conventions of • Time and space continuity • Narrative logic

6. Federico Fellini • Turns away from the Italian cinema’s tradition of realism • Emphasizes spectacle, pageantry, and dreams • Radically anti-realistic and theatrical style • La Dolce Vita, 8 ½, Juliet of the Spirits, Amarcord

7. Akira Kurosawa • Best known for samurai films • A major influence on American films • 1948-1965 – period of peak artistry • Filmmaking tied to Japan’s post-war recovery • Style based on rare combination of elements • Montage editing, camera movement • The long take, static and motionless compositions

8. New Wave Filmmaking • Film history is marked by periodic ‘new waves’ • Alternative film styles centered on new generations of filmmakers • Italian neo-realism (1940s) • French New Wave (1950s-1960s) • New German Cinema (1970s) • Hong Kong Cinema (1980s)

9. Italian Neo-Realism • Emerges in opposition to glossy studio filmmaking • Aims to portray contemporary social conditions with focus on the lower classes • Film technique would be simple, direct, unembellished • Ossessione (1943) and Open City (1945) • Tremendous influence and legacy • Defines a fundamental approach to realism in cinema

10. The French New Wave • Andre Bazin and Cahiers du Cinema • Film criticism and film directing • Francois Truffaut, “A Certain Tendency” • Auteurism • Debut year – 1959 • The 400 Blows (Truffaut) • Breathless (Godard) • Hiroshima Mon Amour (Resnais) • Location shooting, fluid editing, and cinematic self-consciousness

11. New German Cinema • 1962 Oberhausen manifesto • Call to redefine German cinema and break with existing traditions • State funding of film production stimulates emergence of new auteurs • Fassbinder and Hollywood melodrama • Herzog and the mystical tradition • Wenders and anti-narrative

12. Hong Kong Cinema • Tied to national anxieties about reunification with China • Robust national cinema resists Hollywood influences • John Woo • Hyperviolence and cultural apocalypse • Tsui Hark • Synthesis of martial arts, costume and ghost genres