Political Modernism
What is Political Modernism?
A combination of politically radical themes with aesthetically radical form such as Weekend by Jean-Luc Godard in 1967
What is the Defamiliarizing Effects ("Verfremdungseffekten")?
The reminder to the audience that a play and its characters aren't real by having plays broken into episodes, titles that tell the audience the plot, separation of elements, and unnatural acting
Name 5 parts of Jeanne Dielman's daily routine.
She wakes up, woman things, bath, makes tea, makes dinner, goes shopping, tries talking with her insolent son, folds up and down the sons bed, prostitution, lights the gas heater, dishes. Etc
What film from 2016 was remade at least 24 times?
Perfect Strangers
What is special about Aardman Animations?
They use stop-motion claymation with their characters having wide, toothy grins and visible thumbprints on the clay to give it a handmade feel. Notable films are Wallace and Gromit
Why was the Cannes film festival shut down in 1968?
A series of student strikes with Jean-Luc Godard as a participant
How does Reiner W. Fassbinder differ his techniques from Brechtian ones?
He allows his audience to feel and think rather than witness the emotions, but never feel them
Who was Andrei Tarkovsky?
A filmmaker who is known for his metaphysical, spiritual, and incredibly slow style, rejecting traditional montage in favor for the long take. Notable films are Stalker or Solaris
What is the "Free Camera" approach?
Often associated with the Dardenne Brothers, it is handheld and physically tethered to the protagonist's back/neck to create a nervous or claustrophobic sense of realism
What was special about the film The Colour of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, 1969)?
Poetic cinema in the USSR that is a biography of the poet Sayat-Nova. No plot.
What was special about the film Memories of Underveleopment by Tomas Gutierrez Alea in 1968?
A materpiece of Cuban revolutionary cinema, using a complex, fragmented narrative to show middle-class intellectuals who stay in Cuba after the revolution, but can't find a new place in society
What "Brechtian" techniques were used to make "anti-illusionist" films?
A direct address to the camera, collage structure, disjunctive editing, intertitles, stylized framing and acting, disjunction of sound and image, and mixture of fiction and reality
Who is Helke Sander?
One of the first graduates of the Berlin Film and Television Academy between 1966 and 1969, founding the Action Council for the Liberation of Women within the Socialist German Student League (SDS)
What is the frauen und film?
The first European feminist film journal, founded by Helke Sander in 1974, and distributed at the Berlin film festival
What are the strategies to support European film?
The use of co-productions, state subsidies, television support, private investment, and the European Community
What is the New Left?
An amorphous concern with individual freedom vs collective repression stating that any form of institutional hierarchy is a form of repression, cultural traditions and institutions are the means of social repression of the individual, educational systems maintain the traditional hierarchical system through ideological indoctrination, and family and traditional sexual relations are a form of social repression, with a goal of human independence and personal authenticity
What was the First International Women's Film Seminar?
One of the earliest festivals of films run exclusively by and for women, co-organized by Helke Sander in 1973
Who was Emile De Antonio?
A pioneer of the compilation documentary that didn't use narrators, but rather used existing footage to create political arguments. Notable film is Point of Order in 1964
What is the Cinéma du Look style?
French cinema of the 1980s where it was style over substance, favoring spectacle and high production with directors such as Luc Besson
What was special about the film Z by Costa-Gavras in 1969?
It a political thriller that proved radical politics could be a box-office hit, using high-speed editing and a zoom lens style to make real life Greek political assassination feel like an action movie
Describe with details how the film Ali: Fears Eats the Soul responds to the film All That Heaven Allows. What are two aspects of the original film is it drawing on? What are two changes it make? (4 to 6 sentences, 12 points)
The use of pockets of saturated color, internal frames, rigidity and stillness, and dwelling on people's gazes
What is "sensibilist cinema?"
The arresting image, beautiful or startling images, meant to absorb the spectator in rapt contemplation
Who is Peter Hanke?
A writer who uses concrete images not linked to narrative or symbolism with anti-narrative impulses
What is Slow Cinema?
A global trend of the 21st centruy emphasizing long takes, minimal dialogue, and dead time where it forces the viewer to expdrience time and space differently, often focusing on the mundane with directors like Béla Tarr
What are the perceived benefits of co-productions?
The films could receive subsidies from each nation, spread out financial risk, bigger budgets to compete with Hollywood, access to international markets, and increase the number of stars