Assigned Films
Who directed Rashomon?
Akira Kurosawa
What film by Ingmar Bergman stars the Swedish silent film director Viktor Sjostrom?
Wild Strawberries
What are the two sides of the French New Wave?
The Cahiers-critics-turned-directors group and the Left Bank
Name at least one director who was part of this movement.
(Any of the following)
Tony Richardson
Karel Reisz
Lindsay Anderson
Jack Clayton
Richard Lester
John Schlesinger
Name one of the three films that pointed to the change in audience (from middle aged living in suburbs to the young or college aged audience) in the late 1960s.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The Graduate (1967)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Who directed The 400 Blows?
Describe the story.
Francois Truffaut
The film centers on Antoine Doinel, a teenage boy growing up in Paris. He repeatedly gets in trouble with adult figures, from his teachers to his parents. At one point he tells his teacher, in order to get out of getting in trouble for being late, that his mother his dead. He runs away from home in an effort to have more independence, hanging out with his friend Rene. He steals his father's typewriter to get some money, but ends up getting caught and sent to a juvenile detention center by the sea. While there, his mother visits him and he sees a psychologists. He breaks free from the center and runs towards the sea, stopping and facing us, as viewers.
What genre of film was Akira Kurosawa known for?
The jidai-geki genre, or the historical genre. While he did make some gendai-geki (set in contemporary times), he tended to make jidai-geki, and its subgenres, the chambara and sengoku-jidai films.
What is the Tradition of Quality? Why is it important?
A romantic cinema practiced in France during and after World War II, which relied heavily on literary adaptations, lavish sets and costumes, elaborate lighting, and special effects.
Truffaut criticized this type of cinema in his article, "A Certain Tendency in French Cinema," especially the screenwriters Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost, proponents of this type of outdated cinema.
What was "free cinema"? And why is it significant to this movement?
First termed by Lindsay Anderson to title a 1956 documentary short screening. Named "free" because of the manner of production of the collective films:
Made free from the pressures of box office
Made free of the propaganda concerns
The Free Cinema movement directly preceded British New Cinema - its directors first made documentary shorts.
What was happening to the Major studios in the 1960s financially? Give at least one example.
The Major studios were falling apart, despite the success of several youth-oriented films. They were bought by large business conglomerates which had nothing to do (with few exceptions) with entertainment in any form. (Any of the following examples)
In 1962 Music Corporation of America acquired Universal.
In 1966, Gulf + Western acquired Paramount.
In 1967, Transamerica Corporation acquired United Artists.
In 1969, Kinney National Company acquired Warner Bros.
Who directed A Taste of Honey?
Describe the story.
What movement is this film a part of?
Tony Richardson
The story centers on Jo, daughter of Helen, who often abandons Jo to her own devices when entertaining suitors. In the course of the film, Jo meets Jimmy, a sailor, with whom she has her first love affair. He leaves because his ship is called away, leaving Jo pregnant. Jo then meets Geoffrey, with whom she shares an apartment. They take care of each other, especially Geoffrey of Jo. Realizing that her problems extend beyond his abilities, he asks her mother, Helen to help as her due date quickly approaches. Though Helen backs away when she first finds out that the child will be mixed-race, she returns, and convinces Geoffrey to leave.
British New Cinema (aka Kitchen Sink Cinema)
What event in history is Godzilla based on?
How do we see it in the film?
The film was modeled after the events that followed testing of the Castle Bravo nuclear bomb, as well as the earlier bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the close of WWII. In 1954, the Lucky Dragon No. 5 tuna fishing boat happened to be in the fallout area for the bomb. The U.S. government had severely underestimated the strength of the bomb and didn't "cordon off" enough of an area to compensate. All the fishermen fell ill to acute radiation poisoning.
We see this event reflected in the film in the monster itself. The director even said that he took the characteristics of the bomb and applied them to Gojira: from the skin texture like the keloid scars of bombing survivors, to its signature weapon, an atomic heat beam.
How did the concept of "la camera stylo" contribute to the theory of the French New Wave? Who coined this term?
The term was first coined by Alexandre Astruc in an article, "The Birth of the New Avant-Garde: la camera stylo." In it, he argues that a filmmaker writes with his camera, just as a writer writes with his pen. The French New Wave directors, especially the Cahiers critic Francois Truffaut, took this idea to heart when he proposed an "auteur driven cinema" as opposed to the existing war-time/post-war "Tradition of Quality."
When did Free Cinema end? How did it transform?
When did British New Cinema end? How did it transform?
Free Cinema ended around 1959, but transformed from short documentary film production to feature film production.
British New Cinema ended around the same time as the French New Wave, 1963/4. The working class hero remained front and center in British cinema, but it transformed from the black and white, gritty, on-location productions, to glossy, big budget, widescreen color productions.
What was the rating system that replaced the Production Code in 1968. Name the categories.
What changes occurred in filmmaking as a result of the new ratings system. Name one film to illustrate an example.
Rated G: General Audience
Rated PG: Parental Guidance Suggested
Rated R: Restricted - Under 17 requires parent or guardian
X rating: not one of the official MPAA ratings
With the ratings changes, filmmakers more overtly explore violence (The Godfather), brutality (Taxi Driver), horror (Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist), gender, sex (Last Picture Show, the sexploitation picture), sexuality, and race and representation (blaxploitation pictures like Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song).
Who directed Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf??
Describe the story.
What movement is this film a part of? How do we see the tendencies of the movement in the film?
Mike Nichols
Middle aged couple Martha and George have a young couple Nick and Honey over after a campus party for drinks and games.
From the beginning, there is clear tension between George and Martha, who seem to be stuck in this marriage and in their current circumstances.
There is also clear tension between George and Nick, who he sees as a rival and a younger, more ambitious version of himself.
When Martha brings up their son to Honey, the night slowly devolves into madness.
It is later revealed that Martha and George had an on-going "game" in their marriage: the story of their non-existent son, which they had built up together to fill the void of their childless marriage.
This is made just before the beginning of New American Cinema, or New Hollywood, which started in 1969.
It points to important changes in American cinema that led to this movement.
The film challenged the Production Code, which was replaced in 1968, in its use of explicit language, the implied sex scene, and the demoralizing of the American family.
George Lucas' Star Wars is loosely based on Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.
Sergio Leone's A Fistfull of Dollars is nearly a shot-for-shot Western version of Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
What are the two main changes in the 1950s in the way filmmakers accessed funding that provided industrial support for the French New Wave directors? What 1956 box office success was partially responsible for the creation of one of them?
1. prime de la qualite (subsidy for quality) - established in 1953 which allowed new directors to make short films
2. avance sur recettes (advance on receipts) system - established in 1959, which allowed first time directors (for feature films) to be funded on the basis of the quality of the script alone
And God Created Woman by Roger Vadim was partly responsible for the creation of avance sur recettes
What was the "angry young man" (or woman) theatre scene?
Why was it important to this movement?
What is an example of a play or film that features material from such a writer.
A group of (mostly) working class playwrights and novelists whose work premiered at the Royal Court Theatre. Their work focused on lower-to-middle or working-class life and were critical of mainstream British culture and its institutions.
It was important to this movement because the novels and plays by these angry young men/women writers were used as source material to create feature film adaptations. They also often were in the same circles - some directors working in theatre and in film concurrently.
Tony Richardson's Look Back in Anger is an adaptation of a play by John Osborne. A Taste of Honey is an adaptation of a play by Shelagh Delaney. Saturday Night and Sunday morning was an adaptation of a novel by Alan Sillitoe.
Name the three different types of backgrounds typical of the New Hollywood directors. Give examples of directors who fit into each category.
1. Had apprenticeships in television studios or in the feature film industry in other production/post-production roles. Examples include Robert Altman, Arthur Penn, Sam Peckinpah, Irvin Kershner, John Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet, and Hal Ashby.
2. Went to film school, of a younger generation. Examples include Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Brian De Palma, etc.).
3. Were film critics and/or documentary filmmakers first. Examples include Peter Bogdonavich (both) and William Friedkin (critic).
Who directed Apocalypse Now?
Describe the story.
What movement is this film a part of? How do we see the tendencies of the movement in the film?
What is this film an adaptation of?
Francis Ford Coppola
The story centers on Captain Willard, who is sent by his superiors to terminate the rogue Colonel Kurtz.
He sets out on a patrol boat with Chief, Chef, Lance, and Mr. Clean up the Nung river.
Along the way, they see strange--and some not so strange--sights, including an orchestrated attack on the Vietcong followed by surfing, and a Playboy Bunny performance in a river-side stadium.
When they finally reach the compound, Willard is captured, but then later released.
In the end, he fulfills his duty, assassinating Kurtz as he says, "The horror, the horror."
The film is part of New Hollywood movement.
We see the tendencies of the movement in the following: the exploration of personal/political topics by exploring the Vietnam war, the violent imagery, without censorship, the bending of the rules of the genre - war genre pushed to the dark side, and that the film's production was driven by the director, produced by his own company, Zoetrope.
The film is an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Which of our modernist directors was known for combining fantasy dream-scapes with poetic impressions of subjective reality?
Give an example of one of his films - describe.
Federico Fellini
8 1/2: centers on a director who is struggling to complete a film project while taking a much-needed spiritual/psychological break at a spa. He meets his mistress there, but then his wife shows up, and he thinks about his life.
What are the stylistic tendencies of the movement? Name at least FIVE, and give examples.
Handheld 35mm camera
On-location shooting
Natural lighting
Direct sound recording with portable sound equipment
Improvised plot and dialogue
Jump cuts and elliptical editing, for jarring effect
Emphasis on mise-en-scene, or the plan sequence
Self-reflexive of the cinematic apparatus
Homage - making allusions to other films (old and new)
Addressing or re-envisioning genre conventions
What are the tendencies in style or subject matter of the movement? Name at least FIVE, and give examples.
Emphasis on the everyday and the working class
Disdain for the welfare state and conservative British Culture
Use of real locations with low-light conditions
Use of high speed (high grain) film stock to work in low-light conditions
Use of hand-held cinematography
Disjointed and/or impressionistic editing
What film marked the beginning of New Hollywood?What were the tendencies of this movement? Give examples.
At what point did the movement transform into the blockbuster age? Give examples. What were the tendencies of these films?
Easy Rider (1969) by Dennis Hopper
The stylistic tendencies differ from filmmaker to filmmaker (each very different). In terms of subject-matter, the films were either:
personal, about subjects close to the filmmaker (Mean Streets by Scorsese)
political, engaging with the politically unstable times (All the President's Men by Pakula or Apocalypse Now by Coppola)
exploring subjects previously off-limits in terms of sex and violence (Taxi Driver by Scorsese, The Last Picture Show by Bogdanovich, etc.)
The movement transformed to the blockbuster age when a series of films each topped one another's box office: The Godfather, The Exorcist, Jaws, and Star Wars.
These films pointed out to producers (who previously had allowed new directors in since they had lost touch with audience base) a new formula for success: subjects/genres that would appeal to the masses, a wide-release distribution pattern, more money spent on advertising, and the potential for sequels and franchising.