Film in the Modernist Era
Who was one of the popular silent film comedians in the early 1900s?
Charlie Chaplin
What was Walt Disney’s first character?
Oswald’s Lucky Rabbit
What is a talkie?
A sound film or film that has a synchronized soundtrack of some kind
What were the theaters that helped the film industry boom in the early 1900s? Name one of them.
Nickelodeon / Movie Palaces
What was Walt Disney’s innovative method? For double, what was the animation he created with the method?
His creation of synchronized sound in animation
“Steamboat Willie,” featuring Mickey Mouse
What religion were the Warner brothers? For double, where did their parents immigrate from?
a. Jewish
b. Poland
Why were silent films (or films in general) so popular in the early 1900s? Name one reason.
Silent films transcended language barriers for immigrants
or
People had money from the economic boom of the early 1900s and movies were cheap
What was the first company/business founded by Walt Disney?
Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City
What was the name of the technology that Warner Bros. helped develop AND what did it do?
The Vitaphone - made it so that sound could be played alongside a film
What was different in Black and White communities regarding film/theater? For double, what created those gaps between those two?
Movie spaces/theaters were separated by race, and the types of movies that were presented were different as well. For Black patrons, first-run movies were not often provided by the distributors, which overall created a gap in film knowledge between different neighborhoods.
What was so sensational about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?
Revolutionized the animated film industry and proved animation’s capability as means for feature-length stories
What were Warner Bros. movies known for?
Tightly budgeted, technically competent entertainment films
Why were people living in the modernist era enjoy watching movies so much?
It allowed them to escape from reality and look towards new fantasies and technology, which is a main theme of modernism.
How was Walt Disney different from the popular entertainment trend at the time? What did he incorporate in his film/cartoon?
He incorporated elements of modernism into the world of Disney. He blurred the line between imagination and reality to produce a universe filled with imaginative animals and characters. This mirrors a key aspect of modernism, which focused on reviving a flexible perception of reality.
Name one of the films mentioned during the earlier presentation and why it was significant.
a. Don Juan - first ever film with sound as music but not dialogue.
b. The Jazz Singer - first ever film with synchronized dialogue
c. Little Caesar - one of the films created by Warner Bros. during the gangster film craze