Unit 2 - Lecture notes 19-36 PDF

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Final Exam/Unit 2 Lecture Notes for Caroline Frick's RTF 306 course...

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10/30/18. 1950S HOLLYWOOD “Gimmicks,” (e.g. smell-o-vision), technologies (e.g. widescreen), and exploitaon. The mid-40s was the peak period of Hollywood film, in the context of WWII. Studios were trying to get more people to go to the theatres (ulized gimmicks/technology). status of the hollywood film industry. Decline of movie palaces with a shi toward drive-ins. ● Families moved away from big cies aer WWII and into suburban neighbourhoods, and were more inclined to view movies at suburban drive-ins than urban theatres. ● Too much of a chore to drive all the way downtown for a film. Most important demographics at this me: families and teenagers. By the 1950s and 1960s, there were thousands of drive-ins. Rise in baby boomers (lots of suburban families). Characteristics of 50s Hollywood Cinema: Bigger, wider, longer, and more colourful cinema (cinemascope and other widescreen systems). More experiments with sound. Experiments with colour began in the 20s/30s. ● Becomes mainstream, standardized, and affordable aer WW2 (e.g. Eastman Color). Longer films (over 3 hours). Using colour to get people to the movies. ● Also used gimmicks such as 3D, smell-o-vision, psychorama, etc. ● Aempt to retain a mass audience (as they were flocking to TV at home). Studios and TV staons baled over exhibion but also collaborated in the 1950s. popular film genres of the 50s and 60s. Biblical and historical epics: ● BIG stars! ● Widescreen! ● Long (over 3 hours)! ● Over the top! Sensaonalist! ● Examples: ○ The Ten Commandments (1956) ○ Ben-Hur (1959) ○ Spartacus (1960) ○ Cleopatra (1963) Musicals: ● Very famous tles ● MGM tles are the most influenal ○ Silk Stockings (1957) ○ Show Boat (1951)

○ Singin' in the Rain (1952) ○ West Side Story (1962) ● Stereo systems in theatre (stereophonic sound) ● Widescreen ● Examples: ○ The Sound of Music (1965) ○ My Fair Lady (1964) Science Fiction: ● Big budget versions of independent exploitaon films ● Oen widescreen, technicolor, and special effects ● Emphasis on this genre post-war ● Examples: ○ The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) ○ The War of the Worlds (1953) ■ Huge blockbuster ■ Won an oscar for special effects Melodramas: ● Over the top, splashy, big colours, costumes, stars ● Dealt with social issues (e.g. civil rights) ● More progressive (e.g. gay characters) ● Examples: ○ Written on the Wind (1956) ○ Any other work by Douglas Sirk status of the hollywood film industry. This aempt to keep people at the theatres with technology becomes more expensive. Overspending by studios on producon causes changes in distribuon and exhibion. Studios become financing and distribuon enes (not as involved in producon anymore). Rise in agents to make packages of talent (actors, directors, etc) for studios. Rise in indie producons. ● Studios forced to surrender vercal integraon model for distribuon/financing. ● The director’s role as a hired hand becomes more diverse. one genre of indie film’s exploitation. Independent, relavely inexpensive producon. Famous directors started their careers here. Made mostly outside of the tradional studio system. Self-financed, ght producon schedules. Very popular in drive-ins with teenagers. Covered controversial topics (erosion of producon code). No big budgets or stars involved but there is acon and monsters.

Example: William Castle (placed emphasis on “ballyhoo,” such as a Jaws screening with people watching in tubes and geng their feet pinched throughout the movie). ● Had unique markeng techniques (“showmanship”). william castle. Couldn’t break into Hollywood studio system. Wanted to enter the market so he used an eccentric promoon/gimmicky approach. Wanted to horrify and SHOCK audiences! Wanted to give audiences a different experience than just sing at home and watching TV. Directed thrillers and promoted them with gimmicks. For example, he used to have theatre chairs that would shock viewers, and live acon ghosts. Example: Macabre (1958) why care about exploitation? Cultural product (vs. aesthec approaches to art). Training ground for key people (e.g. Marn Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, James Cameron, and Jonathan Demme). Influenced Hollywood genres, even today, in terms of style and markeng. Another era in the 20th century of how individuals and companies ulized an effecve approach to distribuon and exhibion. Director was not seen as that important. Cinema is seen as art. american independent producers (aip). AIP made exploitaon films in all genres and served as a training ground for many directors. Influenced Hollywood genres in terms of style and markeng content. AIP production strategy: ● Begin with a tle. ● Test tle with exhibitors (theatre owners, drive-in owners). ● Hire screenwriter and start promoon. ● Start producon. True success was distribuon (AIP had 5 producon units to keep films in over 8,000 theatres). ● Example: War of the Satellites (1958) Took stories from headlines and made a movie. Controversial or lurid subject maer. Promise to shock, llate, horrify, or offend. Exploing blood, horror, and a “lady’s figure.” exploitation genres. Legal restricons began to loosen. Rise in taste cultures and class cultures. “Weirdies”: ● Low budget, sci-fi, monster films.

● Examples: ○ The Astounding She Monster (1958) ○ Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) Sexploitation: ● Example: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) ○ Shows up at drive-ins/theatres. ○ Suggesve, not explicit. “Teen Pics”: ● Rock and roll. ● Juvenile delinquents. ● Clean teens. ● Horror. ● Example: Bikini Beach (1964) Blaxploitation: ● Popular in the 1970s. ● Example: Sha (black detecves, etc). alfred hitchcock (1899-1980). Fun but important films. Had a long life in the industry. He works from the silent film era into the sound era, then exploits nearly every major film technology that influenced the mainstream film industry (e.g. colour, widescreen). background. A Brish man who first studied engineering, then took art classes, then studied adversing. Always was interested in film but studied trade journals. early career. Started in film by creang intertles. Becomes an assistant director. Moves to Germany to work at UFA (tried to create a “cinema Europe” to compete with the US). Returns to London to work in the film industry. Becomes well-known in Europe and the UK. David D. Selznick brings him to the US (foreign talent normally got snatched by Hollywood). Known for cameos in his films. Examples: ● Lifeboat (1944) ● Bon Voyage (1944) Cricized for seeming over-sympathec toward Germans. Becomes US cizen and solidifies his reputaon as a “master of suspense.” Combinaon of suspense, humour, sexual tension, and technology. Suspense

● Not surprises or jump scares. ● Occurs when we know more than the characters do. ● The MacGuffin: a device/image that characters have movaon for in the film (e.g. detecves and a secret document); it drives the plot of the story. Humour (relieving the tension between characters caused by suspense). Sexual tension ● Generally idealized. ● Focus on “A” stars. ● Blonde ladies, debonair men. ● Violence against women. what influenced hitchcock? German cinema (expressionist lighng and set design). Surrealism (e.g. Spellbound, 1945). Soviet Montage (e.g. Psycho, 1960) → Influenced by Kuleshov and Eisenstein. ● Example: 39 Steps (1939) → scream transions to the sound of a train. Ulized emerging technologies: 3D, widescreen, stereo sound, and special effects. ● Example: Dial M For Murder (1945) → originally shot in 3D. hitchcock as “auteur.” Auteur = author in French. The director as the author of the film. 11/6/18. alfred hitchcock (cont.). Suspense Humour Innovave Hitchcock as “auteur” (author) of his films. Always collaboraons (with Selznick and others). Example: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) → example of comedy Hitchcock film (not suspense). Film as a collaborave art. hitchcock by truffaut. Book (later adapted into a documentary) released in the 1960s. Version of interviews between Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut. Director as arst (not hired hand). the french new wave (1959-1968). Collecon of filmmakers (rebels). Reacng against: 1) Dominance of Hollywood in the 1950s (big budget/corporate films). 2) Difficulty of breaking into the French film industry by younger filmmakers (post-WW2).

Hollywood products were being “dumped” on countries in Europe aer WW2 (like France). Tradion of “quality” in the mainstream French cinema of the 1950s (“presge cinema”). It becomes the government’s role to put money into the film industry. Aspiring filmmakers must “apprence” their way up. “nouvelle vague”/new wave. Cinephiles (love movies). Background of filmmakers. ● Cinephile film crics. ○ Andre Bazin and others founded the journal/magazine Cahiers du Cinema. ○ Completely devoted to film. ● Influenced by Hollywood films. ○ NOT contemporary Hollywood films, but OLDER movies. ○ Orson Welles, Howard Hawks, Griffith, Keaton, etc. ○ They respected these filmmakers for their individual styles. ○ ALSO loved film noir and paid tribute to it in their films. Rebelling against mainstream. the new wave and henri langlois. Wanted to emulate Cinematheque Francaise and its director/founder Henri Langlois. Consummate cinephile, film collector, and early film “archivist” (hoarded film prints). Buried films to hide them from the Nazis. Old movies that had no storage space were burned or dumped in the ocean. Langlois wanted to save films by illegally holding onto them. He also did screenings of these films (source for the New Wave people to see old films). Film club clustered around Langlois. new wave style. Opposional polics (against everything, rebels). Limited resources → didn’t have the money to make films with high producon values. Broke tradional cinemac rules (contrasted with smooth Hollywood connuity eding). ● Improvised dialogue. ● Unconvenonal eding. Example: The 400 Blows, A Bout De Souffle/Breathless (1959) directed by Jean-Luc Godard (homage to gangster films and film noir, lots of jump cuts, handheld cameras). 11/7/18. new wave style (cont). Counters Hollywood Narrave. Finding truth (but also propaganda). Doesn’t encompass ALL of French film. Rededicaon to some aspects of cinemac realism.

● Handheld cameras. ● Cinema Verite (“cinema of truth”). ● Locaon shoong (e.g. The 400 Blows). ● Open endings (more “real,” no closure). ● Cheap storytelling (just a person with a camera). ● Rebellion against generic convenons (films that were “against” things). Movie references (loved Hollywood movies). Self-reflexive. ● Movies that referenced other that referenced others, etc. etc. ● Remember, these were people who loved movies! Goal was personal expression within film (director’s expression). auteur theory/politique des auteur. Theory the French believed in. 2 main authors: Francois Truffaut and Andre Bazin most involved in wring Cahiers du Cinema Very influenal in creang a new way of looking at films (films not just commercial products). ● Films as ART (director is the arst/auteur). ● Director is the visionary behind this art. ● Director makes most decisions (not studio head/media mogul). These two men celebrated the DIRECTOR. Directors have a disnct style/trend. Example: The 400 Blows by Truffaut ● Autobiographical ● Truffaut had a difficult childhood ○ Born out of wedlock ○ Emoonally abused ● Before you become an adult, you must suffer “400 Blows” as a child. ● Film feels natural. ● Different aesthecs (freeze frame on kids, no fade). challenging conventional style. An example of New Wave filmmakers challenging the convenonal style was avoiding a standard “glance-object cut” or “shot-reverse shot” (e.g. Notorious, 1946). jean luc godard. Directed Weekend (1967). Upper class, marxist, more wealthy than other directors. Radical filmmaker. Most revoluonary in the 60s. Aacks convenonal cinema. Hollywood = capitalism. ● Art will “free” the world from capitalism. Similar to Eisenstein (wanted to shock the audience).

● E.g. dead bodies, guy playing drums in a forest. ● Wanted to get people to think more crically about the world. ● Context of the 1960s ○ Civil rights movement ○ Breaking up of European/Brish empires ○ Hugh influx of immigrants (to France) ● Moves into mixed media and his fame declines. decline of the french new wave. Polics called into queson (“sexist” and “homophobic” cinema). Lack of unity and coherence between filmmakers. Become mainstream in France/West in general. ● Example: Ocean’s 11 (stylisc trends incorporated into mainstream). legacy of the french new wave. Espoused personal filmmaking (films shouldn’t be corporate entertainment, but ART). Forced film to be taken more seriously in the press/academia (art sanconed by Europeans). ● Classes start being offered in film (and departments emerge). Revised many conventional narrative strategies. Underscored value and impact of film archives (people watching more old movies). Contemporary homages/references (e.g. Flight of the Conchords). Government wants to support French culture so that they don’t become “Americanized.” Films as commodity → films as art (cinema). 11/13/18. JAPANESE CINEMA Increased the role of film fesvals in global cinema. 1951: Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon wins grand prize at Venice Film Fesval. 1952: Rashomon wins best foreign film oscar. Japanese cinema stems back all the way to the 1890s and has a long legacy by the 1950s. japan’s initial exposure to film. Tradion of pre-cinema entertainment (e.g. magic lanterns, shadow shows, etc). 1896: Edison’s Kinetoscope and UK cinema equipment is exported to Japan. ● Significant because Japan had a exclusion act banning foreign imports. 1897: Lumiere shorts exhibited in Tokyo. Films used to document cultures. Major film companies in Japan vercally integrated (formal industry in 1950s). Japan also experimented with producon by making short films (e.g. topicals, gags). japanese cinema characteristics in the silent era. Did NOT imitate western cinema. Fusing technology, characteriscs, and narraves of western culture with nave tradions.

Kabuki theatre was incorporated. ● 17th century form of theatre using elaborate makeup and dramac acng styles. ● Opulent sets and costumes ● Oyama: female impersonators (i.e. male actors). Played all female roles in Kabuki (extends into Japan’s first film generaons). ● Benshi: professional live interpreters in cinema seng (no intertles). ○ Told audience what was happening in the film. ○ Individual styles and very popular. ○ Interpreve (added on insights to film about backstory, emoons, movaons). ○ Benshis were stars and had fan clubs. japanese film industry. Never overshadowed or dominated by Hollywood/Europe in the silent era. 1923 Earthquake alters course of Japanese cinema, as Tokyo was devastated. Rebuilding Tokyo impacted cinema as one of the key industries of the city. ● Film companies leave Tokyo. ● Tokyo rebuilt in a MODERN manner. arrival of sound. One of the last countries to adopt sound. Why?: ● Benshis were very popular so they tried to push against adopon of sound. ● Musicians for theatres lost their jobs when sound emerged. ● Unions fought against the transion. ● Financial issues. Conversion to sound was EXPENSIVE. Concern over US technology leading to western dominance (fear of technological imperialism). Transion finally occurs in 1937. ● Ends Kabuki influence. ● Melodramas less popular. ● Oyama/Benshi fades out as well. two key genres. 1) Jidaigeki: period films (“samurai films”). a) Historical films (stem back centuries of storytelling). 2) Gendai Geki: contemporary films. a) Kid films b) Melodramas c) Gangster films d) “Nonsense” films (farces) two key filmmakers of the 30s/40s. Mizoguchi Kenji (1898-1956): director of both key genres (mostly contemporary). ● Context of WW2 in the late 1930s. ○ Government passes law that films must support war effort.

○ Prompts turn toward samurai films instead of contemporary films. ● Drawn to stories with emoon, mostly related to “feminized” stories. ● Example: Osaka Elegy (1936) ● Distant camera angles (lack of close ups). Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963): begins making films at age 24. ● Not considered exceponal/unusual. ● Post WW2 context → people championing filmmakers. ● Ozu is championed. ● Considers how the environment in which characters interact affects them. ● Character exchanges dominate/stac camera and a lot of interiors. ● Change as painful, posive, and inevitable. ● Example: Tokyo Story (1953) ○ Ozu’s “masterpiece” ○ Family living in modern/westernized seng ○ Mourning loss of children to big city ○ Film fesval trailer ○ Shi in how films are discussed pearl harbour. Japan provokes the US into WW2. 1990s film Pearl Harbor with Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin. ● BIG movie celebrang pearl harbour. Japan only wanted Asians in Asia (end to western imperialism). SNAFU cartoons in response to aack. ● Mischaracterizaons of the Japanese (racist caricatures, etc). ● Mischaracterizaons on BOTH sides (e.g. an-semic depicons of FDR). 11/15/18. Why are certain films taught and discussed? What is naonal cinema? Are hollywood films reflecve of American culture? Why do film archives preserve and restore certain films? world war ii. All countries had propaganda. Japan wanted to liberate Asia from Western imperialism. japanese “golden era” (1950s). Propaganda films (policed by the government). Anything “western” (American/European) was banned (e.g. singing happy birthday, cards). Treated military dra as duty, not something to be emoonal/sad about. Japan told Asia they were coming to liberate them.

US controls Japan aer WW2 (1945), before Rashomon is released. Akira Kurosawa emerges at this me. ● Most idenfiable name in Japanese cinema. ● Directed Rashomon. ○ Employed techniques similar to The 400 Blows. ○ Shot-reverse-shot. ○ Asks: Who do you trust? ○ Subverts the idea that if we see it, it’s true. an alternative cinema? Influence on key American “auteurs” of the 60s, 70s, and beyond, including Robert Altman, Marn Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. ● Cinema seen as ART. ● Championing directors as arsts. impact of us occupation on japanese national cinema. US occupaon lasted from 1945 to 1952. Two main goals laid out by Truman. Creaon of Informaon and Educaon Secon. ● Resembled Office of War Informaon. ● Informaon and educaon secon for the Japanese government. ● Was used to make it clear to Japan the facts of their defeat, war guilt, and why the US was occupying Japan (make it clear that they had been in the wrong). US Government wants to get involved with cultural values represented in Japanese cinema. ● Industry product influx from the US. ● Propaganda between the two countries was prominent. ● These affairs were carried out by the cultural reorientaon commiee. Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo (1992): wrien by Kyoko Hirano that examines American censorship of Japanese cinema during the occupaon of 1945-1952, exposing how the US government used the Japanese film industry to serve its own ends: to inculcate "democratic" principles, to guard against a return to militarism, and, ultimately, to create a trustworthy ally in the Pacific. The US takes Japan’s propaganda films. Films released of Japanese war brides saying that life in the US was GREAT!! us film and occupied japan. MPPDA’s internaonal department advocates for the creaon of the Moon Picture Export Associaon, a legal cartel/monopoly sanconed by the US government to fight foreign monopolies. It was made up of the major Hollywood studios. ● Not many independent voices. Japan, along with Germany and Austria, becomes a key site for the MPEA to show their work. ● Impacts exports and industry structure.

● Studios AND the GOVERNMENT are involved in distribuon, and producing content in post-war Japan. akira kurosawa. Influenced by key western filmmakers (e.g. Hawks, Capra, Ford). Samurai films closely related to US westerns. Film most discussed was a propaganda film (Drunken Angel, 1948). ● Contemporary film noir. japanese cinema post-1950. Films destroyed by an earthquake. ● Then burned by the US aer WW2 (propaganda). ● Then film industry was taken over the the US. Once the US and SCAP le, the film undergoes commercial changes post-WW2. ● Cheaper films make more money overseas. Example: Godzilla (1954) → influenced the US (e.g. Tim Burton). Rashomon’s box office ...