Look at the History of Cinema

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Look at the History of Cinema"

Bryan Flynn
5 years ago
Views:

The early Chaplin shorts In 1913, there were no Charlie Chaplin movies. In 1914, he made no fewer than 35, in an astonishing outpouring of energy and creativity that made Chaplin the first great star.

1 A Look at the History of Cinema FILMMAKING Understand the role and influence of film and video technology in society, culture and history. Understand the social, cultural, and historical evolution of film and video issues. Understand how film and video reflect ideas, images, and symbols from the culture in which they were made. The early Chaplin shorts In 1913, there were no Charlie Chaplin movies. In 1914, he made no fewer than 35, in an astonishing outpouring of energy and creativity that made Chaplin the first great star. Stardom was to become so inseparable from the movies that it is startling to realize that many early films had unbilled performers. In the earliest days just the moving picture was enough; audiences were astonished by moving trains and gunshots. Then Chaplin and his contemporaries demonstrated how completely the movies could capture a unique personality. (1) Birth of a Nation D.W. Griffith s 1915 film is a tarnished masterpiece, a breakthrough in art and craft, linked to a story so racist, it is almost unwatchable. This was the film that defined the film language, that taught audiences and filmmakers all over the world the emerging grammar of the shot, the montage and the camera. At 159 minutes, it tilted Hollywood s balance away from shorts and toward the more evolved features that would become the backbone of the new art form. What a shame that it also glorified the Ku Klux Klan. (1) Influential, how? Cinema's language is written. DW Griffith s Civil War epic is shockingly racist but it integrated formative film grammar into narrative like no movie before. Here, America embraced a three-hour movie for the first time - one that tethered a thrusting story to close-ups, iris shots, historical authenticity, impressively mounted battle sequences and cross-cutting between parallel action. Money shot: Over to critic James Agee: The most beautiful single shot I have seen in any movie is the battle charge (2)

But the film is less important for its radical politics than its radical syntax.

2 Battleship Potemkin Influential, how? Meaning through montage. Deemed a threat to the capitalist order, Eisenstein s recreation of a 1905 incident in which sailors mutinied against their Czarist officers was banned throughout Europe. But the film is less important for its radical politics than its radical syntax. A gifted cartoonist, Eisenstein composed bold, dramatic images, but realised that they assumed far greater power through the rhythm and rhetoric of their juxtaposition. Eisenstein invented 'montage', and his theories became a foundation of film teaching, with Potemkin a seminal influence on the likes of Hitchcock. Money shot: The Odessa steps sequence - copied and parodied many times (most famously in De Palma s The Untouchables)... (2) Watch The Odessa step sequence Warning: Violence Sergei Eisenstein s 1925 film about a revolutionary uprising of Russian sailors was considered so dangerous that it was still banned decades later in some countries, including its native Soviet Union. It demonstrated Eisenstein s influential theory of montage - of the way images took on new meanings because of the way they were juxtaposed. Potemkin also demonstrated the power of film as politics, polemic and propaganda - power that many regimes, not least the Nazis, would use to alter world history. (1) Watch a clip from The Jazz Singer The Jazz Singer You ain t heard nothin yet! Al Jolson promised in 1927, and movies were never the same. The first talkie was released that year (actually, it was a silent with sound passages tacked on), and although silent film survived through 1928 ( the greatest single year in the history of the movies, argues director Peter Bogdanovich), the talkies were the future. Purists argued that sound destroyed the pure art of silent film; others said the movies were a hybrid from the beginning, borrowing whatever they could from every possible art and science. (1) Influential, how? Movies get mouthy. Let s clear this up. The Jazz Singer wasn t the first talkie. But it was the first feature-length Hollywood talkie, in which spoken dialogue was meshed into the drama. Audiences went mad-crazy as jazz megastar Al Jolson broke into song, ad-libbing with his old mum at the piano. It wasn t much: a song and a few lines of dialogue. But it was enough to change cinema forever. Money shot: Wait a minute, wait a minute You ain t heard nothin yet! (2)

Excessive praise, but world audiences were enthralled by the first full-length cartoon.

3 Money shot: Snow White cleans Dwarf with fwuffy forest animals. (2) Watch a clip from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Eisenstein himself called Disney s 1937 animated feature the greatest film in history. Excessive praise, but world audiences were enthralled by the first full-length cartoon. Animation was as old as the movies (the underlying principle was much older), but Disney was the first to take it seriously as a worthy style for complex characters and themes. Disney s annual features continue to win enormous audiences and have grown in artistry and sophistication; audiences, alas, seem resistant to animation by anyone else, despite some recent success by the geniuses of Japanese anime. (1) Influential, how? Calling the 'toon. "No one's gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture..." Even Walt Disney's wife mocked his first feature-length 'toon, but Walt was vindicated in the end - Snow White took home $66m and seven Oscars. It set the template and the quality-bar, too. Citizen Kane If Birth of a Nation assembled all the breakthroughs before 1915, Orson Welles 1941 masterpiece was the harvest of the emerging art form. It was not the first to use deep-focus photography, or overlapping dialogue, or interlocking flashbacks, or rotating points of view, or trick photography, or a teasing combination of fact and fiction, or a sampling of genres (newsreel, comedy, drama, musical, biopic), or a charismatic director who was what the French later defined as an auteur. But in the way it assembled the pieces, it dazzled audiences and other filmmakers and so fully exploited its resources that Kane is often voted the greatest of all films. (1) Influential, how? Movies get cinematic. The 26-year-old Orson Welles expertly marshalled theatrical influences, dazzling technique, innovations in cinematography and the latest technology to produce a film that showed his fellow (older) filmmakers the sheer scope of the medium. hasn't aged a day. Some of the staging might seem a little hammy today (it is over 60 years old) but Kane's simple, universal subject (the tragedy of an all-powerful man who wants the one thing he can't have) François Truffaut said that Kane is less influential than it is inspirational. We say it's one of the few films that manages to be both. Money shot: The opening tracking shot: an immaculate temptation ( No trespassing ). Afterwards, there's an awful lot of shots - all bang the money... (2) Watch a clip from Citizen Kane

Star Wars There had been blockbusters before, from Birth of a Nation to Gone With the Wind to Lawrence of Arabia. But George Lucas 1977 space opera changed all the rules.

so much money that many of the best young directors gave up their quest for the Great American Film and aimed for the box office crown instead.

4 Star Wars There had been blockbusters before, from Birth of a Nation to Gone With the Wind to Lawrence of Arabia. But George Lucas 1977 space opera changed all the rules. It defined the summer as the prime releasing season, placed a new emphasis on young audiences, used special effects, animation, computers and exhilarating action to speed up the pacing, and grossed so much money that many of the best young directors gave up their quest for the Great American Film and aimed for the box office crown instead. Now most of the top-grossers every year follow in Star Wars footsteps, from Armageddon to The Matrix to Titanic. (1) Influential, how? Cinema gets spectacular. It ate the heart and soul of Hollywood, grumped Paul Schrader. OK, so Star Wars isn t Raging Bull. But George Lucas' ubiquitous space-opera is the most popular film ever made - inspiring a whole generation to fall in love with the whole idea of Going To The Movies. Capturing the heart and dazzling the senses, Star Wars revolutionised CG visual effects, practically invented immersive Dolby Stereo surround-sound and gave audiences something they d never seen or heard before. We re betting Schrader secretly enjoyed it. Money shot: That unbelievable opening, as a deafening Imperial Starship engulfs the star-sprinkled vastness. (2) Watch the opening clip of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Toy Story This delightful 1995 computer-animated feature may have been the first film of the 21st century. It was the first feature made entirely on computers, which allowed more realistic movement of the elements and the point of view, and characters that were more three-dimensional in appearance. Someday, computer-animated movies may be able to re-create real human actors and settings. Whether or not that is desirable, Toy Story demonstrated that the possibility was on the horizon. If films shift from celluloid and flesh and blood to the digital domain, this one will be seen as the turning point. (1) Influential, how? Toons find a new dimension. There d been computer-animated sequences in feature length animation before, but an entire movie? Still, despite the audacious, full-length innovation, the timeless greatness of Toy Story lies in... the story. When you see a great live-action film, you don t walk out and say, That new Panavision camera was staggering, sighs director John Lasseter. The computer should always be in the service of the story. Money shot: The battered toys take revenge on plaything torturer Sid. (2) Watching the a clip from Toy Story

The message was inescapable: Technology will place the capacity for feature filmmaking into the hands of anyone who is sufficiently motivated, and audiences will not demand traditional production

5 The Blair Witch Project Important not for its entertainment value, which was considerable, but for what it represented in technical terms. It was the first indie blockbuster, a film made for about $24,000 and shot entirely on inexpensive hand-held cameras (one film, one video), which grossed more than $150 million. The message was inescapable: Technology will place the capacity for feature filmmaking into the hands of anyone who is sufficiently motivated, and audiences will not demand traditional production values before parting with their money. (1) Influential, how? Movies go digital. The Sundance-conquering micro-budget horror built up a new kind of hype with internet marketing: publishing a dedicated website to feed the Is it real or fake? rumour mill and seep the film and story into public consciousness without any major advertising spend. Due to the surrounding hype, the indie frightner scared up a $140 million US gross from a $35,000 initial budget back in 1999 a movie-biz record-shattering ratio of outlay to profits. Money shot: Heather Donahue s tight-angle apology to camera, a portrait of abject terror. (2) Watch a clip from Blair Witch Project Matrix Influential, how? Lock and load: bullet-time! A string of computer-linked cameras arranged in a big curve so that another box of tricks can jigsaw their pictures together into a moving image? Not excited yet? Us neither, but then a PVC-clad Trinity leapt into the air and everything changed in a thudding heartbeat. (Say thank-you, Zack Snyder). Money shot: Trinity. PVC. Freezeframe. Spin. Kick. Weren t you listening? (2) Watch a clip from Matrix Warning: there is violence.

In 1960, many critics were appalled by what Time called one of the messiest, most nauseating murders ever filmed.

6 Psycho Influential, how? Horror comes home. In many ways, the first truly modern American film: Hollywood movies lost their innocence here, in the shower with the shockingly brutal rubbing-out of the picture s apparent star. In 1960, many critics were appalled by what Time called one of the messiest, most nauseating murders ever filmed. These days, it seems relatively discreet, but overwhelmingly sad not least because it inaugurated the mostly shabby serial depravities of the slasher film. It was also a radical rethink for Hitchcock, a low-budget black-and-white movie with no frills. Money shot: The shower scene, with its multiple cuts, chocolate-sauce blood and implicit nudity. (2) Watch a clip form Psycho Warning: violence and partial nudity Jaws Influential, how? It ushered in the blockbuster. It lives to kill. A mindless eating machine. It is as if God created the devil and gave him JAWS! Jaws created the blockbuster a new breed of pacey crowd-pleaser with big budgets, bigger marketing drives and a broad commercial appeal. The test screenings convinced Universal to spend $700,000 on a TV ad campaign and open in an unprecedented 409 cinemas across the US. For better or worse, Jaws kick-started the practice of selling movies as a summer event. As producer Zanuck put it: Jaws became more than a movie. It became a phenomenon. Money shot: Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) comes face to face with Ben Gardener s corpse in an underwater wreck. A generation of moviegoers throw their popcorn in the air. Some even puke in the bucket (2) Watch a clip from Jaws (1) The 67 Most Influential Films Ever Made Total Film: The Modern Guide to Movies. Totalfilm.com, 20 Mar Oct 2012 pthttp:// (2) 10 most influential films of the century. Robert Ebert. Robertebert.suntimes.com, 30 Dec Oct

Editing. A long process!

Editing. A long process! Editing A long process! the best take master shot long shot shot reverse shot cutaway footage long process involving many-can take months or even years to edit films feature--at least 60 minutes dailies