Film+History

Film Art and Film History =

= =The Early Cinema (1893-1903) = ===--Technology-driven (Eadweard Muybridge, American Photographer: series of photos of running horse in 1878; Etienne-Jules Marey invented a camera that recorded 12 separate images in 1882; George Eastman introduced a crude flexible film base, celluloid in 1889; Projectors used to show slides became magic lantern film projectors with shutters, cranks as in Marey's Maltese cross gear in 1888 camera ===

===--Edison Manufacturing Company (Kinetoscope) and Lumiere Freres in France and Georges Melies (Robert William Paul's projector), a special effects magician (see //Hugo//). === = = =The Development of the Classical Hollywood Cinema (1908-1927) =

--Fled West to avoid MPPC, perhaps (see DW Griffith and others' companies, as explained on independent cinema page.
= = =German Expressionism (1919-1926) =

--Still evidenced in Film Noir
=French Impressionism (industry-driven) and Surrealism (independent) (1918-1930) =

--Bunuel continued to work as a surrealist after rise of communism encouraged changes in filmmakers
=Soviet Montage (1924-1930) =

--No Single Protagonist
=The Classical Hollywood Cinema after the Coming of Sound =

--Warner Brothers: small studio specializing in less expensive genre pictures (gangster and musicals)
===--Universal: Imaginative filmmaking rather than established stars led to atmospheric horror films such as //Frankenstein// (1931) and //The Old Dark House// (1932) ===

--Technicolor and Deep Focus made a mark, but classical Hollywood narrative relatively unchanged
=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Italian Neorealism (1942-1951) = ===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">--Economic, political, and cultural factors helped Neorealism survive--distinctive style because studio destroyed (move to actual locales and photographic work with raw roughness of documentaries, dubbing (which allowed filmmakers to work on location with smaller crews and to move the camera freely), and loosened narrative relations and ambiguity until censorship and state pressures after 1949 constrained the movement and individual directors pursued individualized concerns. ===

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The French New Wave (1959-1964) = ===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">--Grew out of Italian Neorealism and auteurism: had a casual look, a moving camera that panned and tracked to follow characters or trace relations (handheld camera), casual humor, esoteric references to other films in Hollywood or Europe, plot experimentation, protagonists without goals, ambiguous endings. ===

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking = ===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">--What do when movie attendance flattens? Appeal to youth with counterculture-flavored films, draw on "movie brats" who (like New Wave, were film critics first)--went to film school instead of coming up through the ranks, based new Hollywood on old Hollywood but sometimes feed on European cinema (Woody Allen and Robert Altman), New New Hollywood grew out of Indie successes, filmmakers outside Hollywood (foreign, female, people of color), shift to mainstream for indies (David Lynch, David Cronenberg), Continuing indies. === ===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">--New Technologies: deep focus, motion-controlled techniques, special effects (Lucas's Indiustrial LIght and Magic), camera movement and slow motion for emotional impact, split-screen, long-takes, revisions of conventions (both narrative and style), emergence of Indiewood (major studios acquired Miramax and October Films, for example), changes to Sundance, find ways to continue to challenge Hollywood conventions. ===

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">--Action sequences were meticulously choreographed, but connecting scenes were often improvised and shot quickly (see Jackie Chan)
=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Film History Powerpoints: =

== =<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Film Art Chapter 12 Resources: [|Discussion Questions] =