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THE AX FIGHT (Timothy Asch & Napoleon Chagnon, Color, Sound, 1976) This is an example of an ethnographic film made by anthropologists. The first section of the film presents a recording of an event: a fight that occurred in a native village. The remainder of the film is concerned with using visual and sound techniques to understand the event. Compare the effects of its methodology with that of LAW AND ORDER. What does this comparison suggest about the role and obligations of the filmmaker, the work of the audience, ambiguity, documentary art?
THE BIG SHAVE (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1967) MEAN STREETS (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1973) THE BIG SHAVE is a student film, and MEAN STREETS is Scorsese's third feature. Both illustrate how he assimilated his study of film, and are influenced by the theories and experimental tradition we have been studying. MEAN STREETS is a landmark as an example of American independent film. A "backyard story" about characters growing up in Manhattan's Little Italy, it can be viewed as a different kind of narrative film in its structure. How would you describe the experience? What is different and compelling about it and its anti-heroes? BLACK IS, BLACK AIN'T (Marlon Riggs, USA, 1995) This excerpt is Riggs' meditation on Black identity and multi-culturalism as he faces the possibility of his own death from AIDS. Video is his medium, and he uses interviews, news footage, observation, studio footage, and staged scenes to present his vision. Observe the "poetic" structuring devices of his script: the gumbo, the river. And the "experimental" approach to documentary. BONNIE & CLYDE (Arthur Penn, USA, 1967) This film was written by Robert Benton and David Newman as a project originally for Truffaut or Godard to direct. It reflects the impact and influence of the French New Wave on American film as it reinvents and transforms the gangster film genre with its injection of comedy, romance, social pathos, and horror. It was so different an American film that it was misunderstood and rejected by critics such as Boseley Crowther of the NY TIMES-- though Crowther changed his mind and revised his original review. BREATHLESS (Jean Luc Godard, France, 1959) With its story by Truffaut, this film reflects Godard's and Truffaut's admiration for the energy and visual style of American "B" movie genres and directors. The visual style of BREATHLESS was much argued about. Its edgy jump-cutting, e.g., was viewed by some as innovative and a re-invention of film grammar, while more conventional viewers wondered whether or not he knew what he was doing as a filmmaker. His technical control is more evident in his use of a fluid moving camera. The film was also embraced for its freer and more casual treatment of sexuality compared to American films of the time. THE 400 BLOWS (Francois Truffaut, France, 1959) As a critic for Andre Bazin's magazine Cahiers du Cinema, Truffaut articulated what came to be known as the "auteur theory" which argued for viewing the director as the author of a film. In his essay (see your required readings) Truffaut suggests several qualities that a good film should have in his view: audacity, be a visual experience, have the personal signature of the director. As Bazin's protege, THE 400 BLOWS is dedicated to Bazin's memory and reflects Bazin's admiration for Italian Neo-realism. More importantly, Truffaut exploits the long take for lyrical and poetic effect, and its open ending directly relates to Bazin's notions about ambiguity in relation to narrative form. GRAND ILLUSION (Jean Renoir, France, 1937) An example of the kind of filmmaker inspiring Andre Bazin to theorize about a form of cinema different from the Eisenstein model based on principles of and exploiting the expressive qualities of MISE-EN-SCENE.Is this film cinematic or filmmed theatre? Which sequences involve you because of their expressivity? How? How do Bazin's ideas about ambiguity, active viewing by the spectator, viewer freedom to explore the frame (the characteristics of mise-en-scene differentiating its usage from formalist montage) surface in relation to viewing this film? THE HUMAN BEAST-excerpt "The Murder of Severine"(Jean Renoir, France, 1938-9) This film was sandwiched between the two films often cited as Renoir's masterpieces. It followed GRAND ILLUSION and preceded RULES OF THE GAME. While it does not reject editing, there is more emphasis on the uninterrupted shot and maintaining spatio-temporal unity with his use of pans. Look at the connection between what he pans from to where the shot ends. Is there a dramatic and thematic purpose for this? What connection is he trying to have you look at? Why? KOYAANISQUATSI- extract (Godfrey Reggio, Color, 87 min., 1983) Koyaanisquatsi is a Hopi Indian word for life out of balance. The sequence we will view is approximately the last 12 minutes of the film. It relevance to us is that what we see are ordinary objects and events made extraordinary by how they have been recorded. Which shots make an impression on you? Which of the characteristics or plastic elements of light media were exploited?
MASCULINE/FEMININE (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1966) Jean-Luc Godard began his career writing reviews and criticism for Andre Bazin's magazine CAHIERS DU CINEMA. His active viewing led him to make his own films, and he was, and still is , perhaps the most influential member of the French New Wave filmmakers who came to prominence during the early 1960's. He continued to be controversial with films such as HAIL MARY (his recent updating of the story of Jesus' mother). MASCULINE/FEMININE ( a film for the children of Marx and Coca-Cola) illustrates the formal innovation of Godard discussed by Brian Henderson, his use of the long take and the influence of cinema verite practice on fiction film. While we might view him as a child of Bazin's film theory, we can also see Eisenstein's influence in his use of editing to contrast/compare dramatic action with philosophical political statements and use of asynchronous sound (voice-over narration, gunshots). Also evident is Rossellini's influence in shooting on the streets and in real-life locations. MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (Maya Deren & Alexander Hamid, USA, 1943, B/W, sound, 18 min.) This film has been heralded as the beginning of the avant-garde New American Cinema movement. It is often cited as an example of the poetic avant-garde film form and feminist cinema. It was Deren's intention in MESHES " to put on film the feeling which a human being experiences about an incident rather than to record the incident". She makes a distinction between photography by which actuality is recorded and revealed , and editing by which those elements may be reordered on an imaginative level to create a new reality. One critic, Lucy Fischer, has noted that Deren as used editing in MESHES " to externalize an inner world and create a universe whose laws of space, time and causality deviate from those of physical reality." Does this film have links with German Expressionism viewed in CALIGARI and the formalism of Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA? Does this film communicate? How? MTV SPORTS This clip suggests the applicability and transfer of Eisenstein's ideas about editing and color into other domains: commercial sports programming. NANOOK OF THE NORTH (Robert J. Flaherty, USA, 1922, B/W, Silent, 65 min.) With this film, Flaherty founded the American romantic tradition of documentary, a form of filmmaking which presents itself as an objective record or observation of the real world, and often takes indigenous peoples, their traditional way of life, and their relationship with their environment as its subject matter. In style, these films recall Lumiere's "actualities". For example, in NANOOK Flaherty uses medium to long shots, even when supposedly filmming inside an igloo, and long takes, as in the seal hunt sequence. These techniques allow the action to unfold "naturally" before us, in "real time and at a "normal" or "objective" viewing distance. It was this use of the long take, which tends to respect and preserve the unities of space and time to a greater degree and does not exploit editing, that marks a very different style of film practice. This unity of time and space is an important characteristic of Andre Bazin's realist aesthetic and his ideas about mise-en-scene.
NEW ORDER(Robert Longo)- BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE- Very similar to Ballet Mecanique and different from many other examples of music video in its non-narrative and unconventional visual form. Directed by the painter Robert Longo, it uses rhythmic montage between sound and picture for a purely sensory experience. NO LIES (Mitchell Block, USA, Color, Sound, 1973) This is a provocative film that questions the nature of documentary film. It uses sync sound or "lip sync" but no voice-over or music. On several levels it probes manipulation: personsal (filmmaker/subject), filmic, filmmaker-audience. Note the number of edits in this film. What effects do its use of sound and editing have on you as a viewer? How does this film relate to a discussion of "realism", "the long take", "conventions," "transparent film technique", "Illusionism"? NOTORIOUS- extract- 13 min.(Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1946, B/W, Sound, ) This is an example of the "classic" Hollywood dramatic narrative film. Hitchcock was a master of staging events for the camera, and exploiting editing techniques for impact and audience involvement. In terms of staging, note how he moves our attention from wide-angle to close-up detail within the same shot for dramatic effect; also, the elaborate choreography of camera and subject movement. Observe how he exploits parallel action editing to create tension during the key-theft, champagne, and wine cellar scenes.
OPEN CITY-excerpt "Nazi Search & Shooting of Pina"(Roberto Rossellini, Italy, 1945) This film is an example of Italian Neo-Realism. It deals with the Italian Resistance movement of freedom fighters against the Nazis during WWII. Much of this film was shot on the streets of Rome. Many non-actors were used. Both of these characteristics brought a greater sense of "reality" or realism to the melodramatic story being told in comparison with many earlier European films which were made within studios, and certainly in comparison to Hollywood films of the same period. What also made the film controversial was its injection of politics into the story: the priest who evolves into an activist witness, its heroic view of the freedom fighters who were allied with the Communists. OSCAR MICHEAUX (USA- selected work) Oscar Micheaux was a pioneering African-American filmmaker, who functioned as an independent filmmaker in the 1930's and 40's --- decades before that term came into use. His films were low budget, often shot "on location" by necessity, and ,while made for segregated audiences and theatres of the period, they anticipate similar later efforts of the American Underground, Italian Neo-realist, the French New Wave film movements. OSCAR TRIBUTE TO AKIRA KUROSAWA This retrospective tribute finds Kurosawa at this late period in his career still dealing with basic questions about the nature of cinema and his practice. PIERROT LE FOU (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1965) As a critic, Godard responded to American gangster films and musicals (the color work of Vincente Minnelli on MGM musicals especially). This film shows those influences. It has been described as a Godard film for people who don't like Godard; perhaps because of its sensory pleasures (e.g. the use of primary colors, its stars and locations). LA RONDE-introduction and opening 2 episodes (Max Ophuls, France, 1950) Ophuls -along with Renoir, Orson Welles, and F.W. Murnau - is viewed as a master of mise-en-scene and the expressive use of camera movement in this film and others such as LOLA MONTES, THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE, and LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN. LA RONDE illustrates the creative potential of the long take for story telling, and its viability as an alternative to montage. Is it filmmed theatre? Is the director a passive recorder of action? What anti-illusionist or reflexive gestures does it make? SCORPIO RISING (Kenneth Anger, USA, 1964, 28 minutes) Anger's experimental film circulated as an underground film. Its use of imagery is influenced by Eisenstein (Ideogram, associational editing). Martin Scorsese credits Anger's expressive use of pop music for his sound rack as an inspiration for MEAN STREETS. SHADOWS (John Cassavetes, USA, 1961) This film about young bohemian jazz musicians and writers reflects the influence of the French New Wave on American film. A "backyard story" shot on the streets for $40,000 and using Manhattan as its set, it is similar to its European counterparts in its fragmented narrative, improvisatory style, and serious treatment of youth, inter-racial love, and artistic struggle and compromise. It is interesting to compare it with Stanley Kubrick's KILLER'S KISS (1955) and Robert Frank's PULL MY DAISY (1959). SILVERLAKE LIFE (Tom Joslin, Mark Massi, Peter Friedman; USA, 1992) The subjects are the makers of this documentary. How is their POV different from conventional documentaries? Does it result in "priviliged moments?" How does it connect with Pryluck's essay on documentary ethics? Video is the recording medium, and its usage illustrates an extension of Alexandre Astruc's concept of the camera stylo (or camera pen). SINK OR SWIM (Su Friedrich, USA, 1990) Another backyard, another cultural voice and another example of structural form for narrative. Friedrich is a filmmaker whose work comes out of the traditions of the American avant-garde. This example of her work blurs formal distinctions between narrative, documentary, and experimental forms. SUNRISE-extract (F. W. Murnau, USA, 1927, B/W, Silent) Murnau was a German director associated with Expressionism. His most notable German films were NOSFERATU, one of the earliest vampire movies, and THE LAST LAUGH. SUNRISE exhibits and exploits characteristics of mise-en-scene such as moving camera and expressive lighting, and is regarded as one of the most beautiful and greatest films of the silent period. It is also one of the first films to exploit sound effects. U2-THE REAL THING This clip employs rhythmic montage along with exploiting other characteristics of the medium such as camera movement to generate its impact. It also illustrates how contemporary state of the art practice extends the degree of editing observed with Eisenstein's Potemkin even further in the age of the computer. It also serves as an example of KINETIC EFFECTS created. VERTIGO (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1958)-excerpt What plastic elements does Hitchock exploit in the hotel room scenes? What is Bernard Herrmann's contribution? YUKON JOURNAL (David Parry, USA) Professor Parry's work and his discussion presents an exploratory model for making documentary. It was started with no firm plan in mind. Does it present any formal problems? What are the positive features you can observe in the work as a result of his methods? Does it illustrate and connect with ideas about open form examined this semester?
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