Monday 28, 2002

2:00 - 2:20 Introduction

Hand back Free writes: Professor Comments

    Proofreading is important; grades will be high on free writes. Grades on essays will be different; the average grade on essays is generally a C. The first free writes were good!

Wed- first film, be on time on film days. If you can't stay the entire time it's our responsibility to get in the library and finish viewing the film. The questions that accompany the movie are due at the beginning of the next class.

2:20 - 2:30 Lecture

    Don't forget about Cook that is on reserve in the Library. Reviewing discussion from last time:  German films from the twenties often used distortion, attempting to get at inner truth by distorting outer reality.  Soviets on other hand generally used editing to get to the truth, they followed scene A by scene B, hoping that viewers would be led to scene C in their heads. French films of the twenties were experimental.  On the one hand they were surrealist, distorting the image and presenting absurdities.  On the other hand they used a manipulated form of realism, sometime called impressionism, hoping to get at the truth. Camera work and speed are important. Reality is captured through the director’s lens and not just through the camera’s lens.

    Napoleon  by Abel Gans – clip shows the famous snowfall fight scene, editing and rapid cutting is authentic. They used cameras that could rotate before mechanical cameras were invented.

Wanted the viewers to feel the shot. They even put cameras on horses.

Napoleon used more techniques than any film before it. Very inventitive, they were trying to do more than Hollywood.

2:38 - 2:45 Continuing Lecture

Not all critics in New York were impressed by French film. Sometimes felt they were too long -   

France and Hollywood competed for market share in France.  France set up a quota system.-   Hollywood countered by banning French films.

The prime cinematic movement of the thirties in France is known as poetic realism.  The main practioners are -   Jean Renoir, and Marcel Carne  Poetic realism derives from the belief that reality needed form, hence French director’s gave reality form.

"The Grand Illusion"- (Jean Renoir, 1937) anti war film about POWS who are trying to break out of

prison.

2:45 - 2:51 "The Grand Illusion"

    A movie performed in prison, very glorious. A lot of dancing, and music  in the clip we watched. Looks like a Las Vegas show, but the women are men in drag. The scene following of singing the French anthem was an indirect shot at the Germans.

2:51 --2:54 Lecture of Film

    : Stage production Renoir's camera work is good. The camera is already in place before the action. The people walk into the screen.

2:54 - 2:56 Movie Continuation

    The same movie. Two escapees have made it out of prison. In a woman's house whose family has been killed in battle. Another snow scene, while POWS escaping in a valley. Authorities decide to let them go.

2:56 - 3:03 Lecture

    Now were up to 1945. "The Grand Illusion" was banned when the Germans

come in. Carne, French director, "Children of Paradise".

3:03 - 3:06 "Children of Paradise"

    The final scene of a long complicated movie. (A crowd scene) A man

running trying to get to his love. He doesn't succeed in getting through the crowd.

3:06 - 3:08    Reimer showed clips from two films that could have been influenced by Children of Paradise.  In "Black Orpheus"

another crowd scene. Chaos, too much going on.

3:08 - 3:10 "Strange Days" Hollywood Film. Crowd scene. Black Woman running from cops who shoot through people trying to get her. (Angela Basset).

3:10 - 3:14 Lecture

    Neo- Realism letting the camera find the story.

3:14 - 3:20 "Rome Open City"

    Army scene, destroyed city of Rome. Man on the roof, while Italians who fought against Nazis are running. The last part of film turns very structured Clip showed torture of a POW while a priest condemns the German occupation of Italy.