Class Minutes                                                         

European Cinema

 January 17, 2001

 Class begins with a student asking a question: If clips that we watch in class are going to be on the essay part of the tests how are they going to be asked, by title or just overall information about the clip?

Dr. Reimer answers by saying sometimes you might but usually you will need to know the overall main aspects of each clip that we view in class.

 Dr. Reimer then moves into what we will be discussing in class for that day. He begins by telling us the main aspects of movies and how it can affect the way we view them.

 The first aspect that Dr. Reimer talked about was:  Visually- how we look at movies.  Dr. Reimer describes to us how through a camera there are many choices on how you wish to shoot a film. There are up, down, side to side, forward, and backwards; these all-present different types of motion. An example would be Ernie on Sesame Street when he talks about near and far. By using exaggeration and comedy he gets the point across. There were two ways of making movies in the early stages of movie making:

            1^st-simply turn on the camera and shoot. For example: The recent film Blair Witch follows this style as do the Danish films that adhere to the rules of Dogma 95. 

            2^nd- manipulation by the camera and through editing.  Most movies follow this style today.

Dr. Reimer then describes Mise-en-scene. This means how things are placed in the scene.

Things could be people or objects.  It’s very important on how the people and objects are positioned, but sometimes it’s not, depending on what type of film is being filmed.  Another important aspect is movement within the scene, regarding how people move in and out of the camera’s view.  This leads to the framing of the scene.  An example is closed frame, which means that things do not exist beyond the scene.  The last aspect Dr. Reimer talked about dealing with placement is depth of field.  Some use two-dimensional and some use three dimensional with texture.

 Note:  Dr. Reimer states that a good director can make an audience jump or remain silent, depending on the director’s own intentions.

 Lighting: This was the next topic Dr. Reimer discussed.  Lighting is a must, but has several different ways it can be applied in a scene.  It can come from behind, form the front, to create shadows, or a spot light, and so on.  Example: A German filmmaker by the name of RW. Fassbinder was known for his dark films.

 Music:  Music can be off screen or on screen.  On screen (diegetic) meaning the characters can hear it, off screen (non-diagetic) the viewers hear it (background music).  An example of this would be the movie “Flashdance”:  the actor puts the needle on the record and the camera picks this up resulting in this being important to the audience’s attention.  Dr. Reimer tells us that we will watch a clip where we will hear music that a character hears, but no one else does.

 Sound Effects:  These can range from authentic sounds that the camera picks up, or fabricated sounds added by a sound effects crew in post-production.

 Dialogue:  There are many types of dialogue ranging from monologue, narrator (in the movie or not) and omniscient.

 Content:

 Faces:  These are very important.  An example of this is when you are in a movie house, you might see a close-up of a face that can result in an emotional response.

 Violence:  There has been violence in movies ever since 1895 until present.

 Clothes:  Clothes can relate to the genre of the movie, and help give insights on character traits.

 Actors:  Dr. Reimer points out that if you are too familiar with a certain actor you might not understand what the director is trying to get across in a certain movie.

 Tone:  This consists of the content and form of the movie.  Some examples:  Comic, drama, tragic, and ironic.

 He listed a few other items that have to do with content.  These are: Emotion, History, Icons, Language, Nudity, Objects, Culture, Music

-A student brings up a question: “was music produced for movies like they are now?”

-Dr. Reimer answers simply “yes” with examples: “The Nazi Cinema” would create songs and music just like films do today and tie these into a publicity campaigne.

Dr. Reimer then introduced the first clip we watched from “The Untouchables,” a 1987 Brian De Palma film.  Dr. Reimer points out that the film uses a lot of quick editing and refers to the famous “Odessa Steps” sequence in Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin to create tension and suspense. He also points out that dragging out a scene in some cases like this one creates the idea of tension.   The second clip we viewed was “Brazil” by Terry Gilliam which is a more overtly political film than The Untouchables.  We did not end up watching the film because the tape was messed up.  The third clip that we watched was from “The Eclipse” by Michael Angelo Antonioni.  Dr. Reimer informs us that the relationship that progresses in this film is totally doomed because of the way it is filmed.  The framing in this film is very restricted and the characters have very little maneuverability.  There is also a symbol in the clip, which is a water tank, which resembles a mushroom cloud, which is a metaphor of the atomic or nuclear age spawned by WWII.  The fourth and final clip we viewed was “Diva” by Beineix in 1981.  This is a French and European film that gives a renewed face to what French cinema can do.  The music in this film is generally on screen.  The opening scene introduces one of the plot strands of the film, pirating music, and also through editing establishes the relationship that will develop between a young postman (fan) and an opera singer. 

End of class:

Dr. Reimer gives us a few closing remarks and bids us a good day