Thy's Blog

Episode 1 – Birth of the Cinema

Introduction

• Saving Private Ryan (1998) dir. Steven Spielberg
  • shakiness of camera makes audience feel as if they were at the scene
• Three Colors: Blue (1993) dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
  • white light transitions from young to old woman to draw empathy
• Casablanca (1942) dir. Michael Curtiz
  • romantic and classic in hollywood
• The Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947) dir. Yasujirō Ozu
  • makes use of pauses in story without rush
  • shows small details like props and shapes
• Odd Man Out (1947) dir. Carol Reed
  • troubles are reflected in bubbles of drink
  • bubbles in a drink are repeated throughout film to show struggle
• Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
  • takes influence from above film
• Taxi Driver (1976) dir. Martin Scorsese
  • takes influence from above two films
• The French Connection (1971) dir. William Friedkin
  • camera racing fast and tire screeching sounds

1895-1918: The World Discovers a New Art Form or Birth of the Cinema

• Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888) dir. Louis Le Prince
  • one of first films made
• The Kiss (1896 film) (a.k.a. May Irwin Kiss) (1896) dir. William Heise
  • one of first films
  • uses light and idea that could easily be understood
• Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) dir. Louis Lumière
  • shows short instanace of everyday life
• Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896) dir. Louis Lumière
  • one of the first shot and showed
  • unerved audience and made them think the train was coming at them
• Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1894-1896 ?) dir. William Kennedy Dickson or William Heise
  • inspired people to want to become dancers and princesses
• Sandow (1894) dir. William Kennedy Dickson
  • inspired people to want to become wrestlers
• What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901) dir. George S. Fleming and Edwin S. Porter
• Cendrillon (1899) dir. Georges Méliès
  • used illusion
• Le voyage dans la lune (1902) dir. Georges Méliès
  • good with effects
• La lune à un mètre (1898) dir. Georges Méliès
• The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899) dir. George Albert Smith
  • used technique that became known as the “phantom ride”
• Shoah (1985) dir. Claude Lanzmann
  • filmed shot on same trainlines that took Jews to gas chambers
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) dir. Stanley Kubrick
  • camera zooms through colorful light as if tripping
• The Sick Kitten (1903) dir. George Albert Smith
  • first close up in film
• October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1928) dir. Sergei Eisenstein
  • close up on dead woman gives real sense of movement and tragedy
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) dir. Sergio Leone
  • close up shows big reveal for character who finds out the murderer
• The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight (1897) dir. Enoch J. Rector
  • filmed boxing match with broader image to show more action

1903-1918: The Thrill Becomes Story or The Hollywood Dream

• Life of an American Fireman (1903) dir. Edwin S. Porter
  • shows street action first then the same action from inside
  • film was recut later on to have more cuts between perspectives
• Sherlock Jr. (1924) dir. Buster Keaton
  • shot using double exposure
  • cut where setting is suddenly replaced by another one
• The Horse that Bolted (1907) dir. Charles Pathé
  • cuts to man climbing then back to horse eating, repeatedly cut between
  • continuity editing, “meanwhile”
• The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (a.k.a. The Assassination of the Duc de Guise) (1908) dir. Charles le Bargy and André Calmettes
  • first where actors turn backs to camera
  • helps to point camera in reverse angle shot, free to film from any angle
• Vivre sa vie (1962) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
  • refuses to show face of actor which was shocking
• Those Awful Hats (1909) dir. D. W. Griffith
  • actress in white dress and hat
• The Mended Lute (1909) dir. D. W. Griffith
  • actress from preious film was back and became famous
• The Abyss (1910) dir. Urban Gad
  • actress became famous for being more sexual
• Stage Struck (1925) dir. Allan Dwan
  • luxary in costuming, became more magnificent
  • films started focusing more on actors and their thoughts
• The Mysterious X (1914) dir. Benjamin Christensen
  • creative use of light, crosscutting, daring debute
• Häxan (1922) dir. Benjamin Christensen
  • masterpiece about witchcraft, light sources and effects
• Ingeborg Holm (1913) dir. Victor Sjöström
  • naturalism and grace
• The Phantom Carriage (1921) dir. Victor Sjöström
  • stories within stories, moods within moods, made in silent movie era
  • re-exporsed film to show seperation between body and soul of character
• Shanghai Express (1932) dir. Josef von Sternberg
  • wear costume jewelry, actress wears coat of black feathers that seem natural
• The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) dir. Charles Tait
  • first feature length movie
• The Squaw Man (1914) dir. Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille
  • first hollywood feature
  • made to look like people in different shots were looking at each other
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980) dir. Irvin Kershner
  • shows importance in how actors face or enter/exit shots
• Falling Leaves (1912) dir. Alice Guy-Blaché
  • one of the first directors, especially female directors
  • little sister ties leaves to trees so sister won’t die
• Suspense (1913) dir. Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber
  • split screen used to show multiple characters at same time
  • police chase shown through mirror of vehicle
  • shows threat by having intruder come closer to camera
• The Wind (1928) dir. Victor Sjöström
  • about woman living in shack who shoots and burries man that forced himself on her
  • wind shot carefully and sand blows away corpse of man
  • showed female audiences things that can be felt but never seen
• Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest (1908) dir. J. Searle Dawley
• The House with Closed Shutters (1910) dir. D. W. Griffith
  • says wind and trees must be shown
• Way Down East (1920) dir. D. W. Griffith
  • sense of outside world, delicacy of actress matches delicacy of light
• Orphans of the Storm (1921) dir. D. W. Griffith
  • used visual softness and backlighting to make actors stand out
• The Birth of a Nation (1915) dir. D. W. Griffith
  • showed power of cinema and danger of it
  • showed American civil war, mixes epic with intimate
  • racism where black people are shown as unclean and dangerous
• Rebirth of a Nation (2007) dir. DJ Spooky
  • sampled and played with toxic scenes from above
• Cabiria (1914) dir. Giovanni Pastrone
  • moving dolly shots
  • elephants suggest skills
• Intolerance (1916) dir. D. W. Griffith
  • showed human intolerance
  • life of Jesus Christ tinted in sepia, violence tinted in blue
• Souls on the Road (a.k.a. Rojo No Reikan) (1921) dir. Minoru Murata
  • two storylines intertwine and come together at the end
  • use of parallel editing
  • first great Japanese film