After the 1917 revolution, fresh film stock was in short supply, so filmmakers learnt by experimenting with found footage (shots from old films), looking at what happened if they put them together in different ways. They found that people would respond to a shot differently depending on what images came before and after it.
The Russian Revolution meant that there was a huge demand for propaganda. Revolutionaries like Lenin thought film was the ideal way to get revolutionary ideas across to people who couldn’t read.
Filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov thought the continuity system was ‘bourgeois’ because it faked reality. They believed in Marxist ‘dialectic’ which was about the conflict between ideas. Eisenstein wanted to use cinema to stir emotions and inspire the audience to get behind the revolution.
Ridley Scott’s blade runner (1982) was heavily influenced by the German expressionist film movement taking imitated sequences from other German Expressionist films. Bladerunner’s emphasis on the degraded, alienating city resembled that of many expressionist “street films” taken together. Some propose that “Bladerunner” was a remake of Lang’s Metropolis.
As with both styles of films, film noir is influenced by German Expressionism with its dark shadows and sharp lines. As in many films, Film Noir focuses on low key lighting, monochrome colours, and abstract angles. Films were made using a variety of techniques to convey their genre and themes.
