What is your understanding of a realist mode of film making? a film is realistic when we see it as the photographic record, not of the Events Filmed, but of the events that make up the Story Told. Example – Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016)
2. What is your example of an expressive mode of film making? It is primarily in the qualities of its images and sounds that the expressivity of the cinema must be sought. Example – Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996)
3. To what Extent does Eisenstein’s work merge the two ideas and how does he do this is Strike? e.g montage. Example – The intercutting between the expressive and realist mode, e.g tonal montage – spilling ink on the map to represent bloodshed.
Metric edititng – edits together different shots by following to an exact measurement or number of frames.
2. Rhythmic montage – cut the clips based on the action or image (eg.matching images or actions) https://youtu.be/Prbgt6l-2BY
3. Tonal editing method – It’s defined by how it edits based on the emotional meanings—or tone—of each shot. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)
The term, montage, was coined for cinema in the 1920s by Sergei Eisenstein. He explained 5 methods of montage:
Metric – cutting shots together based on exact measure or length of time, disregarding the length and content of the shot.
Rhythmic (aka Continuity Editing) – cutting based on the content of the shots. Therefore edits differ in length depending on what happens within the sequence. https://youtu.be/VG78fq6KAPA
Tonal – cutting based on tones within the shots. The highlighting of emotional themes or meanings in the shots themselves. Shots are linked based on aural or visual similarities.
Overtonal – cutting according to overtones and themes within different shots, while incorporating wider themes of the film and creating an emotional response from the audience.
Intellectual – very different shots cut together as a visual metaphor. The shots are linked through a similar intellectual meaning. https://youtu.be/mkYNhZvlHv0
These methods of montage are still in use today. Though, as we will see below, the lines between them are not always clear and they are often used in combination.
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social change in the Russian Empire, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government following two successive revolutions and a bloody civil war.
Russian Revolution of 1917, Revolution that overthrew the imperial government and placed the Bolsheviks in power.
After Stalin died in March 1953, he was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and Georgy Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union.
Politically, it resulted in the downfall of four monarchies–in Russia in 1917, in Austria-Hungary and Germany in 1918, and in Turkey in 1922. It contributed to the Bolshevik rise to power in Russia in 1917 and the triumph of fascism in Italy in 1922.
a) Directors such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Carol Reed and Michael Curtiz introduced the Expressionist style to crime dramas of the 1930s and 1940s, expanding Expressionism’s influence on modern film making.
b) The establishers of Soviet cinema were Lev Kuleshov and Dziga Vertov. They showed an interest in both the theory of cinema and practice. They incorporated Constructivism in Soviet cinema in the form of montage. Montage became the most important structural element, along with the lack of pristine film.
Films include
a)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Nosferatu (1922)
Metropolis (1927)
The Golem: How He Came into the World 1920
b)
Dura Lex (1926)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Zvenigora (1928)
2. The German Expressionists were artists, writers, and thinkers who were of age in Germany prior to World War II, and lived during Wilhelm II’s reign. German Expressionism developed as a result of the younger generation’s reaction against the bourgeois culture of Germany during this time period.
With its aesthetic roots fixed firmly in the Suprematism movement, Constructivism came fully to the fore as the art of a young Soviet Union after the revolution of 1917. The movement was conceived of out of a need for a new aesthetic language; one benefitting of a progressive new era in Soviet socialist history.
The film was released at a time of social unrest in America when people, particularly the young, were challenging the government’s role in the Vietnam war, there were race riots and a large counterculture developing. The film’s anti-authority message reflected this.
The rise of New American Cinema of the late 1960s
Economic breakdown of the studio era
Audience decline / fragmentation – appeal to younger audiences and ‘art-house’
1967 – audience attendance rises for the first time
Counterculture of late 1960s – counterculture, civil rights movements, unrest, polarisation.
Escalation of the war in Vietnam
New directors – film buffs
Aesthetic influence of European arthouse ink. French New Wave
New technologies- zoom lens, stedicam
1968 –the new X certificate
Bonnie and Clyde is considered one of the first films of the New Hollywood era and a landmark picture. It broke many cinematic taboos and for some members of the counterculture, the film was considered a “rallying cry”. Its success prompted other filmmakers to be more open in presenting sex and violence in their films.
