The Story of Film : Episode 4

The Story of Film Episode 4 -The Arrival of Sound

The 1930s: The Great American Movie Genres…

• Her Dilemma (a.k.a. Confessions of a Co-Ed) (1931) dir. Dudley Murphy
  • • Two cameras filmed at the same time to be able to cut to the singer than the player
• Love Me Tonight (1932) dir. Rouben Mamoulian
  • • Used sound to create rythym and music throughout the film to depict the life of France in the morning
    • Actors begin singing, being picked up from one to the other
    • The sound began to unifying a sequence
    • Metaphorical sound, create mocking
• The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920) dir. Carl Boese and Paul Wegener
• Frankenstein (1931) dir. James Whale
  • • Frankenstein did not speak within the film, as opposed to what was written in the books
• Eyes Without a Face (1960) dir. Georges Franju
• Audition (1999) dir. Takashi Miike
• The Public Enemy (1931) dir. William A. Wellman
• Scarface (1932) dir. Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson
• Scarface (1983) dir. Brian De Palma
• Seven Samurai (1954) dir. Akira Kurosawa
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984) dir. Sergio Leone
• The Iron Horse (1924) dir. John Ford
  • • Landscape film
    • Filmed on the train
• My Darling Clementine (1946) dir. John Ford
• Twentieth Century (1934) dir. Howard Hawks
  • • Sound made films feminized
• Bringing Up Baby (1938) dir. Howard Hawks
  • • Speed in film
    • The characters room is completely white which contrasts with the patterns
• The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks (1973) dir. Richard Schickel
• Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Mervyn LeRoy
  • • Women’s pov
• Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) dir. Winsor McCay
  • • Pencil drawn animation
• The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) dir. Lotte Reiniger
  • • Paper cut out animation
• Plane Crazy (1928) dir. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks
  • • Mickey mouse
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) dir. David Hand, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, and Ben Sharpsteen
  • • Used an actual character but then transcribed the image of her in animation
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) dir. Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wolfgang Reitherman

…And the Brilliance of European Film

• The Blood of a Poet (1931) dir. Jean Cocteau
  • • Voices were used to add drama and tension within the film when the actor went into the mirror
• Inception (2010) dir. Christopher Nolan
• Zéro de conduite (1933) dir. Jean Vigo
  • • Play music backwards as the film slowed down
• If…. (1968) dir. Lindsay Anderson
• L’Atalante (1934) dir. Jean Vigo
• Le Quai des brumes (1938) dir. Marcel Carné
• Les Enfants du Paradis (1945) dir. Marcel Carné
  • • the street scene becomes theatre
• La Règle du jeu (1939) (a.k.a. The Rules of the Game) dir. Jean Renoir
• La Grande Illusion (1937) dir. Jean Renoir
  • • Frames the pairs of men the same
    • Stops the plot to have the actors discuss realness
• Limite (1931) dir. Mário Peixoto
  • • The camera work is used to bring the idea of the character emotions
• The Adventures of a Good Citizen (1937) dir. Stefan Themerson
  • • Different types of angles and dimensions
• Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958) dir. Roman Polanski
• Das Blaue Licht (1932) dir. Leni Riefenstahl
  • • Lighting to add beauty
• Triumph of the Will (1935) dir. Leni Riefenstahl
• Behind the Scenes of the Filming of the Olympic Games (1937) dir. Leni Riefenstahl
  • • Used balloons to get clips of the athletes
• Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (1938) dir. Leni Riefenstahl
• Tiefland (1954) dir. Leni Riefenstahl
  • • Glossy film techniques
• The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) dir. Ray Müller
• Vertigo (1958) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
  • • Used a camera as the eye of the actor (their POV)
• Saboteur (1942) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
  • • Used slight sound, just the sound of wind when the actor is falling
      • • Did not use music, whisper dialogue
        • Lots of noise would take away from the scene
• Sabotage (1936) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
  • • Understanding of fear and shock
    • Tells the audience that the boy’s package is a bomb —> fear comes from knowing that the bomb is coming
• The 39 Steps (1935) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
  • • Use of close-ups
• Marnie (1964) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
  • • Uses close-ups quickly, does not do gentle zoom shots in
    • Cuts to a high angle, then shrink
• Ninotchka (1939) dir. Ernst Lubitsch
  • • Light lit
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) dir. Victor Fleming
  • • The real-life was used in no color whereas the fantasy world was lit with color
• Gone with the Wind (1939) (introduced in Episode 2) dir. Victor Fleming