The Story of Film : Episode 6

The Story of Film Episode 6 -Sex & Melodrama

1953-1957: The Swollen Story: World Cinema Bursting at the Seams

• Rebel Without a Cause (1955) dir. Nicholas Ray
• Cairo Station (1958) dir. Youssef Chahine
  • • The location where the scene was filmed, had a story behind it to the audience of India
    • Outside looking in
    • Scene: dolly, cut, dolly, cut
• Paper Flowers (1959) dir. Guru Dutt
• Raja Harishchandra (1913) dir. Dadasaheb Phalke
• Sant Tukaram (1936) dir. Vishnupant Govind Damle and Sheikh Fattelal
• Pather Panchali (1955) dir. Satyajit Ray
  • • Texture within clips
    • Real Indian village for the first time
    • The camera moves with excitement as the actor moves with excitement
    • Normal life was used, there was no making costumes or artificial backgrounds (natural landscapes)
• Devi (1960) dir. Satyajit Ray
  • • Lighting was set all on the actor’s face, eyes look down
    • Evolving through the film
• Mother India (1957) dir. Mehboob Khan
  • • Close-ups with hands and feet
    • use small steps to signify her steps in life
• Two Stage Sisters (1964) dir. Xie Jin 
  • • “movies bottle the essence of culture”
    •  tears in the actor’s eyes could easily be seen
    • camera tilts down to the world that the film takes place
• Ikiru (1952) dir. Akira Kurosawa
  • • shot long takes
    • long lenses for a close-up, to move freely
• Stray Dog (1949) dir. Akira Kurosawa
• Seven Samurai (1954) (introduced in Episode 4) dir. Akira Kurosawa
  • • uses current day life to allow the audience to reflect
• Throne of Blood (1957) dir. Akira Kurosawa
  • • Shakespeare inspired
• The Godfather (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
  • • Inspired by Throne Blood, being shot many times
• The Magnificent Seven (1960) dir. John Sturges
• Limite (1931) (introduced in Episode 4) dir. Mário Peixoto
• Rio 40 Graus (a.k.a. Rio 100 Degrees F.) (1955) dir. Nelson Pereira dos Santos
  • • Starts as an ariel shot but then cuts to be on the ground, focusing on kids
• The Life of General Villa (1914) dir. Christy Cabanne
• Doña Bárbara (1943) dir. Fernando de Fuentes and Miguel M. Delgado
  • • Themed rich and pure, controlled melodrama
    • Man photographed against the sky
• The Wild Bunch (1969) dir. Sam Peckinpah
• La perla (1947) dir. Emilio Fernández
  • • Muscular storytelling
    • light and dark human themes
• Los Olvidados (1950) dir. Luis Buñuel
  • • walked around the area to understand the life there
• All That Heaven Allows (1955) dir. Douglas Sirk
  • • Reflected the current state of the U.S. and the topics that were important for the time
    • For the scenes that the society in the film would have disagreed with, were filmed in darker lighting
• I’m a Stranger Here Myself (1975) dir. David Helpern
• Johnny Guitar (1954) dir. Nicholas Ray
  • • Used angles to show authority
• Fireworks (1947) dir. Kenneth Anger
  • • Low-angle on male actor
    • Shot from below
• Scorpio Rising (1964) dir. Kenneth Anger
  • • added rock music to add emotion
• Marty (television show) (1953) dir. Delbert Mann
  • • TV Drama
• Marty (1955) dir. Delbert Mann
• On the Waterfront (1954) dir. Elia Kazan
  • • “The method”
    • Emotion supressed
• Red River (1948) dir. Howard Hawks and Arthur Rosson
  • • Old style
    • Identity is noted
• Touch of Evil (1958) dir. Orson Welles
  • • Wide angle lenses
• The Searchers (1956) dir. John Ford
• Vertigo (1958) (introduced in Episode 4) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
  • • Films from actor’s point of view
• Rio Bravo (1959) (introduced in Episode 5) dir. Howard Hawks
• Great Expectations (1946) dir. David Lean
  • • Gothic and erotic
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962) dir. David Lean
  • • Dream of elsewhere, used other emotions to bring out this feeling
• O Dreamland (1953) dir. Lindsay Anderson
  • • Used disappointment
• Battleship Potemkin (1925) (introduced in Episode 3) dir. Sergei Eisenstein
  • • Leftest film
• …And God Created Woman (1956) dir. Roger Vadim