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A Brief History of Western Cinema

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Title: A Brief History of Western Cinema


1
A Brief History of Western Cinema
  • By Douglas Pensak

2
Early Invention- Thomas Edison
  • 1889- Thomas Alva Edison builds the first
    motion-picture camera and names it the
    Kinetoscope.

3
  • 1894- The Edison Corporation establishes the
    first motion-picture studio nicknamed the Black
    Maria.

4
The Black Maria
5
  • 1895- In France, Auguste and Louis Lumière hold
    the first private screening. The Lumière brothers
    invent the Cinématograph, a combination of camera
    and projector. They are considered to be the
    worlds first film directors.

6
A Trip to the Moon
  • France, 1902- the screen's first science fiction
    story was a created by French director and
    magician Georges Melies (1861-1938) in this
    version of the Jules Verne story.

7
Movies and Profit
  • 1905- Nickelodeons flourish for ten years making
    moving pictures popular with the public

8
  • 1914- In his second big-screen appearance,
    Charlie Chaplin plays the Little Tramp, his most
    famous character. He is the first real superstar.

9
The Birth of a Nation
  • 1915- D. W. Griffith's technically brilliant
    Civil War epic, introduces the narrative,
    close-up, the flashback and other new film making
    styles. First long film

10
Battleship Potemkin
  • 1925- Sergei Eisenstein makes, a revolutionary
    portrait of mutiny aboard a battleship. In the
    hands of Eisenstein, montage is raised to the
    highest structural role in filmmaking.

11
German Expressionism
  • 1920s-1930s Germany
  • experimenting with bold, new ideas and artistic
    styles
  • non-realistic, geometrically absurd sets
  • often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal
  • Two genres that were especially influenced by
    German Expressionism were horror and film noir
    films

12
German Expressionism
Nosferatu
Metropolis
13
  • 1927- Popular vaudevillian Al Jolson astounds
    audiences with his nightclub act in The Jazz
    Singer, the first feature-length talking film.

14
Mickey Mouse
  • 1928- Walt Disney introduces in Steamboat Willie,
    the first cartoons with sound and Mickey Mouse.
  • 1928-The Academy Awards are handed out for the
    first time. Wings wins Best Picture.

15
Violence and Sex!
16
Hays Code
  • 1933- As head of the Motion Picture Producers and
    Distributors of America, William Hays establishes
    a code of decency that outlines what is
    acceptable in films.

William Hays
17
Hays Code
  • No movie shall lower the moral standards of those
    who see it. No sympathy for criminals.
  • No law shall be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be
    created for its violation.
  • No nudity or sexy dances
  • No homosexuality or sexual diseases
  • No ridicule of religion
  • No depiction of illegal drug use
  • No methods of crime (e.g. safe-cracking, arson,
    smuggling) can be shown
  • No curse words or offensive phrases.
  • Murder scenes must be filmed in a way that
    discourage imitations in real life. Brutal
    killings could not be shown in detail.
  • No adultery

18
Technicolor
  • The most widely used color motion picture process
    in Hollywood from up to 1952. Technicolor became
    known and celebrated for its hyper-realistic,
    saturated levels of color, and was often used for
    filming musicals.

19
Becky Sharp
  • 1935- Audiences impressed by three-color system
    Technicolor system in Becky Sharp.

20
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in Technicolor
  • 1937- Walt Disney's first full-length color
    animated feature, Snow White and the Seven
    Dwarfs, hits theaters and becomes an instant
    classic.

21
Gone with the Wind in Technicolor
  • 1939- Gone with the Wind grosses 192 million,
    making it one of the most profitable films of all
    time. It's also one of the longest films at 231
    minutes.
  • Color, Famous book, EPIC!

22
Wizard of Oz in Technicolor-1939
23
Citizen Kane
  • 1941- Orson Welles made using newly developed
    film stocks and a wider, faster lens. Welles
    pushes the boundaries of montage and
    mise-en-scène, as well as sound, redefining the
    medium still considered to be the greatest film
    ever made.

Very famous for use of deep focus photography
24
Very famous for use of deep focus photography
25
Film Wave- Italian Neorealism
  • Italian Neorealism
  • A new democratic spirit, that portrayed ordinary
    people
  • A compassionate story and a refusal to make moral
    judgments
  • A look at Italy's Fascist past and the effect of
    WWII
  • An emphasis on emotions rather than ideas
  • No neatly plotted stories but instead loose story
    structures
  • A documentary visual style
  • The use of real locations over fake studio
    locations
  • The use of Non-professional actors
  • The use of conversational speech, not literary
    dialogue
  • No artificial editing, camerawork or lighting but
    rather a simple style of filmmaking

26
The Bicycle Thief
27
Italian Neorealism
  • 1946- Roberto Rossellini's Italian Neorealist
    film Open City presents an alternative to
    Hollywood with its use of street cinematography,
    grainy black-and-white film and untrained
    actors, lyrically capturing the despair and
    confusion of post-World War II Europe.

28
French New Wave
  • Greatly influenced by Italian New Wave
  • The director is the artist, the creator
  • Stressed the individual while making fun of the
    absurdity of human existence
  • Lightweight cameras, lights, and sound equipment
    allowed directors to shoot in the streets, rather
    than in studios
  • Small budgets
  • Rapid scene changes
  • Against mainstream cinema
  • Reminded the audience that a film is just a
    sequence of moving images by breaking continuity
    and reality

29
French New Wave
  • 1959- Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, typical of
    the French New Wave uses the jump cut, the
    hand-held camera and loose, improvised direction.
    It costs 90,000 in just four weeks.
  • His use of jump cut's assault the normal style of
    editing and the presumption of continuity and
    time opens new possibilities for filmmakers.

30
Psycho
  • 1960- Alfred Hitchcock terrifies audiences with
    Psycho, the first movie about a serial killer as
    well as one of the most memorable psychological
    thrillers of all time.

31
Losing Money!
  • 1964- Box office sales continue to spiral
    downward as a disillusioned country loses
    interest in Elvis, Rock Hudson and Sandra Dee
    movies.

32
The Counter Culture
33
The Counter Culture
  • Against western religion (Christianity)
  • Feelings of sexual and moral repression
  • Against government control
  • Information should be free
  • All people should be free
  • Against the Vietnam war

34
New Artistic Freedom and the Death of the Hays
Code
  • 1967- Bonnie and Clyde
  • 1967- The Graduate
  • 1968- The motion picture rating system debuts
    with G, PG, R and X.
  • 1969- Easy Rider
  • 1969- Midnight Cowboy wins the Best Picture
    Oscar, the first and only time an X-rated movie
    received the honor.

35
1967- Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde are Criminals Bank
Robbers Dangerous Killers But, they are the
heroes, the good guys
36
1967- The Graduate
He is Unhappy Lost Confused Sexually
Active But, he is the good guy
37
1969- Easy Rider
They are Homeless Jobless Drifters Drug
users Drug Dealers But, they are the
heroes, the good guys
38
1969- Midnight Cowboy
They are Homeless Penniless Thieves Drug
users Hustlers The lowest members of
society But, they are the heroes, the good
guys
39
Counter Culture Movies
  • With the combination of talent and artistic
    freedom, for the next 6 years Hollywood produces
    the most groundbreaking, influential films of all
    time.

40
The Blockbuster and the end of the artistic age
of filmmaking
41
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
42
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43
The Blockbuster
  • 1977- Star Wars hits theatersfor the first
    timeand will go on to be the second
    highest-grossing film of all time. The franchise
    blockbuster is upon us.
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