Thriller Genre

Anxiety; surprise; fear; adrenaline rushing; that's how the genre I have chose to write about for this project can be defined.  Thriller movies are always full of all the aspects I wrote a second ago. 

The first thriller movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and it was released in the United States in February 14th, 1927: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.

The lodger is about the hunt for a serial killer known as The Avenger. The killer murder blond women, and he is on the loose in London. When a mysterious man arrives at the Bunting's house looking for a room to rent, suspicious starts to fall on him. 


The list of directors in this genre is long, below you can see a list of 10 of the famous directors in this genre:

1. Alfred Hitchock - Psycho
2. David Fincher - Fight Clube
3. Christopher Nolan - Memento
4. David Lynch - Mulholland Drive
5. Brian De Palma - Dressed to Kill
6. Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction
7. Steven Soderbergh - Out of Sight
8. Fritz Lang - Secret Beyond The Door
9. Alejandro Amenábar - The Others
10. M. Night Shyamalan - The Sixth Sense

For this project I have chosen to focus in two directors, and more specifically, in two of their movies. The directors are: Alfred Hitchcock, of course, I couldn't talk about thrillers without talk about the thrillers' father. And, for the actual director I chose: David Fincher. For the movies: the classic Psycho, and Se7en.

 
Psycho
Release date:
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Top Billed Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin

Marion Crane is a office worker who is tired of the way her life is going. One Friday Marion is asked by her boss to bank $40,000, in that moment she sees a change of an escape from her mediocre life. Marion leaves town, and travels to California, where her lover lives. Caught by a storm and tired of the driving, Marion decides to stop at The Bates Motel, just to rest for one night. There she meets Norman Bates, a young quiet man, who manages the place and is dominated by his mother.

 



Se7en
Release date: September 22nd, 1995
Director: David Fincher
Top Billed Cast: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Palthow

Two homicide detectives, Sommerset and Mills, hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Psycho and Se7en are two great thriller movies with unexpected endings. Hitchcock is a master in planting anxiety without much action. Comparing Se7en and Psycho, in my view, Psycho is way slower, not much action or adrenaline, no blood or lots of corpses piling up, like is the case in Se7en, but Hitchcock knows how to create a fearful atmosphere. The score helps a lot, of course. 

I'm a complete thriller genre lover, so I have watched a bunch of movies from this genre. In my presentation, that you can find on the link on the end of this article, I added a few slides with the Thriller Timeline - unfortunately (or fortunately) there are way too many films in this genre for me to be able to add all of them, but there you can find the most famous in its era. So, I believe that during my life I have watched, if not in the full length at least some shorts excerpt of most of the movies I cited in the Thriller Timeline found in my presentation. But below you can see 5 of my favorites (so hard to narrow down) and that I re watched during the development of this project:

1.  Fight Club, David Fincher
2. Gone Girl, David Fincher
3. Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino
4. Memento, Christopher Nolan
5. Limitless, Neil Burger 
1. 
    Learn more: 
   https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TSl881bfP5KA72HWnLxsqW0drRyM17BTSO4j-a2xb-c/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=3000#slide=id.g5372653ca_00
   
   
   

   References
   
   
   Fincher, David. Se7en. September 22nd, 1995.
   
   
   Hitchcock, Alfred. Psycho. February 14th, 1960.
   
   
   Schwenkstar. Directors of Twisty Thrillers. http://www.imdb.com/list/ls002258766/ 

Casablanca and The Bicycle Thief

Casablanca

In January 23rd, 1943 Casablanca was being released in the United States. Directed by Michael Curtiz, the movie won 3 Oscars em 1944 - Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, and up to date the it is well known worldwide.

One interesting fact about the cinematography in Casablanca is the attention paid when Ingrid Bergman was in camera. The cinematographer Arthur Edeson shot her from her left side - hers favorite, "often with a softening gauze filter and with catch lights to make her eyes sparkle; the whole effect was designed to make her face seem "ineffably sad and tender and nostalgic." - Wiki

Fun fact: "The difference in height between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman changes throughout the film. This is because Bergman was actually a few inches taller than Bogart, though to create the illusion that it was vice versa, Michael Curtiz had Bogart stand on boxes and sit on pillows in some shots, or had Bergman slouch down (as evident when she sits on the couch in the "franc for your thoughts" scene)" - IMD.

A good scene to talk about diegetic sounds/music and non-diegetic sounds/music is the one Rick is at the bar, after he sees Ilsa. In the beginning of the scene Sam is playing the piano, and the song is sad, melancholic. It fits perfectly with Rick's expression, and feelings. When the scene goes into a flashback the music also changes, the music now is played by an orchestra, and has a tone more joyful. 

Bicycle Thieves

The Italian film, directed by Vittorio De Sica, was released in the United States in December 13rd, 1949, and is the Oscar winner for Honorary Award.

We can point some differences between Bicycle Thieves and classical Hollywood films, but for me one that is very interesting is the fact of a non-actor in a lead role. Lamberto Maggiorani was a factory worker by the time De Sica cast him for the movie. Following along with the "real people" real speech was used, instead of literary dialogue.  

If we go deeper in the comparison and focus on the cinematography, we can notice that in the Bicycle Thieves the shots are longer and the focus deeper than in classical Hollywood movies.

In the opening scene of Bicycle Thieves we see a crowd of frustrated workers heading to work - or heading to the factory hoping to get a job. I think the final shot can be related with the first scene because in the end we also see a frustrated crowd, but this time they are heading back home, after a day of work, or a day of searching, like is the case of the protagonist of the movie.

References:
Curtiz, Michael. Casablanca. January 23rd, 1943.

De Sica, Vittorio. Bicycle Thieves. December 13rd, 1949.

Mooney, James. The Bicycle Thieves and Italian Neorealism.

http://filmandphilosophy.com/2013/03/08/the-bicycle-thieves-and-italian-neorealism/
http://evanerichards.com/2009/447

Wikipedia. Casablanca. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_%28film%29#Cinematography

IMDb. http://imdb.org

The Production Code & Citizen Kane

Film Influence

Every now and then an actor is physically or verbally assaulted in Brazil because his/her character. The first time I saw a news related with actors being assaulted because their characters, I remember to think: "What a bunch of stupid people. How is it possible that they don't understand that TV is fiction?"

Lately, when I kept seeing this kind of news, I started to understand that, even though soup operas/movies/TV shows are fiction they generate a certain feeling in their public. Some character make you fall in love, or hate them, some are inspiring, while others are indifferent, and unfortunately, some people don't know how to control the feelings created by a character or a story.

I believe that a good example on how movies/TV shows/soup operas have a big influence on their public is the Disney Princesses. Most girls, in some point of their lives, related and wanted to be just like one of the Princesses.

Another example just happened this past week with the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I, a group of protestors in Bangkok adopted the movie's three-fingered salute against totalitarian rule. In response to the protests the movie theater chain Apex decided to cancel all screenings of the movie.

Citizen Kane

73 years after its release Citizen Kane still being watched and analyzed by students, movie lovers, and general public. Orson Welles had worked in radio and theater before move into the cinema world. Welles' previous work experience reflect in Kane in various ways, for example in use of sound to create a reality sensation. 

"Not all sound tricks are just to add reality. Many of them also add a deeper meaning. When the reporter goes to Thatcher Library to look up information on Kane, the sound is a very distorted echo. Yes, this adds depth and reality to the scene, but it also reinforces what is already implied on the screen. The Thatcher library is not just a library, it is a tomb. A cold empty tomb to a man who was cold and empty in life as well as death. Likewise, the background yelling of young Kane in the snow adds irony to the bickering of the parents within the warm not-so-happy home. While they sign the papers to have him separated and sent away forever, he is yelling 'The Union Forever! Long Live the Union!'." Kurt Kuersteiner.

Also, the score created by Bernanr Herman was more radio style. Like Laurie Boeder  says in her article for About Entertainment "Rather than playing music under every scene, Herrman wrote “radio style,” bringing in the music when it was needed to evoke emotion or build tension." 

Citizen Kane is celebrated for its use of low-angle shots, below you can see a scene shot completely in low-angle.

Citizen Kane also makes use of innovative transitional devices in the way it links different scenes.  In the two scenes below we can see examples of dissolving transitions.

 

References:

Boeder, Laurie.  Citizen Kane - An American Masterpiece. http://classicfilm.about.com/od/dramaandbiography/fr/Citizen_Kane.htm

Kuersteiner, Kurt. Orson Welles: A Film Maker With A "Sound" Background. http://www.radiohorrorhosts.com/soundfilm.html

Welles, Orson. Citizen Kane. 1941.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/hunger-games-screenings-cancelled-in-thailand-after-protesters-use-3-finger-salute-1.2840381

http://www.franchiseherald.com/articles/14817/20141121/hunger-games-mockingjay-part-showing.htm

The Artist

Black and white; silent; Oscar winner. This is enough to introduce this week's subject: the french movie The Artist.

The artist, direct by Michael Hazanavicius, was released just a few years ago, in 2011, but at a first look you may think you are watching a film from the 20's. The movie tells George Valentin's story, a silent movie star, who sees his career goes down the hill when the talkies break into the public tastes. Meanwhile Peppy Miller an aspiring actress have her career bump up by the talkies arrival. What tricks you to think this is an oldie? Well, besides being black and white, and silent, the picture was shot in the old 4:3 ratio.

The movie starts with the screening of the movie A Russian Affair, one of George Valentin's movies, and his character "says"‘I won’t talk, I won’t say a word!,’  ironically this is the reason for Valentin's fallen when the movies became talkies.


Even though the movie is a tribute for the oldies, director Hazanavicius made conscious choices when it came to cinematography and other aspects in the movie, such as music, sound effects, acting, etc.

If we compare The Artist with real old movies we can find some very visible differences. During the movie within the movie the camera work resembles a lot the silent era, but as soon the movie is out of the screen the camera work is very modern with lots of close-ups - way more than used in the movies back there, more camera movement, and also more sense of depth.

The editing aspect follows the same idea as the camera work, when the movie gets out of the screen the editing is very modern, it is more agile than it was back in the days. The acting is way more expressive, and the actors don't have the big theatrical gestures like in the old movies.

When talking about silent movies and its score we think about classic music. Normally annoying classic music - at least for me. But in The Artist the score is original and very exciting - it won the Oscar for Best achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score. Besides the original score, the movie has some unexpected sound effects, like in the dream scene, when Valentin - and the audience - can hear every day-to-day sound (foot steeps, dog barking, laughs) but he still "silent." Or in the final scene when the actors finally break the silence barrier and talk.

"The Artist’s achievement bows because of our era, the 21st century, and because of the method of delivery – from black and white, to silent, and from the performance to the story’s presentation. Had The Artist been released in the late 20s or early 30s, it may have very likely had a completely different story. But because of its uniqueness in today’s world of film production, it will stand out among films as a glowing light as we progress into the future."- David, The Artist - a comparing analysis.


References:

David. The Artist - A Comparing Analysis. Film Classics. http://www.film-classics.com/archives/8254

Hazanavicius, Michael. The Artist. 2011

You have 48 hours...Action!

Twice a year a group of Seattle filmmaker form teams to make a short film - write, shoot, edit, and score - in only 48 hours.

The second 48 Hours Film Project of 2014 happened only a few weeks ago and the main genre was, of course, HORROR.

Friday, October 10th, 7 pm - it’s time for the 48 Hours Film Project to start.

The challenge always start on a Friday evening with the reaping of a specific sub-genre, a character, a line of dialogue, and a prop that MUST be incorporated into the story. Each movie crew draw a piece of paper containing their sub-genre. In the past challenge the sub-genres included: Sci-Fi Horror, Horror Spoof, Vampires/Gothic, Monster/Creature Feature, Demonic Possession/Satanic Stories, Mad Scientists, Found Footage, Psychic Powers, Supernatural Horror, Funhouse/Carnival/Freaks, Serial Killers, Gore/ Slashers or "Splatter" Film, Asylum/Insanity, Natural Horror (nature running amok). With the option of withdraw a wildcard: B-Movie Horror, Zombies, Ghosts, Witchcraft, Cannibalism or Cannibal Films, and Horror Musical.

With sub-genre, prop, dialogue, and character on the line it is time to get to work. At this point each team will decide their own schedule, as long as their movie is turned in at 7pm on Sunday.

Some teams start to shoot right after the reaping, and shoot throughout the night. Others will just start to shoot on Saturday afternoon or evening.

For this challenge the required elements were: Character - Val or Valerie Kiossovski: Musician; Prop - Avocado; Line of Dialogue - "I believe the science is still out on that."

Thomas Tierney, from Ticket Productions, normally leaves the meet up, writers the script, send it out to his actors and crew, and the action starts on Saturday morning.

Saturday, October 11th, 9am - Thoma’s crew meet at the location to start the shooting. For this challenge they picked up the sub-genre Funhouse/Carnival/Freaks. Not everybody is on time, but that's ok, there is a lot to get organized before the shooting starts. 

The first actor goes into the  the make-up room. The set is organized the way the director wants it to look. First actor is ready to go. Second actor goes into the make-up room. Rehearsal starts. Thomas gives some guides for the actors. Second actor is ready and the shooting begins. Actor 3 goes into the make-up room. They don't have much time, so while the other actors are getting ready the shooting is already happening.

"Silence on set." - Thomas asks, when he's about to start. 

The location goes mute. Nobody talks. Nobody moves. Only the actors. The magic of making movies has started!

The shooting goes on until about 5pm. 

"It's a wrap." - Calls Thomas. But now is time to edit.

Saturday, October 11th, 7:34pm - Thomas posts on his Facebook page: "Editing almost complete!! :)." Yeah, this guy is fast!

Sunday, October 12th, 6:30pm - Movie is ready, it's time to turn it in!

Photo: Thomas' Facebook

Talk time with Thomas Tierney:

When was your first 48 hours film project? And why did you decide to participate?

I was a big fan of the Sci-Fi genre growing up, with shows like Battlestar Galactica and the recently released Star Wars, Star Trek the motion picture that really fueled my imagination. I really wanted to explore model building, set design and costumes.  Life took over the closer I became an adult so I placed some of the things I really wanted to do on the back burner. When I decided to explore it again I came across Nils Osmar who was teaching classes and decided to take one.

Our first project  - Die Trying, I built one of the props – a nasty little device that was shoved into the skin and stuck there, I was hooked again. I took another class and built the robot costumes for it. Nils wanted to use the costumes for the next 48 Hour Film Project, so I attended, dressed the actors and got to see my costumes on the big screen.

What is more challenging about making a movie in so short period of time?

The more challenging aspect of a 48 HFP is locations and trying to tie that into the genre selected. When you have general locations and you select, say western, you might be pretty well screwed.

How do you think the 48 hours film project helps with the development of the film industry in Seattle?

The 48 HFP is a place for Networking, where budding artists can meet and develop relationships in the Seattle area. The more people you know the larger your talent pool becomes, it makes things easier when you have a list of talent you never knew existed.

If you could change something in the challenges that you have participated so far, what would that be?

Simply, if I could change one thing I would level the playing field by capping the talent on each team or by limiting the amount of money each team can spend on their productions. There are a lot of people participating, some with large budgets, some with no budget. The larger teams with larger budgets usually steal the show and to me, it seems to be an unfair advantage.

What are the Ticket Productions future plans?

The idea for Ticket Productions isn’t so much a company but a community that comes together, has fun, and produces something stunning with limited resources. It is a place for those interested to learn about film, film making and everything else that can be bundled in. Although we are a group that isn’t in it for the money the hope is to one day have a studio, an online channel that offers multiple types of entertainment, and a place for learning free, from some of the bizarre politics and clicks that tend to creep into some Seattle films.

Learn more: 
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NU4F5kpLkxLbImuC341yTropSpFwe6kZlr_HEx3V-EE/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000
 
https://www.48hourfilm.com/

M & The Blair Witch Project

"Just you wait a little while,
The nasty man in black will come
With his little chopper
He will chop you up!"

We have finally moved out of the silent era, and this is the best week so far: HORROR week!

Even though M (1931) is part of our horror week, I think it is not a horror movie at all. Maybe back in the days when it was first released M might have been scary, but now it definitely is not. In my view it is clearly a thriller movie since it has all the elements: the innocent, good people disappearing, nobody knows who the bad guy is, the entire movie turns around of the looking for the bad guy.
  
M is a talkie, but it has no score. Besides dialogue the sound effects added are those day-to-day noises, like children playing, footsteps, wall watch, and of course, the whistle every time the killer is on screen or around.


Along with M I have decided to watch another very known horror movie (this one fitting in the horror genre) The Blair Witch Project. 

Blair Witch  is a psychological horror movie  released in 1999, and just like M it has no score, just the day-to-day noises. In this case having no score was totally planned since the whole idea is to make the movie looks like real life events. The entire marketing was based on "real footage recovered in the woods."

"It did it all with a unique hook and an ingenious marketing plan, creating a viral Internet campaign back in 1999, when most studios were still trying to figure out what the Internet even was. They promoted the faux-documentary as a true story, indicating that all of the characters had been killed (actors were prevented from doing publicity until close to release to keep up the illusion)." Dustin Koski, cracket.com

About half way through the movie the three "filmmakers" are sleeping in their tend and we start to listen some children noises (they are in the middle of nowhere at this point), the images are all messed up, but the children noises are very clear. This scene is far the creepiest in the whole movie.

The filmmakers did an incredible job in creating such psychological fear, and stress. Nothing is ever showed, not the witch, or the dead kids, but the actors show so much fear and stress that it ends up getting into our heads as well.

In Blair Witch, as in every other movie, we will find the good and evil. In this one, though, we never see the evil, like I said before, the movie is based in what you believe it to be. Obvious the witch is the evil, and it is construct since the beginning of the movie as the idea is to make a documentary about her myth. In the beginning the "filmmakers" shot some interviews with the people who live around the forest, and for this reason know more about the legend. The evil's back story is set up. But it grows every minute, especially when the "filmmakers" get into the woods and weird things start to happen. Like when they keep going back to the same place even though they spent the day walking in the opposite direction. Or when they woke up and around their tend they found three piles of rocks.

The Blair Witch had everything to go wrong, after all, it doesn't follow the Hollywood recipe of making movies, but it turned out to be one of the most successful horror movies, especially on the topic budget/box office. The movie had an estimated budget of $60,000 and only in the opening week it made $1,512,054 (only in the US), the total box office World-wide was $140,530,114 (by November 5, 1999), according to IMDb.

References:

IMDb

Koski, Dustin. 5 Classic Movies that Seemed Like Terrible Ideas at the Time.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19304_5-classic-movies-that-seemed-like-terrible-ideas-at-time.html#ixzz3HTnPrg8N

Lang, Fritz. M. 1931


Myrick, Daniel & Sanchez, Eduardo. The Blair Witch Project. 1999

Eisenstein Montage

Week 5, last week of silent movies, and Soviet Montage's week. 

When we talk about Soviet Montage we think about Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) and Dziga Vertov (1896-1954), today lets take a ride in the movie Battleship Potemkin by Eisenstein and lets analyze some points of his editing theory.

In his theses Editing the Past: How Eisenstein and Vertov Used Montage to Create Soviet History Douglas Michael Priest points five categories of montage according to Eisenstein: 

"According to Eisenstein, there are five categories of montage which each manipulate film in a specific way. In brief, these five forms of montage are: 1) metric montage, in which the montage is based on the length of each shot; 2) rhythmic montage, in which different shot lengths are put together in montage to evoke tension; 3) tonal Montage, in which "movement within the frame impels the montage movement from frame to frame."; 4) overtonal montage, which Eisenstein describes as "distinguishable from tonal montage by the collective calculation of all the piece's appeal."; and 5) 12 Intellectual montage which deals specifically with the creation of meaning through "conflict-juxtaposition of accompanying intellectual affects."

Eisenstein believed that the editing is the foundation of the movie. In Potemkin Eisenstein uses lots of close-ups and wide shots to express the characters feelings or actions/reactions. 


The events of the shots we see bellow is part of The Odessa Steps Sequence a super famous part of the Potemkin movie. It is clear what Eisenstein is trying to show in this specific montage with open shots and close-ups capturing the reaction of the mother when she sees that her child had fallen down and now is being trampled by so many people.  During the whole The Odessa Steps Sequence Eisenstein mix close-up with long shots creating a chaotic series of scenes. 

  

References:

Priest, Douglas Michael. Editing the Past: How Eisenstein and Vertov Used Montage to Create Soviet History. 2008. The College at Brockport: State University of New York

Gazetas, Aristides. An introduction to World Cinema. 2008. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. 

Eisenstein, Sergei M. Battleship Potemkin. 1925

Joan of Arc, Metropolis, and Dr. Caligari

The marathon of silent movies still continues... This week we had to watch The Passion of Joan of Arc, Metropolis, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. All three movies with incredible historic and artistic value. I think it is impressive that silent movies can still hold one's attention nowadays when everything is so fast and full of special effects.

In the movie The Passion of Joan of Arc, the director Carl Theodor Dreyer chose to show only her last days of imprisonment and trial, instead of showing her life and battles. Maybe the director's intention was to create a kind of documentary, since he even used the transcription of the real Joan's trial to create the dialogues in the movie. And I'm not the only one who thought about the documentary theory. In the blog White City Cinema, written by Michael Glover Smith he says:

"...his [Dreyer] style of filmmaking so pure and refined and the lead performance of Renee Falconetti so naturalistic that the first time I screened it in class, several students told me they felt like they were watching a “documentary” that had somehow been made in the 15th century."

Falconetti's performance in Joan of Arc still considered for many critics as one of the greatest in film history, silent or sound. The only thing I have to say on this topic is that I agree! She doesn't look like she's acting at all. I felt a huge agony throughout the film, even though I already knew Joan of Arc's story it was hard to not to suffer with her. Falconetti's expression is one of real pain and desolation.

From pain to craziness, one thing that really got my attention in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was the painted scenery. Some scenes looked like a mix of cartoons and live action. Impressive! In  my point of view the lights and shadows created in Dr. Caligari were intended to cause the impression of internal madness. In the article Use of Chiaroscuro Lighting in Early Cinema - Light and Shadow, the author says that "the lighting of individuals to draw attention to their inner emotions."

Metropolis also plays with light and shadows, one characteristic of the Expressionism era, the scenes on the underground world are always full of shadows - maybe to show the unhappiness of the people and the lack of hope for something better. On the upper ground scenes, in the other hand, lots of light and brightness, just like the scene in the garden - portraiting happiness and a life without worries.


References:


Dreyer, Carl Theodor. The Passion of Joan of Arc (La passion de Jeanne d'Arc). 1928

Smith, Michael Glover Smith. Blu “Passion” Flowers. White City Cinema.

Wiene, Robert. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari). 1920

Use of Chiaroscuro Lighting in Early Cinema - Light and Shadow http://homepage.eircom.net/~musima/lighting/earlylighting.htm#cabinet

The Birth of a Nation & Within Our Gates

The Birth of a Nation is a controversy tale about civil war and racism. The film focus in two families, from South and North. And even though fighting for opposite sides the friendship continue. In the movie Griffith show the Ku Klux Klan as the heroes who came in the rescue of the white people who were being terrified by the black troops.

Within our Gates after being abandoned by her fiancé, Sylvia goes back to Piney Woods to help to run a school for Negroes. When she finds out that the school is facing serious financial problems and is about to close for good, Sylvia decides to travel and try to raise enough money to keep the school open.

We can see many differences  in the ways Micheaux and Griffith deal with racism in their films. The one thing that really got my attention in Micheaux's movie was that he portrays the Negroes as dedicated. Sylvia travels to raise money so they can keep the school open, so the kids from her race can have a chance of education. In the other hand, Griffith portrays black people as rowdy. In The Birth of a Nation Griffith shows white people as poor, helpless souls being attacked by the villain and cruel Negroes. The Ku Klux Klan is in reality a group of valiant heroes who ride to the rescue of the white people who have being hiding in fear of the evil Negroes.

Talking about how  The Birth of a Nation influenced racial attitudes and behavior in the United States, the movie was a sensation and "...was also the subject of protest by civil-rights organizations and critiques by clergymen and editorialists, and for good reason: “Birth of a Nation” proved horrifically effective at sparking violence against blacks in many cities," wrote Richard Brody, on The New Yorker.

Even though the movie generated so much commotion it's important to understand that  Griffith is not the only one to blame. He made a controversial movie, yes! But it was for the people to evaluate and separate reality from fiction. You don't decide to fake your own murder after watching Gone Girl, or fall in love with your phone after watching Her.

"They saw only what Griffith wanted to say but not what the movie showed, and, upon seeing what Griffith showed, were ready to take up arms in anger. Ambient and accepted racism left viewers ignorant of the facts and prone to accept Griffith’s racist version as authentic—and denied other filmmakers the chance to appropriate and even to advance Griffith’s methods and make movies offering historically faithful accounts of the same periods and events." Richard Brody, The New Yorker.

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) tried, without much success, to get The Birth of a Nation censured. The NAACP tried protest campaign and boycotts. When they realized that they wouldn't get the film censured they decided it was time to try something else:

" An April 17, 1915, letter from NAACP national secretary Mary Childs Nerney describes the NAACP’s efforts, largely in vain, to get local film censors to remove particularly racist scenes from The Birth of a Nation. The NAACP’s ongoing national campaign to censor the film had decidedly mixed results. Despite successes in Boston and Chicago in getting sympathetic officials placed on newly formed film censorship boards, by year’s end distributors could show The Birth of a Nation almost anywhere in the country (the exceptions included Kansas), though with several minor cuts in the film’s release print." - The Birth of a Nation and Black Protest, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media.


References:

Brody, Richard. The Worst Thing About “Birth of a Nation” Is How Good It Is. February 1, 2013. The New Yorker.

Griffith, D.W. The Birth of a Nation. 1915

Micheaux, Oscar. Within our Gates. 1920.

The Birth of a Nation and Black Protest. Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Early Silent Films

When I think about old silent movies the first word that always come into my mind is boring. Yes, boring! I know as a movie student and film lover I should be excited about history and old movies, like all the others students and film lovers, but I am not!

I love action movies, with lots of explosions, blood, and curse words. But I have to admit that the movies we have been watching for this class are not as nearly boring as I have imagined they would be.

Of course that as a Film History student we are supposed to study more than just old movies. We also need to study the old studios and old star. But wait! Even though movies started to be produced in the late 1890 the stars only started to shine in 1909 with Florence Lawrence, one of the first movie stars. And why that is even possible? Well, I think that a lot of things happened to result a "no-movie-star-industry." Things like: no close-up were used for a long time on cinema, what made difficult to identify the actor. However, one very important factor was that the studios didn't sell the movies based on the actors. They would sell the movies based in new technology, innovation.  

As Ty Burr says in his book Gods like us "The early film studios didn't think in terms of star because the cinema was, in order, a scientific discovery, a novelty, a bust, and an industrial product aimed at a lower-class, socially undesirable audience."

Going through a quick view on the studios side, we had the Edison Trust - Motion Picture Patents Company. "The Trust was serious business, prosecuting perceived infringement - i.e., anyone else making a movie on his own and trying to get it seen - with lawsuits and hired goons" - explain Ty Burr, in Gods like us. This shows us that even in the beginning people weren't happy about competition. Did The Trust won the fight against Independent filmmakers? Burr makes a very clear statement about it: "Look to the corporate credits of almost every Hollywood movie we see today: Paramount, Universal, Fox, and MGM were all started by the men who opposed the Trust." 

Still looking at the studios the three most famous film producers were The Lumière Brothers, Edison Studios, and Méliès. And even with the industry so young we can notice huge differences on their way of creating films. The Lumiere Brothers are also know as the firsts documentarists. Their films were based in day-to-day activities. Méliès in the other hand used all his creativity to create fantasy movies, he became known as the first special effects director. And Edison created short entertaining pieces. 

In An introduction to world cinema, Aristides Gazetas points the differences between the Lumière and Méliès:

"Two contrasting and important cinematic practices flourished at this early stage of film history. Films shot in documentary style from 1895 to 1905 were not edited. Like the Lumière films, they 'rendered the world as it is' in their presentation of news stories of the day. Meanwhile, the development of fantasy films by Georges Méliès, with 'in-film,'stop-motion editing, enabled some directors to create a 'magic realism' for their  narrative. These films recreated the world according to the filmmaker's imagination. Both tendencies influenced other directors in film production as the demand to tell simple narratives held the interest of the audience and helped them to identify with characters in the filmed events."

 
Jumping from studios to their creations: the movies. One of the films we had to watch this week as a course assignment was The Great Train Robbery (1903), and this movie is considered to be a break-through film because it was one of the first movies to use editing.  As Gazetas says in his book An introduction to world cinema "With The Great Train Robbery, Porter's editing strategies were a turning point in the art of film narration, completely altering the power motion pictures would have in contemporary society."

References:

Burr, Ty. Gods Like Us - on Movie Stardom and Modern Fame. 2012. PANTHEON BOOKS, New York.

Gazetas, Aristides. An Introduction to World Cinema. 2008. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Jefferson, North Carolina, and London. 

 Porter, Edwin S. The Great Train Robbery. 1903.

Reflexive Films

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Quentin Tarantino
Crime / Drama / Thriller

Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Buster Keaton
Comedy / Fantasy

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Woody Allen
Comedy / Romance


"Any of you f*cking pricks move, and I'll execute every motherf*cking last one of ya!" - Honey Bunny, Pulp Fiction.
"Pulp Fiction," Tarantino's fourth movie, tells the story of two hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a couple of  robbers. Tarantino mixes his well known violent touch with great dialogue to create an engaging film.The movie can be found on Netflix.

As every Tarantino movie "Pulp Fiction" has a very peculiar way of building the characters and the tension on the scenes. Some scenes are so simple but you know some sh*t is about to go down. Like when Butch (Bruce Willis) is driving back to the hotel to meet with his girlfriend, he had just killed Vincent (John Travolta) so theoretically everything should be ok, right? The danger he was in is gone now. But we know that there is something else. The way the scene is compost tell us that something bad is going to happen next. I believe that Quentin Tarantino has the right touch to create anticipation and tension in all his movies, of course, Pulp Fiction wouldn't be different in this aspect. 

Also, "Pulp Fiction" has a very strong sense of dialogue. The movie has some long scenes where nothing happens, just the characters talking, like the opening scene when Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) are discussing about their next robbery; or when Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent are at the hallway of Brett's apartment they spend a big deal of time talking about foot massage. Or even before Jules shot Brett (Frank Whaley) he has a big monologue scene. But even in these only talk scenes every word is spit with the necessary strength to help to build that tension I have just mentioned.

The movie deal with it reflexive side every time a title show up on the screen. The movie is so involving that it is easy to forget that you are actually in front the TV, but Tarantino makes sure to remind us of it when he introduces the chapter titles "Vincent Vega & Marcellus Wallace's Wife,""The Gold Watch," or "The Bonnie Situation."


Moving to "Sherlock Jr." I think that what made Buster Keaton so popular as an actor was his deadpan expression, in some of his acts he seems even bored, and his physical comedy, what I believe to be very common during the silent movies era.


While in "Sherlock Jr." we see Buster Keaton's character walking straight into the movie, in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" we see the opposite happening, one of the movie characters walk out of the movie to join the real world and this way be able to spend time with his love, Cecilia (Mia Farrow).