European Cinema

European Cinema • Europe after WWI • Industry lagged behind • Certainty of pre-war times challenged in matters of class, art, spirituality & politically Unemployment in the Weimar Republic

European Cinema • Russia • Influence of Lenin • Filmmakers such as Vsevolod Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein • Montage Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925) & Pudovkin’s Mother (1926)

European Cinema Montage 2. A synonym for editing. 3. An approach to editing developed by the Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s such as Pudovkin and Eisenstein; it emphasizes dynamic, often discontinuous, relationships between shots and the juxtaposition of images to create ideas not present in either shot by itself

European Cinema • France • Abel Gance • Wildly experimental in form & length Napoleon (1927)

European Cinema • Germany • Huge influence on American Cinema as so many filmmakers fled the Nazis Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak

European Cinema • Expressionism: a theory or practice in art of seeking to depict the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the artist

European Cinema • Not about realism • Visually expressing the inner emotion, psychology & spirituality • Distorted reality for emotional effect

European Cinema • Film • Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) • Sets are distorted, artificial, shadowy, and disorienting.

European Cinema • Expressionism heavily influenced film noir & Hitchcock, Welles and many other directors The Maltese Falcon, The Wrong Man,, Citizen Kane & Children of Men

European Cinema • The Weimar Republic • 1919-1933 • Economic difficulty combined with thriving arts scene

Threepenny Opera & Burning Currency for Warmth

European Cinema • Universum Film AG – – – – – –

F.W. Murnau G.W. Pabst Fritz Lang Josef von Sternberg Billy Wilder Lotte Reiniger

European Cinema • G.W. Pabst, 1885-1967 • Most successful, artistically & financially • Famous for collaboration with American actress Louise Brooks • Pandora’s Box (1928) • Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) • Returned to Germany & made films during the war which proved a problem later

European Cinema • Josef von Sternberg, 1894-1969 • The Blue Angel, 1930 • First German talkie English and German version shot at the same time • Gave us Marlene Dietrich

European Cinema • Lotte Reiniger, 1889-1981 • Silhouette animator • Oldest surviving animated feature film

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

European Cinema • F.W. Murnau, 1888-1931 • Emigrated to Hollywood in 1926 • Sunrise (1927) filmed in Movietone Sound on Film music and effects only • Breakthrough process & tracking shots • Special Academy Award for Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production Nosferatu, 1922 & Sunrise, 1927

European Cinema • Ernst Lubitsch, 18821947 • Sophisticated comedies • “European” sensibility • Relied on the raised eyebrow and not the specifics

Ninotchka, Three Women & The Shop Around the Corner

European Cinema • Billy Wilder, 19062002 • Started as a screenwriter • Went on to become one of the greatest Hollywood directors ever

European Cinema • “The Lubitsch Touch” – Billy Wilder always kept a sign hanging in his office that asked, "How would Lubitsch do it?” – At his funeral, Billy Wilder noted: "No more Lubitsch." William Wyler answered: "Worse than that - no more Lubitsch films."

Some Like it Hot

European Cinema • Fritz Lang, 1890-1976 • Started as artist • Went into the film business at UFA • Broke out with Destiny (1920) & Dr Mabuse, the Gambler (1921) • Went on to a long career in Hollywood • Vital in the development of film noir

European Cinema • Metropolis • 1927 • Ground-breaking Science Fiction • Bankrupted studio • 1/4 film lost • Original version has not been seen since premiere • Additional footage found last year in Brazil

European Cinema

European Cinema

Blade Runner

European Cinema

European Cinema • "Schufftan Process” • Angled mirrors to combine miniatures with actors

Sound • The Jazz Singer (1927) • First full length picture with sound sequences • The first all talking picture was released the next year (Lights of New York) • Theatres rushed to convert to sound

Sound • Vitaphone 19261930 • Sound on disc

Sound • Sound on film

Sound • Setback to cinematic innovation • Could not move camera

Sound • Some actors could Janet Gaynor, Ronald Coleman, Greta Garbo & Carol Lombard

Sound • Some actors could not make the transition

Mary Pickford, John Gilbert & Clara Bow

Sound • Chaplin was rich enough to do what he wanted and continued to make silents - City Lights (1931) • Many people thought the “art” was lost with the coming of sound.

Sunset Boulevard • Sunset Boulevard (1950) • Dir. by Billy Wilder, written by Wilder & longtime collaborator Charles Brackett • With Gloria Swanson – a real silent star who never made the transition to “talkies” • Probably first film narrated by a dead man (William Holden)

Sunset Boulevard

Gloria & Gloria

Sunset Boulevard • Stars who played themselves:

H.B. Warner, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson

Sunset Boulevard • Stars who played themselves:

Cecil B. DeMille, Director and Hedda Hopper, Gossip Columnist

Sunset Boulevard • Eric von Stroheim played a version of himself (he called it “that goddamned butler part”) • His last Hollywood film, Queen Kelly with Swanson from which her lover, Joe Kennedy (yes – those Kennedys), had him fired from, is used as one of Norma Desmond’s films