FILM APPRECIATION ASSIGNMENT

DEPARTMENT: HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE MANAGEMENT

COURSE: BA(HONS) JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION
NAME: MAVIS ABENA GOZEY
ROLL No : I40419011

FILM?
Films are construction ,that convey messages , ideas or bias or a "motion picture,"
is a series of moving images shown on a screen, usually with sound, that make up a
story of the film maker or it also communiate by using a selection and combination
of production elememts such as: visial imagery, sound, cinema placement and shot
type ,lighting and colours..

TYPES OF FILM MOVEMENT IN THE WORLD

As we all continue to shelter in place, it’s a perfect time to educate ourselves about
various film movements that have taken place over the past 90 years.
If you work your way down this list, you’ll come away with a general
understanding of what each film movement was about. But you might discover that
you like one of these movements and want to see more.

Pre-Code
Pre-Code movies were movies made between 1929, when talkies were widely
accepted, through July 1, 1934, when the Production Code imposed censorship on
Hollywood movies. Before then, movies had the freedom to be both sexual and
politically radical, and this resulted in one of the greatest eras for women in
American cinema.
“Baby Face” (1933; rent/buy on Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes,
Fandango Now, DirecTV and Vudu) isn’t the best pre-Code or even the most
risqué, but this early (Barbara Stanwyck and Arthur Hohl in “Baby Face” 1933.is
very good at showing what pre-Code was about. Stanwyck plays a woman from
the wrong side of the tracks (her father was her pimp), who travels to the big city
and climbs her way to the top by sleeping with a series of men. And other films
“The Divorcee” (1930), “Night Nurse” (1931) and “A Free Soul” (1931).

Poetic Realism
This French movement anticipated American film noir, by bringing together the
lighting effects of expressionist German silent films and combining it with an aura
of romantic doom. As film scholar Don Malcolm has said, the French invented
noir, and “Port of Shadows” (1938; Kanopy), from Marcel Carne, is one of the best
examples of it.
Jean Gabin (to know him is to love him) plays a soldier who has deserted and is
trying to escape France. Along the way, he meets Michele Morgan. And other
films “The Grand Illusion” 1937 and “Le Jour Se Lève” 1939.

a.German Expressionism(1920s~1930s)

German Expressionism is a particular artistic style that first appeared in poetry and
theatre around 1910. It became popular in film 10 years later after WWI. It comes
partly from German Romanticism and gives a subjective view of the world. It
visualizes the country's collective anxiety through distorted and nightmarish
imagery. Expressionists had little interest in their work being aesthetically
pleasing. This style flourished after the horrors of WWI, and the inevitable
economic devastation that followed. The first few films that can be described as
pure German Expressionism include The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis.
Unlike most other cinematic movements, Expressionism doesn't solely belong to
filmmaking, and existed prior to the invention of cinema. Fortunately, this helps us
understand Expressionist principles and how they were utilized by filmmakers.
Consider Edvard Munch's the Scream, arguably the most famous Expressionist
painting of all time; you can clearly see how the concept allows moods to be
expressed by creative distortion. It shows an impression of a scene, as opposed to
its physical reality. On film, this ideology can apply to every aspect of the creative
process, from dream-like set designs to melodramatic on-screen performances. For
this reason, German Expressionist cinema also has close-knit ties to architectural
design. Films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis are often studied
as perfect examples of how set design can be used to create a world that is
aesthetically controlled by the film's emotional instructions.

Characteristics of German Expressionism

 High angles
 Deep shadows/chiaroscuro lighting
 Extreme camera tilting
 Impossible sets
 Slow pace than other regular movies.
 Initially, highly symbolic and stylized non-realistic sets, sometimes
 geometric, filmed indoors.
 Subjective point of view (inner moods, feelings, perceptions)
 Repeated imagery of stairs, empty hallways and corridors.
When you consider the real-life situation in Germany after the war, it's no wonder
that art and cinema got as dark as it did.
Lotte Eisner, a German film critic, labeled it “helldunkel,” which she defined as “a
sort of twilight of the German soul, expressing itself in shadowy, enigmatic
interiors, or in misty, insubstantial landscapes.”
German Expressionism in film is associated with high contrasts of darks and lights
to convey nightmarish sets, often using the chiaroscuro lightring technique . Let's
look at some of the classic examples that cemented this aesthetic steeped in
shadows.

Styles in German Expressionalism, Directors and the years of production of

Films.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was based
on the writers' experiences as World War I soldiers and their distrust of
authoritarian leadership. The filmmakers chose to deliberately distort reality in
order to disorient the audience to invoke a feeling of the time rather than a truthful
or realistic depiction.

Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang's silent film uses expressionist imagery to comment on technology
consuming society. The film is deep in exaggerated imagery heightening the
emotion that drives the plot.

The Haunted Screen (1998)

If you're looking for a super deep dive into German Expressionism, we've got a
feature documentary called The Haunted Screen. It covers everything including the
social circumstances that informed these artists and their rarely seen films.
German Expressionism radically altered cinema. In particular, the love of
chiaroscuro lighting survived and evolved into film noir and the horror film.
There's no denying that it helped build the visual foundation on which the entire
genre rests.
If you're looking for the perfect example of German Expressionism's legacy,
consider the work of Tim Burton.
Edward Scissorhands is a direct descendant of Dr. Caligari. You can see the
angled and broken architecture of the set, the extreme light/shadow work, and the
look of Edward himself. Now look at Burton's other work and you'll see that the
haunted soul of German Expressionism lives on.
Technological impact
By 1994, when the movement ended, one major reason for its decline had to do
with the immigration the of the film makers primary to the USA. Who either
political or professional reasons went Hollywood, they also took along their film
making practices which had considerable influence on Hollywood production
styles and technological particularly is relation to horror film and film Noir?
b.Film Noir (1940s-1950s) Political background:
Film noir is a stylized genre of film marked by pessimism, fatalism, and cynicism.
The term was originally used in France after World War II, to describe American
thriller or detective films in the 1940s and 50s. Though, Hollywood’s film noir
stretches back to the 1920s. Film noir literally translates to “black cinema” and
French critics used it to describe Hollywood movies that were saturated with
darkness and pessimism not seen before.
It’s hard to say if it's is a genre or style, and the elements of noir listed below do
not all have to be present for the film to be considered noir. But they are extremely
common with this style.

COMMON ELEMENTS OF FILM NOIR

 Anti-hero protagonist
 Femme fatale
 Tight, concise dialogue
 High contrast within a scene
 Often post-war disillusionment
Noire Genre
A Brief History
This style of filmmaking was characterized by a painful time in history. Cynicism
and pessimism from the Great Depression were ingrained in the American psyche.
And many Americans felt disillusioned with the war. Painful times didn’t end with
the war’s end either. Soldiers coming home also meant women losing their jobs,
and some films expressed other troubles.
Characteristics of Film Noir
Film noir, (French: “dark film”) style of filmmaking characterized by such
elements as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, frequent use of flashbacks,
intricate plots, and an underlying existentialist philosophy. The genre was
prevalent mostly in American crime dramas of the post-Worl War II era. The
darkness of these films reflected the disenchantment of the times. Pessimism and
disillusionment became increasingly present in the American psyche during the
Great Depression of the 1930s and the world war that followed. After the war,
factors such as an unstable peacetime economy, McCarthyism, and the looming
threat of atomic warfare manifested themselves in a collective sense of uncertainty.
The corrupt and claustrophobic world of film noir embodied these fears. Several
examples of film noir, such as Dmytryk’s Cornered (1945), George Marshall’s
The Blue Dahlia (1946), Robert Montgomery’s Ride the Pink Horse (1947), and
John Cromwell’s Dead Reckoning (1947), share the common story line of a war
veteran who returns home to find that the way of life for which he has been
fighting no longer exists. In its place is the America of film noir: modernized,
heartless, coldly efficient, and blasé about matters such as political corruption and
organized crime.

The golden age of film noir/Styles / Directors of Film Noir

Early examples of the noir style include dark, stylized detective films such as John
Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941), Frank Tuttle’s This Gun for Hire (1942),
Otto Preminger’s Laura(1944), and Edward Dmytryk’s Murder, My Sweet(1944).
Banned in occupied countries during the war, these films became available
throughout Europe beginning in 1946. French cineastes admired them for their
cold, cynical characters and dark, brooding style, and they afforded the films
effusive praise in French journals such as Cahiers du cinéma. French critics coined
the term film noir about the low-keyed lighting used to enhance these dramas
stylistically—although the term would not become commonplace in international
critical circles until the publication of the book Panorama du film noir American
(1955) by Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton.
Many of the major directors of film noir—such as Huston, Dmytryk, Cromwell,
Orson Welles, and others were American. However, other Hollywood directors
renowned for a film noir style hailed from Europe, including Billy Wilder, Alfred
Hitchcock, Jacques Tourneur, and Fritz Lang. It is said that the themes of noir
attracted European directors, who often felt like outsiders within the Hollywood
studio system. Such directors had been trained to emphasize cinematic style as
much as acting and narrative to convey thought and emotions.
The Lady from Shanghai, American film noir, released in 1947, that was adapted
from the Sherwood King novel If I Die Before I Wake. Director, writer, and star
Orson Welles cast his estranged wife, Rita Hayworth, opposite himself in a film
that became famous for its confounding plot and for the studio interference that
marred Welles’s vision for the project.

According to many critics, film noir ended with the 1958 release of Orson Welles'
Touch of Evil.
Today, there are films that are influenced by the genre (or style).
1.Mulholland Drive (2001) It seems like anything David Lynch does echoes noir.
Mulholland Drive's look and feel was surely influenced by film noir.
Noir has a touch of a madness in each scene. The stark lighting and heavy use of
flashbacks all capture the headiness of the era, and the frequent murderous plots
only heighten the pessimism.
There are specific lighting techniques that build these grave worlds,
Many of the major directors of film noir—such as Huston, Dmytryk, Cromwell,
Orson Welles, and others—were American. However, other Hollywood directors
renowned for a film noir style hailed from Europe, including Billy Wilder, Alfred
Hitchcock, Jacques Tourneur, and Fritz Lang. It is said that the themes of noir
attracted European directors, who often felt like outsiders within the Hollywood
studio system. Such directors had been trained to emphasize cinematic style as
much as acting and narrative in order to convey thought and emotion.

Lighting

The isolation from society of the typical noir hero was underscored using stark
high-contrast lighting—the most notable visual feature of film noir. The shadowy
noir style can be traced to the German Expressionist cinema of the silent era.
Robert Wiene’s Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (1920. The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari) has one of the best early examples of the lighting techniques used to
inspire the genre. Wiene used visual elements to help define the title character’s
madness, including tilted cameras to present skewed images and a dark atmosphere
in which only the faces of the actors were visible. This Expressionistic style was
later used by German directors such as Fritz Lang (Metropolis, 1927; M, 1931) and
F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu, 1922. Sunrise, 1927).

These lighting effects were used in Hollywood by cinematographers such as Gregg

Toland (Citizen Kane, 1941), John F. Seitz (Double Indemnity, 1944), Karl Freund
(Key Largo, 1948), and Sid Hickox (The Big Sleep, 1948) to heighten the sombre
tone of films in the genre. Classic images of noir included rain-soaked streets in the
early morning hours; streetlamps with shimmering halos; flashing neon signs on
seedy taverns, diners, and apartment buildings; and endless streams of cigarette
smoke wafting in and out of shadows. Such images would lose their indelibility
with realistic lighting or color cinematography.

Despite recognition of the elements common to film noir, most scholars and critics
continue to employ their own definitions as to what constitutes the noir styles.
Nevertheless, the golden era of film noir—the late 1940s through the early ’50s—
is regarded as a benchmark period in American filmmaking, as well as a strong
cultural checkpoint for the values of postwar America.
c. Italian Neorealism(1945-1952)
Italian neorealism (Italian: Neorealism) is a style of film characterized by stories
set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, often using
nonprofessional actors. Italian neorealist films mostly contend with the difficult
economical and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy, reflecting the
changes in the Italian psyche and the conditions of everyday life: poverty and
desperation. Neorealism is properly defined as a moment or a trend in Italian film,
rather than an actual school or group of theoretically motivated and like-minded
directors and scriptwriters. Its impact nevertheless has been enormous, not only on
Italian film but also on French New Wave cinema and on films all over the world.
"The term 'neorealism' was first applied by the critic Antonio Pietrangeli to
Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (1943)
The term Neorealism, which directly translates to “new reality” or “new realism,”
sprouted in the wake of World War II in Italy. Neorealism signified a trend in art
and film that aimed to provide insight into the contemporary Italian society of the
1940’s. The films associated with Italian Neorealism are focused on showing Italy
removed from Fascist influence.
he impacts of Italian Neorealism in film cannot be overstated. The works of
Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, and other major Neorealist directors are
undeniable when it comes to the influence they have had on cinema throughout the
world. They also had an immense effect on a young boy growing up in Queens
named Martin Scorsese.

Characteristics of Italian Neorealism:

Italian neorealism (Italian: Neorealism) is a style of film characterized by stories
set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using
nonprofessional actors. Italian neorealist films mostly contend with the difficult
economical and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy, reflecting the
changes in the Italian psyche and the conditions of everyday life: poverty and
desperation. Neorealism is properly defined as a moment or a trend in Italian film,
rather than an actual school or group of theoretically motivated and like-minded
directors and scriptwriters. Its impact nevertheless has been enormous, not only on
Italian film but also on French New Wave cinema and ultimately on films all over
the world. "The term 'neorealism' was first applied by the critic Antonio Pietrangeli
to Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (1943),
 Social disorder
 Representations of extreme poverty
 “The Rehabilitation of an entire culture and people through cinema” - Martin
Scorsese
Styles of Italian Neorealism
the style came to fruition in the mid-to-late forties in such films of Roberto
Rossellini, Visconti, and Vittorio De Sica as Rome, Open City (1945), Shoeshine
(1946), Paisan (1946), Bicycle Thieves (1948), and The Earth Trembles (1948).
These pictures reacted not only against the banality that had long been the
dominant mode of Italian cinema, but also against prevailing socioeconomic
conditions in Italy. With minimal resources, the neorealist filmmakers worked in
real locations using local people as well as professional actors; they improvised
their scripts, as need be, on site; and their films conveyed a powerful sense of the
plight of ordinary individuals oppressed by political circumstances beyond their
control. Thus, Italian neorealism was the first postwar cinema to liberate
filmmaking from the artificial confines of the studio and, by extension, from the
Hollywood-originated studio system. But neorealism was the expression of an
entire moral or ethical philosophy, as well, and not simply just another new
cinematic style".

Directors of Italian Neorealism

 Paisà (1946), directed by Roberto Rossellini
 1860 (1934), directed by Alessandro Blasetti
 Fabiola (1949), directed by Alessandro Blasetti
 The Iron Crown (La corona di ferro) (1941), directed by Alessandro Blasetti
 Cabiria (1914), directed by Giovanni Pastrone
 La terra trema (1948), directed by Luchino Visconti
 Bicycle Thieves (1948), directed by Vittorio De Sica
 Fantasia sottomarina (1940), directed by Roberto Rossellini
 Viaggio in Italia (Journey to Italy) (1954), directed by Roberto Rossellini
 La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (1966), directed by Roberto Rossellini
 Germany Year Zero (1947), directed by Roberto Rossellini

Miracolo a Milano (1951)
De Sica’s Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan, 1951) abandons many of the
conventions of neorealist 'realism.' Not only does the film rely upon veterans of the
legitimate theater for its cast, but De Sica also employs many special effects not
generally associated with neorealism’s pseudo documentary style: superimposed
images for magical effects, process shots, reverse action, surrealistic sets, the
abandonment of normal notions of chronological time, and the rejection of the
usual cause-and-effect relationships typical of the 'real' world.

In 1939, De Sica graduated to the director's chair with Rose Scarlatte. Over the
next two years he helmed three more features (1940's Maddalena... zero in
condotta along with 1941's Teresa Venerdi and Un garibaldino al convento,
respectively), but his work lacked distinction until he, along with fellow Italian
filmmakers Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti, began exploring the
possibilities of making more humanistic movies documenting the harsh realities
facing their countrymen as a result of World War II. With 1942's I bambini ci
guardano, De Sica revolutionized the Italian film industry, crafting a poignant,
heartfelt portrait of a downtrodden culture free of the conventions of Hollywood
production. Working with screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, who remained a central
figure in the majority of his greatest work, De Sica employed non-professional
actors and filmed not in studios but on the streets of Rome, all to flesh out the
working-class drama of Zavattini's script.

French New Wave(1920s~1930s)

The French New Wave was a film movement from the 1950s and 60s and one of
the most influential in cinema history. Also known as “Nouvelle Vague," it gave
birth to a new kind of cinema that was highly self-aware and revolutionary to
mainstream filmmaking. A group of French critics, who wrote for the journal,
Cahiers du Cinema, believed films had lost their ability to capture true human
emotion and "lacked sincerity." They felt the films were out of step with how
people actually live.
There were quite a few notable French film directors who were part of the
movement, including Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric
Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Louis Malle, Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, and Jacques
Demy. Their films were characterized by rejecting film traditions but how did they
do that?
A brief history of French New Wave
The French New Wave emerged out of a hungry post-war France. Salivating for
culture and left only with mainstream media that felt trite and contrived, French
critics and film lovers began experimenting with different filmmaking techniques.
Their influences ranged from the Italian Neo-Realism and American noir from the
40s and 50s.
During WWII, films from outside France stopped being imported into the country.
But after the war, those embargoes were lifted and these cinephiles and critics were
inundated by a flood of "new" movies. All this work from Hollywood greats like
Welles, Hitchcock, and Ford energized the French critics and the rest is history.

FRENCH NEW WAVE CHARACTERISTICS:

 Deemphasized plot & dialogue was often improvised
 Jump cuts rather than continuity editing
 Location shooting
 Handheld cameras
 Long takes
 Direct sound & available light (live recordings, often did not adjust light)

Characteristics of new wave cinema

 Technology and aesthetics: -
 1.availability of cheap and lightweight cameras and sound recording
equipment.
 2.The freewheeling style of film –making marked the new wave cinema and
it was highly influential around the world.
Society and Politics: -
The social background of new wave was the post war reconstruction and
modernization.
This saw France enter an economic boom period known as the ‘trended
gloriousness’ (the thirty glorious years of prosperity and technological advances).

Notable French Wave films and directors

 Band of Outsiders (Bande a Part) (1964)
 Pierrot the Madman (Pierrot Le Fou) (1965)
 Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le Pianiste) (1960)
 The Cousins (Les Cousins) (1959)
 Band of Outsiders (Bande a Part) (1964) by Jean-Luc Godard
 Pierrot the Madman (Pierrot Le Fou) (1965) by Jean-Luc Godard
 Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le Pianiste) (1960) by Francois Truffau
 The Cousins (Les Cousins) (1959)

New Wave, French Nouvelle Vague, the style of a number of highly

individualistic French film directors of the late 1950s. Preeminent among New
Wave directors were Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, Alain
Resnais, and Jean-Luc Godard, most of whom were associated with the film
magazine Cahiers du cinéma, the publication that popularized the auteur theory in
the 1950s. The theory held that certain directors so dominated their films that they
were the authors of the film.

Films by New Wave directors were often characterized by a fresh brilliance of

technique that was thought to have overshadowed their subject matter. An example
occurs in Godard’s Breathless (1960), in which scenes change in rapid sequence
(“jump cuts”) to create a jerky and disconnected effect. Although it was never
clearly defined as a movement, the New Wave stimulated discussion about the
cinema and helped prove that films could achieve both commercial and artistic
success.