A Brief History of Western Cinema

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A Brief History of Western Cinema

• By Douglas Pensak

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Early Invention- Thomas Edison

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

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

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The Black Maria
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• 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.

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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.

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Movies and Profit

• 1905- Nickelodeons flourish for ten years making
  moving pictures popular with the public

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

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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

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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.

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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

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

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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.

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Violence and Sex!
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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
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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

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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.

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Becky Sharp

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

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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.

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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!

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Wizard of Oz in Technicolor-1939
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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
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Very famous for use of deep focus photography
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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

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The Bicycle Thief
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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Losing Money!

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

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The Counter Culture
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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

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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.

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1967- Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde are Criminals Bank
Robbers Dangerous Killers But, they are the
heroes, the good guys
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1967- The Graduate
He is Unhappy Lost Confused Sexually
Active But, he is the good guy
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1969- Easy Rider
They are Homeless Jobless Drifters Drug
users Drug Dealers But, they are the
heroes, the good guys
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1969- Midnight Cowboy
They are Homeless Penniless Thieves Drug
users Hustlers The lowest members of
society But, they are the heroes, the good
guys
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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.

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The Blockbuster and the end of the artistic age
of filmmaking
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
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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.