Independent Film
1. Why do cinema audiences end up with "only reboots and dystopian fantasies"?
Hollywood is driven by and thus tends to make film out of things that are trending as its success inspires others to copy e.g. a big-budget sequel, a romantic comedy, and most recently, another superhero film.
2. According to the Crash Course video, what is Classical Hollywood Cinema?
Between the 1930s and the 1950s, this particular style of film was perfected which features chaste, formulaic and mostly upbeat stories, where the good guys almost always won, many where shot on constructed sets or studio backlots.
3. What is high key lighting and who uses it?
This was used by a majority of Classic Hollywood Cinema and was a flat, generic form of lighting that ensured the entire image was clearly visible
4. What happened in the European Film Industry after WW2?
In the mid 1940s, Italian Neo-Realism was the voice of the post-war and the most recent movement in film at the time.
5. Who was Roberto Rosellini and what did he do?
He was a working director before the war and started shooting again when it ended and after living through the time, craved a more authentic and raw style than Classic Hollywood Cinema. He was one of many resourceful directors who turned their lack of professional film materials into a style which reflected the harsh reality they saw around them.
6. Which film movement was he associated with?
He created the first Italian Neo-Realist film in 1945, considered a masterpiece called 'Rome: Open City'.
7. What happened in the late 1950s in France?
A group of opinionated young film lovers started making a film magazine called 'Cahiers du Cinema'.
8. What did critics of the Studio System accuse them of?
Jean-Luc Godard said about the 21 major film directors, "Your camera movements are ugly because your subjects are bad, your casts act badly because your dialogue is worthless; in a word, you don't know how to create cinema, because you no longer know what it is." The main argument was that they were spoon-feeding their audiences rather than respecting their intelligence.
9. Who was Jean-Luc Godard?
A prominent writer for 'Cahiers du Cinema'.
10. Did Jean-luc Godard admire any Hollywood directors? Elaborate.
He admired such as directors as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, all of which were directors who worked during the height of the studio system. Hitchcock, for example, was at the time considered but a reliable maker of commercial thrillers but nothing special, however Godard saw a man entirely in command of his medium - from story to cinematography to editing.
11. What is the French New Wave? Describe and name 3 directors and films.
This style involved making films swiftly with minimal crews and lightweight equipment. The films plots often felt spontaneous or absurd, featuring tangents, casual or irreverent humour, a frank approach to sexuality and sometimes obscure cinematic references and in-jokes. They also used a lot of tricks to remind the audience they were watching a film, really playing with the illusion of reality (things like jump-cuts or characters talking directly to the camera). Along with Godard, in 1959, Jacques Rivette with 'Paris Belongs to Us', Claude Chabrol with his second film 'Les Cousins' and Francois Truffaut with 'The 400 Blows, made their feature film directing debut.
12. What happened in the US in 1948 and what effect did it have on their film industry?
The antitrust lawsuit between the United States and Paramount Pictures Inc. made it so that major studios had to give up their theatre chains. This meant the marketplace was open to all sorts of film, not just whatever the biggest studios wanted to show.
13. What happened in the US in the 1970s? Describe.
The Baby Boom generation was coming of age, the war in Vietnam was in full swing, American politics was at its most violent since the Civil War and studio films seemed increasingly out of touch. This meant ticket sales were falling and studio executives were in outright panic.
14. What do studio executives like?
Money. They like Money.
15. Why was Bonnie and Clyde a watershed moment in US film history?
It featured unapologetic sexuality, casual humour, and surprisingly brutal violence.
16. Which other films were made in this period?
Easy Rider in 1969 made by Dennis Hooper and Peter Fonda, The Graduate in 1967 and Midnight Cowboy in 1969.
17. What is New Hollywood Cinema? When was it? Name 3 directors and films.
In this time (1970), surprisingly personal, idiosyncratic, unique, original films were proven to to still make money, along with old studio heads retiring (and new Hollywood decision makers having been brought up in the same societal forces - such as the rise of counterculture and Watergate-era politics - as the young filmmakers) filmmakers witch original visions that wants dot tell risky stories were suddenly able funding from major Hollywood studios. Such films as Steven Spielbergs 'Jaws', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and George Lucas' 'Star Wars' were being made and filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Brain de Palma and Robert Altman were getting support.
18. What were Summer Blockbusters? When did they arise? Give 2 examples of directors and films.
Made at the 1980s, these were films which offered a chance to escape, a more pure form of entertainment that appealed to a wider audience, films like E.T, Back to the Future, Die Hard and Dirty Dancing.
19. What happened to Hollywood Studios at this time?
So, the major studios speech much of the time making film which appealed to as many people was possible and once again the more unusual American films had to find funding elsewhere.
20. What happened to US Cinema in the 1990s? Describe with examples.
It saw the arrival of new independent filmmakers and mini-studios. Directors like Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino made films for independent companies like Miramar and New Line Cinema, inspired by New Hollywood Cinema.
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