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In the last week of my Introduction to Film class, we focused on the fall of the Studio System in Hollywood and its impact on the type of movies that began to be developed. We also looked at editing, and the different techniques used to convey moods within film. With this in mind, we primarily focused on the movie Taxi Driver [IMC DVD 306.74 T235 2007], but also watched a clip from Battleship Potemkin [IMC DVD 947.083 B336 2007].

Taxi Driver was a movie that I had seen before, but it was very illuminating to be able to spend the time analyzing it, especially through the lens of film editing. Right off the bat, Scorsese breaks film tradition by not opening the scene with an establishing shot. Instead, we get a smoky scene from whence a taxi emerges. From there, we get a shot of an unknown person’s eyes. Finally, we switch to a street scene, but it is blurry and nebulous. This whole opening sequence is designed to disorient the audience, and it does just that. Thus Scorsese does “establish” his movie, but through a mood instead of a temporal and physical location. The feeling of disorientation continues through the whole movie, as we are introduced to Travis, his life, and his abject loneliness. The editing of the movie helps to further this mood, especially in the scenes where Travis is beginning to descend into madness. These scenes, the most iconic of which is the scene where he talks to himself (“Are you talking to me?”), are characterized by choppy editing, a montage of jump cuts, which put the audience on edge. We can see that Travis is losing his sanity, and the editing reflects the disjointedness of his brain. With the fall of the studio system, more and more movies were experimenting with breaking the rules, as Scorsese did with his establishing shot.

However, this form of experimental editing was not as new as you might think. Battleship Potemkin utilized the same type of choppy editing techniques during its famous Odessa Step scene. It starts with several quick jump cuts of a woman’s face, then has a long sequence of shots of both the people fleeing and the soldiers pursuing. The tempo between these different cuts increases as the scene progresses, which increases the viewer’s anxiety. The audience is left deliberately confused, because it reflects on the scene and how the people are feeling. Battleship Potemkin, the film as a whole, is a series of montages, and the power of those montages are a result of superb editing.

I hope you learned as much as I did from our Introduction to Film series. Stay tuned for my next posting and keep following along at https://letterboxd.com/peterstanley/list/1001-movies-you-must-see-before-you-die/ .

As we continue to explore film, this week’s classes focuses on the beginning of the Studio System in Hollywood, and the impact that censorship and sound began to have on the creation of movies. In particular, we focused on the movies Sunset Boulevard [IMC DVD 791.4302 S958 2002] and Psycho [IMC DVD 791.436 P974 1999].

Sunset Boulevard is a fascinating movie because there are so many layers to it—it is a film noir, but also a parody of that genre. It tells a story about Hollywood and film making which had forgotten about its old-time silent movie stars and the directors that made them big. The introduction of sound had changed the type of movies being produced and made dialogue crucial, which took emphasis away from the original idea of a “moving picture”. Censorship had also began in Hollywood, taking form with the Hays Code of 1932. This code outlined exactly what films could and could not show, which affected Billy Wilder’s original opening scene for Sunset Boulevard. Instead, Wilder was forced to write a new opening scene, which included some inventive camera work. Truly a wonderful film, it becomes even more fascinating the more you learn about it.

Our second movie, Psycho, is a Hitchcock thriller which he specifically shot with a low budget in a backlot in order to give the film a more visceral feel. The Hays Code (also known as the Motion Picture Production Code) mentioned earlier was beginning to erode by the time that Psycho was being made. Paramount, who had a contract with Hitchcock, did not want him to film this movie, and as a result, denied him his usual budget. Thus Hitchcock decided he would finance it himself, and kept costs low by using a backlot set, shooting in black and white (which also helped to tone down the gory scenes), and by using his television crew instead of the crew used to shoot North by Northwest. Sound played a huge role in this film as well, with the shower scene being the most famous for its use of music to increase the tension of the audience. In addition, in the beginning of the film, the viewer is introduced to a new type of sound, called internal diegetic, where the character is imagining dialogue that is happening in the world of the film, but only we as the audience can hear it.

Next week will be the last week of the class, focusing primarily on Taxi Driver (and perhaps a little of American Beauty). Stay tuned and keep following along at https://letterboxd.com/peterstanley/list/1001-movies-you-must-see-before-you-die/ .

Week 3 in my FLM 200 class focused on film noir by watching two classic movies: M by Fritz Lang [IMC DVD 832.03 M110 1998] and The Maltese Falcon by John Huston [IMC DVD 363.289 M261 2010]. In exploring film noir, we discussed the importance of camera angles and different lighting techniques to better contextualize our understanding of the plot and characters.

The film M by Fritz Lang was made prior to the beginning of the film noir period in America, but it had a huge impact on later film noir movies. This movie is about a serial killer (Peter Lorre) who is murdering children, but in actuality, most of the film focuses on the manhunt for him. Both the police and the criminals are after him, and this is where we see the beginning of film noir: dark figures huddled together, smoking cigar after cigar. The audience begins to see that it is society itself that is the problem, when the focus is no longer on the children being killed, but on catching the killer in order to further their own schemes. Indeed, when Lorre delivers his defense speech at the end of the movie, we begin to pity him instead of condemning him. Lang makes excellent use of his camera: one sequence in particular features a montage of different shots, letting the audience know that a girl has been murdered without explicitly showing it. A wonderfully done film, it is one of the strongest precursors to film noir.

Film noir is often characterized as being made during 1944-54, but I would argue that The Maltese Falcon, even though it was made in 1941, is one of the first film noir films. While it doesn’t have the same level of pessimism as some later noir films, there is a pervasive feeling of menace as Sam Spade, private investigator, attempts to solve the mystery of the Maltese Falcon.  The strategic use of lighting helps to illuminate, or darken, characters as necessary. One scene in particular is striking: when the shadows from the elevator are used to mimic prison bars at the end of the movie.

Next week I’ll be discussing Sunset Boulevard (another film noir) and Psycho (a Hitchcock thriller). Stay tuned and keep following along at https://letterboxd.com/peterstanley/list/1001-movies-you-must-see-before-you-die/ .

Week 2 in my FLM 200 class comprised of exploring the Western genre by watching both Stagecoach [IMC DVD 791.4362 S779 1997] and The Searchers [IMC DVD 791.43 S439 1997]. In addition, we also covered the topic of mise-en-scene, a french term which covers everything that goes into creating the setting, or look, of specific shots during the film. Specifically, when watching a Western film, this can range from the props used (six-shooters), the clothing worn (chaps and cowboy attire), the setting (the frontier), and various other aspects. By incorporating these specific details, the audience is able to better understand the characters and the world in which they live.

The films we watched were wonderful examples of Western movies. It was interesting because they were both directed by the same person, John Ford, and both starred John Wayne, but they had very different messages about the West and what life was like living out there. The older movie, Stagecoach, was, to my mind, a classic Western. Dallas, a local prostitute is kicked out of town and takes a stagecoach with several other characters. She however is ostracized until she meets Ringo (John Wayne), an escaped outlaw. In between shootouts with the Indians and shootouts between other criminals, Dallas discovers that she has a chance for happiness with him. In this way, the movie gives the audience the perception that things can work out, even for people such as Dallas and Ringo, who are marginalized in society.

Fast forward to one of John Ford’s later movies, The Searchers. This movie stars John Wayne as well, but he is older and has become cynical after time spent fighting. He comes to visit his brother, and later his brother’s family is attacked and the young girls kidnapped by a local native tribe. Ethan, John Wayne’s character, is determined to find the girls and bring them home, but it takes him 5 years before he manages to find them. As the movie progresses, you realize that Ethan is hoping that the girls are dead, because that is preferable to them living with the natives as slaves. While Ethan is the protagonist (and later hero) of the movie, he does not have the same hope-filled future that Ringo in Stagecoach possesses, and that is the main indicator of John Ford’s change in his perception of the American West. Right and wrong is no longer so black and white, and the characters are faced with their own internal struggles that don’t simply disappear with the ending of the movie.

Both movies were very good in their own way and helped to illustrate the change in perception of the West for many people during this time period. During week 3 we will be exploring film noir with a couple different movies. Check back in next week, and keep following along at https://letterboxd.com/peterstanley/list/1001-movies-you-must-see-before-you-die/ .

I was recently given the opportunity to audit our Introduction to Film class this summer, which began this week. By taking the class, I am hoping to gain insight into the beginning of film and the exploration of different film genres and techniques. As this was the first week of our class, we began with very early film—specifically, film created by Georges Melies, the Lumiere brothers, and Thomas Edison. Two of these films were also on my list of films to watch: A Trip to the Moon [IMC DVD 791.4309 M194 2002] and The Great Train Robbery [IMC DVD 791.4309 G786 2002].

Georges Melies, one of the earliest filmmakers, was known as the magician of film, astounding his audience through spectacular special effects. His films are surrounded in fantasy, and this is best shown through his film A Trip to the Moon, where a group of academics decide to shoot themselves in a rocket onto the moon. There, they discover a native race who they must fight off in order to return back to Earth. Since color film was not yet possible, early filmmakers would sometimes hand-paint the film itself in order to add color—exactly what was done with this film (finally restored in 2011). In addition to the special effects, this film was also remarkable because of the presence of a full storyline, which added length to the film itself. Before then, the Lumiere brothers had created much shorter films, which focused on every day activities. Melies was the first to establish a distinct plot and to incorporate unconventional aspects within it.

Our second film, The Great Train Robbery, was directed by Edwin S. Porter shortly after Melies’s A Trip to the Moon. Porter’s film portrayed a then common occurrence of trains being robbed, but created it into a fiction. There are distinct characters and plotline, and the audience can easily follow between various cutaways. However, what makes this film iconic is one scene in the movie, where the bandit chief points his gun directly at the audience and shoots. By doing this, Porter breaks the fourth wall, and to the audience it would have been terrifying. Movie theater managers had the option to show this scene at either the beginning or the end of the film, and many learned to show it last as a result.  

This was a great way to start the class, and put down the foundation for future film interpretation. Next week we will be covering the Western, a genre that I have very little experience with. Stay tuned and follow along at https://letterboxd.com/peterstanley/list/1001-movies-you-must-see-before-you-die/ .