The Story of Film: Episode 10

Intro

• Countries began to question what they wold do with their new identity
  • Billy Brandt had power in Germany
  • Iran got rich
  • Africa became decolonized
• Film became about identity and history
• Economic boom numbed the guilt of the holocaust in Germany

1969-1979: Radical Directors in the 70s – Make State of the Nation Movies.

• German films wanted to show tradgedy as it really was, not happy at all
  • Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) (a.k.a. Angst essen Seele auf) dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a less romantic, less glamorous version of the american film All That Heaven Allows
    • In the remake her lover is shunned not because he is working class, but because he is black
  • The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) (a.k.a. Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant) dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder tragedy was expressed through movement and lack of expression, had a numb and haunted  look to it
    • Another remake of a romantic American film, but without the happy gloss of an American film
• American utopianism was Wenders “jumping off point”
  • Alice in the Cities (1974) (a.k.a. Alice in den Städten) dir. Wim Wenders
    • Not shot in a studio, all natural light
• Trotta was interested in gender
  • The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978) (a.k.a. Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages) dir. Margarethe von Trotta impressionist, about women in violent times
• Many German films asked the question: “If I don’t want to be my parents, then who am I?”
  • Film makers wanted to confront Germans with their own history
• Italy had begun to ask the same questions
  • The Spider’s Stratagem (1970) (a.k.a. Strategia del ragno) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci was unique for it’s visual beauty
    • Gliding shots, bold use of color, unconventional lighting
    • Bertolucci loved ominous dusk lighting
  • The Conformist (1970) (a.k.a. Il conformista) dir. Bernardo Bertolucci about fascism and identity
    • Uses wind as a beauty shot, camera and leaves on the found move together
    • In the 70s beauty shots came back, as they were cast out for seeming too “Hollywood” in the 60s
  • Taxi Driver (1976) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Martin Scorsese was influenced by The Conformist
    • Scorsese turned a violent and ugly scene into a beautiful shot, using steady close ups then a gliding shot from the ceiling, as if the camera were the fan
• Britain had identity question films as well, though sexual identity and the idea that identity was fragmented was big in Britain more than anywhere else
  • Women in Love (1969) dir. Ken Russell turned a camera on its side so action moved vertically
  • Performance (1970) dir. Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg two mens’ faces dissolve together to show one man taking on the persona of the other man, and later completely takes on the look of the other man
• Australian film gained momentum in the 70s
  • Walkabout (1971) dir. Nicolas Roeg about the contrast all over Australia
    • Moves from a wild land where a city girl is stranded, to hen she is grown up, in a highly civilized middle class house
    • Thinks back to a more wild moment, when she didn’t have to cover who she was while she talks with her husband
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) dir. Peter Weir girls are filmed in slight slow motion for a sense of mystery
    • Girls in white Victorian dresses while in the wild Australian outback
    • Later instead of explaining a disappearance they film the girls before hand with a roaming camera, ,as if they are ghosts
• Japan had more radical filmmakers took a hammer to society rather than a mirror, and tried to shape Japanese identity with documentaries
  • Minamata: The Victims and Their World (1971) dir. Noriaki Tsuchimoto filmed over 17 years
    • Chemical company was dumping methyl mercury into fishing waters, causing deaths and bio-deformities, and denied all responsibility
    • Many people bought shares in the company to force them to take responsibility
    • Small camera to be in the center of the action, shaky hand-held made it look professional and even staged
    • In Japan, where identity wasn’t so assertive, scenes that were captured were shocking to the nation
  • The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987) dir. Kazuo Hara looking to find the story behind a lost soldier by going to his commander’s house
    • Hired actors to pretend to be the soldier’s siblings, to use emotional blackmail to get to the truth
    • He attacks the commander because he lies about the situation
• Third type of cinema was wanted, one that should fight poverty and oppression, political, made in the non-western world about post-colonized nations
  • La nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua (1971) dir. Assia Djebar opposes the fantsy Africa depicted in Hollywood movies
  • Xala (1975) dir. Ousmane Sembène about the move from colonial to post-colonial identity
    • People kick out the symbols of French rule
    • New business men mock the ways of the old ones
  • Hyènes (1992) (a.k.a. Hyenas/Ramatou) dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty
    • Rich woman goes to a poor village and gives the people consumer goods, they experience fairs, celebrations, and become almost a shopping mall in celebration of capitalism
    • She will continue to give them goods if they kill the man who spurred her
  • Kurdish director comes to light as well
    • Umut (1970) (a.k.a. Hope) dir. Yilmaz Güney & Serif Gören man has been released for 5 days from prison, goes to his village only to find it captured by th state military, looking abandoned
  • The Battle of Chile (1975/1977/1979) (a.k.a. La batalla de Chile) dir. Patricio Guzmán showed the battle of Chile from far away, all the action showed from rooftops
  • The Holy Mountain (1973) (a.k.a. La montaña sagrada) dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky a man climbs to the top of a tower, only to find himself in a Wizard of Oz type corridor
    • Used primary colors, eggs shapes, abstract composition, nudity, it was a very 70s cinema look