The Story of Film: Episode 12

Intro

• Conservative ideals spread false ideas, filmmakers captured those falsehoods,
• Film was booming in China

The 1980s: Moviemaking and Protest – Around the World.

• The Horse Thief (1988) dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang unmaoist subject spoke truth to power
  • Interested in mystical aspects of characters
  • His teachers talked a lot about image, color, framing more than plot and story
• 5th generation brough individuality
  • Yellow Earth (1985) dir. Chen Kaige broke stereotypes of cinema
    • Women portrayed unconventionally,
    • Remarkably framed landscapes, used emptiness as a compositional element
    • Didn’t distinguish gender, or let them merge together
  • Raise the Red Lantern (1991) dir. Zhang Yimou used red palette for color
  • House of Flying Daggers (2004) dir. Zhang Yimou graceful movement, imagery was becoming beautiful
• Eastern Europe, communism was losing it’s grip, society was opening up
  • Repentance (1984) dir. Tengiz Abuladze showed how the genocide would never die
  • Arsenal (1929) (introduced in Episode 3) dir. Alexander Dovzhenko used camera lenses to show increase intensity
    • Pushed their actors to the limits, they are almost buried in a swamp
  • Come and See (1985) dir. Elem Klimov used jump cuts and transitions to show how people can suffocate each other
    • The film was banned by soviet authorities
• Color began to have meaning
  • A Short Film About Killing (1988) dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
    • Shows a man in green / blue lighting, psychological thriller
    • Showed the dirt and hatred in fear
    • Imagery is coated so much day looks like night
    • Light is only white after the killer is dead
    • Changed the death penalty in Poland
• African cinema had innovative bursts too, they were about beore colonization
  • Wend Kuuni (1983) dir. Gaston Kaboré was one of the best
    • Used a flashback within a flashback
    • Used instinct in artistic aspects, and it came out very well
  • Yeelen (1987) dir. Souleymane Cissé used obvious symbolism by overlapping people with animals
    • A magic realist film, shaped later films
• Music Videos
  • Video Killed the Radio Star (1979) (music video) dir. Russell Mulcahy the first music video
  • Flashdance (1983) dir. Adrian Lyne was pure impressionism, and influenced films
• AMerican dream films
  • Top Gun (1986) dir. Tony Scott was all male fantasy
  • Blue Velvet (1986) (introduced in Episode 3) dir. David Lynch suburban imagery
    • Gives way to something more fearful
  • The Elephant Man (1980) dir. David Lynch used ghastly imagery, and used fear as a device
    • Used beauty and fear to show their connection
  • The eye to the world was closing in cinema in the 80s
• Do the Right Thing (1989) dir. Spike Lee used brightened colors to heighten the themes
• Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980) dir. John Sayles
  • Camera was patiently observant, showed reality
  • Wanted more than two or three characters, showed the depth in a person, moral imperfections
• Next protests were againts seriousness
  • Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991) dir. Leos Carax showed two homeless people in grand glossy picture
  • Labyrinth of Passion (1982) dir. Pedro Almodóvar showed sexual change in the protests
    • Used provocative scenes as political stabs aginst non-progressives
  • My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) dir. Stephen Frears was a stab at right-wing government
  • Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) dir. Terence Davies used tilting the camera slowly, poetically showing love
    • Commonly uses symmetrical framing, used a slow tracking frame to show grandeur and a change in feeling
  • A Zed & Two Noughts (1986) dir. Peter Greenaway analyzed his frame more than any other director
    • Used darkness, flame, cold colors to depict rage and destruction
  • Crash (1996) dir. David Cronenberg director loved to show the difference and mixing of man and machine