Annotated Bibliography Of The Films Of Federico Fellini

What makes an Auteur: Alfred Hitchcock and Auteur Theory Alfred Hitchcock is widely regarded as a prime example of an auteur, a theory that emerged in the 1950s by Truffaut, in the ‘politique des auteurs’ of Cahiers du Cinema (Tudor 121). The auteur theory, as defined by Andrew Tudor, is premised on the assumption that “any director creates his films on the basis of a central structure”(140) and thus, if you consider their films in relation to each other, commonalities can be found within them. These commonalities work to demonstrate the view of the director as “the true creator of the film” (Tudor 122). Evidence of an auteur can be found in examining a director’s creative tendencies, in their distinctive themes and motifs, stylistic choices,

In 1962, an American film critic, Andrew Sarris, wrote the “notes on the auteur theory.” He stated that the “first premise of the auteur theory is the technical competence of a director as a criterion of

An auteur is a director who personal creative vision and style is expressed through films. The term auteur is originated in France and is French for author. There are different ways in which a director can express their vision in films and show who they are. There are many directors that are considered to be a auteur such as: Quentin Tarintino, Tim Burton, Kathryn Bigelow, Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen. The director I have chosen as an auteur is Spike Lee.

Being one of the world’s most popular art forms, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into film as well. In this essay I will argue that the

Naomi Greene once said that, “Pier Paolo Pasolini was the more protean figure than anyone else in the world of film.” This means that Pasolini was a versatile film director because he simplified cinema into the simplest way possible, while still visually embodying an important message to his cinematic viewers. Because of his encounter with Italy’s social changes, it influenced the writing and films he chose to write. His aspirations regarding his written work “Cinema of Poetry” explains how a writer usage of words and a filmmaker’s choice of images are linked to how cinema can be a poetry of language. He characterizes cinema as irrational and his approach on free indirect point of view is used to achieve a particular effect in his body of work. His claims made in the Cinema of Poetry illustrate why he stylized his films in the manner he did, such as Mamma Roma through the images he portrayed on screen. By examining Pasolini’s approach to poetic communication in the Cinema of Poetry, we can see that these cinematic attributes about reality and authenticity depicted in Mamma Roma are utilized to question cinematic viewer’s effortless identification of cinema with life. This is important to illustrate because Pasolini wants to motivate viewers to have an interpretative rather than a passionate relationship with the screen.

The influential career of Leni Riefenstahl has been a point of great contention amongst scholars and filmmakers over the last few decades. The legacy Riefenstahl leaves behind are her achievements and failures of her

Auteurism: A Disease of Greatness. The term Auteur seems to bless a privileged group of filmmakers with an almost messiah-like legacy. Men such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Fritz Lange are believed to inhabit the ranks of the cinematic elite, and not surprisingly most critics are more than willing to bestow upon them the title of Auteur. By regarding filmmaking as yet another form of art, Auteur theory stipulates that a film is the direct result of its director's genius. With the emerging prominence of auteur based criticism in the 1950?s, the role of the director became increasingly integral to a film's success. However most would argue that this form of criticism didn't reach its apex until 1960s, when Andrew Sarris released his

Auteur theory proposed during the 1950’s and 60’s argues that the director is the most important element in the making of a film. Alfred Hitchcock is an example of a well-known and highly successful director, whose audience appeal can be contributed to by his use of recurring themes and techniques throughout his films, including those such as voyeurism, use of the mother figure, lighting techniques and point of view camera shots. Psycho, Vertigo, Marnie, The Birds, and Strangers on a Train are all popular Hitchcock creations that are easily recognisable due to the inclusion of these elements, rendering the films unique and unmistakeable, with engaging characters, storylines and messages.

Italian Neorealism was a movement of art, which strived to illustrate the normal lives of the ordinary, working class people in post war Rome, usually with the use of non-professional actors. As one of the best Italian Neorealist film, Bicycle Thieves showed an absolute depiction of the war’s impact on daily life and exposed a world in which sufferings, unkindness and corruption jeopardized the rationality of human beings and action of men (Schoonover). By utilizing a depressing and gloomy cinematography, De Sica implies the somber lives of the poor and their crisis in losing their self-identity and moral conscience as a result of parochial society that make a fetish of personal belongings as a mode of social acceptance. By examining the cinematography, ‘mise-en-scene’ and events in the film, the daily struggles of the working class in post war Rome can be seen through the crisis of masculinity, class struggle, ethical dilemma and a profoundly patriarchal society.

Vittorio De Sica was one of the most influential and talented directors of the postwar Italian cinema and known to be an important figure in the neorealist movement that changed the cinema scene not only in Italy but in Europe and beyond. Considered to be one of De Sica`s best work, Umberto D. is a fine representation of neorealism. Because Umberto D. is an author-based cinema, the audience could see that De Sica`s visions, his values of truth and ethics are embedded in it.

Intro – Casablanca, first released on January 23rd, 1943 is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Classical Hollywood film. Written and released in the midst of World War Two it explores themes such as love, desire and especially sacrifice. Although the love story of the protagonists is the cause and catalyst for most of the narrative, one would not necessarily associate it with the conventional Classical Hollywood love story. Rather as a fabula based on the principle of the importance of sacrifice in order to overcome a common enemy, in this case the Nazis. Casablanca does indeed contain many of the common characteristics identified with the Classical Hollywood film. An example being the the way director, Michael Curtiz used a mainly chronologically ordered narrative structure and the utilisation of a Cause and Effect chain. In this essay I will looking at the various ways I believe this film does fall into the criteria of a Classical Hollywood narrative and also how some could perceive that it does not.

i Suoi Fratelli, it is beneficial to analyse these films with reference to two sub-themes:

Camerawork was the second of many techniques that Federico Fellini used for the production of 8 ½. The way Fellini used the camera to show close ups, long shots, images, frame within a frame, and montage were very eye catching to the audience. One example would be, the scene where Guido remembers when he was younger and how he was wrapped with sheets. Then suddenly he starts to fantasize that all the women who live in the house with him, where carrying him. Fellini focused on that specific scene where Guido´s face is far beyond noticeable on the camera and the viewer can clearly see his face expressions. The audience can almost feel as if they where there with Guido in that same house. Another good example of Fellini’s great camerawork would be the scene where Guido is in some sort of sauna with many men and women, and the audience can clearly see Guido’s facial expressions when he sees the woman in some sort of bath robe walking to her side of the women´s sauna. Guido rapidly, gets distracted

Fellini When Ida and Urbano Fellini bore their first son, Federico, they must have known that he would be far from a calm easygoing person. On the evening of January 20, 1940, the weather at the seaside resort of Rimini on the Adriatic coast of Italy, was not pleasant. There was thunder, lightning, high seas, winds, and heavy rains; quite a setting for the entrance of one who was to be regarded as one of the greatest film directors in history.

In this essay I will look at the emergence of Italian neo-realist cinema and how Italian Neo-realism has been defined and classified in the film industry as well as how its distinct cinematic characteristics could only have been conceived in Italy and how these characteristics set the neo-realist style apart