Essay on Pure Cinema

In “A Century of Cinema”, Susan Sontag explains how cinema was cherished by those who enjoyed what cinema offered. Cinema was unlike anything else, it was entertainment that had the audience feeling apart of the film. However, as the years went by, the special feeling regarding cinema went away as those who admired cinema wanted to help expand the experience.

Early forms of creative filmmaking such as German Expressionism and Soviet montage theory are considered to have a rich definitive film history. These films are remembered as having distinguishable techniques, emphasis on images, rhythmic montage, heavy editing, shadows and mise-en-scene. By examining film history, complications with film archiving, theoretical perspectives and Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail. This essay will determine whether the most frequently viewed mode of filmmaking, Hollywood cinema, can be considered as having a definitive film history. Although there is a trend in films produced in 1917-1960, Blackmail being one example of a film with classic Hollywood Cinema elements. I disagree that Hollywood Cinema has a definitive

‘A matter of making images seen.’ This is what Fernand Léger was writing in 1902 about the new art, trying to describe the possible changes in cinema, by emphasizing the fact that imitating the movements of nature is not necessarily the best way of defining cinema’s essence. This is only one of the writings concerning this topic which influenced Tom Gunning in characterizing the cinematic period before 1906 as that of the ‘cinema of attractions’.

This heartwarming story about a little boy’s love affair with movies, and his subsequent coming-of-age in the repressive environment of ecclesiastical censorship and hypocrisy stirred great emotion in me, as I expected it would. The young Toto made me feel his awe as he attempted to see the forbidden film images hidden from him by his friend Alfredo at the behest of the town priest.

This book provides an insight into Italian filmmaking and Fascism as well as the attitude that the state had to regulate cinema during the war presenting us with a new viewpoint into this period in cinema history.

The average outing to the local movie theater is a pleasant experience; a show of laughs and drama and romance, wrapped into a satisfying plot to be quickly forgotten by the transient audience. The experiences of the Second World War, especially in Italy, forced the artistic film industry to grow jaded quickly. Italian Neorealism, a film movement at odds with the conventional cinematic experience, finds it somewhat inappropriate to have idealized heroes achieve happily-ever-after lives after so many did not in the grim reality of the war. Vittorio De Sica and Cesare Zavattini were pioneers of the movement, which (although not the first) is best exemplified by Umberto D., released in Italy in 1952, and after a slow commercial reception, released abroad and in the U.S. in 1955. It features an old man and his dog as they struggle to survive in the tough reality of the Italian postwar city. The film was hailed by critics as a shining example of the maturity and emotional power of realism. In a world of fabricated Hollywood plots, critics all over the world in the 1950s relished the uncompromising candor of the neorealist film Umberto D., while the commercial reception clearly shows that the mass audience preferred the purified filters of non-realist cinema.

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 from other realist movements and from Hollywood.

In the initial days of cinema, film theories tended to divide into two opposing views, Formalism and Realism. Formalists believed the formal properties of cinema shaped the way films were made, as well as our responses to them. For formalists, the challenge was to establish film as an independent art form. They found their answer in film’s formal properties, which enable the filmmaker to alter reality and create new worlds within the screen. Formalist filmmaking reached its peak in 1920s with Sergei Eisenstein editing technique, and using intellectual montage with startling effect. In contrast, Realist believed the importance of capturing and recording reality. This is where they considered the essence of filmmaking lies. Formalists on the other hand can argue if that were pure cinema then “no more actors, no more story, no more sets, which is to say that in the perfect aesthetic illusion of reality there is no more cinema” (Bazin, Andre). I disagree, capturing reality can still be an art style and Realism proves that and it’s especially highlighted in the period known as Italian Neorealism.

Discuss the representation of the working class in Italian cinema from the silent era up to the neorealist period, using the movies presented in class or mentioned in the assigned readings

David Bordwell wrote his article ‘The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film’ in an effort to convey the main idea that “art cinema” can be considered as a distinct mode of film practice, through its definite historical existence alongside other cinematic modes, set of formal conventions, and implicit viewing procedures. Rather than searching for the source of the art, or what drives the art in film, Bordwell compares art cinema to the classical narrative cinema, and highlights the differences in narrative structure. Bordwell makes the assumption that it defined itself against the classical narrative mode; especially with the way it deals with space, time, and the cause and effect link of events.

The Films of Federico Fellini examines the career and work of Italy’s most revered filmmakers. By analyzing the masterpieces of Fellini, the book attempts to categorize the influence of his work, and explain some of his interests in fantasy, the irrational, and individualism. Bondanella essentially rejects more common ways of analyzing Fellini’s work and favors trying to explore the development of his unique and personal cinematic style. Bondanella highlights some of the major accomplishments in the life of the renowned Italian filmmaker.

This Essay will discuss how neo realism only lasted ten years and how it was committed to representing life as it was lived, in complete contrast to the fascist propaganda films it superseded. It will discuss and debate this by analyzing some of the most prominent films and their directors that represented the movement.

The journey and the development of the cinematic genre now called the ‘French Poetic Realism’, unraveled in a French film sector battling for its place in a post-war world, in competition with the American and German industries. While the sector tried to recuperate from the strike of a chaotic political and social environment, the increasing prevalence of smaller companies provided filmmakers such as Chenal, Vigo, Duvivier and Renoir with the necessary environment to experiment and produce creative works of art. Generally marked by the feeling of nostalgia, the genre debuted by these artists, composed a style of production in which the contemporary life and the society were reviewed and questioned under a prevalent sentiment of disappointment and regret. In this paper we will be outlining the artistic and technical aspects of Renoir’s ‘La Grande Illusion’ in order to tie its distinctive features to the movement while also drawing conclusions on the directors view on the pre-war environment present in Europe.

Since the beginning of Documentary Filmmaking, films have shown the eternal search for truth. Exposing reality as it is to the world through Film became a goal to Documentary Filmmakers. For a period of time Filmmakers lost their path along the way and became promoters who manipulated the audience around the world into believing what they wanted. During the 1960’s two special movements began to emerge in different parts of the world. Direct Cinema in North America and Cinema Vérité in Fance. These two movements brought back the notion of revealing the true through their Films. The new movements encourage Filmmakers to take the position of observers. Direct Cinema and Cinema Vérité are often confused and classify as one movement. This is

Musical theatre has been a form of art and entertainment for hundreds of years. The early example of opera plays is Dofene, performed in 1597. La boheme was written and composed by Giacomo Puccini. The play is based in a french play ’Scénes de la vie de boléme’ by Henri Murger published in 1851. The world premiere was in Turin, Italy in 1896. This was close to the end of the 19th century where the theatre was turning from romanticism more into the genre of social realism. In contrast, Rent was written in 1996 which was close to the end of 20th century. During this one century, many things were acceptable by the society that were not acceptable during the time of La boheme. Rent demonstrates the things that would normally not be performed in a theatre. In other words, the movie provokes some audience. This essay is going to explain how interconnected audience and the theatre is and how they affect each other.