Episode 3: 'The Golden Age of World Cinema'
Genre: Documentary, History
Mini-series explaining the major stages and developments that have occurred in the story of film.
The Story of Film: An Odyssey, chronicles film history through interviews with filmmakers, critics, and actors, as well as film clips presented by Mark Cousins, film critic and historian. It ran for 15 episodes on More 4, and showed everything from the birth of cinema to cinema today, and speculated about what film might develop into in the future. This episode showed developments in world cinema such as French impressionism, German expressionism, Soviet montage, and humanistic Japanese films.
Analysis:
The time period covered was between 1918-1932, when Hollywood films featured glitz and glamour, but were challenged by realist filmmakers worldwide who derived alternative filmmaking techniques.
Paris and Impressionism
The impressionist technique originated from Paris, where one of its main practitioners was Abel Gance. Impressionism aimed to show how the everyday person actually viewed the world, and how images inside the mind flicker and repeat. This led to Gance's La Roue (1923), which transformed the film screen into the inside of one of the character's minds as he hangs off of a cliff. Napoleon (1927) allowed Gance to further impressionism by making the camera work more fluid. This meant he had to use inventive techniques, such as during the fist fight scene when a fur covered sponge was put around the camera lens so it didn't hurt the actors if they punched it, allowing the camera to move through the scene in close-up, as well as in a horse riding scene where the camera was attached to a horse's saddle to allow it to track the action. The end scene was even more impressive, as Gance used not one but three cameras placed on top of each other, each pointing in a slightly different direction, to simultaneously record the action, meaning the audience had to turn to be able to capture the whole sequence.
German Expressionism
Inspired by paintings and theatre, expressionism from Germany rejected the content of classic Hollywood romantic cinema, aiming to see deeper into the human mind. However, although exported worldwide, less than 30 films of this type were made. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) used expressionism to show the extreme mental state of the characters by using stages spaced jaggedly like the pattern of broken glass. Shadows were achieved not by lighting but instead by using bright flat-lights to illuminate shadows painted on the set's walls and ceiling. The political message of this film was that Caligari could be seen as the controlling German government, while Cesare, the man he forced to kill his enemies, could be seen as the ordinary German people. However, at the end it is revealed that this is only the dream of a mad man, so this message is not validated. Several other films were influenced by this, including the use of space in Hitchcock's The Lodger (1927).
Combining these techniques of expressionism with impressionism from La Roue, A Page Of Madness (1926) used the fleeting nature of impressionism and the unease caused by expressionism to make a film that was as mad as the characters. This was directed by Japanese director Teinosuke Kinugasa, showing that these techniques influenced filmmakers all over the world.
One of the most renound films of the German expressionism movement was Metropolis (1927), directed by Fritz Lang. It showed a futuristic city, set in the year 2000, where the workers of the underground rebel against the wealthy industrialist who rules over the city. Two million foot of film reel and thirty six thousand extras were required to make it, as well as a vast city set, which used models and paintings to create the skyscrapers, cars and planes.
Soviet Montage
A technique which originated in Russia, soviet montage rejected the form of Hollywood romantic cinema. One of the most famous practitioners of this technique was Sergei Eisenstein, who used what he called a 'montage of attractions' in the Odessa steps sequence of his film Battleship Potempkin (1925). The idea of using stairs in a sequence like this reportedly came to Eisenstein when he threw a cherry stone and it bounced down some stairs, making him think of them as if they were tilted to form a stage. There is evidence of this idea also in the types of shots used in the sequence, as handheld falling shots are used as well as a camera on a dolly to create fluid camera movements. It is fleeting in the same way as impressionism as the average shot lasts 3 seconds, compared to the Hollywood norm at the time being shots lasting 5 seconds. Similar to the cherry stone, a pram bounces down the stairs, creating panic, as the whole montage causes a sense of unease similar to that of German expressionism as the shots collide and merge together to show the film's themes of innocence and the injustice caused by the soldiers. Although a somewhat graphic sequence, the film's aim is unity, not the promotion of violence, as the emotions it causes the audience to feel prove its humanism.
Japanese humanistic films
The most humanistic films came from Japan, meaning the most common themes were those that dealt with human matters, capturing what it is like to be alive. Yasujiro Ozu was a serious director whose films mainly focused on the calm lives of students, workers, and ordinary people. However, one of his films was a comedy titled I was born, but... which focused on two brothers having to deal with finding out their father is not quite like they think he is. Because of Ozu's seriousness this film was still somewhat dark but honest, as highlighted by the naturalistic filming style achieved by placing the camera on a tripod which was the boy's height. The dark tone was also probably caused by Ozu's disbelief of heroes as the main theme of the film was the sadness of time passing as the boys must grow up and face the truth of the adult world. Ozu's style meant that his films were the most balanced in all film history as he used a low camera angle so most of the floor could not be seen and only part of the ceiling. He also placed the camera at 90 degrees to the actors when shooting their close-ups, unlike the 45 degrees which is the Hollywood norm, as well as filming from far back enough so there was space when the actors stood up from sitting down that their heads did not mean their bodies broke the frame. The aim of his films was to centre the human body, and de-centre the ego, to show humanism. Ozu was allowed to experiment in any way he wished with his style, as in the '30s and '40s Japanese studios were led by directors, unlike now as they are led by producers. An example of his style can be seen from his most famous film, Tokyo Story:
China and realism in acting
Realism in acting is normally credited as being bought about by Marlon Brando in Hollywood. However, it was started decades earlier in Japan by Ruan Lingyu, who was the biggest actress in China in the 1930s. Her films often reflected society and were set in the backstreets of Shanghai which were recreated by large film sets. In her last film role, Ruan played a teacher/author in New Women (1935), who attempts to commit suicide because of how the tabloids tarnish her name. However, not long after the release of this film, she took her own life because of how the real tabloids did attempt to tarnish her, highlighting the realism her films and acting career managed to portray to the Chinese public, meaning she was an actress who many women in this era could identify with, despite her fame.
Overall, all of these techniques provided alternatives to the fantasies of Hollywood film, showing the 'real world' but never spilling out into it. However, this was about to change, when sound came to cinema in 1928.
Review:
Because Metropolis was the only one of these films I had seen, and therefore German expressionism was the only style I knew about before watching this documentary, I learnt a lot. It also helped me to better understand the concept of Soviet montage from the previous reading of the chapter, Film Language, as I could feel what the montage was like to watch as an audience member while the concept was also explained at the same time. The timeline was easy to follow as it was told almost linearly with links between each segment and country which helped me understand not just how films worked in each individual style or country, but also how they influenced each other. My favourite part was that there were explanations of technicalities used by these directors, such as the explanations of set details and how the camera was mounted, but also I found the section on China and realism in acting with Ruan Lingyu interesting as there were interviews with many women who it was obvious had looked up to Ruan, much like people still look up to celebrities nowadays. I was also intrigued by the experimentation of this period of world cinema as directors were free to try new things which pushed the boundaries of cinema, creating styles that are still evident in cinema today. As the whole season is on e-stream I would like to watch it and learn more about film history which could help me better understand what has come before filmmaking today, and therefore how it affects today's filmmakers and their techniques.
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