German & Soviet Cinema Revision

What social/historical factors influence the style and content of

German cinema in the 1920s?

What social/historical factors influence the style and content of

Soviet cinema in the 1920s?

What do these words mean?

• Bourgeois

• Proletariat

• Tsarist• Typage

What was the Schufftan process?

The Schufftan process

What is the Kuleshov effect?

Film critic Lotte Eisner wrote:

“_______’s moving camera “is never used decoratively or symbolically…every movement…has a precise, clearly-defined aim.”

Who experimented with this ‘unchained camera’?

What film?

• Playful use of film as a medium, frequent self reference, documentary focus on form as well as subject matter

• Examples?

What film?

• Grotesque make-up, eerie lighting, haunting shadows, decaying and desolate mise-en-scene.

• Examples?

What film?

Stylised performance, e.g. the authority figures: dramatic still images, limited movement; a wild mixture of the futuristic and ancient; experimentation with cinematography and special effects

• Examples?

What film?

Elaborate crosscutting of images, symbolic use of characters placing the female as central within family and state

• Examples?

What film/s?

Montage theory consisting of: metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal, intellectual; typage; inflammatory images

• Examples?

• Which critic has suggested that the expressionist films are symptomatic of a growing fascistic mindset of the German people during this time?

Do you agree? Was the context of the time of the critic’s writing important?

Critical Approaches

Critical Approaches

• Anton Kaes, in Shell-Shock Cinema (2009), states that Nosferatu links to post-war trauma

• Spiritualism/Supernatural• Proximity of death• Metaphorical approach to war trauma – male

based anxiety

Give examples

• What was the ‘street film’?

• What made the genre different to/consistent with expressionist film?

• What contemporary art form was a strong influence on Soviet cinema of the 1920s?

• Give examples.

• One particular artist was strongly influential. Who was it?

• What characterised his work and how can it be identified in any of the Soviet films?

• What were some of the themes and styles of the expressionist art movement that strongly influenced Weimar cinema?

What strikes you as being characteristically expressionistic about the image?

What strikes you as being characteristically expressionistic about the image?

What strikes you as being characteristically expressionistic about the image?

What strikes you as being characteristically expressionistic about the image?

Strike! Uses the juxtaposition of characters with animals in two

ways. Explain how and the effect

• Both Nosferatu & Strike! each have an individual quality that makes them stand out from their contemporaries.

• For Strike! it’s the use of humour. What about Nosferatu?

• Man With A Movie Camera is the only film we’ve studied that has a positive atmosphere. Why is this?

Power, authority & Victims• For each of the following stills, identify the film (and if appropriate,

the character). • Describe how they are shown as representative of authority or

victims (or both!) and how this representation is typical of the context.

German or Soviet Cinema?

•The crowd as heroic•Reductionist portrayal of women•Grotesque depictions contrasted with ‘typage’•Non-diegetic visuals (Images that compare or contrast with events in the narrative but are not part of the story)•Artificial locations•The film calls attention to itself as a medium•Insanity

German or Soviet Cinema?

•Subjective point of view•Repetition•Shadows take on an ominous presence of their own•State funding•Political themes•Stripes, angles and geometric forms sliced from the stark contrasts between light and shadow. •Mockery of religion

German or Soviet Cinema?

•Negative portrayal of industry•Anti-heroic (if not downright evil) characters at the centre of the story •Communist ideology•Downplaying of individual characters in the centre of attention•Fast cutting•Superstition•Dynamic angles showing industry as powerful

German or Soviet Cinema?

•The criminal underworld•The primacy of the camera•Themes of madness, paranoia and obsession •Commercially funded•Reflect a gloomy view of contemporary society•The crowd turns into a mob•Concern with ‘real events’

German or Soviet Cinema?

•Montage•Juxtaposition•Overlapping or elliptical temporal relations•Positive portrayals of Soviet life•Primarily urban setting•Positive portrayal of industry•Real locations

German & Soviet CinemaPast Questions

•To what extent are the story-telling devices used in these films a result of being made during the silent period?

•How far has your understanding of conflict within German & soviet films been influenced by your study of the films’ contexts?

•Compare some of the ways in which German & Soviet cinemas create drama & suspense through visual means.

•Would you agree with the generalisation that German & Soviet cinema in the 1920s was a cinema of victims?

•Is it sufficient to say that German cinema is defined by its use of mise-en-scene & Soviet Cinema by montage editing?

•How important is it to understand the context within which German & Soviet films of the 1920s were produced?