Notes:

The following material is from Wikipedia: 

1918-1928: The Triumph of American Film…

• Citizen Kane (1941) dir. Orson Welles
  • Shows that Hollywood could work wonders with light with sound stages
• The Thief of Bagdad (1924) dir. Raoul Walsh
  • Shows what the director thought Baghdad might look like
• Desire (1936) dir. Frank Borzage
  • See the shadow of her eyelashes
• Gone with the Wind (1939) dir. Victor Fleming
  • Image glide on a dolley to show as if viewer is being blown away by the wind
• Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) dir. Mervyn LeRoy
  • A choreographed geometric abstract fantasy
• Singin’ in the Rain (1952) dir. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
  • Even the shadow’s have light in them, lots of optimism
• The Maltese Falcon (1941) dir. John Huston
  • Harder lighting, sharper shadows, nighttime, gangster outfits
• The Scarlet Empress (1934) dir. Josef von Sternberg
  • Feminine, romantic, lots of outfits on display, glamorous
• The Cameraman (1928) dir. Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton
  • Director shows his fascination with the camera
• One Week (1920) dir. Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
  • Director became greatest comic image maker cinema had seen
• Sherlock Jr. (1924) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Buster Keaton
  • Director helped define silent cinema
  • Jokes about cutting in editing
• Three Ages (1923) dir. Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
  • Camera position makes actor look higher up then he actually is
• Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965) dir. John Spotton
  • Improvised to make it seem like actor stopped and then started train again
• The General (1926) dir. Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
  • Every visual joke is amplified and repeated in the second half in reverse order
  • Locomotive and train were real
  • Director’s dreams outweighed his want for box office tickets
• Divine Intervention (2002) dir. Elia Suleiman
• Limelight (1952) dir. Charlie Chaplin
  • Charlie Chaplin far more into body movement
• City Lights (1931) dir. Charlie Chaplin
  • Rehearses comical movement
• The Kid (1921) dir. Charlie Chaplin
  • Plays pennyless tramp
  • His own poor upbringing reflected in the movie
• Bad Timing (1980) dir. Nicolas Roeg
  • Their hands filmed in close up show they’re nervous
• The Great Dictator (1940) dir. Charlie Chaplin
  • The idea of the dictator kicking the world balloon is a metaphor for the world being his playtoy
• Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953) dir. Jacques Tati
  • One actor in short trousers, one in long trousers
• Toto in Color (1953) dir. Steno
• Awaara (1951) dir. Raj Kapoor
  • Modeled street character from Chaplin’s
• Sunset Boulevard (1950) dir. Billy Wilder
  • Director saw Chaplin as his master
  • Physically impersonates him in a scene
• Some Like It Hot (1959) dir. Billy Wilder
  • Funded foundation that made movie
• Luke’s Movie Muddle (1916) dir. Hal Roach
• Haunted Spooks (1920) dir. Alfred J. Goulding and Hal Roach
  • Glasses created nerdy look
• Never Weaken (1921) dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
• Safety Last! (1923) dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor
  • Ends with famous sequence
  • Actor climbs in vertical obstacle race
  • Swoops in an arc until he ends up in the arms of his sweetheart
• I Flunked, But… (1930) dir. Yasujirō Ozu
  • Was influenced by Harold Lloyd

…And the First of its Rebels

• Nanook of the North (1922) dir. Robert Flaherty
  • Focuses on one real man
  • Made the audience look for ethically
  • Huge hit around the world
  • People were seeing a real man, a playful father, on screen
  • Documentaries were born
• The House Is Black (1963) dir. Forough Farrokhzad
  • Iranian film
  • Beautiful tracking shots
• Sans Soleil (1983) dir. Chris Marker
  • Filmed real places in Japan and wrote a fictional commentary
• The Not Dead (2007) dir. Brian Hill
  • Interviewed man about war experience and then took his words and made poems and then had him read those
• The Perfect Human (1967) (shown as part of The Five Obstructions) dir. Jørgen Leth
• The Five Obstructions (2003) dir. Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth
  • Director asked man to remake movie five times with different twists
• Blind Husbands (1919) dir. Erich von Stroheim
  • Director had a drive for realism
• The Lost Squadron (1932) dir. George Archainbaud and Paul Sloane
  • Wanted realism so much he showed an actor how to comb her hair properly, which was a small part of the scene
• Greed (1924) dir. Erich von Stroheim
  • Famous climax where man murders his wife and kills a rival
  • Coins hand painted yellow, the climax scene tinted yellow to show money and greed consumed him
• Stroheim in Vienna (1948)
  • Nothing came of film – studio did not like his directing, feared his realism
  • He cried when he saw the cut version of greed, he said the film had been ruined
• Queen Kelly (1929) (shown as part of Sunset Boulevard) dir. Erich von Stroheim
  • Stroheim played the protector
  • Movie never saw the light of day
• The Crowd (1928) dir. King Vidor
  • Tried to play 20s realism
  • Tells the story of an ordinary couple where child dies
  • Films actress in static shot, no fancy clothes, just to show her despair as she starts crying
  • First movie to use New York extensively and location
• The Apartment (1960) dir. Billy Wilder
  • Repeated office shot to show perspective
• The Trial (1962) dir. Orson Welles
  • Even lower shot, used real people and office desks and even dolls and smaller desks to force perspective onto the viewer
• Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) dir. Yakov Protazanov
  • Rebellious idea of realism in cities
  • Modernist costumes, setting on mars
  • On earth for the first time and sees a city, a battleship, and a focus point to a balcony on Moscow
• Posle Smerti (1915) dir. Yevgeni Bauer
  • Worked at the same time as previous director
  • Daring for the time, a main light source in shot
  • Bravely natural
  • End dissolves from blue to black and white
  • First non optimistic romantic films about real loss
• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • Actress had never been in a movie before, nor would she be
  • Actress only filmed in close up
  • Even some on the electricians cried
  • Black background, no set or shadows
  • Walls painted pink so no glare to distract from her face
  • Had the actor read the actual words said from the witch trials 500 years prior
• Ordet (1955) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • Did not believe in god but liked the plainness of certain churches
  • “You can’t simplify reality”
  • Asked actress to bring all her stuff and make the kitchen her own, then slowly took away things until 4 or 5 things were left, that was the simplified realness
• The President (1919) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • First film
  • Wanted to simplify and purify his images
• Vampyr (1932) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • Features shadowns against a white wall
  • The shadows seem to have a life of their own
  • Spare use of whiteness was bold
  • No other director cared so much about whiteness
• Gertrud (1964) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
• Dogville (2003) dir. Lars von Trier
  • Opposite of decorative splendor
• Vivre sa vie (1962) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
  • Had his lover go see The Passion of Joan of Arc