The Rules of the Game

Read the following quote from Roger Ebert and choose a scene that displays deep focus and analyze for frame composition.

"Much has been made of the deep focus in "Citizen Kane" -- the use of lighting and lenses to allow the audience to observe action in both the front and back of deep spaces. "The Rules of the Game" is no less virtuoso, and perhaps inspired Welles. Renoir allows characters to come and go in the foreground, middle distance and background, sometimes disappearing in the distance and reappearing in closeup. Attentive viewing shows that all the actors are acting all of the time, that subplots are advancing in scarcely noticeable ways in the background while important action takes place closer to the camera."

Grand Illusion

Focusing only on the film's mise en scene (lighting, shot composition, set design, costume design), discuss this quote from the Robin Wood essay I gave you:

"How to belong, how to meet"--another way of putting it is to say that Renoir's perennial concern is with the boundaries; that keep people apart and the possibility of transcending them. The four-part structure enables him to develop this theme through a network of shifting, interlocking relationships presented consistently in terms of difference and the overcoming of difference.

Your response should be 2 paragraphs long and should include a correctly cited quote from one of the essays I gave you.

Blood Simple

Blood Simple is from the genre of neo-noir. You have now watched a film from the noir category and one from the category of neo-noir (American). Think about Blood Simple and Double Indemnity:

• the role of the female and her relationship with the "bad guy" (who can also be a female) and how this relationship is represented cinematically by the filmmakers;
• the "bad guy" and his/her violence and how he/she and the violence is represented cinematically by the filmmakers.

Remember that "cinematically" includes sound. Plot and narrative discussion should be limited. For those of you who are ambitious, please read Laura Mulvey's essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Try to connect this essay (agree or disagree) with the two films in one well-developed paragraph (extra credit).

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For a high grade, you must in a minimum of 3 paragraphs:

•  provide copious examples from the film
• speak cinematically and use your cinematic vocabulary
• show what you know about the genre of film noir
• include quotes from any film essays you’ve read on the subjects (women, noir, etc.)

Fritz Lang's M Online

The Internet Archive has a copy online.

https://archive.org/details/PhantasmagoriaTheater-MFritzLang1931574

It does not have subtitles, but I don't think it is necessary.

It is also available on YouTube with English subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihDwCKWdt0c

Sample Scripts

The only way to get good at writing screenplays is to read a lot of them. Go to http://www.dailyscript.com/movie.html to read screenplays of your favorite movies.

Man With a Movie Camera

Watch the film...

http://www.archive.org/details/ChelovekskinoapparatomManWithAMovieCamera

Your Looking at Movies textbook has a nice quote about Vertov and his film on page 428.

Vertov shows us how to frame reality and movement: through the human eye and the camera eye, or through windows and shutters. But to confound us, he also shows us--through such devices as the freeze-frame, split screen, stop-action, slow motion, and fast motion--how the cinematographer and editor can transform the movements of life into something that is unpredictable. He not only proves that the camera has a life of its own, but also reminds us of the editor, who is putting all of this footage together. Reality may be in the control of the artist, his camera, and its tricks, but it also finds definition within the editor's presentation and, ultimately, the viewer's perception.

In your first well-developed paragraph, please discuss this quote in relation to a five minute piece of Man With a Movie Camera. Be sure to describe shots cinematically, as if I've never seen the film before. Discuss elements of editing, such as the juxtaposition of shots, rhythm, montage, etc.

In your second well-developed paragraph, discuss this quote in relation to a film of your choice. Try to be as specific as possible in your descriptions and speak cinematically when you discuss the film. 

Due: Wednesday, 11/12

Battleship Potemkin

"The film has a collective hero; the Russian masses—the mutineers on the Potemkin, the people of Odessa, the sailors who mutiny on the other ships—who rebel against Tsarist oppression.

Despite the film's documentary look, it was very carefully constructed on every level, from the distribution of line, mass, and light in individual shots to the perfectly balanced five-act structure of the overall film. The most remarkable feature of the film's construction, however, is the montage editing.

Eisenstein's theory of montage—based on the Marxist dialectic, which involves the collision of thesis and antithesis to produce a synthesis incorporating features of both—deals with the juxtaposition of shots, and attractions (e.g. lighting, camera angle, or subject movement) within shots, to create meaning. Rather than the smooth linkage of shots favored by many of his contemporaries (e.g. V. I. Pudovkin and D. W. Griffith). Eisenstein was interested in the collision and dialectical synthesis of contradictory shots as a way to shock and agitate the audience."

Think about the above quote (from the essay by Clyde Kelly Dunagan in the handout I gave you). In 2 paragraphs, discuss (CINEMATICALLY) if and how Eisenstein's theory works. Be sure to use the cinematic vocabulary you have learned. If you need to, use your glossary in Looking at Movies.

In paragraph 3, discuss a film you have seen that uses discontinuity editing or at the very least seems influenced by Eisenstein's method. Discuss the film CINEMATICALLY as you would discuss a film we watch in class.

Due: Friday, 11/7