Week 1

FILM HISTORY
Pre-History of Cinematography
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Inventory of techniques: 1780 Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg Eidophusikon

Borrowing vocabulary from railways; borrowing means of expression from other arts
(vampirism)
- Daguerre (daguerotype) > diorama > panorama
- 28 Dec. 1895 the date of the public presentation of Lumires cinema at Grand Caf in Paris
History of cinematography = history of cinematographic techniques, schools, directors, national cinemas,
producers.
1. Primitive film (1900 1915)
- lack of homogeneity accumulation of frames separated by narrative ellipses explained by the
intertitles.
- lack of consistency in the actors play (documentary vs. theatrical acting)
- lack of finality: films were sold not rented and they could be accordingly modified and re-edited.
- lack of linearity temporal jumps.
2. Cinematographic story: D. W. Griffith
- Homogeneity of the visual text coherent correspondence between visual and narrative elements,
actors play and script visual and sonorous elements.
- Linearity between plans, scenes and sequences (particular emphasis upon scene transitions)
- Alternated montage (alternating two or several simultaneous events)
- insert technique: introducing significant details into the general visual narration of the story.
D. W. Griffith adopts a classic representation of space, being considered the inventor of the suspense
produced by montage (parallel montage, flash-back, image-action). He introduced a new way of narrating
based upon the image-action.
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Intolerance (1916)
3.
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Classic Film Narration

Inspired by Dickens novels = clarity, linearity, homogeneity, cohesion, coherence.
It introduced a change in the point of view
A new organization on scenes and sequences (combinations of plans corresponding to narrative
units; they can be separated by black screens, fade screens, etc or united)
- Transparency logic development
Orson Wells: Citizen Kane (1941)
multiple points of view
Joseph Mankievicz: The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Otto Preminger: Laura (1944)
Billy Wilder: Sunset boulevard (1950)

ambiguous narrator

Hollywood Classicism (1925 1955)

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- Characterized by psychological realism, narrative logic, linearity of the story

- Clear genre distinctions
- Transparent cinema (the illusion of a continuous and homogeneous reality), characterized by
narrativity, actors coherent play, cause-effect relation and the spectators identification with the heroes of
the film.
- Academism creating the illusion of reality
George Cukor: Gone with the Wind (1939), My Fair Lady (1964)
Victor Fleming: The Wizard of Oz (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939)
Fritz Lang: Metropolis (1927), Dr. Mabuse (1922)
4. European Cinematography
a) Russian Cinema of the 20s
- 1919: nationalization of the Russian cinema refusal of the Hollywood model (glamour, stardom,
individualism) and focus upon the documentary feature.
- emphasis upon the historic significance of events and upon revolutionary forces at work
- pathetic function amplifying events and conflicts (sur-decoupage, accelerated montage, relenti,
foregrounding, sharp angles of perception)
- argumentative function expressing ideas and principles (parallel montage, visual comparison,
intertitles, visual metaphors)
Dziga Vertov: Man with a Movie Camera (1929) (kino-pravda)
Pudovkin: Mother (1926), Ivan the Terrible (1944)
Serghei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925), October: Ten Days that Shook the World (1927),
Ivan the Terrible (1944- 1946)
b) French Impressionism (20s)
- rejection of story telling pure cinematography
- visual and rhythmic symphonies accelerated montage, blurred images, preference for black
and white images
- rendering the impression of movement and of the passage of time
Abel Gance: Jaccuse (1919)
Jean Epstein: The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Jean Renoir: Nana (1926)
c) Dadaism and Surrealism
- visual compositions centred on abstract forms, rhythms, shoking images
Bunuel and Dali: Un chien andalou (1929)
d)
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German Expressionism
combination of arts: includes painting, literature, performance, architecture, etc.
powerful oppositions between light and shadow, unusual creatures
creation of an artificial universe which will become a source of inspiration for future productions

5. Modern cinema
- engendered by Italian neo-realism (social description and analysis, documentary)
- imposing authorship and characterized by: lax narrations, less dramatic including temporal and
informational gaps, ambiguous endings, less definitely described characters in moments of crisis
- different visual or sonorous effects, reflexive tendency
- direct or indirect quotations
Mannerism use of double meaning, experiments and breaking the rules
- technical innovations: distance perception (btw characters, btw characters and the camera, btw
camera and viewers), hors-champs (playing with the margins of the frame)
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 Robert Montgomery: Lady of the Lake (1947)

Alfred Hitchcock: The Rope (1948)
Vincente Minnelli: Meet me in Saint Louis (1944)
Stanly Donen: Singing in the Rain (1952)
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appearance of TV movies
creation of an international cinematographic language