History and Criticism of Film
Survey II
1940-Present
(AHIS 2810)
Tuesdays 6.00pm-10.00pm
Prof. Bruce Barber
Office Hours: Monday 1.00pm-4.00pm. Other times by
appointment (492-2445))
Academy Building Office #113 bbarber@nscad.ca
Justin Timberlake on the set of
David Fincher's The Social Network
2010
Gollum (Andy Serkis) from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2013
(Dir) Peter Jackson
Required Text:
Thompson, Kristin and Bordwell, David. Film
History: an Introduction Third Edition Boston,
McGraw Hill (2003) Available NSCAD U Bookstore.
(2nd Edition is also appropriate)
Supplementary Texts:
Corrigan, Timothy, White, Patricia, with Meta Mazaj,
Critical Visions in Film Theory; Classical and
Contemporary Readings Boston and New York
Bedford/St Martins Press 2011 (Library reserve)
Hayward, Susan. Key Concepts in Film Studies
London and New York, Routledge. 1996 (Available,
http://lib.myilibrary.com/browse/open.asp?id=51803
&loc library reserve).
Due dates and % Grades
• Attendance & Participation (10%)
• Assignment 1: In class Film Glossary test
(20%) Tuesday January 29th
• Assignment 2: In class Film Sequence analysis
(20%) Tuesday February 19th
• Assignment 3: Research Essay (25%) Due:
Tuesday March 26th
• Take Home Exam (25% ) Due April 16th
Websites
Recommended website urls for film information:
http://www.imdb.co// The Internet Movie database!
Sideshows each week: Become a film buff? Own
computer with a writable DVD drive? Download films
from http://www.movielink.com/; www.channel4.com;
and film scripts www.imsdb.com/;
www.zzippeddskripptzz.com..
Begin your own film collection
n.b. Please Beware of copyright!
Week 1: The War Years 1939-1945
Week 1, January 8th
Reading: Thompson and Bordwell Film History: An
Introduction 2nd Edition. Glossary, pp 731- 735 (n.b. for
glossary test January 29th) and Part 3 Chapter 13 pp 260-276
& Chapter 14, pp 277 – 295
Supplementary Readings: Hayward, Key Concepts: Theory
pp 380-384. Also downloadable as a pdf.
Corrigan, Timothy, White, Patricia, with Meta Mazaj, Critical
Visions in Film Theory; Classical and Contemporary
Readings Part I Experiencing Film: From perception to
reception. Hugo Münsterberg “Why we go to the Movies”
pp.9-16
Casablanca screenplay (available on line at www.imsdb.com/
or www.zzippeddskripptzz.com).
Historical Context:
1939 witnessed the Nazi invasion of Poland and the
beginning of the Second World War. This year
coincidentally has also been described as an annus
mirabilis for Hollywood.
During this year a number of important and popular films
were produced including:
Frank Capra’s: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with
Jimmie Stewart.
John Ford’s Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums
Along the Ninotchka.
Victor Fleming's Technicolor classic The Wizard of Oz
(1939) with the young Judy Garland as Dorothy, and
MGM Cukor/ Selznik, Director Fleming's Gone With the
Wind (1939) a four hour Epic based on Margaret Mitchell's
novel about the US Civil War with Clark Gable as the hero
Rhett Butler and Vivien Leigh as heroine Scarlet O'Hara.
Judy Garland 1922-1969
1939 also witnessed the release of at least another
dozen all time favorites among them Howard Hawks
Only Angels Have Wings, William Wyler’s
Wuthering Heights.
War Time Themes
“Women bolstering their confidence by wearing huge
elaborate hats; ashtrays full of stubs and smoke filled rooms;
brief casual encounters; jealousy often figuring as
poisoning; terror and consolation as evidence of the
supernatural.”
Eric Rhode, British Film Historian
Add: nostalgia, anxiety, the emphasis of gendered
stereotypes, the ‘tough guy’ and the ‘fatal woman.’ (femme
fatale). These years also introduced film noir to public view.
And of course, Realism and
Romance
The Maltese Falcon (1941) dir John Huston
Out Of the Past (1947)
dir. Jacques Tourneur (Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum)
Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) with its premise - the
physical resemblance between Chaplin and Hitler, and a
parody of Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will ; Fritz Lang's
Hangmen also Die (1943) and Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk)
Hitler's Madman (1942)
Some WW II Propaganda Films:
The Why We Fight documentary series (Frank
Capra,1942-43)
The Negro Soldier (1944) Stuart Heisler (Why African
Americans should fight).
n.b. U.S. still a segregated society/ with U.S. army thus
so as well.
Memphis Belle (42 mins long 16mm) directed by
William Wyler (1902-1981)
The Negro Soldier (1944)
John Huston (1906-1987)
The Maltese Falcon (1941) Arguably the first Film Noir
The Battle of San Pietro (1945) Doc. of the Italian
operation suppressed and censored for horrific
documentation of battle engagement with heavy US
losses.
Let There be Light (1946) Doc. Hospitalized
psychoneurotic (Shell-shocked) soldiers and therapeutic
techniques to help them resume useful working lives.
Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950) GPO Film Unit
John Grierson, Watts et. al.
London can take it! ten minute film (1940) for
American audiences showing the “ indomitable
spirit” of Londoners..... Accompanied by a Quentin
Reynolds' voiceover.
Fires Were Started (1943) This film combines
actuality footage with acted material (firefighters)
c.w. Night Mail the iconic documentary of some
years before.
Listen To Britain (1942).
Noel Coward (1899-1973) and David Lean (19081991) In Which We Serve
Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan The Terrible
Germany:
Campaign in Poland (1939)
Hans Bertram
Baptism of Fire (1940)
Fritz Hippler The Eternal Jew (Jew Suss, 1940)
Italy:
Visconti's Ossessioni (1942) murder mystery based on
James M. Caine’s Novel The Postman Always Rings Twice
(1934) The film was actually banned by Italy's fascist
government. Considered the first Italian neo-realist film
with noir characteristics (more about this later).
France:
Jacques Prévert and Marcel Carne ’ s: Les Enfants du
Paradis (Children of Paradise) 1945 France 195 mins
Made during the occupation Set among the Parisian theatre
scene of the 1820s and 30s, story of a beautiful courtesan,
Garance, and the four men who love her in their own
ways: a mime artist, an actor, a criminal and an aristocrat.
Massimo Girotti and Elio Marcuzzo in Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (1942)
Marcel Carne Les enfants du paradis
Casablanca (1943) (Michael Curtiz) Ref. to
important book on making of Casablanca Howard
Koch's Casablanca: Script and Legend 1973script 1943.
Alfred Hitchcock's
Lifeboat (1944) based on John Steinbeck story and
an
allegory
of
the
struggle
between
democracy/liberalism and totalitarian fascism.
Casablanca
Release date: November 26, 1942
Exhibition Date 1943
Production Data
• Directed by
Director: Michael Curtiz
Producer: Hal B. Wallis for Warner Brothers
Writers: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein &
Howard Koch
Cinematography
Cinematography: Arthur Edeson
Editing: Owen Marks
Cast
Humphrey Bogart - Rick Blaine
Ingrid Bergman - Ilsa Lund
Paul Henreid - Victor Laszlo
Claude Rain - Captain Louis Renault
Conrad Veidt - Major Strasser
Sydney Greenstreet - Signor Ferrari
Peter Lorre - Ugarte
S.Z. Sakall – Carl, the waiter
Dooley Wilson - Sam
Howard Koch's Casablanca: Script and legend (1973)
Origin: A play written by Murray Burnett, a NYC high
school teacher. A classic story of an embittered loner who
regains his lost love and with it his ideals.
Casablanca has been read allegorically as an estranged
America’s reluctance to enter the war being overcome by
a recognition of the bonds which inevitably tie Europe to
the United States.
Julius and Phillip Epstein
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) talks to his former sweetheart Ilsa LundLaszlo (Ingrid Bergman) with Capt. Louis Renault (Claude Rains) and
Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) between them.
Casablanca’s music
The score was written by Max Steiner, who was
best known for the musical score for Gone with
the Wind . The iconic song “As Time Goes By”
by Herman Hupfeld. “La Marseillaise" is played
by a full orchestra, rather than just the small band
actually present in Rick's club, competing against
a small group of Germans singing "Die Wacht am
Rhein" ("The Watch on the Rhine")
Humphrey Bogart 1899-1957
Ingrid Bergman 1915-1982
Conrad Veidt 1893-1943
Awards
At the 1944 Academy Awards Casablanca won
three awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best
Director, and Best Picture. Hal Wallis was
resentful when Jack Warner, rather than he,
collected the best picture award. The slight led to
Wallis severing his ties with the Warner Brothers
studio in April of that year.
Next Week
Week 2, January 15th
The Post War Era 1945-1960.
Readings: Thompson & Bordwell Part 4 The Post War Era Chapter 15
American Cinema in the Postwar Era 1945-1960. pp 299-323; and Alfred
Hitchcock Box p. 320
Supplementary reading: Corrigan White, et al , Timothy, White, Patricia,
with Meta Mazaj, Critical Visions in Film Theory; Part I Experiencing Film:
From perception to reception. Judith Mayne “Paradoxes of
Spectatorship”pp.88-110 and Part 4 Auteurism: Tania Modelski “Hitchcock,
Feminism and the Patriarchal Unconscious” pp 375-386
Hayward, Key Concepts Hays Code pp 171 and Hollywood Black List
“Orson Welles: Boy Genius and Films of the Period” pp143-147; Hayward
Key Concepts: Realism pp. 298-300
Screening: Strangers on a Train (1951) Rear Window (1954), Director:
Alfred Hitchcock www.hitchcockwiki.com/ Night and Fog (1955) Alain
Renais