History and Criticism of Film
Survey II
1940-Present
(AHIS 2810)
Tuesdays 6.00pm-10.00pm
Prof. Bruce Barber
Office Hours: Monday and Thursday 1.30pm-4.30pm. Other
times by appointment (494-8149)
Academy Building Cineflux Centre Office bbarber@nscad.ca
Justin Timberlake on the set of
David Fincher's The Social Network
2010
Required Text:
Thompson, Kristin and Bordwell, David. Film
History: an Introduction Second Edition Boston,
McGraw Hill (2003) Available NSCAD U Bookstore.
Recommended Texts:
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).
Braudy, L & Cohen, M. Film Theory and Criticism:
Introductory Readings, 5th ed., Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press, 1995 (on Library reserve
Requirements for Course, Due Dates and Evaluation:
Attendance & Participation (10%)
: Assignment 1: In class Film Glossary test (20%)
Tuesday January 25th
Assignment 2: In class Film Sequence analysis (20%)
Tuesday February 15th
Assignment 3: Research Essay (25%) Due: Tuesday
March 29th
Recommended website 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
Reading: Thompson and Bordwell Film History: An
Introduction 2nd Edition. Glossary, pp 732- 737 (n.b.
for glossary test January 26th) and T&B Chapters 13 &
14, pp 303 - 317 Thompson & Bordwell. Supplementary
Reading:Hayward, Key Concepts: Theory pp 380-384
http://lib.myilibrary.com/browse/open.asp?id=51803&loc
; Casablanca screenplay Note library reserve items may
not be available in the library until after January 17th
Screening: Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943).
Background.
1939 witnessed the Nazi invasion of Poland and the
beginning of the Second World War. This year 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. This
year also witnessed the release of at least another dozen all
time favourites among them Howard Hawks Only Angels
Have Wings, William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFpVsTuOpK8
War Time Thematic
War Time Thematic: “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)
Out Of the Past (1947)
Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum
cinema realism and romance
Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) with its premise - the
physical resemblance between Chaplin and Hitler, and a
parody of Reifenstahl's Triumph of the Will ; Fritz Lang's
Hangmen also Die (1943) and Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk)
Hitler's Madman (1942)
Propaganda Films:
The Why We Fight documentary series (Frank
Capra,1942-43)
The Negro Soldier (1944) Stuart Heisler (Why
African Americans should fight). U.S. still a
segregated society/ US 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)
The Battle of San Pietro (1945) Doc. Italian operation
suppressed and censored for horrific documentation of
battle engagement with heavy US losses.
Let There be Light (1946) Doc. On 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
Soviet Union:
Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan The Terrible
Germany:
Campaign in Poland (1939)
Baptism of Fire Hans Bertram
Fritz Hippler The Eternal Jew (Jew Suss 1940)
Italy:
Visconti's Ossessioni (1942) based on James M Caine’s
Novel The Postman Always Rings Twice
Massimo Girotti and Elio Marcuzzo in Luchino Visconti's
Ossessione (1942).
France:
Jacques Prévert and Marcel Carne’s: Les Enfants du
Paradis (Children of Paradise) 1945 France 195 mins
Massimo Girotti and Elio Marcuzzo in Luchino
Visconti's Ossessione (1942)
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 (1943)
Release date November 26, 1942
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
Book: Howard Koch's Casablanca: Script and
legend (1973)-his script, 1943
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
Lund- Laszlo (Ingrid Bergman) with Capt. Louis Renault (Claude
Rains) and Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) between them.
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
Ingrid Bergman
Conrad Veidt
Awards
At the 1944 Academy Awards Casablanca
won three awards: Best Adapted
Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture.
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
that year.
Next Week
Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941)
Wexman, Orson Welles: Boy Genius and Films of
the Period pp143-147; Hayward Key Concepts:
Realism pp 298-300