After screening Jaws (1975), please spend some time in discussion of the film. Use your notes to help create an intelligent discussion about the film.
“Why should an artist duplicate the real world when it already exists for everyone to see?”
• Begins in Europe around 1906 in painting and theatreCabinet of Dr. Caligari – Robert Weine (director) 1919
• Style is unrealistic, stylized
• Attention often given to angles
• Distorted perspectives
• Narrow, tall streets and buildings (set pieces)
• Lighting is “dramatic”; Use of shadows
• Actors are grotesque, exaggerated make-up
• Dark, nightmarish tones & moods
• Attempt to show the interior lives of characters through exteriors
• Expressionism influences Futurism (and Modernism)
• Expressionism influences Film Noir in the 1930’s (more on that later...)
On Youtube.com, please view clips from the following:
- F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922)
- Paul Wegener's Der Golem (1920)
- Carl Laemmle's Phantom of the Opera (1925)
- F. W. Murnau's Faust (1926, full film)
- Paul Leni's' The Cat and the Canary (1927)
Here are some film selections. If you'd like extra credit, watch and critique one (or more) of these films. Reviews are due by end of marking period.
Nosferatu (1922) Full film
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (full film with star actor Conrad Veidt)
Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire (full film, Robert Wiene, 1920)
The Hands of Orlac (full film, Robert Wiene, 1924 with star actor Conrad Veidt)
Der Golem (full film)
The Cat and the Canary (full film - silent)
The Phantom of the Opera (full film)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (full film)
Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (full film)
The Lost World (1925 full film)
The Lodger (1927) (Alfred Hitchcock's first film, full film)
Contemporary films like these also pay homage to the style: Careful by Guy Maddin (1992), the Shadow of the Vampire (2000) and The Call of Cthulhu (2006), The Artist (2011)
Carl Laemmle's 100 Years of Universal (director/producer of Universal studios)
F.W. Murnau's bio
Robert Weine's bio
Father of Documentary Film: Robert Flaherty
Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922)
The Star Machine (Popular Actors of the Golden Age of Film):
From your notes you should also know the following blockbuster film stars of the early screen. Please watch their clips. Various famous Hollywood actors:
- Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in the Thief of Baghdad (1924), The Mark of Zorro (1920); the full version of The Thief of Baghdad can be found here. It's really a good film, all told. Douglas Fairbanks was known for doing his own stunts. Along with Chaplin and Pickford, he helped establish United Artists. Full film: The Black Pirate (1926); The Mark of Zorro (1920); The 3 Musketeers (1921); Robin Hood (1922)
- Rudolph Valentino's The Son of the Sheik (1926) & the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Blood and Sand (1924); Full films can be found here: The Sheik (1921); The Son of the Sheik (1926); Blood and Sand (1924); The Eagle (1925); Cobra (1925), Camille (1921)
- Mary Pickford (1917) The Poor Little Rich Girl; Full films: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917); Poor Little Rich Girl; Pollyanna (1919); Daddy Long Legs (1919)
- America's Lovebirds or America's Sweethearts: Janet Gaynor & Charles Farrell; 7th Heaven (full film 1927); Lucky Star (full film 1929); Sunnyside Up (full film 1929, a talkie!)
- Clara Bow in It (1927); It (full film); Get Your Man (full film 1927)
- Conrad Viedt (mentioned above): Different From Others (full film 1919); The Man Who Laughs (full film 1928)
- The Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney, The Phantom of the Opera (complete silent film, 1925), The Unmasking Scene from Phantom (clip), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (full film 1923); Shadows (full film 1922); The Shock (full film 1923); Oliver Twist (full film 1922)
- And a few others: The King of Kings (full film 1927, Cecil B. DeMille)
- Gloria Swanson in: Male & Female (full film 1919, Cecil B. DeMille)
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