The Golden Age of Film: 1930's

The 1930's is considered the Golden Age of Film. Please review and take notes on these following film clips. You should note who is starring in which roles and how certain actors and directors helped shape the genres we now recognize in film today. You will be tested on the material found here, so please watch attentively and make some observations about film in the 1930's.

As for camera work, there are few tricks being used with cameras. Angles are mostly eye-level, with medium, long, and close up shots being used with transitions such as the wipe, the iris, fade to black to indicate scene changes. There is still rear projection, tracking shots, dolly shots, and elaborate sets (particularly for war and epic films), but overall, the feel of 1930's film is like watching a play. With the invention of sound, movies rely on written dialogue to move the plot and develop character (as opposed to using solely a visual medium). Famous directors and writers such as Frank Capra, Walt Disney and writer George S. Kaufman to name only a few make their appearance in this era. Since sound is a new invention, the use of music is an important element. See what other details you can observe as you watch the clips:

Hell's Angels (1930) Premiere clip (not the film, but the hubbub about the film)
Hell's Angels (1930) clip with Jean Harlow
Anna Christie (1930) With Greta Garbo
Tarzan, The Ape Man (1932) Johnny Weissmuller
Morocco (1930) with Marlene Dietrich

Grand Hotel (1932) with Joan Crawford & John Barrymore
King Kong (1933) starring a large gorilla, Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray
King Kong (2nd clip)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) Clark Gable & Charles Laughton
Captain Blood (1935) with Errol Flynn & Basil Rathbone (documentary clip)

Universal Horror Films:
Dracula (1931) Bela Lugosi (Tod Browning's version)
Dracula (clip 2)
Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff
Frankenstein (2nd clip)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1932) with Boris Karloff
Bride of Frankenstein (2nd clip)
Freaks (1932) Tod Browning director
The White Zombie (1932) Bela Lugosi
The Mummy (1932) Boris Karloff
The Invisible Man (1933) with Claude Rains
The Black Cat (1934) Karloff & Lugosi

Screwball & Marx Brothers Comedies:
Animal Crackers (1930) with the Marx Brothers
Duck Soup (1934)
A Night At the Opera (cabin scene) (1935)
A Day at the Races (1937)
Bringing Up Baby (1938) with Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant
The Thin Man (1934) with Myrna Loy & William Powell
The Thin Man (2nd clip)

Frank Capra films:
It Happened One Night (1934) Claudette Colbert & Clark Gable
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Gary Cooper
Lost Horizon (1937) and clips from the film...
You Can't Take it With You (1938) with a very young Jimmy Stewart
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) with Jimmy Stewart

Gangster Films:
The Public Enemy (1931)
Scarface (1932)

Westerns:
Cimarron (1930)
Stagecoach (1939) John Wayne (John Ford directing)

War Films:
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Musicals:
The Gay Divorcee (1934) Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
Top Hat (1935) Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
Swing Time (1936) Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (again)
42 Street (1933)

Animation:
Flowers and Trees (1932) Walt Disney, but starring no one important
Disney's The Three Little Pigs (1933)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Disney; Snow White opening.
Another selection from Snow White. A whistle song. A bath. And another and another clip from Snow White and the ending. (and an unauthorized abridged version)

Popeye the Sailor (1933) with Betty Boop (and Popeye, of course)

Blockbuster Technicolor films:
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn

Full 1930's films online:
Hell's Angels (1930)
Cimarron (1930)
Frankenstein (1931)
White Zombie (1932)
Freaks (1932)
In the Wake of the Bounty (1933)
The Black Cat (1934)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Stage Coach (1939)

The Invention of Sound on Film

Joseph P. Maxfield (AT&T’s Bell Laboratories) invented the first phonograph linked to film (licensed by Victor as the Orthophonic Victrola) which became the basis for the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system.

The Vitaphone allowed actors to lipsync their performance while the sound was recorded after; (This helped to popularize animation!)

The first sound film was Don Juan in 1926. The Jazz Singer (cantor);  The Jazz Singer (1927), directed by Alan Crosland, starring famous vaudeville actor, Al Jolson is popularly given this award. Really both films were songs or music in Don Juan's case, that were played along and synched with the film. The Jazz Singer gave birth to the Hollywood musical genre. You may watch the entire film here: Jazz Singer.

Warner Bros. and Fox Film began wiring their theatres for sound as early as 1926. By 1928, Western Electric developed a sound-on-film system, which later developed a new competitive major studio: Radio-Keith-Orpheum or RKO.

The conversion to sound created both positive and negative effects for film:

Positive:

A. Led to a revival of national film elsewhere in the world
B. Cinema owners did not have to hire musicians for an in-house orchestra
C. Silent films were easier to distribute across the world (no need to translate) which later creates the need for dubbing (1932 -- ex. Paramount studios); before this, multi-lingual films make stars like Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier, Bela Lugosi, Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, and Peter Lore more important--since they can speak different languages (and therefore sync their voices to film).
D. Film became a single media event
E. Films came to the theatres as final products, whole and complete
F. The immersive qualities of film and the viewer become inseparable
G. Dialogue became a necessity to tell the plot of a film

Negative:

A. Produced panic and confusion in Hollywood
B. Many musicians lost their jobs
C. Early sound films from America were boycotted by certain countries; films were not as widely distributed, more costly to translate.
D. Silent film culture was destroyed
E. Films did not require additional music, some ambiance was lost -- sound film was seen as the killer of “film as the seventh art form”
F. Film was no longer a “theatrical” or “artistic” event
G. Dialogue became a necessity to tell the plot of a film

Critical Analysis (Review) of Metropolis

A critical review goes a little further than a film review or critique that a journalist might write for a newspaper or magazine. Being more scholarly, this is the kind of paper that you might write taking a college course in film. Its focus is not only to answer who, what, when, but also HOW and WHY. (who is in or involved in the film, what elements make up the film; what is my reaction to the film, when was it made or premiered, but HOW is the film relevant to society, to human culture, WHY should we watch it, HOW did it affect films after it, HOW are film elements used skillfully (or not) in the film, and WHY should we view the film?

Your critical review paper should include the following (follow these steps to ensure you have all the components you will need to effectively evaluate and analyze the film):

1. An introduction that discusses the history and significance of Metropolis. It should be clear that you know the background and something about the genre you are writing about.

2. You should briefly summarize the plot and identify the characters (and often their actors playing the parts). In essence, you should summarize the movie's plot, setting, characters) before you begin to examine it. This summary usually is in the second paragraph, after the introduction, and lasts only 1 paragraph.

3. Your body of your paper should examine the question you prepared while watching the film: the narratology, the history, the editing, the use of special effects. It should be clear that you know the details about the film (including actors, directors, producers, and other film jobs and who was responsible, how the film did historically at the box office, etc.)See IMDB.com for details.

4. Your body of your paper should judge and evaluate the skill of these people in doing their jobs and give reasons or support your opinions.

5. Your essay should connect major themes or the impact of the film to ones own life or to the HUMAN CONDITION. Are these themes best served in the genre, and by the film?

6. Finally, you should summarize by answering why this film, editing, story, etc. is relevant? Why should someone watch this film? How did this film affect the industry after it was made? Did it influence other contemporary directors, or create new styles of artistic expression? Etc.

Proofread your work before you turn it in.

HOMEWORK: Please complete your essay if you did not finish it in class. Read Chapter 11 & 12: The Movies Learn to Speak & the Academy Awards for next class.

Metropolis: 3

We will continue our viewing of Metropolis today. Please fill out the interest form for the playwrights' festival as well.

Your plot handout sheet is due today for the script you were to have read. Please turn that in.

Metropolis research materials:

• Metropolis (AMC article)
• Metropolis: a case study: Realizing the Potential of Visual Effects (article)
• The Making of Metropolis (website)
• Special Effects Video
• Metropolis: The Cinematheque (article on the restoration of the film)
• Fritz Lang's Metropolis: Structures of Narrative (chapter, document)
• Expressionistic mise en scene in Metropolis (article, website)
• Film review: Eye on Film
• IMDB on Metropolis

HOMEWORK: None.

Key Ideas in Narratology

Narratology: the study of narrative forms.

Stories are divided into genres. Each genre has rules and expectations that help define its formalistic elements: structure, character, plot, setting, etc.

In film there are three super genres (broad genres that encompass the whole): they are STYLES of film:

A. Realistic: (qualities: objective, 3rd person POV)
B. Classical: (qualities: objective/subjective, 3rd person, often limited 3rd person)
C. Formalistic: (qualities: subjective, 1st person or unreliable narrator)

When narratives fail to act according to convention or what we have come to expect from tradition or from the genre, we, as viewers have to figure out what is meant from the deviation of the structure and style of the genre.

Some classical and formalistic narrative techniques we recognize:

1. The flashback
2. The dream sequence
3. The distorted view (as if the subject or character is drunk, insane, troubled, drugged, etc.)
4. Voice overs (this indicates we have a subjective narrator)

Classical style narrative plots generally follow the typical 3-act structure. They rise through a series of events (rising action) to a definitive climax, and usually resolve in some way. These plots are generally linear: telling the story in sequence of time and ordered events. Important symbols or metaphors are usually explained; solutions are offered. These films, more than formalistic or realistic films, are directed to a general [genre specific] audience.

See previous posts for Formalistic and Realistic style explanations.

Metropolis: Part II

Today, we'll start with the film screening (period 1), then I will switch us to the lab to work on the following (so that the AP students aren't too far behind).

AP students: please watch 40 minutes of the film for next class. This is required and helpful to write your analysis paper.
Metropolis (part one; first hour)
Metropolis (part two; second part)

Key scenes in Metropolis so far: (you may examine these scenes for key elements of the film, such as editing, narration, lighting, special effects, etc. Note that the sound is different in most cases)

• Opening of the film: The Downtrodden Workers (Shift Change)
• Shift Change & Garden of Delights
• The Moloch Machine
• Creation of the Mechanical Person (Hel)
• The Seven Deadly Sins
• Maria's Transformation Scene (1927)
• Whore of Babylon Scene

In the lab: Continue or complete your reading of your chosen script. Complete the plot handout sheet for the script you chose. Begin writing a treatment for your script idea. Take your notes and flesh them out into a 1-page summary of your original script idea.

HOMEWORK: Complete your reading of your chosen script. Plot handout notes are due next class!

Fritz Lang, Metropolis, & Narratology

Fritz Lang born in Vienna, Germany, 1890 -- the son of an architect; he dropped out of college to fight in the Great War (WWI).

• After the war, Lang met producer Erich Pommer who worked for the movie company Declar
• Later Declar becomes UFA (the largest film company in Europe)
• 1919 - Lang directs his first film “Halbblut” (the Half-Caste)
• 1920 - Meets writer Thea von Harbou, marries her in 1922

Thea von Harbou wrote all of Lang’s films (including Metropolis) until 1933 when they divorced.

• 1925-1926 - Lang makes the film Metropolis which is drastically cut and distributed over the world Lang forms his own production company; Thea is his main writer
• 1931 - Lang directs M (with actor Peter Lorre)
• 1932 - The Testimony of Dr. Mabuse (banned because it criticized the Nazi party)
• 1933 - Immigrated to the U.S.
• 1934 - Offered a contract by David Selznick, producer at MGM. He goes on to make several films (mixing styles), ends up going blind and dying in 1975.

MAJOR FILMS: Halbblut (Half Caste) (1919) Dr. Mabuse (1922) (serial) Die Niebelungen (Siegfried; Kriemhild's Revenge) (1924). Metropolis (1926) Spies (1928) M (1931) The Last Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1932) Fury (1936) You Only Live Once
(1937) Western Union (1941) Man Hunt (1941) The Ministry of Fear (1944) Cloak and Dagger (1946) Secret Beyond the Door (1948) The Big Heat (1953) Moonfleet (1955) While the City Sleeps (1956). Die Tausend Augend des Dr. Mabuse ("The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse") 1960

Film analysis:

1. Write about the effective use of special effects (including titles and music to affect tone); You may look here for further help in writing your paper.
2. Write about the effectiveness of the cinematography (the shots, angles, lighting, composition of the shots, mise-en-shot, mise-en-scene, etc.) and the editing (see post on editing to help you examine this point: Feb. 26)
3. Write about the effectiveness of the plot, film script, and story elements or narratology of the film: Frequency, Narration, Story, Plot, Order, Narrative Format, Sequence, classical or formalistic, etc.
4. Write about the film as a historical vehicle. Answer: how is Metropolis the epitome and culmination of the Golden Age of silent film? You will need to comment on #'s 1-3 above with this question as it involves acting, special effects, editing, and narratology.

Your paper should be between 3-5 pages, double spaced.