Cinema is probably one of the most famous kinds of art nowadays. It is represented by the variety of different movies. The historical movies, which are shot on the basis of some historical events are extremely popular among the viewers as they are connected with a certain period in history. They are able to evoke so many discussions and critics. The movies, which are devoted to the topic of war are extremely popular as they give the opportunity to witness the events which happened many years ago. Each film is particular in its own way and due to specific techniques, it affects the viewers’ minds and opinions.
Needless to say that there are many films, which are shot by means of different techniques. The early film is one such movies. This is a kind of so-called silent movies, but it gained its army of fans all over the world. This movie has a history of self-documenting by its nature. Auspiciously a lot of significant historical (several of them deals with the movie itself) events were captured by this means. Due to this film and mostly its technique, the audience can make the so-called traveling to the past (Glueck paragraph 5).
It is an assortment of the most important firsts in movie history. The popularity of historic films may be explained by the efforts to recreate the time when they are placed. This movie is the first celluloid film produced. It is the documentary evidence of true look and appearance of people, how people behave and carry themselves, develop and live.
The next film that is worth discussing is Haxan, which belongs to the series of silent films. Haxan can be regarded as Christensen’s most determined and famous movies. This movie touches upon the witchcraft history from the Middle Ages till the present times presented in the quasi-documentary design that starts with a sequence of illustrations and examples used to give details of diabolistic acts and some tremendous punishments the practitioners get from religious zealots. Actually, the film itself is devoted to the topic of evil and God and their combat within the person’s nature.
Due to the particular technique of this film, to be more exact the prevalence of dark colors, the director creates the atmosphere of horror and makes the viewers think over the question of the existence of dark powers:
As the viewers note, whatever Haxan genre, it is a film that attempts to portray
its subject matter through factual means by presenting a “history”. The
the reviewer also notices that Haxan means to distance the contemporary period
from the medieval period, it dramatizes by highlighting the middle ages
superstition and belief in demo’s and evil spirits” (Marshall 46).
This film is a rather powerful staff even for the experienced viewers due to its technique and shattering plot, which differs it from the others, belonging to the era of silent movies.
Now it is necessary to say a few words about the movie Metropolis by Fritz Lang, belonging t the period of German impressionism. This movie is one of the examples of silent movies that makes a great impression on the viewers. As a societal allegory, Metropolis describes a world where the advantaged sons of civilization live in an easy and luxurious manner on the outside whilst profound in the intestines of the town a chattel underclass labors not within the sight on the tackle that maintains Metropolis. Sooner or later, such a domineering situation has to result ultimately in the class conflict. Actually, Metropolis advances the challenging theory that radical violence is essentially used as the self-interest of the upper class, because it permits them to react by means of devastating dissenter elements.
The most essential feature of the movie, which differentiates it from the others is its interesting plot. The director uses the dreamlike plot, that relies on exciting and lyrical rather than logical and reasonable links, engages a childlike young character Freder, whose tyrannical father, who is famous master of Metropolis, the optimistic young woman Maria who make efforts to help the oppressed people, and a ominous scientist whose name is Rotwang. Comparing with the plot of Haxan, the events of Metrololis are rather realistic. The peculiarity of the movie is its religious references, such as description of churches and some events of the religious character.
It was the voice of Desertus, the monk. His voice was like a knife. The voice
peeled bare my spine. Deathly stillness reigned in the church. Among all the
thousands round about, not one seemed to breathe. They were kneeling and
their faces, pale masks of horror, were turned towards the preacher. His voice
flew through the air like a spear ( Harbou 26).
Probably, the director uses some religious elements in order to show the contrast between evil and good, neglected by people. The depiction of churches is some kind of a contrast between the metropolis, full of evil and violence and church, the place of calm and peace.
Speaking about the war silent films, it is necessary to pay attention to the movie Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein.
Probably, it is one of the most renowned films in the history of cinema and
containing perhaps the best known sequence in the medium’s entire history,
was initially seen only by small audiences of film society aficionados and trade
unionists. In this sense, it represents one of the most successful instances of
niche marketing the world has ever seen” (Tylor 76)
The Battleship Potemkin is regarded as a class-conscious ground-breaking misinformation, and Eisenstein intentionally avoids making any three-dimensional persons. As an alternative, plenty of men move in unity, as in a great number of shots, which were heard at foredeck of Potemkin. The director used such a technique, where the audience does not see some certain heroes, only the mess of people and their faces, which sometimes are recognized in the crowd.
Eisenstein decided that montage had to ensue from rhythm, not from the story. Shots have to be cut and not to loiter due to individual interest in personal characters. The dialogs in the movie are also very limited. From the very beginning, the movie is presented as no personal drama, but as a political drama and the consequences of this drama affects all the society. Probably this is the reason of the movie power and its prohibition in many countries of former Soviet Union. Despite of the fact that this film is black and white, its plot and main idea presented by the director made it one of the most popular and contradicting movies of the XX century.
Moving further about the topic of silent black and white films it is necessary to pay attention to another movie, Un Chien Andalou by Luis Bunuel. Un Chien andalou is perhaps the most famous movie of the surrealist period. This film was initially created as anxious and fervent demand for murder and gained huge popularity for its beauty. The popularity of the film may be explained by both, the reputation of the directors and exciting plot (Scot paragraph 4).
The movie presents some kind of narration with the usage of the same character that is probably the main peculiarity of the movie. Nevertheless, the link between events of the movie is definitely uncertain. Title cards appearing during the movie weaken any sense of logical organization by arbitrarily altering the chronological order and normal of allusion during the movie.
Surrealism in the cinema is characterized by some irrational conversion and unexpected combination of events and elements of the movie. The critics of the film and directors themselves tell that the elements of surrealism are the best way to demonstrate the emotional world of dreams. Certainly, in most cases the analyses of this movie are provoked by dream understanding. As a result this movie is regarded as figurative accumulation where every strange image or substitutes something else. Due to a special technique of slide changes, the movie has some hidden sense that is possible to understand only after watching attentively.
Comparing the techniques, perspectives and targets of the above-mentioned films, it should be said that they are shot using the same technique of black and white films, but the idea of the films is initially different.
Another part of this paper is devoted to different styles of the cinema and their influence on the movie. The first movement is German expressionism. It is maybe one of the most composite, varied and saddest movements of Modern Art. This movement found its representation in art, painting, philosophy, literature and cinema. The essential feature of this movement is the depiction of director’s inner condition and state of mind (Elger, 36). The works, representing this movement are characterized as unusual and sometimes difficult to understand that is why they gained their popularity among narrow circles of society.
One of the brightest examples of German expressionists’ works is the movie The Nightmare of Christmas. Judging by the name the film is about Christmas and miracles, which happen on the eve of this happy holiday. This film has the elements of expressionism, depicting the events, which sometimes seem to be magical, unbelievable and sometimes even mysterious. One more popular movement of cinema is the so-called Nordic cinema, presented with the movies, which was shot by the representatives of Scandinavian countries. “Within the different national cultures in the Nordic countries the audience favors domestic films in a most singular way, something that is clearly apparent from the history of Nordic cinema. His is true independently of cultural value patterns” (Soil, Widding & Iverson 45).
The essential feature of this movement is presence of the inexistent monsters in the movies created to affect the audience by their immense sizes and horrible actions. Cloverfield is one of he most famous representatives of Nordic cinema. This rather new film was shot in 2008. The plot of the movie is composed in accordance with the peculiarities of Nordic cinema, depicting a huge monster in the center of a big city. Cloverfield is a narration of a single person who uses his camera to show the events. Now it is time to write a few words about another cinema movement, that is soviet montage. It is a way of creating cinema by means of editing.
The movies, belonging to this style are based on editing and composing certain images. “From the French word meaning “to edit”, montage means the assembling of bits of footage to form a whole. In film studies it usually refers to the style of fast editing adopted by the Soviet film makers of the 1920-s” (Nelmes 460). Montage was widely used while creating the avant-guard cinema, but the conventional cinema has included it to impressive effect, which can be seen in the Jaws by Spielberg who used this technique in order to create one of the most effective and amazing movies in the history of the cinema (Hayward 87).
One more style that can be associated with the cinema is French immersionism that is characterized with interesting and understandable plot and beautiful images of people and nature. The movies, comprising the elements of this style, have exciting and calm plot. Before Sunrise is the brightest example of the influence of impressionism. This film is a complete dialog on the background of Vienna landscapes. This movie embodies love and peace like the most part of impressionism works. The last movement that is necessary to discuss is surrealism and its representations in the cinema.
Surrealist works are always confusing as sometimes unclear, like dreams. They are realistic but sometimes have irrational style, depicting dreamlike fantasies (Grosenick 68). The elements of surrealism can be found in the movie The Obscure Object of Desire. This film demonstrates the embodiment of personal desires and dreams through love and affection. This movie is sometimes difficult to understand due to the usage of series of flashbacks, depicting some events from main character’s life.
Works Cited
Elger, Dietmar. Expressionism. Munchen: Tachen, 2002
Grosenick, Uta. Surrealism. Munchen: Tachen, 2004
Glueck, Grace. Art and Silent Film’s Mixed Relations.. New York Times. 2006. Web.
Harbou, Thea Von. Metropolis. New York: Wildstar Press LLC, 2000.
Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge, 2007.
Marshall, David W. Mass market medieval: essays on the Middle Ages in popular culture. USA: McFarland, 2007.
Nelmes, Jill. An Introduction to Film Studies. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Soila Tytti, Asrtid-Sodderberg Widding, Gunar Iverson. Nordic National Cinemas. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Scot, A.O. The Reassuring Shock of the Early Buñuel. New York Times. 2004. Web.
Tylor, Richard. The Battleship Potemkin: the film companion. USA: I.B.Tauris, 2000.