Term Identification
Racial Melodrama
This descriptive term is concerned with the films that belong to the cinematographic subgenre melodrama, with their directors having made a deliberate point of using the ‘race card’ to increase the emotional appeal of these movies’ plots to the audiences. The most commonly explored motif in racial melodramas is that of the eventual triumph of love and tolerance, within the context of how the featured protagonists (both White and ‘ethnically visible’) go about opposing the societal extrapolations of racism (Williams 15). Racial melodrama films became especially popular after the policy of multiculturalism attained the status of being governmentally endorsed in the West. Among some of the most recent and yet commercially successful of such films can be named The Long Walk Home (1990), The Green Mile (1999), and Far from Heaven (2002).
Aesthetics of Fascism
This specific term refers to the cinematic visuals that promote the discursive provisions of fascism as the ideology reflective of a particular state of people’s ‘collective unconscious’. The most notable of these visuals include the prolonged takes of young (and blond) men and women indulging in sports, soldiers marching in columns, and people acting as the embodiments of the Greco-Roman ideals of beauty. The concerned term originated within a few years following the end of WW2. Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 documentary Triumph of the Will is assumed to account for the first ‘aesthetically fascist’ cinematographic piece in the history of filmmaking. Among the recent examples of ‘aesthetically fascist’ movies can be mentioned Starship Troopers (1997) and 300 (2006).
New Culture Movement
This term denotes the socio-cultural movement in China during the 20th century’s early twenties, which had a strong effect on the discursive content of many Chinese films produced at the time. The movement’s objective was to promote a secular/rationalized way of living and to undermine the validity of the Confucianism-based ‘traditional values’ in this country. The movement’s advocates also strived to promote the idea that people’s intellectual enlightenment was key to restoring China’s former glory (Ong 73). Probably the most exemplary of the movement’s effects on the Chinese moviemaking industry throughout the period are the films Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925) and Going to the People (1926).
Contrast Editing
Vsevolod Pudovkin (Russian/Soviet film director) is credited with formulating the main principles of contrast editing. These include Contrast, Parallelism, Symbolism, Simultaneity, and Leitmotif. This specific approach to editing is particularly favored by directors who adhere to the conventions of the Expressionist/Formalist paradigm in moviemaking. The approach’s main theoretical premise is concerned with the assumption that there are some different subtle (implicit) ways for delivering a particular semiotic message to the audience. Among the earliest examples of the practical application of the contrast, the editing technique is the films Battleship Potemkin (1925) and Metropolis (1927). The principles of contrast editing are being widely used by contemporary directors as well – the film The Bridges of Madison County (1995) exemplifies the validity of this suggestion.
Lubitsch Touch
There are many contrasting definitions of the term in question. However, most of them imply that the term refers to the presence of some subtly defined and yet recognizable semiotics in the scene of a particular film, which endows the latter with the aura of psycho-cognitive sophistication. As a rule, ‘Lubich touch’ is most likely to be found in films with the strong romantic overtones to them – specifically, in the scenes that explore the theme of marital/romantic infidelity. This explains the tendency of some film critics to refer to the term as such that connotes “’continental’ taste for risque innuendo” (Thompson 404). There are no formalized conventions for using ‘Lubitsch touch’ in movies. However, it is mostly applied to increase the dramatic/comedic intensity of a particular episode (or the whole set of them), as it was done in the 2004 comedy Meet the Fockers.
Clip Analysis
It proved quite impossible to identify the actual film from which the assigned clip was taken. However, there can be only a few doubts as to the fact that it is highly reflective of the Expressionist conventions of film editing, concerned with the assumption that it is in the very nature of a cinematic action to be highly subjective – at least in the perceptual sense of this word. As Giannetti noted: “Formalist movies are stylistically flamboyant. Their directors are concerned with expressing their unabashedly subjective experience of reality, not how other people might see it” (4).
The same author provides us with some clues as to what can be considered the main indications that a particular movie clip/scene is true ‘expressionist’: “The environment of the scene is the source of the images. Long shots are rare. Instead, a barrage of closeups (often of objects) provides the audience with the necessary associations to link together the meaning” (Giannetti 157). It will not be particularly challenging to confirm that the assigned clip does adhere to the mentioned provisions.
The reason for this is apparent – the clip’s final part is, in fact, a compilation of many formally unrelated cinematic cuts. For example, throughout the clip’s last thirty seconds, we are exposed to the abruptly changed visuals of some fast rotating wheels, the expression of insanity on driver’s face, steam coming out of some oddly looking pipes, etc. The affiliated director strived to provide viewers with the opportunity to gain an in-depth insight into his highly personal outlook on what causes trains to crash, in the first place. What viewers get to see on the screen is nothing but a cinematic sublimation of the director’s unconscious anxieties in this respect. The fact that the provided clip is a part of some silent film helps even further to establish the ‘expressionist’ status of the former – the methodology of expressionist editing used to be widely deployed through the early stages of the filmmaking history.
Primary Source Annotation
One of the emerging themes in Pudovkin’s interview is that filmmaking is just another form of artistic expression: “Just as a writer’s material is words, that of a film director is the film itself” (RH 10). This, of course, presupposes that the director is at liberty to indulge in perceptual subjectivism while helping the audience to recognize the actual significance of the themes and motifs in his or her film.
Another notable theme explored in the interview has to do with Pudovkin’s belief that while trying to convey a particular message to the audience, a director should prioritize the visual means for doing it. Hence, the interviewee’s insistence that the “first experiments with sound must be directed towards its pronounced non-coincidence with the visual images” (RH 10). It is understood, of course, that there is a strong ‘expressionist’ quality to Pudovkin’s idea in this regard – something that once again confirms the validity of the assumption that the interviewed person did contribute rather substantially towards working out the main canons of cinematographic Expressionism.
Essay Questions
European films and their relationship to another art movement
Throughout the 1920s, many European filmmakers did attempt to distinguish their films from those of Hollywood by appealing to the notion of art. The rise of the so-called ‘Expressionist cinema’ through the historical period in question validates the full soundness of this suggestion. In its turn, this particular development was predetermined by the emergence of Expressionism and Modernism, as the discursively innovative theories of art. According to the adherents of artistic Expressionism, an artist’s actual objective has very little to do with ensuring the ‘life-likeness’ of his or her creative representations of the surrounding reality (Vondeling 176). Instead, this objective is concerned with making it possible for others to have a glance at the reality as if perceiving it through the lenses of this artist’s aesthetic agenda. Hence, the main conceptual provision of cinematographic Expressionism, as we know it – one’s value as a film director positively relates to the person’s ability to use editing as the instrument of convincing the audience to accept his or her directorial outlook on the overall significance of the explored themes and motifs.
The earlier mentioned film Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein is perfectly illustrative in this respect. In it, the director deployed the ‘synthetic’ principle for combining cinematic shots into the sequences that are capable of conveying the semantic message of their own: “The conflict of two shots (thesis and antithesis) produces a wholly new idea (synthesis). Thus, in film terms, the conflict between shot A and shot B is not AB but a qualitatively new factor—C” (Giannetti 158). To exemplify how this was done in Eisenstein’s film, we can refer to the initial sequence of expressionist shots, featured in Battleship Potemkin. At first, there is a shot of the battleship’s physician wearing a monocle, meant to emphasize his association with the class of bourgeoisie (00.05.43).
After that follows the shot of maggots crawling all over the piece of meat, which was about to be fed to sailors (00.05.45). After having exposed viewers to this shot for a while, Eisenstein sharply replaces it with the one of some very angry expression on the sailors’ faces (00.05.60). It is needless to mention, of course, that when assessed from the cause-effect perspective; the sequence of these shots will not appear making much logical sense. Nevertheless, one’s exposure to it will make it much more likely for the concerned person to recognize that there is indeed much psychological plausibility to the main idea promoted by the film – it was named the merciless capitalist exploitation of Russian sailors (serving on the battleship), which created the objective preconditions for them to be willing to revolt against the government.
Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis is another illustrative example of what the notion of ‘cinematographic Expressionism’ stands for. The rationale behind this claim has to do with the fact that, just as it is the case with Battleship Potemkin, this particular film has a number of the clearly expressionist conventions deeply embedded into what appears to be its very representational philosophy. For example, there is the famous scene at the film’s beginning in which the character of Freder realizes that the industrial machine that he encountered in the underground section of Metropolis is, in fact, nothing but the actual embodiment of the bloodthirsty demigod Moloch (00.13.45).
After all, this machine assumed Moloch’s facial features in front of Freder’s very eyes – the effect achieved by the director’s willingness to use the elements of animation in the film. Given the fact that before being turned into Moloch, the mentioned industrial machine did not appear even slightly human-like, it will be thoroughly logical to speculate that the concerned transformation was highly reflective of the workings of Lang’s unconscious psyche (Clarke 825). Consequently, this implies that the film’s significance must be discussed in close conjunction with what accounts for the director’s sense of self-identity. This, of course, presupposes that Metropolis is indeed thoroughly ‘expressionist’– by presenting the audience with the dystopian outlook on humanity’s future, Lang aspired for nothing short of introducing viewers to his individuality of an intellectually advanced technocrat.
There are two reasons, as to why the Expressionist approach to film editing has reached the peak of its popularity during the historic stretch in question. First, throughout the 20th century’s twenties, it became possible for directors to resort to the utilization of different (although still primitive) special effects in their movies. Second, the deployment of the Expressionist editing allows directors to endow their films with the strongly defined political sounding – something that proves to be a valuable asset when it comes to promoting a particular ideology to the masses. And, as we are well aware of, the late twenties and the early thirties have been marked by the intensification of geopolitical tensions on this planet – all because during the concerned historical period, there were at least three mutually incompatible ideologies (Fascism/Nazism, Communism, and Capitalism/Libertarianism) competing for the room under the Sun.
Urban environments influences on the shape of film culture
The emergence of cinematography as a unique artistic genre was made possible by the revolutionary breakthroughs in different fields of science that had taken place at the beginning of the 20th century. The genre’s development never ceased being strongly affected by scientific progress as well. Therefore, there is nothing odd about the fact that it did not take too long for many films to end up being referred to as such that convey the ‘message of urbanity’. After all, it was specifically the continual growth of the world’s largest urban centers that made possible both – the exponential continuation of scientific progress and the founding of the famous film studios.
Nevertheless, as practice shows, most people tend to think that there are a number of some strongly negative overtones to the very notion ‘filmographic urbanity’. While being closely affiliated with the ongoing scientific progress (the moviemaking industry’s actual ‘fuel’), many film directors could not help becoming increasingly aware of what would be the urban sprawl’s ultimate consequence under the socio-economic condition of Capitalism. This explains why even though there is a half-century apart between the films Metropolis and Blade Runner (produced in 1982), both ‘urban dystopias’ convey essentially the same message of existential alienation, dehumanization, and social withdrawal.
For example, in Metropolis urban environment is represented as the direct consequence of the featured ‘industrialists’ having succeeded in reducing ‘workers’ to nothing short of lowly slaves – the development that allowed the former to increase the economic effectiveness of keeping the latter in submission and invest a part of the generated ‘surplus product’ (Marxian term) in technology. As Wosk noted: “The futuristic, aboveground Metropolis, with its skyscrapers, airplanes, and streams of automobiles, is pictured as the essence of modernity… Yet in a much more dystopian view, Lang’s film also presents the Metropolis workers as mere cogs in the wheels of industry” (404). This provides us with the clue as to why, despite having been produced fifty-five years ago, Metropolis continues to be deemed emotionally powerful by many contemporary viewers – even though the film’s depiction of ‘futuristic urbanity’ may seem somewhat extreme (in the sense of how the representatives of the social elites treat workers), it is nevertheless generally consistent with the realities of ‘post-industrial’ living in just about every large city in the West.
Another cult film concerned with exploring the dialectical relationship between the notions of ‘existential alienation’ and ‘urbanity’ is 1982 Blade Runner (directed by Ridley Scott). Its plot unravels in the year 2019 in Los Angeles. According to the movie’s plotline, by this time American society has undergone a drastic transformation, as the so-called ‘replicants’ (genetically engineered androids, virtually indistinguishable from humans) began accounting for the population’s ever increased share. However, formally speaking, replicants are not allowed to be present on Earth – the reason why they are being manufactured, in the first place, is to perform dangerous/non-prestigious jobs in the ‘off-world’ colonies. The film’s main character Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is entrusted with the task of hunting down the group of replicants, which had made it to Earth illegally, and ‘retiring’ (killing) them.
The foremost aspect of how urban landscapes (in futuristic Los-Angeles) are represented in this particular film has to do with the director’s intention to accentuate the sheer uncomfortableness of one’s experience of being exposed to it. As Halper and Muzzio pointed out: “The city’s buildings are a mix of old and newer… the architecture is a clutter of debris. It is less Los Angeles – the ordinary single-family homes are missing, as are the squat apartment buildings-than doodles drawn by a gaggle of competing, flamboyant cynics” (387). In Blade Runner, urbanity is shown in a state of being transformed into what can be referred to as ‘urban rurality’ – the natural consequence of the fact that, as it can be inferred from the film, by the year 2019 Los-Angeles became completely overrun by ethnic immigrants, shown emptying garbage cans right in front of their hastily erected huts.
It is understood, of course, that the film’s futuristic account of urbanity if far from being considered utterly inspiring. The reason for this is that, just as it is the case with Lang’s film, this account presupposes that it is indeed possible for the qualitative aspects of one’s living in a big city to be simultaneously reflective of the continuing decline of societal morals, on one hand, and the continuing advancement of different life-enhancing technologies, on the other.
Thus, it will not be much of an exaggeration to suggest that, for as long as their cinematographic depictions of the actual vector of urban development are being concerned, both Metropolis and Blade Runner can be deemed prophetic.
Works Cited
Battleship Potemkin. Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, performances by Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, and Grigori Aleksandrov, Mosfilm, 1925.
Blade Runner. Directed by Ridley Scott, performances by Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young, Warner Brothers, 1982.
Clarke, David. “Metropolis, Blood and Soil: The Heart of a Heartless World.” GeoJournal, vol. 80, no. 6, 2015, pp. 821-838.
Giannetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. Prentice Hall, 2001.
Halper, Thomas, and Douglas Muzzio. “Hobbes in the City: Urban Dystopias in American Movies.” The Journal of American Culture, vol. 30, no. 4, 2007, pp. 379-390.
Metropolis. Directed by Fritz Lang, performances by Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge, UFA, 1927.
Ong, Chang. “‘Which West are You Talking about?’ Critical Review: A Unique Model of Conservatism in Modern China.” Humanitas, vol. 17, no. 1, 2004, pp. 69-82.
RH. “The Week on the Screen: An Interview with Pudovkin.” The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 9 Feb. 1929, p. 10.
Thompson, Kristin. “Lubitsch, Acting and the Silent Romantic Comedy.” Film History, vol. 13, no. 4, 2001, pp. 390-408.
Vondeling, Johanna. “Theorizing the Avant-Garde: Modernism, Expressionism, and the Problem of Postmodernity.” College Literature, vol. 28, no. 3, 2001, pp. 175-177.
Williams, Linda. “Melodrama in Black and White: Uncle Tom and the Green Mile.” Film Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 2, 2001, pp. 14–21.
Wosk, Julie. “Metropolis.” Technology and Culture, vol. 51, no. 2, 2010, pp. 403-408.