In this documentary Cruickshank presents three films, constructed from the Mitchell and Kenyon film rolls discovered in a Blackburn chemist shop in 2002. These “create a virtual landscape of the period more extensive than anything comparable in UK cinema.” (Keiller, in Weber and Wilson, 2008, p.35). The British Film Institute restored the fragile nitrate film, producing a compilation of some of the best of the twenty-six hours of filming. The collection included eight hundred and twenty six reels of black and white actuality primitive films, which according to Nelmes “has extended our understanding of cinema’s debt to pre-cinematic genres.” (2003, p.322).
Film theory tends to have taken a “spatial turn” in recent decades (Shiel, 2001, p.5) and this analysis explores people’s attitudes to space within modernising cities. The films demonstrate how aspects of space affect people within their industrialising, urban area. Shiel suggests that cinema has a “striking and distinctive ability to capture and express the spatial complexity” (2001, p.1). In an age before motorised transport totally dominated roads, the walker or flaneur could wander along city streets wondering at the marvels of the modernising technologies which were shaping the developing cities. In these films the contemporary audience can share this sense of awe. This may account for cinema’s ability to shape our imaginings of cities.
The city plays a central part in modern and post-modern life, and from its conception cinema has played an important part in creating imaginings of a “cinema-city.”(Shiel,2001, p.1). These films have allowed audiences a snapshot of industrialised cities, such as Nottingham and Manchester, as they were at the turn of the Twentieth Century...
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...‘Now You see it Now You Don’t ’, in, Grieveson, L, and Kramer, P, (eds), (2004), The Silent Cinema Reader, London: Routledge. pp.41-50.
Mumford, L, (1937), ‘What is a City? Architectural Record’, in Miles, M and Hall, T, and Borden, T, (eds), (2004), The City Culture Reader, (2nd ed.), London: Routledge, pp.20-32.
Nelmes, J, (2003), An Introduction to Film Studies, ( 3rded.), London: Routledge.
Simmel, ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ in ‘The Sociology of Georg Simmel (1950) [1903], in Miles, M, Hall, T, and Borden, I, (ed), 2004, London: Routledge, pp.12-19.
Weber and Wilson, (eds), 2008, Cities in Transition, London: Wallflower Press.
Gunning, T, ‘Pictures of Crowd Splendour: The Mitchell and Kenyon Factory Gate Films’, in Toulmin, V, Popple, S, and, Russell, (2004), The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon: London, British Film Institute Publishing, pp.49-58.
The cinema as a form of leisure was not new to British society, and indeed most western industrialised societies, during the interwar era. Prior to World War One it was not much more than a 'technical curiosity', but by the 1920s it was the 'new medium' and one that was a 'fully fledged form of art'. (Taylor 1970 p, 180) Throughout most of the 1920s, films shown in cinemas around the world were 'silent'. While silent films were not new to this era, the popularity of them experienced a 'new' and unique interest amongst the general public. Indeed, Vile Bodies highlights the popularity of the cinema and in particular, the 'silent' film as a regularly experienced leisure activity. Waugh's character, Colonel Blount, is the most obvious representation of the popular interest of films and film making at the time Vile Bodies was written. He tells Adam, after asking his interest in the cinema, that he and the Rector went 'a great deal' to the 'Electra Palace'. (Waugh 1930 p, 59)
Reed, Elanine Walls. "'A very unusual Practise [sic]': miscegnation and the film industy in the Hays era." West Virginia Univesity Philological papers 50, 2003: 42-53.
BIBLIOGRAPHY An Introduction to Film Studies Jill Nelmes (ed.) Routledge 1996 Anatomy of Film Bernard H. Dick St. Martins Press 1998 Key Concepts in Cinema Studies Susan Hayward Routledge 1996 Teach Yourself Film Studies Warren Buckland Hodder & Stoughton 1998 Interpreting the Moving Image Noel Carroll Cambridge University Press 1998 The Cinema Book Pam Cook (ed.) BFI 1985 FILMOGRAPHY All That Heaven Allows Dir. Douglas Sirk Universal 1955 Being There Dir. Hal Ashby 1979
Small, Pauline. (2005) New Cinemas: journal of Contemporary Film Volume 3, Queen Mary, University of London
Introduction," from Braudy, Leo and Cohen, Marshall, eds. Film Theory and Criticism 5th. ed. (New York : Oxford University Press,1999)
Firstly, for the purposes of illustrating the cultural context of this decade, I will refer to Lynn Spigel’s writing entitled “Welcome to the Dreamhouse: Popular Media and Postwar Suburb”. After WWII...
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
Mathijs, Ernest, and Jamie Sexton. Cult Cinema: An Introduction. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.
The concept of ‘cinema of attractions’ encompasses the development of early cinema, its technology, industry and cultural context. The explanation of how it is perceived by early cinema audiences is closely related to the effects of history at that time. How Gunning coined the term ‘cinema of attractions’ pertains to the history of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century and his interpretation of the audience and their reaction film technology. Single shots, the process of creating a moving picture and the juxtaposition of limited techniques, coupled with a new invention of showing a moving picture.
In this essay the following will be discussed; the change from the age of classical Hollywood film making to the new Hollywood era, the influence of European film making in American films from Martin Scorsese and how the film Taxi Driver shows the innovative and fresh techniques of this ‘New Hollywood Cinema’.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
‘Then came the films’; writes the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, evoking the arrival of a powerful new art form at the end of 19th century. By this statement, he tried to explain that films were not just another visual medium, but it has a clear differentiation from all previous mediums of visual culture.