GENRE AND HAPPY TOGETHER:

GENRES:
When identifying genre the following can be considered:
Setting
Character
Theme
Style (Mise on Scene)
Narrative
Iconography

THE ROAD MOVIE:
Characters - A kind of story in which the hero changes, grows or improves over the course of the story.
Iconography - interstate highways and boarder crossings
Visual motifs - vast, open landscapes and expansive, seductive horizon lines. Highway signs, motels, diners, and gas stations.

Hero - Fai, he acts better and the movie follows his journey
How he changes throughout the movie - He grows from the relationship and gains independence, lots of driving scenes on his own, finally stops the relationship after going full circle.  Fai's journey as a character is also paralleled by the journey in the movie itself, with Buenos Aires serving as a metaphor of Fai losing himself in his relationship with Po-Wing and once he has left the volatile relationship, going back to Hong Kong as a mark of stability.

Iconography - driving scenes, black and white - very vintage and yellowish, tracking shot when driving, shows the culture of Argentina through it's dance and the food, conversations between people, clubs, the lamp - flickering

Visual motifs - waterfall is a recurring visual motif, light tower, night market, pay phone, gas stations, flat horizon the road seems to lead to nowhere, long road shots (getting lost)

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE ROAD MOVIE:

• The road movie tends towards an episodic structure
• In each episode, there is a challenge to be met, although not all of them will be met successfully
• In most episodes, a piece of the plot is revealed - knowledge or allies are gained, and so on

Road movies traditionally end in one of 5 ways:

• Having met with triumph at their ultimate destination, the protagonists return home, wiser for their experiences. 
• At the end of the journey, the protagonists find a new home at their destination. 
• The journey continues endlessly. 
• Having realized that, as a result of their journey, they can never go home, the protagonists either choose death or are killed. 

NORTH BY NORTHWEST - ANALYSIS

What kind of mood do the opening credits establish?

Dramatic and exciting as the music is loud and dramatic

What kind of atmosphere is suggested by the city scenes?

Very busy atmosphere, city life

How does Hitchcock show that Thornhill is at home in the city?

His tone

What kind of film might the audience expect from the opening?  Where might it be set?  What might happen in it?
Mystery-drama
Related to lies
Corruption

HITCHCOCK'S MICRO-ASPECTS ON HIS FILMS:

Innocence in jeopardy
Claustrophobic setting
Too dark
Advanced use of camera
Dramatic background music
Blondes
Villains were thought to be more humorous
Audience to have respect for the villain
Heroes have flaws

AUTEUR THEORY:

History:

• Emerged from french film criticism written in the journal Cahiers du Cinema in 1950s

French Auteur Theory:

• Defined themselves against making films based on film scripts written by literary figures
• The tradition of quality advocated a conservative style of film making but the new French directors focused on style instead of script
• They admired directors such as Hitchcock

Hollywood Auteurs:

• 
  

Auteur - developed:

• Not exclusively directors but can include script writers, stars and producers
• They should manifest a consistency of style and them across their films
• Even a particular  studio or production team can constitute a 'collective auteur'

Hitchcock:

• Born in London

Certain themes are found in his films:

• Shared guilt
• Influence of Catholicism
• Homophobia and misogyny

There are also regular narrative techniques:

• Investigation of a murder
• Suspense
• The perfect murder

Elements of stylistic unity:

• Emphasis on editing and montage
• High number of POV shots
• Shooting in confined spaces

Wim Wenders:

• German film maker

Main themes in his films include:

• Influence of North American Culture

SOVIET MONTAGE:

Sergei Eisenstein
1905 uprising

Battleship Potemkin (1925):

• Planned as part of a cycle of films about the Revolution (along with Strike and October)
• Tells about an episode of the 1905 revolt

Sergei Eisenstein:

• Didactic and always channel an ideological message
• No hero (well-rounded individual)
• Masses, classes, types
• Juxtaposition of unrelated expressive images in a rapid succession

Montage:

• Creates metaphors
• Innocence vs Violence
• Soldiers as depersonalized graphic lines moving forward, citizens of Odessa as individuals (close ups)

Difference in perspective:

• Soldiers are in control they move downwards
• Victims perspective is from below

EXPRESSIONISM:

Expressionism - The use of images to express psychological realities rather than material realities.

Metropolis:

• Religious symbols
• Class/Marxism
• New technologies - ahead of its time?
• Rotwang's invention - The Robot
• Love
• A vision of the future

• Silent science film directed by Fritz Lang
• Produced in Germany
• Released in 1927 during a stable period of Weimar Republic
• Most expensive film of its time, it cost approximately 7 million Marks to make

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM:

Objective: To explore what influenced German Expressionist film.

• The monster, usually seen as something outside the self in horror plots, really comes from within
• The subconscious creates for itself another, a monster, upon which to blame shortcomings

Context - Post First World War Germany:

• Many Germans felt they had not lost the war but had been cheated and were looking for people to blame:
• The Kaiser
• The new Government
• The Communist
• The Jews

• Threat to social order - dissatisfaction with the privileges enjoyed by the armed forces and aristocracy
• Huge debts due to the cost of the war ($40 Billion - in modern terms $11000 Billion) added to the already struggling economy
• Food shortages had been so bad that 'Germans ate dogs, crows, zoo animals and rodents'

The Seeds of Evil - The Rise of Hitler:

• After the war the German government was in turmoil:
• The Kaiser had abdicated
• There was no stable government
• Dissatisfied citizens were open to radicalization

• Hitler was just one of the extremist who began to gain power and influence over this time

Some notable features of German Expressionist films are:

• Unexpected camera angles
• Stark contrast of light and shadow
• Artificial, stylized sets
• Overtly theatrical (over the top) acting style
• Heavy make-up

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari:

• Directed by Robert Wiene, 1920
• Starts the expressionist movement
• Studio based
• Used stylized settings, distorted buildings pained onto canvas backdrops
• Critics announced that expressionism had found its way into cinema