European Cinema

• Europe after WWI

• Industry lagged
behind
• Certainty of pre-war
times challenged in
matters of class, art,
spirituality &
politically

Unemployment in the Weimar Republic

 European Cinema
• Russia
– Lev Kuleshov – the
Father of Soviet
Cinema and the
“Kuleshov Effect”
– The viewer’s
interpretation is
determined by
context (or sequence)
 European Cinema
• Russia
– Influence of Lenin
and the Revolution
– Filmmakers such as
Vsevolod Pudovkin
and Sergei
Eisenstein

Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin

(1925) & Pudovkin’s Mother (1926)
 European Cinema
Montage
1. A synonym for editing.
2. An approach to editing
developed by the Soviet
filmmakers of the 1920s
such as Pudovkin and
Eisenstein; it emphasizes
dynamic, often
discontinuous, relationships
between shots and the
juxtaposition of images to
create ideas not present in
either shot by itself
 European Cinema
• France
– Abel Gance
– Wildly experimental
in form & length

Napoleon (1927)
 European Cinema
• Germany
– Huge influence on
American Cinema as
so many filmmakers
fled the Nazis

Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang,

Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak
 European Cinema
• Expressionism: a
theory or practice in
art of seeking to
depict the subjective
emotions and
responses that
objects and events
arouse in the artist
 European Cinema
– Not about realism
– Visually expressing
the inner emotion,
psychology &
spirituality
– Distorted reality for
emotional effect
 European Cinema
• Film
– Robert Wiene’s
The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari (1919)
– Sets are distorted,
artificial, shadowy,
and disorienting.
 European Cinema
– Expressionism
heavily influenced
film noir & Hitchcock,
Welles and many
other directors

The Maltese Falcon,

The Wrong Man,,
Citizen Kane & Children
of Men
 European Cinema
• The Weimar
Republic, 1919-
1933
– Economic difficulty
combined with
thriving arts scene

Threepenny Opera & Burning Currency for Warmth

 European Cinema
• Universum Film AG
– F.W. Murnau
– G.W. Pabst
– Fritz Lang
– Josef von Sternberg
– Billy Wilder
– Lotte Reiniger
 European Cinema
• G.W. Pabst, 1885-1967
– Most successful,
artistically & financially
– Famous for collaboration
with American actress
Louise Brooks
– Pandora’s Box (1928)
– Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)
– Returned to Germany &
made films during the war
which proved a problem
later
 European Cinema
• Josef von Sternberg,
1894-1969
– The Blue Angel, 1930
– First German talkie
English and German
version shot at the same
time
– Gave us Marlene Dietrich
 European Cinema
• Lotte Reiniger,
1889-1981
– Silhouette animator
– Oldest surviving
animated feature film

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

 European Cinema
• F.W. Murnau, 1888-1931
– Emigrated to Hollywood in
1926
– Sunrise (1927) filmed in
Movietone Sound on Film -
music and effects only
– Breakthrough process &
tracking shots
– Special Academy Award for
Best Picture, Unique and
Artistic Production

Nosferatu, 1922 & Sunrise, 1927

 European Cinema
• Ernst Lubitsch, 1882-
1947
– Sophisticated
comedies
– “European” sensibility
– Relied on the raised
eyebrow and not the
specifics

Ninotchka, Three Women & The Shop Around the Corner

 European Cinema
• Billy Wilder, 1906-
2002
– Started as a
screenwriter
– Went on to become
one of the greatest
Hollywood directors
ever
 European Cinema
• “The Lubitsch Touch”
– Billy Wilder always kept a
sign hanging in his office
that asked, "How would
Lubitsch do it?”
– At his funeral, Billy Wilder
noted: "No more
Lubitsch." William Wyler
answered: "Worse than
that - no more Lubitsch
films."

Some Like it Hot

 European Cinema
• Fritz Lang, 1890-1976
– Started as artist
– Went into the film
business at UFA
– Broke out with Destiny
(1920) & Dr Mabuse, the
Gambler (1921)
– Went on to a long career
in Hollywood
– Vital in the development
of film noir
 European Cinema
• Metropolis
– 1927
– Ground-breaking Science
Fiction
– Bankrupted studio
– 1/4 film lost until recently -
Additional footage found a
vault in Brazil
– Original version has not
been seen since premiere
although with the found
footage, the film is now only
missing about 10 minutes
European Cinema
European Cinema

Blade Runner
European Cinema
 European Cinema
• "Schufftan Process”
– Angled mirrors to
combine miniatures
with actors
 European Cinema
• Expressionism
heavily influenced
film noir &
Hitchcock, Welles
and many other
directors

The Maltese Falcon,

The Wrong Man,,
Citizen Kane & Children
of Men
 European Cinema
• The “Look”
• Stark black & white
• chiaroscuro (Italian for
light-dark)
– Physical effects of light
T-Men, 1947 on surfaces
– Dark and light with little
gray
– Excessive shadows
– “Low key”
– “High Contrast”

Out of the Past, 1947

 European Cinema
• The Heroes or anti-heroes
– Cannot escape their past or
human nature
– Conflicted
– Morally ambiguous
– Protagonist often doomed
to repeat past mistakes or
pay for recently made
mistakes

The Big Sleep, 1946

 European Cinema
• Female archetypes
– The Good Girl
• Trustworthy
• Loving
• Reliable
– The Femme Fatale
• Duplicitous
Out of the Past, 1947
• Predatory
• Tough
• Gorgeous
• Independent
 European Cinema
• M (1931)
– M short for Mörder,
German for murderer
– Invented the psycho-killer
genre
– Written while the real killer
still on the loose
– Used real criminals as
extras
 European Cinema
– Threw Peter Lorre down
the stairs about a dozen
times
– Groundbreaking use of
voiceover
– Irving Thalberg of MGM
arranged a screening
saying they should be
making films like this
although he also said he
never would have made a
film about a child-killer
Film Noir
• The Big Heat (1953) dir. by
Fritz Lang
– Part of the Starring Glenn
Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee
Marvin
– Inverts the classic femme
fatale who ruins everyone’s life
– One of his later (second wave
of his American career)
“optimistic” films