Film History and Criticism (1940-present) Week 2 The Tough Guy and the Fatal Woman Reading: Wexman, Orson Welles: Boy Genius and Films of the Period pp143-147;

Film History and Criticism (1940-present) Week 2

The Tough Guy and the Fatal Woman Reading: Wexman, Orson Welles: Boy Genius and Films of the Period pp143-147; Hayward Key Concepts: Realism pp 298-300Screening: Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941). Screenplay available at www.imsdb.com/scripts/Citizen-Kane.html 

Also Refer Wexman Text Glossary pp 475 –79 and relevant sections of Susan Hayward Key Concepts in

Cinema Studies You tube shot type videoshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VS2iNhz180http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwbsYgZ7d-8Lhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuGvRu5N9v4&NR=1

ecture 2

A few key film studies concepts:

Mise en Scene

The arrangements of visual weights and movements within a given space. In the live theatre, the space is usually defined by the proscenium arch; in cinema it is defined by the frame that encloses the images. Cinematic mise en scene encompasses both the staging of the action and the way it's filmed. Literally “what is placed in the scene” All that is before the camera!

Close-up (CU)

A detailed view of a person or object. A close-up (CU), Medium Close-up (MCU) or extreme close-up (ECU) of an object or actor, usually only his or her head or perhaps an eye. As opposed to a long shot. (LS) Hayward Key Concepts pp317-320

Long Shot

Low Angle

Low Angle- A shot in which the subject is photographed from below. As opposed to a high angle shot.

Medium Long Shot 1

Medium Long Shot 2

Dolly Shot or Tracking Shot (Trucking Shots)

Dolly Shot, Tracking Shot, Trucking Shot- A shot taken from a moving vehicle, bicycle, automobile, train. Originally, tracks were laid on the set to permit a smoother movement of the camera. Often produced cinematic clichés such as train lines to infinity.

Tracking (dolly) Shot

Aerial or Crane Shot

Aerial or Crane Shot- A shot taken from a special device called a crane, which resembles a huge mechanical arm. The crane carries the camera and the cinematographer and can move in virtually any direction.

‘Z’ jib/crane

Deep Focus

Deep Focus

A photographic technique that permits all distance planes to remain clearly in focus, from close-up ranges to infinity.

High Angle

High Angle A shot in which the subject is photographed from above. As opposed to a low angle shot.

Long Shot

Long Shot- Often an establishing shot; a shot that includes an area within the image that roughly corresponds to the spectators view of the area within the proscenium arch in the live theatre. As opposed to a close-up.

Dissolve

Dissolve- The slow fading out of one shot and the gradual fading in of its successor, with a superimposition of images, usually at the mid-point.

Montage

Montage- Transitional sequences of rapidly edited images, used to suggest the lapse of time or the passing of events. Often uses dissolve and multiple exposures. In Europe, montage means the art of editing. Dialectical versus additive montageClick Image for Video Clip

Shot /reverse shot

The camera cuts back and forth between two points of view (P.O.V.) in a scene, normally between two characters

180 degree rule.

When planning a sequence of shots the director is aware of maintaining continuity through the convention of not "crossing the line", or of positioning cameras on the same side of the 180 degree line of action or axis of action.

Diegesis

Refers to Narration – the content of narration or the fictional world inside the story. All that is really going on - on screen – to construct/represent a fictional reality.

Diegesis 22

A narrative's “time-space continuum.” The diegesis of a narrative is its entire created world. Any narrative includes a diegesis, whether you are reading or viewing -another form of reading - science fiction, fantasy, mimetic realism, or psychological realism.

Diegetic Sound

Diegetic Sound/ Commentary Sound - sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action

narrator's commentary (voice over) such as ‘Voice of God’ in documentary and sound effects which are added for the dramatic effect such as mood music.

Non-Diegetic Sound

Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from a source outside the story space. The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening. Occasionally this is illusionistic i.e. Sam the piano player in Casablanca who was singing diegetically (As Time goes By) and other hit compositions to piano previously recorded. We know that certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are represented as coming from outside the space of the story events.

Three-Point Lighting

Three-Point Lighting A common technique of lighting a scene from three sources. The key light is the main source of illumination, usually creating the dominant contrast where we first look in a shot. Fill lights are less intense and are generally placed opposite the key, illuminating areas that would otherwise be obscured by shadow. Backlights are used to separate foreground elements from the setting, emphasizing depth in the image.

Orson Welles 1915-1985

George Orson Welles born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1915. Father, Richard Head Welles, wealthy from the production of several wagon factories. In one of his interviews, Welles credits his father with the invention of automobiles. Welles’s mother, Beatrice Ives Welles, a highly-regarded woman in her time, was considered a beauty, very active in the arts and in her community. In short a very prominent couple.

George Orson Welles was born in.

Welles 1

Welles’ mother taught him to read using Shakespeare and later taught him the piano, though he would never become accomplished musically. In school, Welles would actually write, direct, and act his own plays, catching the attention of local newspapers who, with the assistance of a local pediatrician dubbed him a prodigy. When Welles was six, his parents divorced partly as a result of his father’s increasing alcoholism, and his mother took him to Chicago, immersing her bright young son in the theatre and classical music. Her unexpected death a few years later left Welles very shaken.

Welles 2

His father would die when Welles was fifteen, reportedly alone and in despair from alcohol. After her death, Beatrice Welles left him in the care of his father and Bernstein. Bernstein sent Welles to Todd School. Where he auditioned for Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir, posing as a famous, Broadway actor, a ploy that did not fool either Edwards or MacLiammóir. Though Welles was disappointed with his own audition, it was considered a brilliant piece of charismatic "ham-acting," and it was enough to win him a place at the Gate. His performance as the Duke in Jew Süss was an incredible triumph.

“His next few roles were disappointments, and Welles left The Gate in search of more famous theatres in England. However he was unable to obtain a work permit and returned to the Midwest U.S. keeping himself occupied with various projects until a fortunate meeting with playwright Thornton Wilder helped him land a job with a road company headed by Katharine Cornell. After a brief stint with this theatre group, he met John Houseman who, with Welles, began work with the New York Federal Theatre, a project formed under the New Deal reformation. They produced adaptations of Macbeth and Julius Caesar. Houseman went on to form a new repertory company called the Mercury Theatre, which according to film historian James Naremore was lifted "from a copy of Mercury magazine lying in a corner of an empty fireplace at Welles's home.”

Bibliography

Callow, Simon. The Road to Xanadu.Cowie, Peter. A Ribbon of Dreams: The Cinema of

Orson Welles. A.S. Barnes: New York, 1973.Higham, Charles. The Films of Orson Welles. University of California Press: Berkeley, 1970.McBride, Joseph. Orson Welles. Viking Press: New York, 1972. Naremore, James. The Magic World of Orson Welles. Oxford University Press: New York, 1978.

Mulvey, Laura Citizen Kane BFI books

Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich This is Orson Welles

Citizen Kane 1941 (release date)

“If modernist narrative is associated with the foregrounding of cinematic language, multiple levels of narration, and estrangement of the spectator, Citizen Kane might be said to be fully if not overly qualified for modernity” (Wexman p. 143)

Touch of Evil, 1957

Orson Welles:

Actor/DirectorThe Hearts of Age, 1934Too Much Johnson, 1938Citizen Kane, 1941The Magnificent Ambersons, 1942The Stranger, 1944The Lady from Shanghai, 1945Macbeth, 1947Othello, 1952

Don Quixote (unfinished), 1954Confidential Report, 1955Mr. Arkadin, 1955Touch of Evil, 1957The Trial, 1962Chimes at Midnight, 1966Falstaff, 1966The Immortal Story, 1968F For Fake, 1975The Other Side of the Wind (unfinished), 1975

I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.

I have an unfortunate personality.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

Orson Welles’ Quotes

I started at the top and worked my way down.

The enemy of society is middle class and the enemy of life is middle age.

Movie directing is a perfect refuge for the mediocre.

I think we're a kind of desperation. We're sort of a maddening luxury. The basic and essential human is the woman, and all that we're doing is trying to brighten up the place. That's why all the birds who belong to our sex have prettier feathers — because males have got to try and justify their existence.

If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl friends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys.

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.

The enemy of art is the absence of limitations

Orson Welles began as a young actor and theatre director with the depression initiated Federal Theatre Project and then developed with John Houseman (1902 -1988) The Mercury Theatre Group which was responsible for the notorious broadcast of HG Wells novel The War of the worlds Citizen Kane called the “The most significant film produced in the American Commercial Cinema."

While few of its stylistic effects were new what was dazzling was the way it brought to bear a variety of innovations in nearly every scene. In fact what was startling for many who first viewed it was the total effect described by NYU film historian Robert Sklar as "the concentration, the comprehensiveness and unity of its stylistic effort." 

The film was nominated for nine Oscars in 1941 including Best Picture. Arguably the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane almost never saw the light of day. In a documentary by directors Michael Epstein and Thomas Lennon, the story behind the legendary film is told, highlighting the attempts by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to kill the thinly-veiled biographical film by first-time filmmaker, 25-year-old Orson Welles. The meteoric rises of both figures are chronicled, drawing parallels between the lives of not only Hearst and the fictional Charles Foster Kane, but Welles, as well. Along with archival footage and clips from Citizen Kane, the documentary includes interviews with journalists, historians, and filmmakers, such as long-time Welles assistant William Alland, newspaper writer Jimmy Breslin, and director Peter Bogdanovich.

William Randolph Hearst

A documentary produced by Michael Epstein and Thomas Lennon, revealed the story behind the legendary film, highlighting attempts made by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) to kill the thinly-veiled biographical film by first-time filmmaker, 25-year-old Orson Welles.

 Citizen Kane's importance is based upon several features:1) Recognized importance of the ensemble acting of Welles

Mercury Theatre Players Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead 1906-1974), Everette Sloane (1909-1965)

2) Gregg Toland’s Cinematography: a) employing camera lenses that maintained focus

throughout thus producing deep space. b) symbolic low and high angle shots to emphasize

character (credited to Welles elaborate pre-production plans).

c) the avoidance of direct cuts through camera panning, dollying and overlapping dissolves assisted by the incredible deep space of the sets (mise en scene).

The film begins in a very surrealistic manner with the death of multi-millionaire publisher and entrepreneur Charles Foster Kane. The narrative is kicked off with a mystery ……….. What is the meaning of Kane’s dying word “rosebud.” The film investigates the significance of this through a series of flash backs framed by the dialogue of a number of Kane’s associates including Walter Thatcher, and Steinberg.

Agnes Moorehead 1906-1974

Agnes Moorehead came to Hollywood from New York with Orson Welles to appear as Charles Foster Kane's mother in Citizen Kane (1941), her first of 60+ film roles.

Moorehead as Mrs. Kane in Citizen Kane, Shannon as Charles' father, George Coulouris as Charles' financial guardian Walter P. Thatcher, and Buddy Swann with his sled as the young Charles Foster Kane.

Joseph Cotten (1905-

•

Other Films Shadow of a Doubt (1943)Gaslight Love Letters (1945)The Farmer's Daughter (1947)Portrait of Jennie (1948)The Third Man (1949))

Everette Sloane (1909-1965)

Citizen Kane (1941)Journey Into Fear (1943) The Lady from Shanghai, (1947)Jigsaw (1949)Prince of Foxes (1949) The Men (1950) The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) The Enforcer, (1951)Sirocco (1951) The Blue Veil (1951)Bird of Paradise (1951)Lust for Life (1956)Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)Home from the Hill (1960) The Patsy (1964)

Key DatesAttendance and Participation (10%)Assignment 1: In class short answer film glossary test (10%) January 22nd

Assignment 2: Film Sequence analyses (20%) Due Monday March 5th

Assignment 3: Research Paper (30%) Due April 2nd

Take Home Exam: 30% March 27th due before 5.00pm Office, Historical and Critical Studies, Tuesday April 10th

Next WeekAssignment 1: In Class Glossary Review Test reminder: Monday January 25th

Week 3Post-War Cinema I: Italian Neorealism: Rossellini, De SicaReadings: Wexman, Chapter 8 Italian Neorealism 149 - 159; Robin Wood “Ideology, Genre, Auteur” in Mast pp 475-485 and on library reserve. Hayward, Key Concepts Italian Neo-Realism pp pp191-2.Screenings: Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini dir 1945) and clips from Miraculo a milano (Miracle in Milan) (1950) and Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) Vittorio De Sica (1948).