3: Conform or Subvert to Hollywood/Mainstream Filmmaking Standards

Dominant Cinema or Conforming to Hollywood is a system of representation and production. There are characteristics that represent the Dominant Cinema product: Genre, Stars, Producers/Studios, Directors and Mass Audiences. Counter Cinema or Subverting to Hollywood, on the other hand, are represented by the following characteristics: Narrative Intransitivity, Estrangement, Foregrounding, Multiple Diegesis, Apeture, Un-Pleasure, Reality (Wollen, 1972 p.74). Applying these characteristics to two movies: Lord of the Rings and Bronson will reinforce the polarised stances that both these films represent.


The Lord of the Rings series (2001-2003) co-written and directed Peter Jackson are dominant cinema productions. This series, adapted from the book written by J.R.R Tolkien, had a big budget of $281 Million and took 8 years to finish the project. It is also the highest grossing trilogy of all time worldwide and the Third film (The Return of the King) received 11 Oscars. The first film (The Fellowship of the Ring) follows the mainstream style of film in that the narrative is linear with the protagonist Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) being the unlikely hero. Being a epic fantasy adventure film, it can be easily drawn in by the likeable protagonist and the calm setting he lives in. Other characters such as Gandalf (Sir Ian Mckellen) is represented as a gentle father figure and the audience can take comfort from his presence. A typical adventure film like this one follows a formula of having an unlikely character becoming a hero against overwhelming odds. Frodo as a small and gentle person adds the audience's desire for him to succeed and defeat evil. Major stars that make up the cast are not as recognizable as they would be in other genres due to the make-up and costumes. However, there are some prominent stars such as Sean Bean, Orland Bloom, Elijah Wood and Christopher Lee that give this title a formidable cast.

All films are all roughly three hour long epic stories that are aimed at the mass audience. There are continuous themes of romance, immortality and death which are equally desired, as not, by the viewers. Throughout the three films the characters take separate paths and have their own struggles to deal with but are still a part of a linear story that eventually collide into a happy ending. Audiences want this happy ending and want to see the bad characters such as Gollum to fail. The soundtrack is a symphonic composition pertaining to the epic fantasy genre and its themes. It gives a melodic and mythical connotation to the whole series and has won many awards to add to the film's success. 

On the other hand, the film Bronson (2008) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn does not follow the usual Hollywood conventions of narrative, big stars and amounting a massive box office. Having a budget of only £150,000, this film subverts to Hollywood standards and is produced on a much smaller scale. The film is a crime biography of the prisoner Michael Peterson who was later known as Charles Bronson. It is primarily a factual piece with themes of romance and violence relating to the prisoner that the viewers relate to and are excited by. Getting out of prison for a brief stint near the end of the film Bronson "falls in love" and asks a girl to marry him but she ultimately rejects him. Even though he robbed a jewellery shop for the ring, the viewer must feel sorry for him as his genuine emotion of love comes through.

A frequently linear narrative breaks into sub narratives between Bronson and a predominantly silent audience to express the protagonist's thoughts and feelings. The monologues are sub narrative's that act out his thoughts and life developments in musical numbers and dual personality dialogues. These scenes are effective to portray the madness of Bronson and suggests he is putting on an act when being coined as a the most dangerous prisoner in Britain. Also, there is an element of fast forwarding of time concerning the prisoner's forced migration between prisons because of his bad behaviour. The continuous  There is no resolution in the end as Bronson is still incarcerated and seems to be so oreintated to the prison system that being outside is probably an alienating experience. All he knows is being a part of an institution that he can handle where as being in the public is an uncommon atmosphere. Bronson is always against the public and ultimately the world so the only way he can survive is by rebelling and staying within the confines of a prison.

Apart from Tom Hardy there are no real stars to mention or that stand out as big names that create an impact on the whole motion picture. The small budget of this film gives the director an oppertunity to use home-grown talent in Tom Hardy. It can be said it is a cult film that targets a segment of the film market and not everyone will gather in their droves to view it. An audience that know about the prisoner already or are excited by the 18 rating  and the violence that comes with it can be gratified by this film.

References:

•    WOLLEN, P., 1972. Godard and counter cinema: vent d'est. London: Routledge.                         .   

2: What Makes an Auteur?

Alfred Hitchcock - What makes a filmmaker an Auteur?

Being an Auteur develops in my mind as a form of delivering an artistic contribution that can be easily viewed by the audience to be unique and consist of reoccurring themes to categorize a film as having that auteur's signature stamp. Many film theorists have debated the idea of whether an director's "treatment of a subject" (Wollen, 1967 p.145)  is unique or whether "the text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture" (Barthes, 1967 p.4). Wollen goes on to argue that "there are two main schools of auteur critics....those who insisted on revealing a core of meanings, of thematic motifs, and those who stressed style and mise en scene” (566). It is a mixture of all those aspects of film that I believe to be major factors in identifying a director as an auteur.  

Alfred Hitchcock is a strong candidate for being an auteur by directing films that have significant motifs and adding his own unique abstract world view to the audience. Whether or not the work was solely his own, the prevalence of his style without "noise" from other influences in actors and producers, to name a few, enables his work to be unique and innovative. However, there were external influences such as the Hayes Code 1930-68 that censored some of the scenes in his motion pictures but this did not deter his creative personality to be at the forefront of his films. A several number of his films showcase his signature style as the master of suspense and fear among other substantial motifs.

The Birds (1963) by Hitchcock is a classic piece of film of the horror genre that echoes the impactful style of the director. In a short synoptic film by Hitchcock: "The Day of the Claw: A Synoptic Account of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds" (See Right) provides a biological and social background to this film. It is the relationship between man and birds that the director depicts as an "age long relationship". However, this relationship is overauded by the man's thirst for killing birds as a blood sport which could define the reason for the birds taking revenge. 

Duncan (1999) describes the film as "mankind having to tiptoe through the rest of their lives because, at any moment, the world will turn on them". Hitchcock displays his abstract world in this film as an unending terror of nature biting back. A lesson is learnt in this movie of treating nature with more respect and care without using it for material purposes. Also, the perfect family structure is put under scrutiny as depicted as fragile. 1950s family structures were the mother,father, daughter and son as the model family household and Hitchcock aims to shatter this notion. Children as well come under attack and represented as vulnerable beings.        

The film displays motifs of suspense and fear. Hitchcock uses the camera to highlight the suspense and fear of attacks by the birds in several scenes. No musical soundtrack is needed because the silence evokes a sense of fear and terror that is about to be unfurled. The sheer mass of the birds denoted by a wide and high angle shots are  exemplars of the terror Hitchcock is trying to put in to the viewer. Going into close ups of the bird attacks pinpoints the vulnerability of the scared characters as they try and run for cover. Uses of suspense are connoted through point of view shots of dark stairs that Tippi Hedren climbs in the climatic scene of the film. Hitchcock uses light to determine a sense of danger in this scene with the only glint of light or "hope" coming from Hedren's flashlight. There is also an element of suspense in a certain bird attack scene where the audience can only hear the birds coming as opposed to actually seeing their approach on the victims. It is this sound that viewers pertain to the eventual attack and builds the rising tension.

Another classic thriller film of Hitchcock's is "Rope" (1948). This film showcases Hitchcock as the master of suspense with a moral resolve at the end. It, as with some of his films, deals with murder and the suspense surrounding it. Moreover, the film can be categorized as a psychodrama which Hitchcock wants to convey as lacking a sense of empathy from the characters. Hitchcock uses the same ideology in "Strangers on a Train" (1950) where the chance of a "perfect murder" without remorse is introduced. All of this film is shot in real time as one continuous take with only a few cuts in the form of the camera zooming into a characters back. 

The two main characters (John Dall and Farley Granger) are students that commit a murder on another student named David Kentley (Dick Hogan). Both characters represent a doubling motif and play on each other's emotions throughout the film. They act as trying to perform the perfect murder. But Hitchcock highlights the idea that there can never be a perfect murder that outruns justice. In particular, Dall thinks of himself as a power above the normal man and can hand out punishment due to his intellectual being. Again, Hitchcock must be against this idea of Nietzche's superman theory and quashes the idea in the end. No man is in the right to execute a murder in any case as this is immoral. 

Hitchcock carries suspense in to the subsequent dinner party in the frequent references to the disappearance of David. Tension is felt by the audience through the aptly used dining table which holds his body. It is this idea of having the body known by the viewers but unbeknown to the characters that creates a lot of suspense. James Stewart eventually holds a role of an impromptu investigator that uncovers the bad deed by questioning and using his intelligence to see through the facade of the murderers' defense. Hitchcock has done this on purpose to reiterate a moral high ground has to be found and no one should be able to commit murder and get away with it. A sense of moral resolve is exacted in the end change of moral views of James Stewart and the eventual arrest of the murderers.

Finally, the director's "Rear Window" (1954) contains all the "Hithcockian" trademarks of fear ,suspense and moral resolve. Hitchcock brings to life this movie based on a short novel by Cornell Woolrich. The film takes on the point of view of an injured political journalist "Jeff" (James Stewart) who sees or thinks he sees a murder in another apartment through his window. Unlike the last two examples, this movie has another trademark motif of Hitchock films: voyeurism. The journalist's and audience's gaze across from his apartment into other peoples' worlds through his camera. Hitchcock warms to the use of the eye as an attractive "window of the soul" and utilizes the eye to what he wants the audience to see without themselves being uncovered. In "The Birds" the eyes are also referenced but in a more gruesome manner as the viewer sees a man's eyes have been removed by a bird. This strikes up connotations of the human soul being removed by nature for the crime of harming and incarcerating it. It can also represent the blindness or obliviousness of man's cruelty towards nature and so the birds are exacting revenge.   

All camera techniques at the time were utilized to show the audience the setting and character emotion. The director creates suspense through darkness and footstep sounds to anticipate an eventual attack on Jeff. Darkness shrouds the mysterious Thorwald who enters Jeffs room and Hitchcock highlights Thorwalds face to indentify it his him. Effectively, the darkness masks both characters to try signify they are both hiding a secret. No music is necessary in this scene as the silence adds to the tension that is building. In the end, Hitchock introduces a moral resolve or happy ending with Jeff's character changing for the better and Thorwald being arrested.        

A filmmaker becomes an auteur when style and themed motifs are so evident in the performance of an actor or the camera technique. Hitchcock easily communicates what he wants the audience to feel at a certain moment in his films and evokes a reaction from the viewer.                 

           
   

Links to all films mentioned above: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PhmYfBK13M (The Birds, 1963)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR4DdmU7bQc (Rope, 1948)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70_R1igohw (Strangers on a Train, 1951)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW0y7i2AyNU (Rear Window, 1954)

         

References: 

• BARTHES, R., 1967. Death of an Author [online]. Available from: http://www.tbook.constantvzw.org/wp-content/death_authorbarthes.pdf [Accessed 4 March 2013]
• Duncan, P. (1999) Alfred Hitchcock.  Harpenden:  Pocket Essentials
• WOLLEN, P., 1967. The Auteur Theory [online]. Available from: http://www1.pacific.edu/~jlessard/E121lessards09/Peter%20Wollen_auteur%20theory.pdf  [Accessed 4 March 2013]
•  WOLLEN, P., 1967. The Auteur Theory [online]. Available from: http://studio.berkeley.edu/coursework/moses/courses/TEXTS/Auteur-Genre/WollenAuteurTheory.pdf  [Accessed 4 March 2013]

1: Five Defining Moments of Cinema Pre-1930's

WORKERS LEAVING THE LUMIERE FACTORY IN LYON (1895)

 

This 46 second film is a landmark of film production and often quoted as the first documentary film ever made. It was captured by Leon Bouly's invention the Cinematograph which also acted as a projector and developer. The Lumiere brothers directed the short film and used the Cinematograph for the first time to capture the documentary. It was showcased among 9 other short motion pictures at the first private screening in the Grand Cafe in Paris on the same year.  

More information can be found here: http://www.vdb.org/titles/workers-leaving-factory       

THE ENCHANTED DRAWING (1900)

J. Stuart Blackton was deemed as one of the first silent animation producers in the film industry when he produced and directed this short motion picture. The short clip portrays himself as the artist that draws a bust of a man and then they begin to interact with each other. Stop motion techniques are utilized in the interaction aspect of this film and Blackton was one of the first animators to do so.

More information can be found here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/03/23/the-enchanted-drawing/   

BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

D.W. Griffiths 'Birth of a Nation' is a silent American film that had caused as many controversies as it had triumphs. The film is a two-and-a-half hour dramatic piece set during the American Civil War and depicts personal battles between fictional characters along with historical events. Controversial representations of African-Americans as villains and the Klu Klux Klan as heroes led to its condemning from most critics. More so, it was voted at 44 of "America's top 100 films" by the American film institute in 1998 which added fuel to the controversy. However, the film's cinematography was evidently innovative with different and existing camera techniques being implemented. Shooting at different angles and panning shots to name but a few.

More information can be found here:  http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2013/02/birth-of-a-nation-revisited.html     

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY 1903

Edwin S. Porter's, produced by Thomas Edison, 'The Great Train Robbery' is a Classical American Western style of film. It proved to be a ground-breaking piece that was the first full length narrative film running at 12 minutes. 4 bandits are the main characters that manage to hijack a train and steal the belongings of the passengers but are eventually gunned down by the operator and his men. Very popular at the time of its release that it led to movie theaters being permanent establishments for the public to enjoy. All of the scenes were shot on location and involved new camera techniques such as cross cutting. This western classic was the first of its kind and set the bar for future productions of the same genre.

More information can be found here: http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/qt/trainrobbery.htm     

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)

This film is a major influential piece of German Expressionism. It is a film that could be seen as one of the first horror films on its release. It is also an artistic piece that can portray Germany, at the time, through character and backdrop representations.There was a need to escape the horrors of reality due to the political conflict of WWI and this film sought to create a aestheticized world instead of showing reality. Herald Walder ( Robert Wiese directed this silent horror classic that told the story of a somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) controlled by Dr. Caligari to murder certain inhabitants of Holstenwall. From an abstract setting to the over dramatic characters made this film an instant classic that influenced the Film Noir style.

More information can be found here: http://www.helium.com/items/874102-movie-analysis-the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari