(Coordinator of Inter-America Affairs)

- attempt to protect Latin American countries from "foreign" political influence

- discourage rise of revolutionary national movements in Latin America

- Bolster political + economic relations among countries in Americas

- Initiated the "Good Neighbor Policy"

- Argentina: neutral

- US suspected Arg. of being buddies with fascists

- cut off supply of film stock & gave it to Mexico instead

- directly affected Arg. cinema's fall + Mexico's rise

- Mexico ultimately surpassed Arg. thanks to US

- both national and regional

- reflected cultural nationalism of Mexico

- primary source of for Spanish-language films in Americas

- production techniques of Hollywood + ideologies of Mexico

Mexico (1942)

- private central bank for film production

- state-run production and distribution company

- allowed tax reliefs

- emphasized popular production

"the great year" of Mexican cinema

- classics made and inte

(1936-1956)

- Post WWII, Hollywood regained its dominance

- but Mexico was most dominant in Latin America

- Mexicanness (Cultural Nationalism): epic dramas, modernization of culture + politics, allegories

- focus on national history, all-things-mexican (i.e. dramatizing the Mexican Revolution)

- Rural Tradition (pre-modern idealized, innocent, noble) vs. Urban Strife (modern cities shown as corrupt, dangerous, poor)

- Melodrama (mode of emotional/stylistic excess)

- family + females

- Caberetara

cycle of films about prostitutes and showgirls

example: Aventurera (1955)

Wild Flower (1943)

- heritage cinema

- set during Mexican Revolution

- melodrama, comedy, musical

- appealed to broad audience

- Mexican actress

- came from Hollywood

- matronly

- purity and beauty

- Popular musician

- Leading actor of Golden Age

- Symbolized urban migrants + working class

- Mexican actress

- femme fatale (seductive/aggressive)

- refused Hollywood

- Surrealist Spanish filmmakers

- Made Un Chien Andalou

- Worked in Mexican film industry for 20 years

- Brought prestige to Mexican cinema

- Los Olvidados: urban realist drama, bleak portrait

- Mussolini: film good for public + maintaining gov't support (controlled until post-WWII)

- Less organized than German's control on film

- built programs like Vencie Film Festival + Cincecitta Studios

(1932)

- world's first film festival

- elevated film to art status

- part of the nationalization of culture

- mostly slick studio pictures: "white telephone films"

- mainly about upper class

- nationalistic heroic propaganda films produced (less popular)

- departed from fascist-era studio films

- gave birth to Neo-Realistic films

- influenced by French Poetic Realism but less stylized

- not necessarily popular, but brought prestige

- had a strong sense of morality

- focused on on devastating effects of Fascism + WWII

- focused on daily-ness of life (everyday people)

- narratives are strings of events, not necessarily causally linked

- REFUSED Hollywood narrative style: romance was there, but not central to the plot. featured open ended conclusions.

- location shooting

- natural light

- long takes + camera movement

- more medium and long shots (close-ups rare)

- non-professional actors

- post-dubbed sound

- methods of representation are always constructed

- reflects a desire for authenticity

- set of stylistic conventions/techniques that change over time

- critiques representations as distanced from real life

- vertically integrated studio system

- Hollywood + avant-garde Europe influenced

- German Expressionism influenced

- director + screenwriter = major control

- Hollywood films did not dominate in Japan

- Silent films coexisted in 1930s

- benshi

- militaristic totalitarian government rises

- cinema becomes gov't controlled: 1939-1945

- most films supported national policies

- historical films banned

- comes to international prestige which has major cultural and historical significance

- began to be seen as art cinema

- did not adhere to to Hollywood or European studio conventions

- experimented with narrative structure (Rashomon), pacing (long takes), framing (Ozu + frontality) and editing

- Imported Japanese cinema = rare

- Reflected philosophy of mujo

- art cinema > popular cinema

1. Otherness vs. Assimilation into international culture

2. Long for understanding past vs. transitioning to modern

3. films as allegory/style vs. films as apolitical

1. House Drama

- deals with modern issues + family dynamics (i.e. Tokyo Story)

2. Swordfight film

- stages traditional image of Japan (i.e. Rashomon)

3. Historical film

- combines heritages/tradition with action (i.e. The Seven Samurai)

(director of Rashomon)

- dynamic editing

- widely popular and young

- accessible by Westerns

(director of Ugetsu)

- won international prize at Venice

- elaborate long takes

- dissolves

- distant framings

- developing compositions

(director of Tokyo Story)

- humorous

- low-angle framing

- cut-aways

- deviated from 180 degree rule: frontality

- family dramas

- generational conflict

- film increasingly being seen as art due to creation of feature lengths that departed from the Hollywood cinema expectations + film festivals

REASONS:
- class mobility: desire to distinguish self from middle-class

- exoticness: interest in foreign cultures (specifically enemies from war) + foreign films dealt with sex 

- result of Anti-Trust ruling and reduction of productions

- promoted film as art, but art isn't a cash cow

- struggled as a business -> many bankrupt independent studios

- Art Film Theatres had major success + repeat business, catered to niche audience + some showed foriegn films only

- came about after WWII

- was a metaphoric way of working through poltiical and social issues

- Science Fiction and Film Noir

- recurring themes of invasion + contagion

- danger to the american way of life

- threats from external forces (commies)

- loss of individuality

(i.e. Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

- post-WWII mode of crime/detective films

- influenced by German Expressionism + FPR

- reflects anxieites of threat to American way of life

- features protagonists who refuse to conform to the rules

- low key/chiarascuro lighting (half-lit/light dark lighting)

- rough characters (nihilistic attitudes)

- features flashbacks

- structures of regret

- femme fatale

(1949)

- "the Paramount Decision" = affected all major studios

- changed economic stability of the industry as a whole

- pre-Ruling = oligopoly

- post-Ruling:

- no more oligopoly or vertical integration

- exhibition no longer controlled

- marketing crucial now

- independent + foreign film market opens up

- fewer films made, but bigger films made

- market segmentation (adult films, kid films)

- TV becomes mass medium in 50s

- convienent + free entertainment

- a direct competitor with struggling Hollywood

HOLLYWOOD'S RESPONSE (conjunctive):

- studio's sold off rights to films to gain more revenue on older products

- studios began producing TV programs

1. Widescreen formats: making film a spectacle

2. Standardizing color: color saturation (brighter, bolder than real life)

3. 3D/Smell-O-Visions

4. Drive-Ins: suburbanization of films; marketing teens

- was a major problem at first (dubbing technology not feasible)

- Hollywood hurt because silent films were dominant in L.A. market

- tried multi-lingual facilities, using different actors and filming multiple versions of films

- Spanish-speaking Hollywood films turned out to be not that successful (accents not right, bad actors

- rise of dubbing solved all of this

- hybrid in strucutre and influence (Western culture)

- film provided most popular form to talk through past and present

- central to forming a sense of national collectivity

- created a romantic/melodramatic image of the nation (took everyday struggles, made it mythic)

- emerged in 1950s and reflected post-Partition cultures and desires

- mixed fantasies, was melodramatic/romantic/action

- musical spectacles

- formulaic

- a natioanlist allegory

- reflected multiculturalism of India

- traditional vs. modern

- 1926-1934: 4 major, veritically integrated studios (similar to Hollywood); no financial stability, but a lot of films produced; unsupported by gov't

- WWII = bankrupting studios, moratorium on non-essential buildings halted distribution

- 1950: studios collapse

- STILL: film recovers and emerges as central to nation-building and cultural cohesion

- Industry became very decentralized; many films made through independent finance capital investment (no studio model)

- Hindi cinema = de facto national cinema

- debuted in 1931

- silent was popular national medium

- linguistic differences prohibited a nationalized cinema

- Bombay emerges as center of popular film production

- Hindi (mixture of Hindi and Urdu)

- became dominant language for popular cinema (films still dubbed however)

- not language of Bombay, but most spoken in country

- Beauty of the World (1931) - "all talking, sing, dancing" first sound film

- film music = first national music India ever had

- not localized to a particular region or custom

- not "classical" or traditional Indian music

- a masala fusion

- became loved because music existed beyond the film (often more popular)

- songs recorded before shooting began

- films NOT musicals

- music created a structure of repeat viewing

(1935)

- songs recorded in a music studio separate from filming

- a vocalist performs the songs, not actor

- lipsyched later

- songs then released as popular recordings in their own right

- Bombay not only center of film production

- Alternative post-Partition cinema

- Art Cinema

- more emphasis on realism and influence from international art cinemas

- music was classical

- synch-sound feature film

- continuity form

- narrative efficiency and clarity

- character motivation and romance

- conventional social and sexual mores

- rise of nationalist cinemas

- auteurs + art cinema emerge

- art film modes vs. popular modes

- experimental modes vs. narrative modes of form

- artisanal modes vs. sutdio modes of production

- government-sponsored vs. commercial modes

(1960)

- new forms emerge: french new wave, new italian cinema, cinema verité

- industry shifts after Hollywood crisis: loosening of production code, reduced production, no more star contracts

Bicycle Thieves

- epitomizes form, politics and sentiment of neorealism

- human struggle and morality

- poor man in impossible situation

- realtionship between father and son

- use of long take, tracking shots, loose sequential narrative

- released after first democratic election in Italy

- children: 2 moments in Italian history (bruno = during WWII, baby = new gov't)

- Post-WWII Japanese film

- camera movement navigates complex spaces (follows actor through crowd)

- deep space and long take

- framing within frame

- setting: 16th century, during civil

- stages struggles, delusions and losses of war

- allegory for recent events (but has fantasy elements)

- comment on greed during war

- elaborate narrative strucutre

- multiple temporalities

- extensive flashbacks

- conflicting testimonies

- ambiguity of truth

- different styles for different parts

- home drama

- generational difference

- family dynamics

- framing

- editing and spatial relations

- frontality

- Film as allegory (Science Fiction)

- people look the same, but lose individuality

- pod people an invisible threat (look like everyone)

- echoes of anxieties about communists and homosexuals

- only be stopped by force + containment

- gov't intervention necessary

- film noir infused with post-war trauma (HUAC)

- the box = atomic weapon

- manhattan project

- fantasy of the unattached playboy in the nuclear family age

- LA in transition

- artisanal film

- found footage film

- experiment with creating an emotional narrative without plot/dialogue

- images of war + destruction

- women's film/melodrama

- insensitive children give their widowed mother a TV set to keep her company

- film denigrates TV culture

- gender associations: TV for women

- kapoor (director + star) = biggest star of era

- character adapted from Chaplin's tramp

- one of the first international hits

- flashback framing story

- allegory of tensions between the westernized ruling class + socially marginalized

- judge = gov't

- raj = people

- redemption

- impoverished family in post-Partition Bengali

- framing, deep space

- high contrast compositions

- classical music

- use of ambient + expressionist sound

- experimental film

- artisanal mode of production

- representation vs. abstract

- exploration of human body and sexuality

- exploration of vision and limits of perception

- exploration of limits of film as medium

- breaking down of production code

- cinèma verité (film truth)

- the new way to capture reality

- captures everyman

- aspired for greater truth

- desire to do more than Hollywood + more realisitic

- new documentary techniques:

- synch sound + mobile recording

- long take

- self-reflexivity

- moving cameras