From the module Film Theory I
The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjostrom, 1921)
A early Swedish experimental film playing with film form and the possibility cinema has of accessing different worlds and showing them on screen. A good example to discuss the status of cinema as the Seventh Art, which at the time was still very much debated. The film has a very slow pace, seemingly simulating the lasting of real time and trying to transport it to cinema. The story is loosely based on a Swedish legend similar to A Christmas Carol. The great thing is that you can find it in its entirety on Youtube (I mentioned it last year in a blog post about The Shining and some of its inspirations: http://artbookscinema.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/seven-months-of-bfi-southbank.html)
From the module French New Wave
Et Dieu...créa la femme/And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956)
If you are interested in stardom, and in female figures especially, this is the film for you. Brigitte Bardot's big debut with the film that changed her star persona both off and on screen. Moreover, the film, with its controversial topics and attitude, opened a debate on the French youth of the Fifties, its problems, indecision, but also its hunger for life. Delightful performance by what would then become the great Jean Louis Trintignant. A controversial picture which would have a big impact on the birth of the New Wave (pay attention to the use of Bardot's body in the opening sequence especially, and spot this shots in a famous Godard's film, Le Mepris/Contempt, to see the use he makes of the female body).
From the module Topics in World Cinema
The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
This week was the time of Gillo Pontecorvo's Golden Lion winning. This film is a stunning example of cinematography accompanied by Ennio Morricone's soundtrack and the use of non-professional actors in the roles of the Algerians. My favourite sequence in the whole film constructs a parallel montage of three different spaces as three Algerian women take bombs to different public spaces in the European part of the city. The sequence is beautifully constructed to build suspense, as we know about the bombs, and the camera focuses on the women's performances and the clock slowly approaches the explosions' time. You can watch it here to get an idea of the movie, but I would totally suggest it:
Interesting in form and content as one of the richest documents about the Algerian war from the point of view of the colonized. Very interesting in this merit is the analysis of character identification developed by Murray Smith in the essay "The Battle of Algiers: Colonial Struggle and Collective Allegiance."
From the module Cinema and Spectatorship
Blonde Venus (Josef von Sternberg, 1932)
One of Sternberg's most famous and controversial pictures starring Marlene Dietrich, this film focuses on the performativity of gender (regarding femininity especially) as it portrays all the different roles Dietrich as woman performs. The narrative is not Sternberg's main focus as Laura Mulvey analyses he focuses on the impact of images and on the visual construction of the film, and his use of Dietrich's body deconstruction is a perfect example of psychoanalytic fetishization of the female body. So, have fun analyzing the different readings this film proposes, and Cary Grant is also in the film, but, who cares? Dietrich is The Star.
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