Showing posts with label national cinema. Show all posts
Showing posts with label national cinema. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

French film: Lumière!

A paean to the genius of the Lumières…
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Marguerite: A collection of 108 remastered 50 second-films.
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Auguste and Louis
Jeanne: They were inventors and directors, not just inventors, like Edison. He shut the moving pictures in a box, in his kinetoscope. The Lumières showed the moving pictures using their cinematograph, so many people could see at once.
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Marguerite: The cinema was born.
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Jeanne: Edison’s invention was like seeing pictures on a smartphone. The Lumières created cinema. A distinction that exists today.
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A star is born...
Marguerite: They formed a, what you say, a disciplage of directors who went out and shot exotic places and activities. Collaborative power.
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Jeanne: And their actualités are really the first documentaries. Apt naming too. Their name means “light”.
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Marguerite: And what a body of work they left. Produced 1500 films between 1895 and 1905, then just quit. Went on to other things.
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Voice-over

Brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière, inventors, producers, directors. In a sense, they founded the movie business. Kudos to Director Thierry Frémaux for his 4K montage of 108 films: Lumière!
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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Film as a mirror of culture

Ozu and Kurosawa in one frame each...
Film can be a mirror of culture.
Something like national cinemas? But can it be defined?
Tricky term “national cinema.” Needs words. I like the term “mirror of culture.” Graphic.
But different directors have a different view of the culture they film. Presumably there are extremes? Sometimes a quiet reflective cultural portrait. Sometimes a rambunctious rollicking riproaring one?
Something come to mind?
Hmmm.

Haaa!
How about Ozu and Kurosawa?
Ah. Tokyo Story and Seven Samurai?
Precisely.

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Voice-over
“National Cinema” is a term which scholars cannot agree on (Andrew Higson). It might be related to where the film is made, who made it, what it’s about and why it was produced.  “Cultural mirror”, is an image used by Harvie Conn to suggest that film reflects attitudes, values, philosophies and lifestyles.
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