WJEC AS FILM STUDIES Component 1: American Film - PowerPoint Presentation

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WJEC AS FILM STUDIES

Component 1: American Film

Component 2: European Film

Component 3 - Production

Section A: Hollywood 1930-1990

1 film – 1930-1960

(Casablanca, Lady from Shanghai, Johnny Guitar, Vertigo, Some Like It Hot)

1 film – 1961-1990

(Bonnie and Clyde, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Do The Right Thing)

Section B: Contemporary American Independent Film

1 film after 2010.

(Winter’s Bone, Frances Ha!, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Boyhood, Captain Fantastic)

Section A: British Film

2 films from this list: Secrets and Lies, Trainspotting, Sweet Sixteen, Shaun of the Dead, This is England, Moon, Fish Tank, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Sightseers, Under the Skin)

Section B: Non-English language European film

1 film from this list: Life is Beautiful, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Ida, Mustang, Victoria)

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Component

1: American FilmSection A: Hollywood 1930-1990

1 film – 1930-1960

(Casablanca, Lady from Shanghai, Johnny Guitar, Vertigo, Some Like It Hot)

1 film – 1961-1990(Bonnie and Clyde, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Do The Right Thing) Section B: Contemporary American Independent Film1 film after 2010.(Winter’s Bone, Frances Ha!, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Boyhood, Captain Fantastic)

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Primary

analysis

Stills

Synopsis

DirectorWriterGenreYearCountryMain actorsDistribution companyReviewsMotifs and symbolsAestheticSocial, cultural, political and historical contextActor and director biographies

Secondary analysis

Textual analysis of specific scenes (technical features) – micro analysis

Ideology, purpose, motive and effect – macro analysis

Auteur features

Film theory application

Example answers for exam style questions

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Hollywood 1930-1960

#1: Casablanca

Plot Summary

-

The story of Rick Blaine, a cynical world-weary ex-patriate who runs a nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco during the early stages of WWII. Despite the pressure he constantly receives from the local authorities, Rick's cafe has become a kind of haven for refugees seeking to obtain illicit letters that will help them escape to America. But when Ilsa, a former lover of Rick's, and her husband, show up to his cafe one day, Rick faces a tough challenge which will bring up unforeseen complications, heartbreak and ultimately an excruciating decision to make (detailed synopsis next page).Director – Michael CurtizWriters – Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard KochYear - 1942Country – USAGenre – War / Melodrama / RomanceMain

actors - - Humphrey Bogart - Rick Blaine- Ingrid Bergman - Ilsa Lund

- Paul

Henreid

- Victor Laszlo

- Claude Rains – Captain Louis Renault

- Conrad

Veidt

– Major Henrich Strasser- Sydney Greenstreet – Signor Ferrari- Peter Lorre – Ugarte- Dooley Wilson – Sam- Madeleine LeBeau - YvonneProduction company – Warner Bros.

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‘Casablanca’ Detailed Synopsis

In the early years of World War II, December 1941, the Moroccan coastal city of Casablanca attracts people from all over the world, particularly Nazi-occupied Europe. Many are transients trying to get out of Europe; a few are just trying to make a buck. Most of them -- gamblers and refugees, Nazis, resistance fighters, and plain old crooks -- find their way to Rick's Café

Américain

, a swank nightclub owned by American expatriate Rick Blaine (

Humphrey Bogart). Though we learn later that Rick once harbored enough idealism to put himself at risk to fight fascism, he's now embittered and cynical, professing to be neutral and detached: "I stick my neck out for nobody."Ugarte (Peter Lorre) comes to Rick's with letters of transit he obtained by killing two German couriers. The papers allow the bearer to travel freely around German-controlled Europe, including to neutral Lisbon, Portugal; from Lisbon, it's relatively easy to get to the United States. They are almost priceless to any of the refugees stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to make his fortune by selling them to the highest bidder, who is due to arrive at the club later that night. However, before the exchange can take place, Ugarte is arrested by the police under the command of Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains). A corrupt Vichy official, Renault accommodates the Nazis. Unknown to Renault and the Nazis,

Ugarte had left the letters with Rick for safekeeping, because "...somehow, just because you despise me, you're the only one I trust."Then the reason for Rick's bitterness re-enters his life. Ilsa

Lund (

Ingrid Bergman

) arrives with her husband Victor Laszlo (

Paul

Henreid

) to purchase the letters. Laszlo is a renowned Czech Resistance leader who has escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. They must have the letters to escape to America to continue his work. At the time

Ilsa first met and fell in love with Rick in Paris, she believed her husband had been killed. When she discovered that he was still alive, she left Rick abruptly without explanation and returned to Laszlo, leaving Rick feeling betrayed. After the club closes, Ilsa returns to try to explain, but Rick is drunk and bitterly refuses to listen.At different times Rick and Ilsa torment themselves by asking the club's piano player, Sam (Arthur "Dooley" Wilson), to play As Time Goes By, a song they loved when they were together in Paris. The famous line "Play it again, Sam," which refers to this song, doesn't actually appear in the movie -- Ilsa says "Play it, Sam," and later, Rick orders "Play it!" While Sam plays the song, Rick reminisces about his affair with Ilsa in Paris. Though she seems happy to be with Rick, her mood near the end of their time together is cautious because she has learned her husband may not be dead. When the Nazis begin to close in on Paris, she receives word that Victor is indeed alive in another part of Europe. She and Rick had been planning to take a train to Southern France to escape the German Army's assault; however, on the platform Rick receives a handwritten letter from her. She writes that she can't explain why she's leaving him but she loves him. Rick and Sam leave without her.The next night, Laszlo, suspecting that Rick has the letters, speaks with him privately about obtaining them. They're interrupted when a group of Nazi officers, led by Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt), commandeer Sam's piano and begin to sing Die Wacht am Rhein (The Watch on the Rhine), a German patriotic song. Infuriated, Laszlo orders the house band to play La Marseillaise in honor of Occupied France. The band leader looks to Rick for guidance; he nods. Laszlo starts singing, alone at first, then long-suppressed patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. In retaliation, Strasser orders Renault to close the club.

Later that night,

Ilsa

confronts Rick in the deserted cafe. He refuses to give her the documents, even when threatened with a gun. She is unable to shoot, confessing that she still loves him. Rick decides to help Laszlo, leading her to believe that she will stay behind when Laszlo leaves.

Laszlo is jailed on a minor charge. Rick convinces Renault to release Laszlo, promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters of transit. However, Rick double crosses Renault, forcing him at gunpoint to assist in the escape. At the last moment, Rick makes

Ilsa

get on the plane to Lisbon with her husband, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed: "Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."

Major

Strasser

drives up, tipped off by Renault, but Rick shoots him when he tries to intervene. When his men arrive, Renault informs them that

Strasser

is dead and covers for Rick by sharply ordering them to "round up the usual suspects." He then recommends that they both leave Casablanca. Renault, suggesting they join the Resistance, walks into the fog with Rick who says "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

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Casablanca

Reviews

IMDb User Rating – 8.5/10

Rank #33 best film of all time

Metascore

– 100%

Rotten Tomatoes

Critics rating – 97%

User rating – 95%

Empire – 5/5

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Empire Review of Casablanca (by Angie

Errico

)

(http

://www.empireonline.com/movies/casablanca-2/review/)Rick is the solitary, aloof owner of the most popular bar in war-time Viche-run Casablanca when the woman who broke his heart walks in... along with her hero husband. Only Rick can help them escape the Nazis...but will he?On paper, perhaps it doesn’t sound so much: the woman who broke a man's heart walks into his bar — "of all the gin joints in all the world"—with her husband. But "the problems of three little people" are compounded by wartime intrigue in a dangerous, mysterious locale. You must remember this: you can't trust anyone who doesn't love Casablanca. Never mind that screen writing mavens use it as a model for structure and narrative, or that it received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. The fundamental thing is that everything in the film's magical, melodramatic combination of patriotic wartime sentiments, desperate refugees and star-crossed lovers works beautifully, every time.

Casablanca is almost certainly — to the astonishment of those involved in its somewhat chaotic production — the most enjoyable

wannasee

-again-and-again picture ever made. As Philadelphia Inquirer critic Carrie Rickey once wrote, "Though not the best movie ever, it's the best friend among American films." Every time you see it, one or another gem of dialogue from the treasure store of worldly witticisms and ironic exchanges strikes you anew. (Rick: "I came to Casablanca for the waters." Renault: "What waters? We're in the desert." Rick: "I was misinformed.")

Casablanca began as a play, Everybody Comes To Rick's, by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. Burnett got the idea from a European trip in 1938, when he became aware of refugees in flight from Nazism and observed the

colourful

crowd in a nightspot in the South of France — the inspiration for Rick Blaine's French-Moroccan 'gin joint' (an expression Bogie himself substituted for 'cafe').

In the first of many twists of fate, the play came into a Warner Bros studio reader's hands on December 8,1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. As the US declared itself at war. studios raced to get patriotic pictures into production. Two weeks later,

Warners' executive in charge of production, Hal Wallis, decided to make the film, changed the title to evoke the exotic romanticism of the studio's hit Algiers, and announced it as a done deal before contracts were signed (Burnett and Alison reputedly receiving a record $20,000 for the rights to an unproduced play).Contrary to myth and some curious publicity ploys, Humphrey Bogart was always in Wallis' mind for Rick, and sibling screenwriters Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein were briefed to tailor it to him. When the Epsteins went to work on Frank Capra's Why We Fight documentary series, they were only half done with Casablanca, to which they would return. Howard Koch (who had scripted the most famous radio broadcast in history, the panic-inducing adaptation of The War Of The Worlds for Orson Welles) was brought in.The self-sacrificing love story that is the soul of the film was the Epsteins' providence. So, too, was the smart, cynical humour that brings the supporting cast and background figures to extraordinarily vivid life. Uncredited, Casey Robinson (screenwriter of several hits, including Now, Voyager) re-wrote the Paris flashback sequences that reveal Rick's love affair with

lisa

Lund and his heartache. But the plot of Casablanca is a political thriller, and it was Koch (whose literate liberalism later saw him blacklisted) who dealt with that. He tackled Bogart's concerns about Rick's background, fleshing out the embittered, enigmatic, idealistic but ultimately heroic character that Bogie personified with immortal style.

Ilsa

was another problem. Originally she was an American gold-digger who wrecked Rick's marriage but dumped him for the richer Victor, to whom she was mistress, not wife. The censors would have gone bananas, and the filmmakers wanted her sympathetic, hence the notion of a vulnerable, dispossessed European duty-bound to her husband. Algiers beauty Hedy

Lamarr

was unavailable, so Wallis negotiated with David O. Selznick to borrow Ingrid Bergman (in exchange for

Warners

actress Olivia de Havilland). With the script still incomplete, Bergman fretted that she didn't know which man she would end up with. But it is one of those rare miraculous accidents that Bogie and Bergman, although he was standoffish to her off-camera, are sublime together on screen.

Paul

Henreid

, then starring with Bette Davis in Now, Voyager, was less than thrilled about what he saw as the preposterousness of playing a Czech Resistance leader who would escape a concentration camp to turn up in Morocco, elegantly dressed for sophisticated sparring with Nazi officials. However, he gritted his teeth and did it in return for prominent billing and

Warners'

help with his visa status. Conrad

Veidt

, an outspoken opponent of Nazism who had narrowly escaped Germany, far from resenting typecasting as Major Heinrich

Strasser

actually had it in his contract that he exclusively play villains, so adamant was he that playing suave Nazi fiends would help the war effort.

Emigre director Michael

Curtiz

, not so much an artist as a supremely skilled craftsman who imposed himself in many genres, had a perfectionist — some said tyrannical — personality on sets. He also had an infatuation with Americana and its emotional sentiments that unified all of Casablanca's elements and creative talents into its fast-paced, atmospheric, utterly captivating whole.

Warners'

boast that people of 34 nationalities collaborated on the film may have been an exaggeration, but it certainly embraced a great many. There is no better example than Casablanca of the Hollywood melting pot. The film created a world in miniature, in which basic universal desires, sins and impulses, for bad and good, are enveloped in glamour, suspense and style.

Casablanca is universally beloved because it presents the most admirable, inspirational myth of Americana in its romantic idealism: Rick's redemptive surrender of

Ilsa

for the greater good, and his departure to join the fight for right. The first time you see it is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

The most iconic War romance in cinema history and deservedly so. This is a perfect blend of a tight script, stylish cinematography and cult performances from Bogart and Bergman

★★★★★

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Hollywood 1930-1960

#2: The Lady From Shanghai

Plot Summary

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Michael O'Hara, against his better judgement, hires on as a crew member of Arthur Bannister's yacht, sailing to San Francisco. They pick up

Grisby, Bannister's law partner,

en

route. Bannister has a wife, Rosalie, who seems to like Michael much better than she likes her husband. After they dock in Sausalito, Michael goes along with

Grisby's

weird plan to fake his (

Grisby's

) murder so he can disappear untailed. He wants the $5000

Grisby has offered, so he can run off with Rosalie. But Grisby turns up actually murdered, and Michael gets blamed for it. Somebody set him up, but it is not clear who or how. Bannister (the actual murderer?) defends Michael in court (Detailed synopsis on next page).Director – Orson Welles.Writers – Sherwood King (novel), Orson Welles (screenplay).Country – USA (Language: English and Cantonese).Year – 1948.Genre – Film Noir / Thriller / MysteryMain actors - - Orson Welles – Michael O’Hara- Rita Hayworth – Elsa Bannister- Everett Sloane – Arthur Bannister- Glenn Anders – George Grisby- Ted de Corsia – Sidney Broome- Erskine Sanford – Judge- Carl Frank – District Attorney GallowayProduction company – Columbia Pictures Corporation.

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‘The Lady From Shanghai’ Synopsis

Irish sailor Michael O'Hara (Welles) meets the beautiful blonde Elsa (Rita Hayworth) as she rides a horse-drawn coach in 

Central Park

. Three hooligans waylay the coach. Michael rescues Elsa and escorts her home. Michael reveals he is a seaman and learns Elsa and her husband, disabled criminal defense attorney Arthur Bannister (Sloane), are newly arrived in New York City from Shanghai. They are on their way to 

San Francisco via the Panama Canal. Michael, attracted to Elsa despite misgivings, agrees to sign on as an able seaman aboard Bannister's yacht.

They are joined on the boat by Bannister's partner, George

Grisby

(

Glenn Anders

), who proposes that Michael "murder" him in a plot to fake his own death. He promises Michael $5,000 and explains that since he would not really be dead and since there would be no corpse, Michael could not be convicted of murder (reflecting 

corpus

delicti

 laws at the time). Michael agrees, intending to use the money to run away with Elsa. Grisby has Michael sign a confession. On the eve of the crime, Sydney Broome (Ted de Corsia

), a private investigator who has been following Elsa on her husband's orders, confronts

Grisby

. Broome has learned of

Grisby's

plan to actually murder Bannister, frame Michael, and escape by pretending to have also been murdered.

Grisby

shoots Broome and leaves him for dead. Unaware of what has happened, Michael proceeds with the night's arrangement and sees

Grisby

off on a motorboat before shooting a gun into the air to draw attention to himself. Meanwhile, Broome, injured but alive, asks Elsa for help. He warns her that

Grisby

intends to kill her husband

.

Michael makes a phone call to Elsa, but finds Broome on the other end of the line. Broome warns Michael that

Grisby

was setting him up. Michael rushes to Bannister's office in time to see Bannister is alive, but that the police are removing

Grisby's

body from the premises. The police find evidence implicating Michael, including his confession, and take him away

.

At trial, Bannister acts as Michael's attorney. He feels he can win the case if Michael pleads justifiable homicide. During the trial, Bannister learns of his wife's relationship with Michael. He ultimately takes pleasure in his suspicion that they will lose the case. Bannister also indicates that he knows the real killer's identity. Before the verdict, Michael escapes by feigning a suicide attempt. Elsa follows. Michael and she hide in a Chinatown theater. Elsa calls some Chinese friends to meet her. As Michael and Elsa wait and pretend to watch the show, Michael realizes that she killed

Grisby

. Elsa's Chinese friends arrive and take Michael, unconscious, to an abandoned Fun House. When he wakes, he realizes that

Grisby

and Elsa had been planning to murder Bannister and frame him for the crime, but that Broome's involvement ruined the scheme and that Elsa had to kill

Grisby

for her own protection

.

The film features a unique climactic shootout in a 

hall of mirrors

 involving a multitude of false and real mirrored images in the Magic Mirror Maze, in which Elsa is mortally wounded and Bannister is killed. Heartbroken, Michael leaves presuming that events which have unfolded since the trial will clear him of any crimes

.

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The older I get, the more convinced I am of 

Orson Welles’s genius. That may not sound particularly worthy of comment, but I should explain that I’ve always believed he was one of those rare beings who deserved to be described with that much-overused word; so to be even more convinced about it now is saying a lot.Even when I first encountered his work as a filmmaker (as opposed to a chat-show guest) in my teens, it was immediately evident that he somehow stood head and shoulders above most of the rest of the pack; with his conspicuously bold assurance, he even looked the part of a ‘genius’. Still, that was different: in those days, when Welles was still alive, people simply called him a genius as a matter of course. It was what he’d always been known as. It wasn’t necessarily a particularly positive epithet; sometimes one could even detect an element of inverted snobbery, resentment or mockery in the term. And of course he’d long been regarded with some suspicion as the ‘boy genius’ who, having shaken up the American theatre and radio drama in the 30s, had been given carte blanche – or so, at least, it was believed – to make a film in Hollywood. What’s more, he’d gone and made 

Citizen Kane

, which was viewed in some quarters – the Hearst empire, anyway, which exerted no little influence over what people saw in their cinemas – as a case of the spoilt boy-genius biting the hand that had fed him

.But it’s not that sort of ‘genius’ I’m talking about now: not the easily applied epithet, intended to confer some sort of half-crazy outsider status on the person in question. It’s something deeper, more substantial, of more lasting value. It’s not so much about the aforementioned ‘bold assurance’ – all too commonly found these days – as about creative ambition, audacity, intelligence, wit, open-mindedness and vision. All of which Welles had in spades. And all those qualities keep impressing themselves on me whenever I go back to watch one of his films again.Despite the many obstacles to creative freedom he encountered during his filmmaking career, the majority of his movies are quite startlingly brilliant; even works like Othello, The Trial or 

The Chimes at Midnight, made under conditions so trying most other filmmakers would simply have given up the struggle, are endlessly intriguing and rewarding. And then there’s The Magnificent Ambersons, mutilated for all time by RKO so that its last half hour or so feels horribly rushed and sketchy after all that has preceded it; yet the film still strikes many, myself included, as a bona fide masterpiece, unrivalled in American filmmaking except by a handful of towering achievements – one of which, of course, is Citizen Kane.

When I first saw Kane, I was, of course, enormously impressed, but in comparison to

Ambersons

or even the deliriously daring 

Touch of Evil

 I found it a little cold and a touch too clever for its own good. Next time around I revised my opinion; I’d clearly been so distracted by the complexity and pace of the film’s narrative, the brilliance of the dialogue and acting, and the sophistication of the direction, that I’d failed to take proper note of its deep, dark emotional core. And that was it: each time I’ve watched the film – and I think I must have seen it at least a dozen times now – it gains in depth and I notice something new.

A few years ago, for example, I suddenly

realised that the way Welles used architecture and décor in the film was extraordinarily rich and resonant – so much so that I felt moved to deliver an entire lecture on his metaphorical use of architecture. More recently, I decided to do a talk about dance scenes in films that aren’t musicals or about dance; sure enough, when I revisited the scene of the celebratory party in Kane’s office, I discovered that Welles had  packed far more thematic substance and nuance into a couple of minutes than most other directors could achieve in an entire reel.  And that’s true of most of his films. Take The Lady from Shanghai, now restored and getting a re-release. Made in 1947, during the heyday of film noir, the film is famous for a plot so complex that it’s virtually unintelligible, and for its virtuoso climax in a fairground’s hall of mirrors. But it is also sometimes dismissed as a bit throwaway, a little too tongue-in-cheek, as if Welles were to be faulted for having a sense of humour. That feels unfair to me: one of the marvellous things about the movie is that it works very effectively both as a traditional if faintly baroque film noir – it has the requisite loser (Welles) falling for the requisite femme fatale (his then wife Rita Hayworth, giving one of her finest dramatic performances) and tumbling fatalistically into the requisite maelstrom of greed, twisted desire and deadly intrigue – and as a sly, witty commentary on noir conventions.Indeed, The Lady from Shanghai is especially impressive on two fronts. First, like all his best work, it’s notable for how Welles simply packs so much more into any scene than we’ve come to expect and accept from other directors; at one given moment, due to the sheer density of the image and the soundtrack and to the subtlety of their relationship to one another, there’s so much more to take in and think about. Second, the film finds Welles at his most playful. Famously, in 1940, having been invited by RKO to make his first feature, he exclaimed: “This is the biggest electric train set any boy ever had.” Watching a Welles film, one is constantly aware of his deep love of his medium, but with Lady it feels as if he’s completely intoxicated by his passion for cinema and its enormous expressive potential; he’s high on being in love with a hugely popular and still young and developing artform that allows him to work whatever magic and indulge in whatever mischievous trickery he likes. And that love is wickedly contagious. See the film – repeatedly, if you can – and I think you’ll see what I mean.

Sight and Sound review of ‘The Lady From Shanghai’ (by Geoff Andrew)

(http://

www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/lady-shanghai-welles-his-most-mischievous)

Orson Welles’ exhilarating film noir finds the actor-director mixing profundity with playfulness.

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Hollywood 1930-1960

#3: Johnny Guitar

Plot Summary

-

Vienna has built a saloon outside of town, and she hopes to build her own town once the railroad is put through, but the townsfolk want her gone. When four men hold up a stagecoach and kill a man the town officials, led by Emma Small, come to the saloon to grab four of Vienna's friends, the

Dancin

' Kid and his men. Vienna stands strong against them, and is aided by the presence of an old acquaintance of hers, Johnny Guitar, who is not what he

seems (detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Nicholas Ray.

Writers

– Roy

Chanslor (novel), Philip Yordan (screenplay).Year – 1954.Country – USA.Genre – Western.Main actors - - Joan Crawford – Vienna.- Sterling Hayden – Johnny ‘Guitar’ Logan.- Mercedes McCambridge – Emma Small.- Scott Brady – Dancin’ Kid.- Ward Bond – John McIvers.- Ben Cooper – Turkey Ralston.- Ernest Borgnine – Bart Lonergan.- John Carradine – Old Tom.- Frank Ferguson – Marshal Williams.- Royal Dano – Corey.Production company – Republic Pictures.

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Nicholas Ray

's "Johnny Guitar" (1954) is surely one of the most blatant psychosexual melodramas ever to disguise itself in that most commodious of genres, the Western. Consider: No money was lavished on the production. The action

centers

on a two-story saloon "outside town," but we never even see "town," except for a bank facade and interior set. So sparse are the settings that although the central character (Joan Crawford) plays the tavern owner and goes through a spectacular costume charge, we never see her boudoir -- she only appears on a balcony above the main floor, having presumably emerged from the sacred inner temple

.A cheap Western from Republic Pictures, yes. And also one of the boldest and most stylized films of its time, quirky, political, twisted. Crawford bought the rights to the original novel, Nicholas Ray signed on to direct, and I wonder if they even openly spoke of the movie's buried themes. One is certainly bisexualism; Crawford's tavern-owner Vienna is, it is claimed, in love with "Johnny Guitar" (Sterling Hayden), but has not seen him in five years. She effortlessly turns tough hombres into girly-men, and her bartender observes to Johnny, "I never met a woman who was more man."Her archenemy Emma (Mercedes McCambridge) is allegedly in love with "The Dancin' Kid" (Scott Brady) and is jealous because he is allegedly in love with Vienna ("I like you, but not that much," Vienna tells him). But there is hardly a moment when Emma can tear her eyes away from Vienna to glance at the Kid. All of the sexual energy is between the two women, no matter what they say about the men. Crawford wanted Claire Trevor for the role, but the studio, perhaps having studied the script carefully, insisted on

McCambridge, who was not a lesbian but played one, as they say, in the movies.That casting led to more Crawford bitch legends, as on the day when she threw McCambridge's

costume in the middle of a highway. The chemistry of loathing is palpable, as it was between Crawford and 

Bette Davis

 in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane." Both women wear

fetishistic

black leather, silk and denim costumes that would have been familiar enough to students of 1954 pornography: The tightly corseted waists, the high boots, the long shirts, the tight bodices, the lash of lipstick; give us Meg Myles in "Satan in High Heels

."

McCambridge, said to be a "cattle baron" (not baroness), dominates her posse of cowboys and lackeys, standing before them in a wide, challenging stance. She's shorter than they are, but is always strutting in the front while they almost cower. Crawford often appears from above on her balcony, worshipped by the camera in low-angle, adored by her loyal employees, ordering Sam, her croupier, "Spin the wheel. I like the way it sounds."Somebody has to spin it. Throughout the film, the saloon attracts no ordinary customers, only characters in the plot. Has a Western ever been more casual about its male leads? "Johnny Guitar" is about the hatred between Vienna and Emma, and Sterling Hayden seems to know it. Brought into town as fire-power when Vienna fears gun trouble, he claims to have given up guns, speaks softly, talks of his onetime love of Vienna with only barely convincing regret, and is laid-back, as Sterling Hayden rarely ever is. The critic Dennis Schwartz recalls: "Francois Truffaut said it reminded him of 'The Beauty and the Beast,' with Sterling Hayden being the beauty."The plot. Ridiculous. Vienna owns the saloon in a choice location outside town. We are not sure how a single woman without means paid for it, but are reminded by Marlene Dietrich in "Shanghai Express" that "it took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." Apparently Vienna is now all paid up. but the railroad is coming through, and the townsfolk fear it will run past her door and put them out of business.The town is led by McIvers (Ward Bond) and his tool the sheriff (Frank Ferguson), who are led by Emma as they demand what Vienna knows about a stagecoach robbery. The stolen cash was intended for her brother's bank. Since the Dancin' Kid has rejected Emma's love, it stands to reason, doesn't it, that he stuck up the bank, along with his tough sidekicks (Ernest Borgnine, Ben Cooper and Royal Dano)?

Robert Ebert review of ‘Johnny Guitar’

(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/johnny-guitar-1954

)

[PAGE 1]

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Johnny

Guitar arrives at about the same time. Coincidence? Imagine the notoriously deadly Old West and an unarmed cowboy with only a guitar. Well, he does play it once. But there is a secret: Guitar is the pseudonym for Johnny Logan, a notorious gunslinger who retired five years ago. Vienna was Guitar's lover until he "wasn't ready" for marriage (not to her, for sure). And the sheriff,

McIvers

, etc. are trying to frame someone -- the Kid, maybe, for sticking up the stagecoach. Their suspicions are not unfounded, since there are literally no other characters in the movie, except for the faceless coots who crowd into doorways behind

McIvers.The dynamic of their investigation and their attempts to force townsfolk to testify against one another form an allegory squarely aimed at the House Un-American Activities Committee, which in 1954 was trying to force alleged communists to "name names" of other alleged communists; the screenplay was ghosted by the blacklisted Ben Maddow. A significant moment comes when Johnny Guitar acknowledges his own name.There are extraordinary moments in the movie, not least when Crawford, who has been dressed entirely in black, suddenly appears on the balcony in a stunning white gown and cows the men with her presence and a piano recital(!).It is also fascinating to watch her and Johnny use words as love weapons. This dialogue, quoted by the critic Derek Malcolm, could have appeared in the laconic Broadway social dramas of the period:Johnny:How many men have you forgotten?

Vienna:As many women as you've remembered.Johnny:Don't

go away.

Vienna:

I

haven't moved.

Johnny:

Tell

me something nice.Vienna:Sure. What do you want to hear?Johnny:Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited ...Vienna:All these years I've waited.Johnny:Tell me you'd have diedif I hadn't come back.Vienna:I would have died if you hadn't come back.Johnny:Tell me you still love me like I love you.Vienna:I still love you like you love me.Johnny:Thanks. Thanks a lot.Whoa! I see Brando as Johnny, Shirley Knight as Vienna. That's not Western dialogue, it's cynicism made audible. There are other moments I will leave for you to savor, and I trust you may share my bafflement about the route from the waterfall to the hideout, but ponder this: Everyone involved in this movie had made countless other films, knew all about the clichés and conventions, and must have known how many they were breaking. As the scenes come along that are clearly an indictment of HUAC, were they thinking they could get away with murder because the surrounding movie was so goofy?It was goofy then, and very strange now. The more you think about the tavern and the "town" and the tragedy that plays out against the unpopulated landscape, the more you see them playing dice with their destinies. Spin the wheel. I like the way it sounds.

[PAGE 2]

Robert Ebert review of ‘Johnny Guitar’

(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/johnny-guitar-1954

)

Slide17

Hollywood 1930-1960

#4: Vertigo

Plot Summary

- John "Scottie" Ferguson is a retired San Francisco police detective who suffers from acrophobia and Madeleine is the lady who leads him to high places. A wealthy shipbuilder who is an acquaintance from college days approaches Scottie and asks him to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is going insane, maybe even contemplating suicide, he believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor. Scottie is

sceptical

, but agrees after he sees the beautiful Madeleine. (detailed synopsis - next page).Director – Alfred Hitchcock.Writers

–

Alec

Coppel

and Samuel Taylor (screenplay), Pierre

Boileau

and Thomas

Narcejac (novel)Year – 1958.Country – USAGenre – Mystery / Romance / ThrillerMain actors - - James Stewart – John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson.- Kim Novak – Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton.- Barbara Bel Geddes – Midge Wood.- Tom Helmore – Gavin Elster.- Henry Jones – Coroner.- Raymond Bailey – Scottie’s Doctor.- Ellen Corby – Manager of McKittrick Hotel.- Konstantin Shayne – Pop Leibel.- Lee Patrick – Car Owner Mistaken For Madeleine.Production company – Paramount Pictures and Alfred J.Hitchcock Productions.

Slide18

Slide19

For some, Alfred Hitchcock’s 

Vertigo

 (1958) has always been one of those ‘bedside’ films (as François Truffaut put it, before such a thing could be taken literally) – which means that we store it so well in our minds, and in our hearts, that we can think about it and ‘watch’ it again whenever the mood takes us. We do this to delve a little bit deeper into the film’s inexhaustible and fascinating enigmas, to relive our first impressions and to compare Hitchcock’s film to the rest of filmmaking – if only to reassure ourselves of its status as an unsurpassed peak, making films that hold more prestige for critics and historians seem lesser works by comparison. And yet the truth is that its status as a great work has only been admitted comparatively recently.

None of Hitchcock’s films, for instance, featured in 

Sight & Sound’s first top ten in 1952, and Vertigo didn’t feature in the 1962 critics’ poll, compiled four years after the film’s release. In fact Vertigo didn’t appear in the poll until 1982, when it came seventh. By 1992 it was up to fourth (and sixth in the newly instigated directors’ poll); then in 2002 it came second (remaining sixth for the directors).Why did it take so long? Unlike, say, Bicycle Thieves, which was more or less instantly acclaimed as a masterpiece (coming top in the 1952 poll, only four years after its release), films such as Vertigo and John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) initially met with a mixed reception from critics – and with indifference from the public. Which means that, beyond the mere passing of time and the perseverance of their defenders, these works must have something very special about them to have been able to finally impose themselves as great works.

But why, in the case of Vertigo, do we come back again and again, even though the art of cinema and the film’s original audience have changed? The generation that first revered the film has got older and gained experience, but we have also lost illusions and enthusiasm. Why, after watching 

Vertigo

 more than, say, 30 times, are we confident that there are things to discover in it – that some aspects remain ambiguous and uncertain, unfathomably complex, even if we scrutinise every look, every cut, every movement of the camera? Why do we never get tired of Hitchcock telling us the story of Scottie Ferguson’s obsession with three people in one – Madeleine

Elster

, Carlotta Valdes and Judy Barton – even though we know it by heart?

Narrative discoveries

It is generally accepted that Hitchcock was one of the great film narrators. He has long been considered a skilful artisan at the service of his audience, willing to flatter us, and eager to make the biggest profit with his products – a direct concern for him, because he participated in the financing of his films, which meant that his future creative freedom depended on good commercial results. Hitchcock always wanted to keep his hands free so he could make something greater than he’d made before

.The tendency among earlier critics was to try to reduce him to the role of ‘master of suspense’, perhaps because his success sparked off a multitude of inferior imitators. Hitchcock’s narrative discoveries, the structural audacity with which he surprised us – the death of the love interest 70 minutes into Vertigo, or of protagonist Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) 40 minutes into Psycho – all those innovations were considered mistakes by critics then. These were possibilities no other producer would have tolerated; even with Hitchcock’s creative autonomy, few would have dared to attempt them.Sight and Sound Review of ‘Vertigo’ (by Miguel Marías)

(http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/forever-falling-vertigo

In our series on contenders for our forthcoming Greatest Films of All Time poll, the renowned Spanish critic Miguel

Marías

finds himself falling once again for the fathomless mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

[PAGE 1]

Slide20

Of

course Hitchcock understood the importance of dramatic narrative and character conventions. He knew how to play with them and pretend he was complying with them – as when retired policeman Scottie (James Stewart) initiates his investigation of Madeleine

Elster

(Kim Novak) at the behest of her husband Gavin (Tom

Helmore) – so that the spectator, trusting in orthodoxy, would anticipate the position where the director wanted them to be, allowing him to create and dilate that mixture of tension and uncertainty that is ‘suspense’.Come the time, he also knew how to brutally undermine those conventional expectations (making us realise, for instance, that Scottie has been suckered into the Elster case because of his fatal flaw, the vertigo he has experienced ever since he was left dangling from the edge of a roof during a chase in the film’s opening sequence), leaving the spectator disoriented – and therefore ready to be taken wherever he wanted us to go.Hitchcock knew that an excess of confusion can distance, that too many explanations can tire and make us lose the thread, that a prolonged vagueness can jeopardise the credibility of a story. Yet he also knew that if one wants to put aside (or forget for a while) the plausible and go deep into the terrain of the extraordinary and the improbable, ambiguity is necessary to preserve a fragile realism – in misè en scene, wardrobe, behaviour. Hitchcock was never spineless in this regard: when he was certain, he would jump in and violate any rule.This allowed him to dive into the depths of the invisible, the ungraspable, the imperceptible, the unsafe, the weightless, the strange, the impossible (that which worryingly 

can happen). And this would provide him with the most adequate and efficient tools to lure us into that “momentary suspension of disbelief” of which Coleridge spoke, and elongate it in order for us to immerse ourselves in the inextricable depths of the human being. I won’t use the word ‘soul’, even though I’m sure Hitchcock believed in the existence of something like this.

There is no need to be a Christian to succumb to Hitchcock, just – ever so slightly – Freudian or Jungian. I suspect that Hitchcock, regardless of how sceptically or ironically he considered the jargon of psychoanalysis and its therapeutic virtues, didn’t ignore the theories and the institutions of the different psychoanalytic schools. Subjects that preoccupied and intrigued Sigmund Freud and his followers – such as sexuality and repression, dreams and the Oedipus complex, fear and the ‘

lapsus

’, lies and masks, sublimation and mythology, jokes, the subconscious and feelings of guilt, the illusion of grandeur and the persecution complex, paternal or authoritarian figures and possessive mothers, the family structure and hereditary features, child fixations and hysteria, hypnotism and schizophrenia, the uncanny and many others – seem like a repertoire of themes that recur in Hitchcock’s filmography

.

Sight and Sound Review of ‘Vertigo’ (by

Miguel

Marías) (http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/forever-falling-vertigoIn our series on contenders for our forthcoming Greatest Films of All Time poll, the renowned Spanish critic Miguel Marías finds himself falling once again for the fathomless mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

[PAGE 2]

Slide21

That

said, Catholicism provided Hitchcock with certain variations (or aggravating circumstances) on some of these themes: the notion of sin; the fear of knowledge and of woman as dangerous temptress; the expulsion from Paradise and the shame of the body; the

mythologising

of virginity and maternity; plagues and the way to the cross; mourning and the cult of the dead; faith in the afterlife and in the resurrection of the flesh; the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins as opportunities for transgression and guilt; miracle healing; eternal punishment; the consecration of ‘the wrong man’ in the figure of Christ; confession and its inviolable confidentiality; the inquisition and torture; the devil as seductive and astute being, proudly defiant of the divine supremacy; the conflict between predestination and freedom; the Apocalypse and the Last Judgement…

It would be as ridiculous to deny the importance of Judaeo-Christian obsessions in Hitchcock as it would be to reduce everything to a succession of Catholic dogmas and rituals. These obsessions are the perfect complement, conflictual and partly antithetical – and therefore dialectical, to his psychoanalytic sources of inspiration.Another even less explored cultural source for Hitchcock – which strengthens the Catholic (which came from his education by the Jesuits) and the Freudian (which he encountered during his film apprenticeship in Weimar-era Germany) – is surrealism. This may be obvious, but in order to highlight it we need to look at the composition and framing, the texture and the combination of his images – above all in the silent part of his British period, chronologically the closest to those encounters.Like the surrealists, Hitchcock thought that the interior (what happens ‘inside’) and the imaginary (dreamed, remembered or hallucinated) are as real as the external and tangible to which ‘reality’ is normally restricted. The influence here is not primarily literary but rather pictorial, and can be sensed in paintings by Richard Oelze, Max Ernst, Emil Nolde

, Dorothea Tanning, Hans Bellmer, and in some of their predecessors, such as Friedrich, Böcklin, Munch and Fuseli.Lastly, there remains a vision of the world to which this last clue drives us: romanticism. From many spheres – musical, literary, pictorial – and from various places – British, German, Italian, American, Russian – the footprints of romanticism can be detected in Hitchcock’s films. One feels the spectres of Poe, Stevenson, Hawthorne, Melville, George Du

Maurier

, Emily and Charlotte

Brontë

, Mary Shelley,

Wilkie

Collins, Georg

Trakl, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Achim von Arnim and Gérard de Nerval.In the same way, one can hear – under the curiously related melodies composed for his films by such different musicians as Franz Waxman, Hugo Friedhofer, Roy Webb, Maurice Jarre, Miklós Rózsa, Dimitri Tiomkin and above all Bernard Herrmann – measures and harmonies by Wagner, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Richard Strauss, Fauré, Franck, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Britten, early Stravinsky, the Schoenberg of ‘Verklärte Nacht’ (‘Transfigured Night’) – all of them centred in the recreation and transmission of emotions.For me romanticism – often concealed under a layer of cynicism and humour, as in Lubitsch, Sternberg, Wilder, Ophuls, Stroheim or Mankiewicz – is the key to Hitchcock’s unequalled capacity to unsettle and move the spectator with a degree of implication and intensity that goes beyond a supposed ‘identification’ with the protagonist – an identification that Hitchcock tended to rupture violently and traumatically, and which in general was projected not on to a single (male) person, but on to the couple, at least.

Sight and Sound Review of ‘Vertigo’ (by

Miguel

Marías

)

(http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/forever-falling-vertigo

In our series on contenders for our forthcoming Greatest Films of All Time poll, the renowned Spanish critic Miguel

Marías

finds himself falling once again for the fathomless mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

[PAGE 3]

Slide22

Notorious

 (1946), for instance, is not the story of Devlin (Cary Grant) – even if its first part is told from his narrative (but not visual) point of view – nor is it that of Alicia (Ingrid Bergman), as the title may make us think; it is the story of that couple – or more so, of the triangle composed by Sebastian (Claude Rains), and the quadrilateral that would include his ominous mother (

Leopoldine

Konstantin).

More than the drama of the neurotic woman personified by Tippi Hedren, Marnie (1964) narrates her complex relationship with Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), and the no less ambiguous relationship with her mother. Vertigo, of course, is not just the story of Scottie, but also – even more so – of Judy in her different simulations or incarnations, manipulated, feigned, spontaneous or forced.Seduction manoeuvresAnother reason why Vertigo turns out to be so intriguing, complex and suggestive stems from the fact that it gathers together a strange synthesis of various myths of Western culture, connected to the mystery of artistic creation, which is perhaps the film’s ultimate subject.The most obvious myth is Pygmalion, combined with the Frankenstein variant of Prometheus; others would include Orpheus and Eurydice, although in a very sombre version, and almost inverted; the double or Döppelganger

 of the romantics and German expressionists, filtered through the schizoid sieve of Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; the love in death and beyond this world of ‘Tristan and Isolde’ (and it is no coincidence that the ‘Liebestod’ of Wagner’s opera is the audible origin of Herrmann’s score, mainly of the ‘Love Theme’

);

 some vampire tales and the novel 

Peter Ibbetson

 by George Du

Maurier

(not the pale and miscast film version by Henry Hathaway).

Some others could also be mentioned, such as Faust, but what’s interesting here is that it is not a case of showing off cultural references, but of a melancholic and tragic story of love (much more than a detective story), full of multiple resonances that are admirably integrated, and which converge in what Robin Wood, Jean Douchet and Eugenio Trías have considered a parable of creation, and of the mise en scène.Let’s not forget that Vertigo is a succession of mises en scène and seduction manoeuvres. The first shows us how Gavin Elster, an old friend from student days, requests Scottie’s services as a detective in order to use him in an improbable criminal conspiracy. First he tempts him, like Mephistopheles, with a return to action, restoring Scottie’s lost confidence. Once this route fails, Elster intrigues him with the implausible story of Carlotta Valdes and the power it exerts over his wife Madeleine – a story told in encircling movements, going up and down the different ‘levels’ of his huge office, like the scriptwriter and director who first seduce the producer, then the actors and finally the audience. Elster banks on the fact that – in a third phase, admirably staged in Ernie’s restaurant – Scottie is going to be captivated by the ethereal, ghostly, hieratic and gliding beauty of Madeleine, which will finally convince him to believe such a fantastic tale and accept the mission of following and protecting her.

Sight and Sound Review of ‘Vertigo’ (by

Miguel

Marías

)

(http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/forever-falling-vertigo

In our series on contenders for our forthcoming Greatest Films of All Time poll, the renowned Spanish critic Miguel

Marías

finds himself falling once again for the fathomless mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

[PAGE 4]

Slide23

From

the moment he positions himself inside his car at the door of

Elster’s

mansion and furtively follows Madeleine, Scottie thinks he is directing the second 

mise en scène. The mix of contemplation and distance and growing curiosity is intoxicating as Scottie, without realising it, starts falling in love with an imaginary person whom he dreams of saving, without ever suspecting that ‘Madeleine’ has been forced to interpret a role. He follows her, bewitched, through different places, each more or less funereal: a flower shop, which she enters through the back door; the cemetery of the Mission Dolores; the museum where she contemplates the portrait of the unfortunate Carlotta; the lonely room in the sinister and desolate McKittrick Hotel (a herald of the house in which Norman Bates coexists with the memory of his mother), in which Madeleine vanishes like a ghost, as if she were a hallucination of Scottie’s.His unconscious desires start to become a reality when Madeleine throws herself into San Francisco Bay by the Golden Gate, giving him the opportunity to save her like some knight errant – and to feel, as in the Chinese tradition he cites, responsible for her; to take her to his flat, undress her, watch her sleeping and talk to her for the first time. In this phase, a relationship of affinity binds these prowling idlers. They visit different places on the outskirts of San Francisco, exchange confidences, fears and dreams. This phase is consummated – once Scottie is in love with Madeleine – with the unseen murder of Elster’s real wife, presented traumatically to Scottie (and the viewer) as a suicide that he couldn’t prevent.The third mise

en scène takes to the limit the condition of the powerless spectator, which we share with Scottie; it’s a painful repetition, under the effects of the loss or abandonment syndrome of the previous ‘movement’. Like an inconsolable widower, Scottie revisits the places where he first followed and spied on Madeleine from a distance, and those where they were together: the giant sequoias, the solitary coast beaten by the swell and the wind, the Mission San Juan Bautista.

The fourth 

mise

en

scène –

 after a few false alarms that leave us breathless, making our heart skip in rhythm with the wounded and depressed Scottie – starts when the ex-detective bumps into Judy Barton. A shop assistant, she seems carnal, even vulgar – very far from the formal elegance and distinction of Madeleine, who was so pale and whispering, so shy and fragile, so ethereal and disturbed; but in Judy he discovers an echo of the loved and lost image. Now Scottie becomes scriptwriter and producer, director and wardrobe designer, make-up artist and decorator, as he obsessively tries to transform Judy into his Madeleine, taking that resemblance as a starting point, polishing and fine-tuning her into the yearned-for image of his unacceptably lost love.

But Judy is scared, because she knows what Scottie and we still don’t. The key moment of the film – truly revolutionary from the dramatic and narrative point of view – is the revelation (for us the spectators, when we hear Judy writing her confession; Scottie’s realisation will still take a bit longer) of what really happened on the top of the bell tower of the Mission. This is a moment that gives a different sense to everything we think we know, and changes our point of view: we shift from Scottie’s viewpoint – from the sadness and desperation we’ve shared – to Judy’s, which allows us to consider her as a victim.Sight and Sound Review of ‘Vertigo’ (by Miguel Marías) (http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/forever-falling-vertigo

In our series on contenders for our forthcoming Greatest Films of All Time poll, the renowned Spanish critic Miguel

Marías

finds himself falling once again for the fathomless mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

[PAGE 5]

Slide24

The

fifth 

mise

en scène begins when Judy, trapped by the love she had to feign for Scottie when she was experiencing his so intensely, gives herself away – almost abandons herself to love – with an indirect confession. (It’s difficult to know to what extent it’s conscious on Judy’s part; is she even jealous of the fictitious Madeleine, who was herself?)When Scottie tries to regain control of the drama – which will now be that of vengeance, as he is determined to force a confession out of Judy – he will drag her to her death. And this is the definitive disappearance of Madeleine that will drive Scottie to the absolute void. In the end, Scottie is left ‘suspended’ over the abyss, just as he was when a compassionate fade-out closed the film’s prologue of the police chase over the roofs of San Francisco.During this gradual process of spiral ascents and falls, punctuated by ominous low and high angles, we the viewers are successively – or simultaneously – busybodies and onlookers, meddlers and dupes, accomplices and sceptics, co-scriptwriters and extras, witnesses and victims of three machinations: Elster’s, Scottie’s and – above both of them, permanent and masterly – Hitchcock’s.

Sight and Sound Review of ‘Vertigo’ (by

Miguel

Marías

)

(http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/forever-falling-vertigo

In our series on contenders for our forthcoming Greatest Films of All Time poll, the renowned Spanish critic Miguel

Marías

finds himself falling once again for the fathomless mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.[PAGE 6]

Slide25

Hollywood 1930-1960

#5: Some Like It Hot

Plot Summary

- When two Chicago musicians, Joe and Jerry, witness the

the St. Valentine's Day massacre, they want to get out of town and get away from the gangster responsible, Spats Colombo. They're desperate to get a gig out of town but the only job they know of is in an all-girl band heading to Florida. They show up at the train station as Josephine and Daphne, the replacement saxophone and bass players. They certainly enjoy being around the girls, especially Sugar Kane Kowalczyk who sings and plays the ukulele. Joe in particular sets out to woo her while Jerry/Daphne is wooed by a millionaire, Osgood Fielding III. Mayhem ensues as the two men try to keep their true identities hidden and Spats Colombo and his crew show up for a meeting with several other crime lords. (detailed synopsis - next page).Director – Billy Wilder.Writers – Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond (screenplay), Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan (story).Year –

1959.Country – USAGenre – Comedy / Romance.Main actors -

-

Marilyn Monroe – Sugar Kane

Kowalcyzk

.

- Tony Curtis – Joe/Josephine/Shell Oil Junior.

- Jack Lemmon – Jerry/Daphne.

- George Raft – Spats Colombo.- Pat O’Briend – Detective Mulligan.- Joe E. Brown – Osgood Fielding III.- Nehemiah Persoff – Little Bonaparte(Other characters – Sweet Sue, Sig Poliakoff, Toothpick Charlie, Beinstock)Production company – United Artists (Ashton Productions, Mirisch Corp).

Slide26

Slide27

Hollywood 1961-1990

#1: Bonnie and Clyde

Plot Summary

- 1934. Young adults Bonnie Parker, a waitress, and Clyde Barrow, a criminal just released from prison, are immediately attracted to what the other represents for their life when they meet by chance in West Dallas, Texas. Bonnie is fascinated with Clyde's criminal past, and his matter-of-factness and bravado in talking about it. Clyde sees in Bonnie someone

sympatico

to his goals in life. Although attracted to each other physically, a sexual relationship between the two has a few obstacles to happen. Regardless, they decide to join forces to embark on a life of crime, holding up whatever establishments, primarily banks, to make money and to have fun. They don't plan on hurting anyone physically or killing anyone despite wielding loaded guns. They amass a small gang of willing accomplices, including C.W. Moss, a mechanic to fix whatever cars they steal which is important especially for their getaways, and Buck Barrow, one of Clyde's older brothers. The only reluctant tag-along is Buck's nervous wife, Blanche Barrow, a preacher's daughter. The gang's life changes after the first fatal shot is fired. Following, their willingness to shoot to kill increases to protect themselves and their livelihood. Their notoriety precedes them, so much so that no matter what one's opinion is of them, most want to have some association to the Barrow gang, to help them, to be spoken in the same breath as them, or to capture and or kill them. Of the many people they encounter in their crime spree, the one who may have the most profound effect on their lives is Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who is looking for a little retribution.

(

detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

–

Arthur Penn.

Writers

– David Newman and Robert Benton.Year – 1967.Country – USAGenre – Action / Biography / Crime / Drama.Main actors - - Warren Beatty – Clyde Barrow.- Faye Dunaway – Bonnie Parker.- Michael J. Pollard – C.W. Moss.

- Gene Hackman – Buck Barrow.

- Estelle Parsons – Blanche.

- Gene Wilder – Eugene

Grizzard

.

Other characters – Ivan Moss, Velma Davis and Denver Pyle.

Production

company

–

Warner Bros.

Slide28

Hollywood 1961-1990

#2: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Plot Summary

-

McMurphy

has a criminal past and has once again gotten himself into trouble and is sentenced by the court. To escape

labor

duties in prison,

McMurphy

pleads insanity and is sent to a ward for the mentally unstable. Once here,

McMurphy

both endures and stands witness to the abuse and degradation of the oppressive Nurse

Ratched, who gains superiority and power through the flaws of the other inmates. McMurphy and the other inmates band together to make a rebellious stance against the atrocious Nurse. (detailed synopsis - next page).Director – Milos Forman.Writers – Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman (screenplay), Ken Kesey (novel), Dale Wasserman (play version).Year – 1975.Country – USAGenre – Drama.Main actors - - Jack Nicholson – R.P. McMurphy.- Louise Fletcher – Nurse Ratched.- Danny DeVito – Martini.- Christopher Lloyd – Taber.

- Vincent

Shiavelli

– Fredrickson.

- Sydney

Lassick

– Cheswick.

- Brad

Dourit

– Billy

Bibbit

.

- Will Sampson – Chief

Bromden

.

Other characters – Ellis, Miller,

Turkle

, Warren,

Sefelt

,

Bancini

,

Dr.

Spivey, Col. Matterson, Nurse

Itsu, Washington, Beans Garfield,

Harbor Master, Ellsworth, Hap Arlich, Harding, Rose.Production company – United Artists (Ashton Productions, Mirisch Corp).

Slide29

Hollywood 1961-1990

#3: Apocalypse Now

Plot Summary

It is the height of the war in Vietnam, and U.S. Army Captain Willard is sent by Colonel Lucas and a General to carry out a mission that, officially, 'does not exist - nor will it ever exist'. The mission: To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz, whose army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and NVA. The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard's job is to eliminate him! Willard, sent up the

Nung

River on a U.S. Navy patrol boat, discovers that his target is one of the most decorated officers in the U.S. Army. His crew meets up with surfer-type Lt-Colonel Kilgore, head of a U.S Army helicopter cavalry group which eliminates a Viet Cong outpost to provide an entry point into the

Nung

River. After some hair-raising encounters, in which some of his crew are killed, Willard, Lance and Chef reach Colonel Kurtz's outpost, beyond the Do Lung Bridge. Now, after becoming prisoners of Kurtz, will Willard & the others be able to

fulfill

their mission?

.

(

detailed synopsis - next page).Director – Francis Ford Coppola.Writers – Francis Ford Coppola and John Milius (screenplay), Michael Herr (narration), Joseph Conrad (‘Heart of Darkness’ novel).Year – 1979.Country – USAGenre – War / DramaMain actors – - Martin Sheen – Captain Benjamin L. Willard.- Marlon Brando – Colonel Walter E. Kurtz.- Robert Duvall – Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore.- Dennis Hopper – Photojournalist.- Harrison Ford – Colonel Lucas.- Laurence Fishburne – Tyrone ‘Clean’ Miller.- Other characters – Jay ‘Chef’ Hicks, Lance B. Johnson, Chief Phillips, General Corman, Lieutenant Richard M. Colby, Playmate of the Year, Kilgore’s Gunner.Production company – Zoetrope Studios, United Artists.

Slide30

Hollywood 1961-1990

#4: Blade Runner

Plot Summary

- In the futuristic year of 2019, Los Angeles has become a dark and depressing metropolis, filled with urban decay. Rick Deckard, an ex-cop, is a "Blade Runner". Blade runners are people assigned to assassinate "

replicants

". The

replicants

are androids that look like real human beings. When four

replicants

commit a bloody mutiny on the Off World colony, Deckard is called out of retirement to track down the androids. As he tracks the

replicants

, eliminating them one by one, he soon comes across another

replicant, Rachel, who evokes human emotion, despite the fact that she's a replicant herself. As Deckard closes in on the leader of the replicant group, his true hatred toward artificial intelligence makes him question his own identity in this future world, including what's human and what's not human. (detailed synopsis - next page).Director – Ridley Scott.Writers – Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples (screenplay), Philip K. Dick (‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ novel)Year

–

1982.

Country

–

USA / Hong Kong / UK

Genre

–

Sci-Fi / Thriller / Film Noir / Futuristic.

Main actors -

- Harrison Ford – Rick Deckard.

- Sean Young – Rachel.

- Daryl Hannah –

Pris

.

-

Rutger

Hauer

– Roy Batty.

- Other characters – Gaff, Bryant, J.F. Sebastian, Leon Kowalski,

Dr.

Eldon Tyrell,

Zhora

, Hannibal Chew, Holden, Bear, Kaiser,

Taffey Lewis.Production company – Warner Bros.

Slide31

Hollywood 1961-1990

#5: Do The Right Thing

Plot Summary

-

This film looks at life in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn on a hot summer Sunday. As he does everyday, Sal

Fragione

opens the pizza

parlor

he's owned for 25 years. The

neighborhood

has changed considerably in the time he's been there and is now composed primarily of African-Americans and Hispanics. His son

Pino

hates it there and would like nothing better than to relocate the eatery to their own neighborhood. For Sal however, the restaurant represents something that is part of his life and sees it as a part of the community. What begins as a simple complaint by one of his customers, Buggin Out - who wonders why he has only pictures of famous Italian-Americans on the wall when most of his customers are black - eventually disintegrates into violence as frustration seemingly brings out the worst in everyone. (detailed synopsis - next page).Director – Spike Lee.Writers – Spike Lee.Year – 1989.

Country

–

USA. (Languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Korean)

Genre

–

Drama / Comedy.

Main actors -

- Spike Lee – Mookie.

- Rosie Perez – Tina.

- Danny Aiello – Sal

Fragione

.

- John

Turturro

–

Pino

.

- Giancarlo Esposito –

Buggin

Out.

- Samuel L Jackson – Mister Senor Love Daddy.

- Bill Nunn – Radio Raheem.

- Other characters – Da Mayor, Mother Sister, Vito, ML, Coconut Sid, Sweet Dick Willie, Jade, Officer Ponte, Officer Long, Clifton, Smiley, Ahmad, Cee, Punchy, Ella, Charlie, Stevie, Eddie, Louise, Sonny, Kim, Korean Child, Puerto Rican

Icee Man, Carmen.Production company – Universal Studios, 40 Acres & A Mule

Filmworks.

Slide32

Section B: Contemporary American Independent Film

#1: Winter’s Bone

Plot Summary

-

With an absent father and a withdrawn and depressed mother, 17 year-old

Ree

Dolly keeps her family together in a dirt poor rural area. She's taken aback however when the local Sheriff tells her that her father put up their house as collateral for his bail and unless he shows up for his trial in a week's time, they will lose it all. She knows her father is involved in the local drug trade and manufactures crystal meth, but everywhere she goes the message is the same: stay out of it and stop poking your nose in other people's business. She refuses to listen, even after her father's brother, Teardrop, tells her he's probably been killed. She pushes on, putting her own life in danger, for the sake of her family until the truth, or enough of it, is revealed. 

(

detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

–

Debra

Granik.Writers – Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini (screenplay), Daniel Woodrell (novel).Year – 2010.Country – USA. Genre – Drama.Main actors - - Jennifer Lawrence – Ree Dolly.- John Hawkes – Teardrop. - Isaiah Stone – Sonny.- Shelley Waggener – Sonya.

- Garret Dillahunt – Sheriff Baskin.

- Lauren

Sweetser

– Gail.

- Other characters – Little Arthur,

Merab

, Mike Satterfield, Baby Ned, Ashlee, Connie, Blond Milton, Parenting Teacher, Floyd, Victoria, Thump Milton, Alice, Tilly, Ray, Army Recruiter.

Production

company

–

Anonymous Content, Winter’s Bone Productions.

Distribution companies

– Artificial Eye (UK), Roadside Attractions (US).

Slide33

Section B: Contemporary American Independent Film

#2: Frances Ha!

Plot Summary

-

Frances lives in New York, but she doesn't really have an apartment. Frances is an apprentice for a dance company, but she's not really a dancer. Frances has a best friend named Sophie, but they aren't really speaking anymore. Frances throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possible reality dwindles. Frances wants so much more than she has but lives her life with unaccountable joy and lightness. 

(

detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

–

Noah

Baumbach

.

Writers – Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig.Year – 2012.Country – USA / Brazil.Genre – Comedy / Drama / Romance. Cinematic movement – Mumblecore.Main actors - - Greta Gerwig – Frances.- Adam Driver – Lev.- Michael Zegen – Benji.- Mickey Sumner – Sophie.

- Grace Gummer – Rachel.

- Michael

Esper

– Dan.

Other characters – Nessa, Patch, Waitress, Colleen.

Production

company

–

RT Features, Pine District Pictures, Scott

Rudin

Productions.

Distribution companies

– IFC Films (US),

Metrodome

Distribution (UK).

Slide34

Section B: Contemporary American Independent Film

#3: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Plot Summary

-

Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in the Bathtub, a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink's tough love prepares her for the

unraveling

of the universe; for a time when he's no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink's health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother. 

(

detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

–

Benh

Zeitlin.Writers – Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar (screenplay), Lucy Alibar (stage play).Year – 2012.Country – USA.Genre – Adventure / Drama / Fantasy.Main actors - - Quvenzhane Wallis – Hushpuppy.- Dwight Henry – Wink.- Levy Easterly – Jean Battiste.- Gina Montana – Miss Bathsheba.- Other characters – Walrus, Little Jo, LZA, Joy Strong, Boy with Bell, Winston, Peter T, T-Lou, Dr.

Maloney.

Production

company

–

Cinereach

, Court 13 Pictures, Journeyman Pictures.

Distribution companies

– Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Slide35

Section B: Contemporary American Independent Film

#4: Boyhood

Plot Summary

-

Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, 

Richard Linklater

's

‘Boyhood’

is a

groundbreaking

story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by 

Ellar Coltrane

), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, ‘Boyhood’ charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay's Yellow to Arcade Fire's Deep Blue. ‘Boyhood’ is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.  (detailed synopsis - next page).Director – Richard Linklater.Writers – Richard Linklater.Year – 2014.Country – USA.Genre – Drama. (Languages: English, Spanish)Main actors - - Ellar Coltrane – Mason.- Patricia Arquette – Mom.

- Ethan Hawke – Dad.

- Lorelei Linklater – Samantha.

- Other characters: Tommy, Ted, Grandma, Professor Bill

Wellbrock

, Mindy, Randy, Paul, Mrs

Darber

, Tammy, Tony, Jill, Jim, Charlie, Professor Douglas, Make Out Girl, Annie, Cooper, Enrique, Grandpa Cliff, Mr

Turlington

, Sheena, Barb, Nicole.

Production

company

–

IFC Productions, Detour Film Production.

Distribution companies

– IFC Films (US), Universal Home Entertainment (UK).

Slide36

Section B: Contemporary American Independent Film

#5: Captain Fantastic

Plot Summary

-

The anti-capitalist Ben Cash lives in the wilderness with his six children: Bo,

Kielyr

,

Vespyr

,

Rellian

,

Zaja

and Nai. His wife Leslie is hospitalized for bipolar disorder and they have educated their children in the forest teaching them how to survive and a high-level of homeschooling including politics and philosophy. Inclusive Bo has been accepted to the major American universities. When Leslie commits suicide, Ben decides to travel to the funeral with his children to fulfill her will of being cremated, instead of the traditional burial that he father Jack wants for his daughter. However his father-in-law promises to call the police and arrest Ben if he attends the funeral. Along the journey of Ben and his children, Bo meets the teenager Claire and her mother Ellen and he falls in love with her. They spend one troubled night with Ben's sister Harper, her husband Dave and nephews Justin and Jackson. When they arrive at the church, Jack and his wife Abigail are surprised to see them. Ben makes a speech and discloses Leslie's will to the guest and is expelled from the ceremony. Now Jack wants the custody of his children. What will Ben do? (detailed synopsis - next page).Director – Matt Ross.Writers – Matt Ross.Year – 2016.Country – USA.Genre – Drama / Comedy. (Languages: English, Esperanto)Main actors - - Viggo

Mortensen – Ben

- Frank

Langella

– Jack

- Kathryn Hahn – Harper

- Steve Zahn - Dave

- George McKay -

Bodevan

- Samantha Isler -

Kielyr

- Annalise Basso -

Vespyr

- Nicholas Hamilton -

Rellian

- Shree Crooks -

Zaja

- Charlie Shotwell –

Nai

- Other characters – Leslie, Justin, Jackson, Claire, Ellen, Jack, Abigail

Production

company

–

Electric City Entertainment,

ShivHans

Pictures Distribution companies – Entertainment One (UK), Bleecker Street Media (US)

Slide37

Component

2: European FilmSection A: British Film

2 films from this list: Secrets and Lies, Trainspotting, Sweet Sixteen, Shaun of the Dead, This is England, Moon, Fish Tank, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Sightseers, Under the Skin)

Section B: Non-English language European film

1 film from this list: Life is Beautiful, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Ida, Mustang, Victoria)

Slide38

Section A: British Film

#1: Secrets and Lies

Plot Summary

-

Cynthia lives in London with her sullen street-sweeper daughter. Her brother has been successful with his photographer's business and now lives nearby in a more upmarket house. But Cynthia hasn't even been invited round there after a year. So, all round, she feels rather lonely and isolated. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hortense, adopted at birth but now grown up, starts to try and trace her mother.

.

 

(

detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

–

Mike Leigh.

Writers – Mike Leigh.Year – 1996.Country – UK / France.Genre – Drama. Main actors - - Brenda Blethyn – Cynthia.- Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hortense.- Timothy Spall – Maurice.- Phyllis Logan – Monica.- Elizabeth Berrington – Jane.-.Lesley Manville – Social Worker.- Claire Rushbrook – Roxanne.- Other – Dionne, Paul, Stuart, Girl with Scar, Hortense’s Brothers.

Production

company

– Channel Four Films, Thin Man Films,

CyBy

2000.

Distribution companies

– 20

th

Century Fox (US).

Slide39

Section A: British Film

#2: Trainspotting

Plot Summary

-

A wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life, focusing on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up his heroin habit, and how the latter affects his relationship with family and friends: Sean Connery wannabe Sick Boy,

dimbulb

Spud, psycho

Begbie

, 14-year-old girlfriend Diane, and clean-cut athlete Tommy, who's never touched drugs but can't help being curious about

them

(detailed

synopsis - next page).

Director – Danny Boyle.Writers – John Hodge (screenplay), Irvine Welsh (novel).Year – 1996.Country – UK / France.Genre – Drama. Main actors - - Ewan McGregor – Renton.- Kelly Macdonald – Diane.- Ewen Bremner – Spud.- Robert Carlyle – Begbie.- Shirley Henderson – Gail.- Jonny Lee Miller – Sick Boy.- Peter

Mullan

–

Swanney

.

- Other characters – Tommy, Mr and Mrs Renton, Allison, Lizzy, Mickie Forrester, Dealer, Diane’s mother and father, Andrea.

Production

company

– Channel Four Films, Figment Films, The Noel Gay Motion Picture Company.

Distribution companies

– Miramax (USA), Channel 4 DVD (UK).

Slide40

Section A: British Film

#3: Sweet Sixteen

Plot Summary

-

Liam is a young, restless teen struggling to realize his dream in the gritty and dismal streets of Greenock, where unemployment is rampant and little hope is available to the city's youth. He is waiting for the release of his mother, Jean, from prison where she is completing a prison term for a crime that her boyfriend actually committed. Her boyfriend, Stan, is a crude and obnoxious drug pusher is partnered by Liam's equally rough and foul-mouthed, mean-spirited grandfather. Liam is determined to rescue his mother from both of them, which means creating a safe haven beyond their reach. But first he's got to raise the cash--no small feat for a young man. It's not long before Liam and his pals' crazy schemes lead them into all sorts of trouble. Finding himself dangerously out of his depth, Liam knows he should walk away. Only this time, he just can't let go.

 

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Ken Loach.

Writers

– Paul Laverty (screenplay).

Year

– 2002.

Country

– UK / France.

Genre

– Drama.

Main actors -

- Martin

Compston

– Liam.

- William

Ruane

– Pinball.

- Tommy McKee -

Rab

.

- Gary McCormack – Stan.

- Annmarie Fulton – Chantelle.

- Michelle

Abercromby

– Suzanne.

- Other characters – Calum, Scullion, Tony, Tony’s gang, Douglas.

Production company

– BBC Films, Alta Films, Road Movies

Filmproduktion

, Scottish Screen, Sixteen Films,

Tornasol

Films.

Distribution companies

– BBC Two (UK), Lions Gate Films (US).

Slide41

Section A: British Film

#4: Shaun of the Dead

Plot Summary

-

Shaun doesn't have a very good day, so he decides to turn his life around by getting his ex to take him back, but he times it for right in the middle of what may be a zombie apocalypse... But for him, it's an opportunity to show everyone he knows how useful he is by saving them all. All he has to do is survive... And get his ex

back. 

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Edgar Wright.

Writers

– Edgar Wright and Simon

Pegg

.

Year

– 2004.

Country

– UK/France.

Genre

– Comedy / Horror / Drama.

Main actors -

- Simon

Pegg

- Shaun.

- Nick Frost – Ed.

- Kate Ashfield – Liz.

- Lucy Davis – Dianne.

- Dylan Moran – David.

- Peter

Serafinowicz

– Pete.

-

Rafe

Spall – Noel.

- Bill

Nighy

– Philip.

- Jessica Hynes – Yvonne.

- Martin Freeman – Declan.

- Tamsin Greig – Maggie.

- Reece

Shearsmith

– Mark

- Matt Lucas – Cousin Tom.

- Other characters – Mary, Clubbers, Nelson, Usher, Homeless Man, Football Kid, Trisha Goddard, Krishnan Guru-Murphy, Vernon Kay, zombies,

Production company

– Universal Pictures,

StudioCanal

, Working Title,

FilmFour

, WT2 Productions, Big Talk Productions, Inside Track 2.

Slide42

Section A: British Film

#5: This Is England

Plot Summary

-

12 year old Shaun lives with his widowed mother in a small town in Britain. His father, an army officer, was one of the Falkland casualties. A loner, he is befriended by some older skinhead youth, who shave off his hair, date an older young woman, and subsequently introduce him to ex-convict Combo. Shaun unwittingly volunteers to be part of Combo's gang, and is taken to a meeting hosted by Britain's right-winged National Front, which openly advocates ethnic cleansing; re-defines Racism as Reality; and Nazism as Nationalism. Combo then takes his followers on a spree of sword and knife-wielding terror, looting a corner store run by Sandhu, all eventually get stoned and violence ensues.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Shane Meadows.

Writers

– Shane Meadows.

Year

– 2006.

Country

– UK.

Genre

– Crime / Drama.

Main actors -

- Thomas Turgoose – Shaun.

- Stephen Graham – Combo.

- Jo Hartley –

Cynth

.

- Andrew Shim – Milky.

- Vicky McClure – Lol.

- Joseph

Gilgun

– Woody.

-

Rosamund

Hanson – Smell.

- George Newton – Banjo.

- Frank Harper – Lenny.

- Jack O’Connell –

Pukey

Nicholls.

- Other characters – Gadget,

Meggy

, Mr. Sandhu,

Kes

, Nelly.

Production company

–

FilmFour

, UK Film Council, Warp Films, Big Arty Productions, EM Media, Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire.

Slide43

Section A: British Film

#6: Moon

Plot Summary

-

With only three weeks left in his three year contract, Sam Bell is getting anxious to finally return to Earth. He is the only occupant of a Moon-based manufacturing facility along with his computer and assistant, GERTY. The long period of time alone however has resulted in him talking to himself for the most part, or to his plants. Direct communication with Earth is not possible due to a long-standing communication malfunction but he does get an occasional message from his wife Tess. When he has an accident however, he wakens to find that he is not alone. He also comes to realize that his world is not what he thought it was.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Duncan Jones.

Writers

– Duncan Jones (story), Nathan Parker.

Year

– 2009.

Country

– UK (Languages: English, Spanish).

Genre

– Drama / Mystery / Sci-Fi.

Main actors -

- Sam Rockwell – Sam Bell.

- Kevin Spacey – GERTY (voice).

- Dominique

McElligott

– Tess Bell.

- Kaya

Scodelario

– Eve.

- Benedict Wong – Thompson.

- Matt Berry –

Overmeyers

.

- Malcolm Stewart – Technician.

- Robin Chalk – Sam Bell Clone.

- Other characters – Little Eve, Nanny.

Production company

– Liberty Films UK, Xingu Films, Limelight Fund, Lunar Industries.

Slide44

Section A: British Film

#7: Fish Tank

Plot Summary

-

Mia, an aggressive fifteen-year-old girl, lives on an Essex estate with her tarty mother, Joanne, and precocious little sister Tyler. She has been thrown out of school and is awaiting admission to a referrals unit and spends her days aimlessly. She begins an uneasy friendship with Joanne's slick boyfriend, Connor, who encourages her one interest, dancing.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Andrea Arnold.

Writers

– Andrea Arnold.

Year

– 2009.

Country

– UK / Netherlands.

Genre

– Drama

Main actors -

- Katie Jarvis – Mia.

- Michael

Fassbender

– Conor.

-

Kierston

Wareing

– Joanne.

- Rebecca Griffiths – Tyler.

- Harry

Treadaway

– Billy.

- Sydney Mary Nash – Keira.

- Sarah Bayes – Keeley.

- Other characters – Tyler’s friends, Keeley’s Dad, Dancing Girl.

Production company

– BBC Films, UK Film Council,

ContentFilm

,

K

asander Film Company.

Slide45

Section A: British Film

#8: We Need To Talk About Kevin

Plot Summary

-

Eva

Khatchadourian

is trying to piece together her life following the "incident". Once a successful travel writer, she is forced to take whatever job comes her way, which of late is as a clerk in a travel agency. She lives a solitary life as people who know about her situation openly shun her, even to the point of violent actions toward her. She, in turn, fosters that solitary life because of the incident, the aftermath of which has turned her into a meek and scared woman. That incident involved her son Kevin

Khatchadourian

, who is now approaching his eighteenth birthday. Eva and Kevin have always had a troubled relationship, even when he was an infant. Whatever troubles he saw, Franklin, Eva's complacent husband, just attributed it to Kevin being a typical boy. The incident may be seen by both Kevin and Eva as his ultimate act in defiance against his mother.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Lynne Ramsay.

Writers

– Lynne Ramsay and Rory Stewart Kinnear (screenplay) Lionel Shriver (novel).

Year

– 2011

Country

– UK/USA.

Genre

– Drama / Mystery / Thriller.

Main actors -

- Tilda Swinton - Eva

Khatchadourian

.

- John C. Reilly – Franklin.

- Ezra Miller – Kevin (teenager).

- Jasper Newell – Kevin (6-8 years).

- Rock

Duer

– Kevin (toddler).

- Other characters – Celia, Wanda, Colin.

Production company

– BBC Films, UK Film Council.,

Distribution company

– Artificial Eye (UK).

Slide46

Section A: British Film

#9: Sightseers

Plot Summary

-

Chris wants to show girlfriend Tina his world, but events soon conspire against the couple and their dream caravan holiday takes a very wrong turn.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Ben Wheatley.

Writers

– Alice Lowe and Steve

Oram

(story).

Year

– 2012.

Country

– UK.

Genre

– Adventure / Comedy / Crime.

Main actors -

- Alice Lowe – Tina.

- Steve

Oram

- Chris.

- Eileen Davies – Carol.

- Tony Way –

Crich

Tourist.

- Monica Dolan – Janice.

- Jonathan

Aris

– Ian.

- Other characters – Tram Conductor,

Chalid

Sulinan

, Head Shaman, Rambler, Newsreader, Richard, Joan, Blonde Teenager and his mother, Bride-to-be, Hen party entourage, Martin.

Production company

–

StudioCanal, FilmFour, British Film Institute (BFI), Big Talk Productions, Rook Films.

Slide47

Section A: British Film

#10: Under The Skin

Plot Summary

-

An alien entity inhabits the earthly form of a young woman who combs the roads and streets of Scotland in search of the human prey she came to plunder. She seduces her isolated and forsaken male victims into an otherworldly dimension where they are stripped and consumed. However, existence in all its complexity begin to change the alien visitor. She begins to discover herself as human with tragic and terrifying consequences.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Jonathan Glazer.

Writers

– Jonathan Glazer and Walter Campbell (screenplay), Michael Faber (novel).

Year

– 2013.

Country

– UK/USA/Switzerland.

Genre

– Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi.

Main actors -

- Scarlett Johansson – The Female.

- Adam Pearson – The Deformed Man.

- Paul

Brannigan

– Andrew.

- Other characters – The Bad Man, The Dead Woman, Pick-Up Man, First Victim, Leering Man, Second Victim, Man at Club, The Swimmer, Father and Mother at beach, Nervous Man, Quiet Man, Bus Driver, The Logger, Alien.

Production company

–

FilmFour

, British Film Institute (BFI).

Slide48

Section B: Non-English Language European Film

#1: Life Is Beautiful

Plot Summary

In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish book keeper named Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting and marrying a lovely woman from a nearby city. Guido and his wife have a son and live happily together until the occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to hold his family together and help his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a game and that the grand prize for winning is a

tank.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Roberto Benigni.

Writers

– Vincenzo

Cerami

and Roberto Benigni (story and screenplay).

Year

– 1997.

Country

– Italy.

Genre

– War / Comedy / Drama.

Main actors -

- Roberto Benigni – Guido.

- Nicoletta

Braschi

– Dora.

- Giorgio

Cantarini

–

Giosue

.

- Marisa Paredes – Madre di Dora.

- Horst Buchholz –

Dottor

Lessing.

- Amerigo

Fontani

– Rodolfo.

- Other characters – Zio,

Ferruccio

,

Guicciardini, Direttrice

Didattica

, Bartolomeo,

Vittorino

, Elena,

Amico

Rodolfo,

Prefetto

,

Carrista

USA.

Production company

–

Melampo Cinematografica.Distribution company – Miramax (USA), Buena Vista (USA).

Slide49

Section B: Non-English Language European Film

#2: Pan’s Labyrinth

Plot Summary

-

In 1944

falangist

Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the

center

of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the

the

true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Guillermo Del Toro.

Writers

– Guillermo Del Toro.

Year

– 2006.

Country

– Spain / Mexico / USA.

Genre

– Drama / Fantasy / War.

Main actors -

- Ivana

Baquero

– Ofelia.

-

Sergi

Lopez – Vidal.

- Maribel

Verdu

– Mercedes.

- Doug Jones –

Fauno

/ Pale Man.

-

Ariadna

Gil – Carmen.

- Alex Angulo – Doctor Ferreiro.- Other characters – Garces

, Serrano, Pedro, El

Tarta

, Frances, Padre.

Production company

–

Estudios

Picasso, Tequila Gang, Esperanto

Filmoj

.

Distribution company

– New Line (US),

Picturehouse

(US).

Slide50

Section B: Non-English Language European Film

#3: The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

Plot Summary -

The

true story of 43 year-old magazine editor Jean-Dominique

Beauby

who after suffering a stroke is found to have locked-in syndrome, where he is paralyzed from the neck down. He can see and hear but cannot speak, communicating only by blinking his left eye for yes or no. Literally trapped inside his body, he faces a terrifying situation despite the support he has from an

an

expert medical team and his family. It's only when his speech therapist Henriette

Roi

devises a system for him to "speak" one letter at a time by blinking his eye does the world open up for him. The film is based an

Bauby's

book, which he dictated, one letter at a time

.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Julian Schnabel.

Writers

– Roland Harwood (screenplay), Jean-Dominique Bartleby (novel).

Year

– 2007.

Country

– France / USA.

Genre

– Biography / Drama.

Main actors -

- Mathieu

Amalric

– Jean-Do.

- Emmanuelle

Seigner

– Celine.

- Marie-

Josee

Croze

– Henriette

Roi.- Anne Consigny – Claude.

- Niels

Arestrup

–

Roussin

- Max Von

Sydow

–

Papinou

.

- Other characters – Josephine, Le

Docteur

Lepage

, Marie Lopez, Pere Lucien et le Vendeur, Le Docteur Cocheton, Theophile, Celeste.Production company – Pathe Renn Productions, France 3 Cinema, Canal+.Distribution company – Miramax (US).

Slide51

Section B: Non-English

Language European Film

#4: Ida

Plot Summary

-

Poland, 1962. Anna, an orphan brought up by nuns in the convent, is a novice. She has to see Wanda, the only living relative, before she takes her vows. Wanda tells Anna about her Jewish roots. Both women start a journey not only to find their family's tragic story, but to see who they really are and where they belong. They question what they used to believe in

.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Pawel

Pawlikowski

.

Writers

–

Pawel

Pawlikowski

.

Year

– 2013

Country

– Poland.

Genre

– Drama.

Main actors -

-

Agata

Kulesza

– Wanda.

-

Agata

Trzebuchowska – Anna

-

Dawid

Ogrodnik

– Lis.

- Jerzy

Trela – Szymon.- Adam Szyszkowski – Feliks.

- Joanna

Kulig

– Singer.

-

Dorota

Kuduk

–

Kaska

.

- Other characters – Barman,

Marysia

,

Bronia, Mother Superior, Waitress.Production company – Opus Film, Phoenix Film Investments, Canal+ Polska, Phoenix Film Poland.

Slide52

Section B: Non-English Language European Film

#5: Mustang

Plot Summary

-

Early summer. In a village in northern Turkey,

Lale

and her four sisters are walking home from school, playing innocently with some boys. The immorality of their play sets off a scandal that has unexpected consequences. The family home is progressively transformed into a prison; instruction in homemaking replaces school and marriages start being arranged. The five sisters who share a common passion for freedom, find ways of getting around the constraints imposed on them.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

–

Deniz

Gamze

Erguven

.

Writers

–

Deniz

Gamze

Erguven

, Alice

Winocour

.

Year

– 2016.

Country

– Turkey / France / Germany / Qatar.

Genre

– Drama.

Main characters-

-

Ece

,

Sonay

,

Erol

,

Dilek

,

Yasin, Osman, Erin, Ekin, The Grandmother, Aunt Hanife, The Great-Aunt, Aunt Emine, Osman’s Father and Mother, Osman’s Aunt, Ekin’s

Mother and Father, Gynaecologist, Boy in the Car, Uncle

Seref

,

Petek

Hanim

, Riffle Man,

Dilek’s

boyfriend.

Production company

– Artificial Eye (UK), CG Cinema,

Vistamar

Filmproduktion, Uhlandfilm, Bam Film.

Slide53

Section B: Non-English Language European Film

#6: Victoria

Plot Summary

-

A young Spanish woman who has newly moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret.

.

(detailed synopsis - next page).

Director

– Sebastian

Schipper

.

Writers

– Sebastian

Schipper

, Olivia

Neergaard

-Holm, Eike Frederik Schulz.

Year

– 2015.

Country

– Germany.

Genre

– Crime / Drama / Romance / Thriller.

Main actors -

-

Laia

Costa – Victoria.

- Frederick Lau –

Sonne

.

- Franz

Rogowski

– Boxer.

-

Burak

Yigit

– Blinker.

- Max Mauff – FuB- Andre Hennicke – Andi.

- Other characters – Barkeeper,

Taxifahrer

,

Junge

Mutter,

Junger

Vater

, SEK 1, SEK 2,

Zivilfahnder

1,

Zivilfahnder

2,

Kioskverkaufer, Baby.Production company – MonkeyBoy, Deutschfilm, Radical Media, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), ARTE

Slide54

Component 3 - Production

Extract from a film highlighting narrative construction - Up to 3 ½ minutes in length. Or a screenplay 1400 words in length plus a digitally photographed storyboard.