Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Lecture Notes//Italian vernacular cinema

Fellini is taken seriously as an auteur
Comments on super fiction of middle class
-Style and sophistication
-Worthy critical appraisal

Dolce Vita
- Style
- Sunglasses became style icon from this film
- Italian film that’s reproduced

There is  alot more to Italian films though
- Audiences
- historical and social context
- economics – low budget

Christopher Wagstaff
- Prima Visione & Seconda
    - first & 2nd class
    - middle class sophiscated
    - major cities
    - audience select film
- Terza Visione
    - 3rd class
    - rural, industrial
    - cheap tickets
    - audience go on habit
    - films were more low budget

- Italian Working Class
    - cinema every night – had to make lots of films
    - conversations, drink and eat during the films
    - can enter at different times

- Terza Visione
     - More like tv audience, use it as a tv, would watch whatever is on
     - Watch films in different way - can go in part way through, then watch beginning of it after.

- Filone/genre
    - Similar to the term genre but not
    - Based in the idea of geology
Examples:
- giallo
- spaghetti western
- mondo/cannibal film
-poliziottesco – police procedural

     - The good bad and ugly
- use sound
- music
- lack of audience
- use of eye line and cutting
- differences in scale
- catholic references
- use of camera
- fragmentation of body

- Focus on Giallo
- Italian for yellow
- Cheap paperback crime and mystery novel

- Directors


Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci
-  Stylish
-  Exploitation movies
- Gross out movies
- Similar to American grindhouse
- Wonderful titles used to sell concepts
- Titles
- Don’t tortue a duckling
- Death walks on high heels

- The Girl who knew too much – Mario Bava
- first Giallo made 1963
- private detector that views all murders – American or English woman

Amateur detective
- American or British
- Creative industry
- Evoke cosmopolitan ‘ jet set ‘ life style

Mikel Koven – In depth study into Giallo’s and the characteristics of them
Killers:
-black gloves
-black hat
-black overcoat
-disguises gender
-priests often used as part of gender confusion.



- Dario Argento
   - Italian Hitchcock
   - Places himself in film
   - Stunning ‘ set piece’
   - Shot without sound
   - Worked with Sergio leone on ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’
   - Son of Salvator Argento
   - Brother – Claudio Argento
   - Father – Asia Argento
   - Wife – Daria Nicolodi

- The Bird With a Crystal Plumage (1970)
    - Stereotype killer
    - Set piece

- Subjective POV 
   - Killer-cam
   - Eye line shot
   - Set piece
   - Art and cultural references
   - Semiotics
   - Modernity and religion
   - Dubbing

Product placement
In Mario Bava films there is always the placement of the product J&B Whisky in nearly all shots.

Worth Watching?
- innovative
- necessity is mother of invention
- technical mastery
- visual mastery
- tells us about different cultures

Vernacular Film is Dead?
- multiplexes – Odeon, showcase, etc
- Cinema is seen as a special event now
- Expensive ticket prices
- There is now DVD and digital formats which can watch at home instead
- Social aspects of film watching online and in home.

American / Canadian Giallo
- Black swan
- Death Proof
- Dressed to Kill
- Halloween
- Black Christmas

My reaction to all three film theory lectures was positive. Even though i didn't see a direct connection for me personally to my own practice, i did find the lectures interesting and learning about something new which i had never seen or taken interest in before was really good to see.
I did see that this would link into graphic design by the idea of movie posters, which a lot of the designers of these time were producing. I think that movie posters have come back nowadays and there are a lot which are produced. Personally i like the look of movie posters and would love to give it go in the near future.
As for the lectures i think that they were presented well, with the use of the film clips within them, it broke them up a little and made them more interesting. Like i said before i did find these lectures useful and thought it could be something i could look into in my own time.

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