The Cinema and Modern Art Movements

Essay Questions

(7-10 pages)

Answer one of the following questions. Your essays should be typed or word-

processed and must be double-spaced. Be sure to include bibliographical references for any quoted or paraphrased material.

1. In spite of their apparently apolitical stance, many avant-garde films are explicitly political. Others seem to be more implicitly concerned with political issues. This is especially true if we consider the act of avant-garde filmmaking as a gesture of defiance in the face of mainstream film practice. Discuss avant-garde film’s political intent in at least two films screened during the course.

2. One consistent theme explored in film—especially those films influenced by Expressionism and Surrealism—is a preoccupation with representations of subjectivity, and this theme is one that has persisted to the present day. Using at least one film from the course and one other film, discuss the various methods by which filmmakers have attempted to depict the workings of the mind.

3. Postmodernism has argued against the insistence that “high” culture needs to be distinguished from “popular” culture, and film is, perhaps, the medium that most convincingly expresses that argument. Interestingly, the tension between so-called high- and low art is in some ways inherent in the medium itself: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, for example, uses a “high” art style in order to create a “popular” film. Using at least twofilms, discuss the ways in which filmmakers have attempted to combine high art ideals with popular culture

Movies and reading covered in class:

Street of Crocodiles, The Brothers Quay (UK 1986), 21 min., colour.

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), Robert Wiene (Germany, 1919), 70 min., b+w. Reading: Thompson & Bordwell, “Germany in the 1920s.”

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horrors), F.W. Murnau (Germany, 1922), 94 min., b+w. Reading: Lotte Eisner, “The Symphonies of Horror.”

M, Fritz Lang (Germany, 1931), 94 min., b+w. Reading: Lotte Eisner, “The World of Shadows and Mirrors.”
Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov (USSR, 1929), 68 min, b+w.

Reading: Thompson & Bordwell, “Increased State Control and the Montage Movement, 1925-1930.”

Screening: A Zed and Two Noughts, Peter Greenaway (UK/Netherlands, 1985), 115 min., colour

Reading: John Hill, “Film and Postmodernism.”

Screening: The Saddest Music in the World, Guy Maddin (Canada 2003), 99 min., b+w & colour. Reading: William Beard, “The Saddest Music in the World.”