Lecture Notes

CTCS 200
10.25.10

I. Transition to Sound
A. Influence of silent film aesthetics
1. Pudovkin:
a. Editing as a tool to direct the spectatorʼs attention
b. Visuals: close-ups & editing employed to clarify the narrative
2. Arnheim:
a. Filmʼs distinctive properties: editing, camera angles
b. Emphasis on the expressive properties of the medium of film
3. Pressures of ʻpure filmʼ -- emphasis on editing, visuals, camera angles
-- and expressive qualities manifest in Hitchcockʼs Blackmail
B. Transitional Period: 1928-1931
1. Artistic pressures: silent film aesthetics
2. Accentuate sound/image juxtapositions
3. By early 1930s, less pressure and anxiety about film art as result of
development with sound
4. During transitional period, filmmakers are trying very hard to combine
the new innovation with the pre-existing art form
5. Camera movement restrictions sometimes caused filmmakers to
attempt more flamboyant techniques with sound (ex. BlackmailI)
a. Phone booth scene
b. Expressive repetition of “knife”
II. The Rise of National Film Industries: 1920s-1930s
A. UFA Studios -- Germany
1. 1917: Special meeting in Germanyʼs Ministry of War -- propaganda for
Wilhelm II, encourage depictions of war efforts
2. “Universum-Film AG” (UFA) formed by committee of prominent banks,
funneling government money to the studio
3. 1918: end of war & monarchy
4. 1932: government turns over UFA shares to banks
5. Vertically integrated company:
a. Production
b. Distribution
c. Exhibition
6. Metropolis (1927), major UFA production
7. Quality and production value matches Hollywood, perhaps surpasses in
artistry
8. Over budget & over schedule, commercial failures
a. Metropolist and Faust
b. Studio in major debt
9. Parufamet Agreement 1925
a. Paramount and MGM investment in UFA
 b. In exchange, increased distribution of Paramount & MGM films in
Germany
c. Bypasses film quota laws
10. German studio system producing 200 films per year in 1920s
11. Late 1920s:
a. UFAʼs debts escalate
b. Purchased by right-wing publisher
c. Early 1930s: production outlet for Nazi regime
B. French Film Industry: 1920s-1930s
1. Pathe
a. 1929: first sound films
b. 1930s: 60 films per year (similar number to Hollywood studio)
2. Gaumont
a. Pre-WWI: a leading producer/distributor
b. Mergers sustain company in 1930s
C. American Film Industry: 1920s-1930s
1. Series of mergers between:
a. Distribution & production companies
b. Exhibition (theaters) and distribution companies
2. Rise of an oligopoly: a concentration of vertically integrated monopolies
3. Paramount, Adolph Zukor: Famous Players-Lasky (production
company)
a. Firmʼs distribution wing, Paramount, buys up larger numbers of
theaters
b. Merges with larger theater chain
c. Vertically integrated
4. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
a. Theater chain with distribution wing purchases production
companies, Metro (run by Louis B. Mayer), and Goldwyn Pictures
b. Vertically integrated
5. Warner Bros.
a. Exhibition business
b. Forms distribution and production divisions
6. Twentieth-Century Fox
a. 1920s: Fox studios (vertically integrated)
b. 1930s: merges with 20th century (an independent production
company)
7. RKO, formed by RCA in late 1920s as way for them to capitalize on
their sound innovations
8. Post-WWI Hollywood dominates the world markets
a. Hollywood production budgets increase with promise of
international returns
b. Domestic returns allowed Hollywood studios to sell films cheaply
abroad (undercutting local competition); importing a Hollywood film
often cheaper than producing a local film
D. Quotas
 1. Import quotas to stave off intrusion of Hollywood films
2. Limited number of Hollywood films imported/exhibited
3. Generally, a ratio of national films in relation to Hollywood films
4. British “Quota Quickies”
a. 1927 British government act: Quota Act
i. Required distributors to handle a % of British films
ii. Required theaters (exhibitors) to show a % of British films
iii. % rose to 20% by 1937
b. Quota quickies: cheap, short films to meet quota
E. International Cinema & Transition to Sound
1. Language barrier
2. Dual language versions of film
III. The Blue Angel
A. As much as Von Sternberg is experimenting with new use of sound, he is also
flaunting their grotesque elements, such as when the professor blows his nose
and the distractions in the night club
B. Brings together heritage of Expressionist techniques while picking up element
of realism as well
C. Images or illusion (as seductive) vs. reality
1. Professor has lived entire life in world of idealism
2. Is therefore all the more threatened by the real world, not knowing
Lolaʼs place in the real world and failing to connect with her status as a
nightclub performer
3. Film is critique of high world of academia
D. Marlene Dietrich represents type of performer that results from Hollywoodʼs
intrusion to foreign markets