udy f

the film

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POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Sophia College
BOI'nbay
 THE PERSON
AND SOCIETY
contents:
\ \ \~
Animal Farm. . 3

Citizen Kane ••••••.••••••••••••••••••. 6

David and Lisa •••• 10

Death of a Sa I esman. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • .15

8t .. • 19

1110'
I kuru •. .25

La Dolce Vita. .32

La Strada. .38

Lone I i ness of the Long Distance Runner. • • • • • • • • •• 44

Lonely Are The Brave. 50

A Place in the Sun •.•••.•••••••••••••••• 54

This Sporting Life. ••...•••• 56

-191·t.t3
C T.

1
 Published in Cooperation with
THE CATHOLIC ADULT EDUCATION CENTER
1307 South Wabash Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60605

2 ©
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Copyright by Argus Communications Co., 1967
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 ANIMAL FARM

(De Rochement Associates, 1954) 75 minutes, Technicolor

CREDITS:

Producers and directors .•..•...........••.. John Halas and

Joy Batchelor
Animation director .......•................ John F. Reed
Story development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . .. Lothar Wolf,
Bordon Mace and
Phillip Stapp
From the novel by George Orwell.
Musical direction. . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Matyas Seiber

BACKGROUND: The Animated Cartoon

Animal Farm was only the twenty-sixth feature-length

animated cartoon to have been made and the first of its kind in England;
in comparison the United States had made fifteen. Perhaps George Melies
might be said to have started it all since he used puppets, models, and
drawings in his imaginative productions. In the Vitagraph catalogue of
1906, a film called Funny Phases of Funny Faces is described as being
composed completely of animated drawings. However, the pioneer work-
ing exclusively in the field of film animation was the Frenchman, Emile
Cohl, who in 1908 began telling stories with simple white figures on a
black background, drawn directly on the film negative. He made over a
hundred such films in the next ten years, and they became very popular
items in the hour -progr ams of the early nickelodeons. Windsor McCay
began the American cartoon in 1909, one of his first subjects being
Gertie, the Dinosaur. He was soon followed by such cartoonists as John R.
Bray (Col. Heezalrar , 1913), Ben Harrison and Manny Gould (Krazy Kat,
1916),Pat Sullivan (Felix the Cat, 1917), Max Fleischer (Koko the Clown,
1917), and among many otherS;-Walt Disney. Although he had begun as
an animator for the studios, Disney started his own production in 1923
rith Little Red Riding Hood, and he took his place of pre-eminence only
-hen he made the first cartoon with sound, and incidentally introduced
a new character called "Mickey Mouse" , in Steamboat Willie, 1928. It
r as Disney who made the first feature cartoon, Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs, 1938. The middle Forties saw the decline of Disney's
fortunes which began with his post-war experiments in trying to merge

3
cartoon with live action. He was threatened by the rise of a new and
creative group calling themselves United Productions of America (1943)
This U. P. A. group broke into commercial circulation with Mr. Magoo
and Gerald McBoing-Boing in 1950. These cartoons introduced a new--
style of animation which was more modernistic and expressive than the
realistic and exact form used by Disney and the other American cartoon-
ists. Disney's cartoons had been artistically done from the point of view
of perspective, modelling, and depth (he even used a deep-focus camera).
U. P. A. gloried in a two-dimensional technique, only sketched-in back-
grounds, and using color more than line, and their cartoons were, above
all, vitally alive. They created a demand for the new style of art work
among the public so that even Disney followed suit. Their influence can
be seen in the animated television commercials (some of which are the
best T. V. viewing today). It should be mentioned that the animated film
has a much greater scope than the cartoon. There is also the puppet film
(notably the Trnka Brothers of Czechoslovakia), the silhouette film (Lotte
Reiniger of Germany), and the experimental animated films of Len Lye.

THE HALAS-BATCHELOR UNIT:

John Halas and Joy Batchelor are a husband-and-wife cartoon

team whose unit has been producing various animated films since 1940.
Their aim was, from the beginning, to work in all fields of animation:
entertainment, advertising, serious artistic works, public service and
educational films. Because of the war, at first they worked mainly in
propaganda and the instructional film. Their Dustbin Parade, 1942, was
one of the first to move away from the realistic style of Disney into the
more graphic, expressionistic form later popularized in the work of
U. P. A. In this way, they have certainly exerted an influence on the
development of the American cartoon. After the war, they did the fir st
three-dimensional cartoon, The Owl and The Pussycat, 1953. They also
began doing the titles for feature films,such as Once More With Feeling
and Surprise Package. The British Film Institute commissioned them to
experiment with the animation of still drawings by camera movement
in the Poet and Painter series. Their children's television program,
using paperSculpture animation, "Snip and Snap", won awards at Venice
in 1960 and 1961. Today they have the largest British studio turning out
animated films and are one of the most creative and influential forces in
the field. Because animated films are so costly to produce and employ
such large numbers of individuals, a large and well-equipped center is
a necessity. The returns on such films are small, and few such centers
exist in the world cinema. The financial success of Disney, for example,
has been possible not because of his motion pictures (and today these
include not only his cartoons, but also the True Life Adventure series,
live-action children stories, and his television programs) but because
of his commercial ventures in franchising toys, clothes, games, and
so on, in addition to his highly profitable Disneyland Park.

4
THE FILM: Production

Animal Farm was the 120th production of the Halas-Batchelor

Unit. It took the efforts of seventy artists two years to complete. There
are the usual statistics about the 42 tons of paint used, the 250,000 indi-
vidual drawings which comprise the film, and the 30,000 man-hours,
indicating the enormous effort involved in an animated production which
the public generally takes for granted. But more significant than these
figures is the fact that this was the first cartoon feature made expressly
for adults. There had been several short cartoons dealing with serious
subjects prior to this, most notably Berthold Bartosch's French political
L'Idee , 1934, thirty minutes of partially drawn and jointed figures. None
of these adult cartoons, including Animal Farm, received much support
at the box-office and future films of this type are doubtful. Although the
Unit specialized in expressionistic films, it was decided that audiences
could not take such stylization for a long period of time. The film, there-
fore, was done in a relatively naturalistic fashion. But it departs from
the comic tradition of the cartoon by not employing comic violence - - things
here "hurt" realistically. The film was subtitled "A Fairy Tale" which
is certainly misleading. Though it has some comedy and much satire,
it is basically a fable about revolutions and their ultimate failure. It
is an accurate translation of what Orwell so simply described in his
memorable novel. The dialogue is taken virtually from the book, and
the story follows scene by scene. There are several slight changes
(for dramatic purposes,) especially the revolt of the animals against
Napoleon. Perhaps it was thought to be pessimistic without this change;
but even with it, the film leaves us with few illusions about ourselves or
our institutions. Seiber's musical score adds another enjoyable dimension
to the viewing of this film.

5
 CITIZEN KANE

(Mercury RKO-Radio, 1941) 119 minutes

CREDITS:

Producer and director .....•...•.••.....••.. Orson Welles

Screenplay. . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . • . • . . . . • . • . . . .. Herman J. Mankiewicz
and Orson Welles
Photography .....••...•.••...•.•....••.••.. Gregg Toland
Music ..••.......................•........ Bernard Herrmann
Special effects ...•••.••..........•.......•. Vernon L. Walker
Art direction .........................•.... Van Nest Polglase
and Perry Ferguson
Editor ...............•.........•.......•.. Robert Wise

CAST:

Joseph Cotten ....•••••••.....•......•••... [edediah Leland

Dorothy Comingore ...•................•••. Susan Alexander
Everett Sloane •.....•...•.............••... Mr. Bernstein
Ray Collins ..•••.••.•.................••.. James W. Gettys
George Coulouris .•...................•••.. Walter Parks Thatcher
Agnes Moorhead ....•••........•....••..... Kane's mother
Paul Stewart. • . . . . . . . . • . . . • . • . . . • . . . • • . . . •. Raymond
Ruth Warrick ••..•...................•.•••• Emily Norton
Erskine Sanford ..•••...................... Herbert Carter
William Alland ...•..•................•.... Thompson
Fortunio Bonanova .••.•.••........•.•••..... Matiste
Gus Schilling ..•....••.•••...••.•..••...... Headwaiter
Philip Van Zandt ..••••...............••••.. Mr. Rawlson
George Backus .•.•.••...•........•..••..... Miss Anderson
Harry Shannon .....••...••.....•....•...... Kane's father
Sonny Rupp .......•••........•..........•.. Kane III
Buddy Swan ........•..............•........ Kane, as a boy
Orson Welles •...•..•.•.................... Kane

PRODUCTION:

Welles' first months in Hollywood were spent learning about

how a film is made. His teachers were RKO craftsmen and the great

6
 lassic films made by directors such as Eisenstein, Ford, and Hitchcock
hich he had run and re -run for him in a private screening room. After
making several false starts, he and Mankiewicz came up with an original
script which was shot on a closed set in fifteen weeks . The actors were
almost totally drawn from Welles' New York Mercury Theater Players,
and cast and crew were under orders not to discuss the film with anyone.
After five weeks of editing the film was ready for release in December,
1940. However, the Hearst interests were able to keep the studio from
circulating it until Welles threatened legal action himself. It was finally
premiered on May 1, 1941, and did fairly well in large cities but was a
complete flop in smaller places. The critics generally were very favor-
able in their reviews, and it won awards as the best picture of the year
from the New York critics and the National Board of Review. It was
nominated in many categories for Academy Awards, but the only one it
received was for original screenplay. Welles was extremely unpopular
with the Hollywood community, especially over the fact that he, as a
newcomer, had a contract which paid him twenty-five percent of the
profits of his films, in addition to giving him full control from beginning
to end to make films as he wanted. There was a song to be heard at film
parties called" Little Orson Annie", and his name was hissed at the
Academy Awards.

Gregg Toland (1904-1948) was one of the few great creative

cameramen. Some of his work may be seen in films like Grapes of Wrath,
The Long Voyage Home, Dead End, The Little Foxes, and TheBestYears
of Our Lives. He and Welles worked together on each set-up and its com-
position, lighting, and movement. The visuals in Citizen Kane are striking-
ly effective no matter how many times they are re-seen. Toland's camera
never just photographs but selects an image that will create content. Some
of the effects that he obtained came from his use of deep-focus shooting
(foreground, middle, and background are equally distinct), wide-angle
lens (broadens area but distorts perspective), coated lens (to shoot into
light sources), and ceilinged sets which required extraordinary angles
and lighting. These things had been done before but never with such
force and unrelenting emphasis on content as in Kane. Robert Wise's
editing is faultless, and after his work on The Magnificent Ambersons he
himself began directing (e.g., The Set-Up--;---!Wantto Live, and West Side
Story). - --- --- - -- -- --

STRUCTURE:

This film is a search for the meaning of a man's last words.

He is something different to every person who knew him, and the viewer
gets to see Kane from a number of different viewpoints. However, Welles
said that "He is never judged with the objectivity of an author, and the
point of the pictures is not so much the solution of the problem as its
presentation." Rosebud does not really explain Kane, but the film does
open up the three-dimensional character of a personality. This was the

7
first of the American psychological films which, after the hiatus caused
by the war, would start a cycle that ran for several years (beginning with
Spellbound in 1945, ) and is still a strong influence (the psychological
Western, for instance . ),

The film begins with some shots of Xanadu ("no trespassing"),

going closer to the house until it reaches an upper window into a room,
then a voice, a glass paperweight, a dead arm, and a nurse entering the
room, shot from the floor through the paperweight. This prologue ends
with a blast of sound, and the second sequence begins with the newsreel
of Kane's life. The camera is under-cranked, giving the illusion of early
films, and is even scratched and washed out. This film-within-a-film
is technically convincing, being exactly patterned on The March of Time
and necessary for revealing the public facts about the man who istobe
examined in the rest of the film. As the newsreel ends, the scene is
revealed as a screening room which remains dark except for the shaft
of light from the projection booth. This third sequence gives us the rea-
son for the reporter's search into the meaning of Rosebud. The rest of
the film is divided into recollections of Kane's guardian, second wife,
a business associate, his best friend, and his servant. Since the story
is not chronological, the transitions are important and have been thought
out extremely well; e. g., Kane sits by a girl at a piano who is singing,
dissolve to larger piano with same people but in more lavish surround-
ings while the sound track carries the same song; Kane gently claps at
the song's conclusion, dissolve to the applause of a political rally. The
film is a mosaic of such transitions which lead naturally and logically
from one location to another. This selection of images and their "tele-
scoping" give the film a breadth that only the novel once had. The film
medium's expression is based upon image and editing, and no other art
form could express so economically the estrangement of Kane from his
wife as those dissolving shots at the breakfast table as it grows longer
and longer between them. Welles' use of sound is also important. Because
he had stage and radio experience, he understood the use of sound as per-
haps no other Hollywood director. His use of echoes, hollow voices re-
sounding in a large room, natural sound from near and far away instead
of the same even level, voices trailing from one scene to another, were
real innovations at the time, although they have been imitated ever since.
The film is a catalogue of devices and has served as a source for many
present directors. The chief criticism of the film has been that it is a
technical "tour de force" , that the styles obscures the essential emptiness
of the content, that it is without significance. However, the majority
opinion by far is that Citizen Kane is one of the few classics of film in
which technique is never used only for its own effect but to express Sig-
nificantly the film's purpose.

8
H)1t FURTHER READING:

Derek Grigs, "Conversation with Welles", in Sight and Sound,

(Spring, 1960).

John Cutts, "Citizen Kane", in Films and Filming,

(December, 1963).

Cedric Belfrage, "Orson Welles' Citizen Kane" in Lewis

Jacobs' Introduction to the Art of the Movies, (New York, 1960).

9
 DAVlD AND LISA

(A Heller-Perry Production, 1962) 94 minutes

CREDITS:

Producer ......•.........................•• Paul M. Heller

Director .............•............. ' Frank Perry
Screenplay ....•.•......................•.. Eleanor Perry
From Dr. Theodore Isaac Rubin's book,
Lisa and David.

Photography .•..•.......•.........•.....••• Leonard Hirschfield

Music .•........•....••............•...... Mark Lawrence
Art director ....•••••.••................... Paul M. Heller
Editor . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . •. Irving ashman

CAST:

Keir Dullea ...........................•... David Clemens

Janet Margolin Lisa
Howard da Silva .......................•... Dr. Swinford
Neva Patterson ......•..................... Mrs. Clemens
Clifton James ...•..••................•.•..• John
Richard MacMurray ...........•......•..•.. Mr. Clemens
Nancy Nutter ...•......•.................... Maureen
Matthew Anden .................•....••...• Simon
Jaime Sanchez .........•......•............ Carlos

THE DECLINE OF THE STUDIOS:

Since the days of Thomas Ince just before the First World
War, Hollywood's studio assembly line turned out films in piecemeal
fashion by hiring a writer, then a director to shoot the script and finally
an editor to put the celluloid together. Commercial productivity and not
creativity was the basis of their industry. The coming of sound and the
concentration of all facilities in the hands of a small number of studios
financed by large Eastern investment firms eliminated the last vestiges
of independence maintained by a few individual American filmmakers.
Except for the occasional work of such exceptions to the general rule as
Charlie Chaplin or Orson Welles; teams of writers churned out the required

10
scripts which directors shot on tight schedules. Artistry and talent were
present but always obscured by commercial considerations. Certain
directors attempted to minimize the extent of their studio's control. For
example, John Ford boasted that he shot films so that they could only be
put together in one way -- his. John Huston fought mightily to preserve
his integrity; but when MGM cut an hour out of The Red Badge of Courage,
1951, he quit caring about his professional reputation. ----

A number of directors tried immediately after the war to

produce their own films, but their lack of financial sagacity brought their
efforts to nothing. A few years later, during the fifties, Hollywood faced
one disaster after another, and some of the large studios closed their
doors permanently. The others released their technicians and actors from
contract obligations. It was now the stars who formed companies, obtained
capital which normally would have been invested in a studio production,
rented studio space, and made the profits formerly realized by the studio.
As one veteran studio head remarked, "The lunatics are in control of the
asylum." Some degree of rationalization has returned during the sixties
and the studios are once again operating profitably. One reason is that
they produce ninety percent of the filmed shows seen on television. Another
is that they are handling their productions as individual packages, exercising
control with much more discretion than during their lush days of monopoly
when they had controlled distribution and exhibition of movies. Hollywood,
"the dream factory", is gone forever (its tradition, however , is preserved
on the small television scr een . ) The new Hollywood is still developing
and looks upon the future with a great deal of optimism.

THE GROWTH OF THE INDEPENDENTS:

There have always been attempts to make movies outside

the established studio system. Until the fifties, however, such so -cal led
"underground" films rarely received any wide distribution. Several post-
war developments changed this situation. The introduction of improved
equipment (smaller cameras, faster film stock, portable sound equip-
ment) made it possible to make films in natural surroundings without being
tied to sound stages controlled by a studio. New movements of filmmaking
stressed the necessity of reality both in form and content. Centered in
New York, but stretching across the country was the New American Cine-
ma, a group of filmmakers who took their inspiration from what had happened
in Italy (neo-realism), France (the New Wave and ~inema verite), England
(Free Cinema). These foreign movements, composed of young directors
with fresh ideas, had proved that small, inexpensive, non-studio films
could be popular with discriminating audiences. Some American" under-
ground" films have received major distribution (e.g., Shadows; Hallelujah
the Hills; Goldstein; One Potato, Two Potato; and Nothing But a Man.)
Whether this will continue on a large scale remains to be seen. Talent,
in addition to something to say, are needed to reach large audiences. The

11
independent production that shattered precedent and acquired mass popu-
larity as none before it was David and Lis~.

The film came into being from a chance reading by Eleanor

Perry of Dr. Rubin's book. Her husband agreed that the story had possi-
bilities as a film as she prepared a shooting script based on it. The
studios who were approached rejected it and consequently the Perrys
decided to try to make it on their own. Perry went into partnership with
Paul Heller, an art director, who now assumed also the responsibilities
of producer. Having had experience in the Broadway manner of financing
plays (by selling a percentage of the property), they were able to find
thirty-three individuals willing to invest amounts ranging from $312.50
to $50, 000. The total cost of the film was approximately $200, 000 (com-
pared to the million dollar production cost of the average Hollywood movie.)
Originally scheduled to be shot in New York, the discovery of an aban-
doned building in a Philadelphia suburb fitted their needs perfectly. The
entire film was made there except for some location work in the city
proper, and shooting was completed in four weeks. Even the dream
sequences were done there rather than on a sound stage. Once the film
was finished, no distributor was interested until it was awarded a prize
at the Venice Film Festival for the best film by a new director. It also
won the best actress and actor awards at the San Francisco Festival.
Perry and Heller were now in a position to select a reputable distributor
who wisely promoted the film as one for art theaters. Its success on
this circuit got it into general distribution. Frank Perry was able to get
a distributor to put up the money for his next film, Ladybug, Ladybug,
1964. It was so disappointing that after its New York premiere it was
withdrawn from distribution. The Perrys are now at work for Sam Spiegel
in making The Swimmer, based on a short story by John Cheever.

CONTENT AND TECHNIQUE:

Frank Perry's background as a director had been primarily

theatrical, although he had worked for a short time with William Burke,
an independent filmmaker in 1956. He had also had some television pro-
duction experience. When he decided to direct David and Lisa, he pre-
pared himself by reading all the film books he could get. He found his
best guide to be S. M. Eisenstein's Film Form and Film Sense. However,
there appears to be little that he usesof Eisenstein's theories of editing
in his completed film. It is for the most part a straight -forward telling
of the tale of two lonely individuals with many static shots of dialogue.
Perry has been severely criticized for what many reviewers felt was a
lack of cinematic style. He has replied that he felt the story demanded
such simplicity of filming with no intrusion of technique. He has also
pleaded that he did not have the time to do the film in any other way.
The sequence of the film that he feels was the most successful was the
last, in and around the museum. The use of a mixture of young actors

12
and experienced character players worked well and gave the film a certain
measure of emotional honesty. The use of a professional musical score
during the subjective or lyrical scenes contrasted well with the natural
sound utilized for its realistic segments.

FOR FURTHER READING:

William Bayer, "Interview with Frank Perry" in Film Comment,

(Summer, 1963).

Roy Huss and Bruce Marcus, "David and Lisa; Pro and Con,"
in The Seventh Art, (Summ er , 1963).

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Eleanor Perry disclaims that she was interested in scripting a

psychiatric case history and instead describes David and Lisa as
"a love story in unusual circumstances". Do you thi"nk\t has value
as seen from the point of view of psychotherapy? Does it have
universal application?

2. We have some indication of why David is the way he is through

the scenes with his parents. Does the relationship between his
domineering mother and the weak father explain David? Should
we have been told something about Lisa' s background and the
origin of her mental condition?

3. Does the ending of the film (mute Muriel and rhyming Lisa
become "me" -student party -quarrel-flight- David saying,
"Take my hand") indicate a solution has been found to the
affliction of the two principals?

4. There was much critical hostility toward this film. One

reviewer dismissed it as "a fairy tale". Is the film one of
psychological realism? Were there any elements of melodrama?

s. How does David and Lisa compare with other films dealing with
similar themes, such as !:.
Child Is Waiting, Freud, The Mark,
Andy, and Thursday's Children? What kind of attitude does it
present in regard to mental illness?

13
Were the characters (especially the parents and psychiatrist)
stereotyped or presented as individuals? What did you think of
the acting ability of the two leads, both of whom had had very
little professional experience?

Did you feel the film was too static as a motion picture? Were
there enough imaginative visuals to sustain viewing interest?
Do you think, as one critic did, that the hand movements
(symbolizing communication) by various characters was the
film's key cinematic technique?

14
 DEATH OF A SALESMAN

(Columbia, 1951) 115 minutes

CREDITS:

Director .......•.••.•.......••...•••...•. Laslo Benedek

Associate producer. • . • . . . . . . • . . . . . • . . . . . .• George Glass
Screenplay ..••••....••...•••....•.•.....• Stanley Roberts
Based on the play by Arthur Miller.
Production design ....•••...•.....•...•...• Rudolph Sternad
Musical score .•.•.••................•...• Alex North
Musical director. . . ••. . . . . . . . •. . . •. . . . . . .. Morris Stoloff
Photography ..•...••........•....•........ Frank Planer
Art director. ••. . ••. . . . . . . . . •. . . . . . . . . . . .. Gary Odell
Editor .........•....•......••............ William Lyon
Assistant director. . •. •. • . . . . •. . . . . • . . . . . .. Frederick Briskin

A Stanley Kramer Production.

CAST:

Fredric March. . • • . . . • . • . . . . . • . . . •. . . . . . .. Willy Loman

Mildred Dunnock . • . . . • • . . . . • . . . . . . •. . . . . .. Linda
Kevin McCarthy. . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . •• . •. . . . .. Biff
Cameron Mitchell. . . • . • . . . . . • • . . ..... . . . .. Happy
Howard Smith ••...••.....•....•..•.•..•..• Charley
Royal Beal ....•••..•.•.......•...•.•..... Uncle Ben
Kon Keefer ..•••••.•.•...........•.•...... Bernard

Also: Jesse White, Claire Carlton and David Alpert.

AWARD:

Venice Film Award for Best Actor, Fredric March.

INTRODUCTION: The Social Comment Film

The social comment film deals with contemporary human

problems and situations. From the public's standpoint, movies such as
Marty, Gentlemen's Agreement, Bicycle Thief, and The Defiant Ones
are more important for their treatment of a social condition than for

15
any aesthetic reason. or entertainment value. To an extent, social realism
on the screen is abhorrent to the industry; it is considered too risky and
difficult to sell. Generally, too, this type of film is lengthy and depressing,
and thus is unwelcomed by the masses. Few of these films return big
profits, and they are always controversial.

D. W. Griffith's Intolerance, 1916, was not the first social

comment film designed to "teach" the public, but it appeared on the eve
of the war and was a commercial failure. Erich von Stroheim' s Greed,
1923, (based on Frank Norris' McTeague) was much more than just a
revealing sketch of turn-of-the-century Americana; and had it not been
drastically edited, it might have been one of the cinema's treasured social
documents. Von Sternberg's The Salvation Hunters, 1925, told the de-
pressing truth about the nation'SSlums, but again no one was interested.
With Vidor's The Crowd, 1928, a chronicle on urban life, and Milestone's
All Quiet on the wester=n Front, 1930, depicting the harsh realities of
war, the climate suddenly changed. More acceptance came with sound,
as audiences were attracted to stories drawn from the headlines of the day:
politics, gangsters, prisons, medicine, economic conditions, etc. The
most impressive of these was Ford's The Grapes of Wrath, 1939. The
post-war years treated problems with amore serious intent, as the cinema
came of age. At home, the "important" films were Wellman's The Story
of G. 1. Joe, 1945; Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946; and Zinne-
man's The Men, 1950. ItalYOSRossellini and De Sica shot Open City and
Shoeshirle, (1945 and 1946, respectively) in the streets, and the neo -realist
movement was born. Social realism took root immediately in England,
Japan and India, each with different viewpoints but with something terribly
important to say. Today, films of social comment abound at annual festi-
vals, attesting to the maturity of filmmakers and the paying public.

America's cycle of contemporary films would be incomplete

without recognizing the distinct contribution of writer -producer -director ,
Stanley Kramer.

STANLEY KRAMER:

Born in New York, September 29, 1913, Stanley Kramer

received his Bachelor of Science degree from New York University in 1933.
He went to Hollywood soon after and worked as a film cutter and writer
until the war. In 1949, he formed his own production company and dis-
tributed through Columbia until 1955. His most popular films during this
period were The Men, 1950; Death of a Salesman, 1951; High Noon, 1952;
The Champioll,l949; Cyrano de Bergerac, 1950; Home of the Brave, 1949;
and The Wild One, 1954. In 1955, he turned to directinghis own pictu-es
for United Artists, beginning with Not As a Stranger. Although not as
successful a director as one would wish with his choice of subject matter,
his films are nevertheless stimulating and probing. In The Pride and the
Passion, 1957, his selection of stars hurt the picture considerably-;-;hich

16
is the apparent deciding factor in all his films. The formula worked in
The Defiant Ones, 1958, and he was moderately successful with On the
Beach, 1959, and Inherit the Wind, 1960. Judgment at Nuremburg, 1961,
suffered from a very slow pace and static direction despite good perform-
ances by the actors. His attempt at comedy in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad,
Mad World, 1963, is spotty and on the whole unimpressive.~s latest
film, Ship of Fools, 1964, is fragmented and episodic, and tends to
alternately absorb and distract the viewer's interest.

Laslo Benedek was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1907.

Educated in Vienna, he was in turn a writer, photographer and camera-
man in Hollywood, France, England and Mexico. He directed the musical
The Kissing Bandit, 1948, and The Port of New York, 1949, before working
with Kramer on Death of a Salesman, 1951-;-and The Wild One, 1954.
Recently, he has turnedhls talents to directing television dramas, among
them The Four -Star Play House and The Loretta Young Show.

THE PHOTO-PLAY:

Death of a Salesman is best described as a photographed

play; but it is hardlY;- in the true sense, a film. The weight of the movie
is carried entirely by the competence of the actors, accented sharply by
lighting and close -ups , Even the sets appear to be construe,.ted with linear
limitations and dimensions of depth. The camera moves slowly and in-
frequently. A few cinematic touches are found in the subway scene, the
subjective camera shots inside Willy's car, and the outdoor cemetery
scene. Since these are different from the rest of the picture, they are,
to a degree, distracting and tend to draw the viewer away from absorption
in the characters. In any case, with so much emphasis on the dialogue,
it would have been difficult to produce the play in any other way. The
hallucination scenes, on the other hand, are very well done. The acting
is also more than adequate, with exceptional performances from Fredric
March and Mildred Dunnock. With minor changes, it is Arthur Miller's
play in its entirety.

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What does Linda mean when she says that "Willy is a human
being -- attention must be paid to such a person!" Why does
Willy want everyone to like him?

17
2. Describe the characters of Willy, Linda, Biff, Happy, Charlie.
Is Uncle Ben a real person, a part of Willy, or simply an hallu-
cination? Why does Willy seek self-destruction?

3. What is Willy's "dream?" On what note does the movie end?

Does the film ~ell us anything about ourselves?

18
 8 1/2

(Italy, 1964) 135 minutes

CREDITS:

Director Federico Fellini

Assistant director ..•....................... Guidarino Guidi
Screenplay ..........•..................... Fellini, Pinelli,
Flaiano and Rondi
Photography .......•....................... Gianni Di Venanzo
Cameraman Pasquale De Santis
Sets ....•...•...............•............. Piedo Gherardi
Editor ...•......................•......... Leo Cattozzo
Music ...•................................. Nino Rota
Producer Clemente Fracassi
Production company Cineriz

\
CAST:
\
Marcello Mastroianni Guido Anselmi
Anouk Aimee Luisa, his wife
Sandra Milo Carla, his lover
Rossella F alk Luisa' s friend
Claudia Cardinale Girl in white
Annibale Ninchi ...........................• Guido's father
Giuditta Rissone Guido's mother
Edra Gale Saraghina
Marco Gemini ............................• Guido, as a boy
Tito Masini The Cardinal
Mario Pizu Mezzabotta

AWARDS:

Grand Prize, Moscow; Best Foreign Language Film, Independent

Film Imports and Distributors of America, and Board of Review
of Motion Pictures, U. S. A., 1963; plus various awards at San
Sebastian, Acapulco, Beirut, Cannes.

19
INTRODUCTION: Contemporary Italian Cinema

The Italian cinema today defies description or analysis.

Among the few certitudes is the conviction that Fellini and Antonioni, at
the height of their popularity, have shouldered neo-realists such as Ros-
sellini and De Sica out of the limelight. And yet, De Sica can produce
box office successes such as Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, or Marriage,
Italian Style, and stage a significant, if somewhar-derivative, comeback.
Although these recent films do not reflect the mood of Bicycle Thief or
Paisan, that tradition lives on, continuing in strange ways to affect the
Italian cinema. Piero Paolo Pasol ini , the young Communist director,
still prefers techniques proper to neo -realism: the use of non -professionals
and real locales for his films. His Accatone is a harsh accusation of
lawless life in Rome, while his recent Gospel According to St. Matthew
uses ruthless honesty to bring Christ to life after so manY-screen embalm-
ings. Ermanno Olmi is a young documentarian fascinated with quiet themes
such as that of 11Posto, in which an office boy experiences the soul-killing
monotony of an office job. Far as these films are from Open City and
Shoeshine, they inherit a social conscience which continues to add signi-
ficance.

. The crisis in contemporary Italian cinema came in 1963,

when the older directors were hard-pressed to maintain their reputations
in the face of over -production, rising costs, and falling box office receipts.
Few of the 100 films made that year cleared a profit, and even Dino De
Laurentiis had difficulty meeting his expenses. Nevertheless it was a
vintage year for films. Not only the old guard directors like Luchino
Visconti (The Leopard) but another generation of young talent scored with
a new cinema. In addition to Pasolini and Olmi, we can mention Pietro
Germi, with his Seduced and Abandoned; Mario Monicelli's The Organizer;
Giuseppe de Santis' Italiano Brava Gente; Luigi Commencini'SBebo's Girl;
Marco Ferrerri's The Fascist; and Alberto Lattuada's Mafioso. Although
many of these films drew upon war themes seemingly exhausted by neo-
realism, there appeared a new mood of detached inquiry characteristic
of Antonioni and the new contemporary style.

The churning disorder of the Italian cinema today conceals

the ferment of creativity from the casual observer. Rome's studios,
among the finest in the world, are cluttered with the international cinema's
floating population. There are films of controlled austerity and abstract
concentration (like those of Antonioni), which are made side by side with
the unabashed prurience of the "Mondo" series (Mondo Cane, Malamondo,
and now, Mondo Freudo). The latter have continued to raise problems-
of censorship which seem never to be resolved. On the whole, the trend
has been to raise questions concerning ourselves and our society, rather
than to hurl judgments after the manner of Bicycle Thief, or La Terra
Trema. One of the many unexplained phenomena in this chaotic scene

20
is Federico Fellini. At the very time his creativity was said to have
ended. he rocked the world with La Dolce Vita. then went on to explore
even newer directions in the film idiom. Ara time when the trend was
to Antonioni's austere world of alienation. Fellini seems to have become
even more baroque in the richness of his imagery. In short, the contra-
dictions and disorder. the creativity and extravagance of the Italian cinema
are summed up in the director of a key film of the century, 8 1/2.

DIRECTOR: Federico Fellini

Fellini was born in the coastal city of Rimini in 1920. Six-

teen years later he came to Rome to satisfy his ambition, engendered by
American films, to become a reporter. Soon tiring of the routine assign-
ments of the apprentice newspaperman, he began to write radio scripts,
tour with a small musical troupe, and eventually sold a movie scenario
to a studio in l-940. From that time on, he devoted himself entirely to
writing film scripts. He met Rossellini during the filming of Open City ,
1945, and received credit as one of the writers for that film. Greatly
influenced by Rossellini, Fellini worked for him as an assistant director
on Paisan, 1946. Soon after he wrote and acted in The Miracle, a short
film directed by Rossellini. This story of a simple-minded woman se-
duced by a man whom she mistook for Saint Joseph caused a g~eat contro-
versy and was condemned by the Legion of Decency. A later Svpreme
Court ruling forbade the banning of this film or any other on gr unds of
"blasphemy" .

Fellini broke into independent film work with The White

Shiek, 1952, a satire on those who live in a world of illusions. This
was followed by The Wastrels (also called Young and Passionate,) 1953,
a film which recalls much of Fellini' sown youth among a group of dis-
sipated young men in an Italian village. The next year, his production
of La Strada marked the emergence of a major talent in Italian filmmaking.
The film was neo-r ealist only in the sense that scenes were shot in real
locations, with a plot that arose organically from the initial situation.
In every other respect, however, the film was a new form, emphasizing
individuals over social problems. The next film, The Swindle, 1955,
failed in its melodramatic plot of confidence men masquerading as priests
in order to bilk simple, superstitious peasants. The film which followed,
The Nights of Cabiria, 1957, is considered by many to be Fellini's mas-
terpiece. His success continued and was multiplied by the controversy
which followed La Dolce Vita. 1960, which is perhaps the high point of
his popular (if not artistiC)Success.

Fel lini has said, "Nec -reahsm is dead today as a movement

which bore the stamp of reality as an exclusive object of interest. Today,
the interest is drawn to man himself -- his metaphysical, psychological,
and total structure." But the director soon fell victim to a similar judgment

21
as his work came under criticism. So severely was his work in the film,
Boccaccio '70, 1961, criticized by his colleagues that Fellini suffered a
real crisis in his work. The attacks had called his work dated because
it so little reflected the new, introspective approach of Antonioni, Olmi,
and Commencini. Fellini withdrew into secrecy to produce his 8 1/2,
which once and for all answered his critics and established his creative
ability to adapt to a changing world and society. Since then he has fol-
lowed directors such "as Antonioni both in the psychological orientation
of his films and in the use of color" His answer to The Red Desert is
a gorgeous Freudian fairy tale called Giuletta of the Spirits and starring
his wife, Giuletta Masina. After this imaginativereversal, no one is
willing to predict the disappearance of the talent that produced 8 1/2.

THE FILM:

Production: The title of the film was suggested by the num-

ber of films which Fel lini had directed before this endeavor. The title
was somewhat deceptive, since collaborations were included in the figure,
yet it does communicate the tentative nature of this bold attempt to expand
the limits of film art. The titles previously considered were Labyrinth
and Wonderful Confusion. It was early in 1960 that Fellini considered
the story of a sophisticated man returning to his rustic past, but Boccac-
cio '70 interrupted work on this theme. The protagonist began as a writer
with marriage problems, but gradually (out of laziness) Fellini abandoned
this approach and made him a film director with obvious biographical
Similarity to himself. Guido eventually took on the character of Marcello
in La Dolce Vita, and it is no wonder that Mastroianni was asked to take
therole. Casting was only one of the many difficulties which accompanied
the initial stages of the film. Fel.lini chose his 152 characters carefully,
balancing a handful of the best professionals in Europe with a group of
people who had never stood before a camera. The script was written,
typically, with his friends Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, and Brunello
Rondi. Nino Rota, of course, did the music. The total shooting time
was four months and ten days, including time lost for illness. All the
scenes are shot in or near Rome: the EUR , a super-modern civic-type
center; the town of Cecchinola; and Fregene, where he erected the 80-
meter scaffold used in the ending. One unusual aspect of the filming
was that Fellino shot half the film without seeing any rushes of the foot-
age. A strike prevented his supervising the daily development of scenes
such as those in the factory, the tomb, the station, and in the Cardinal's
bath. The film grossed over 300 million lire in its first showings, and
added another 500 million in subsequent time.

Story: 8 1/2 is the story of a film director caught in a

double crisis:- Both his marriage and his film career are in danger of
dissolving. Resting at a health spa, he is tortured by the pressure of
continuing work on a film in which he no longer is interested. He invites

22
his mistress to the spa and is discovered by his wife, who denounces
him bitterly. Gradually, the pressures from his producer and wife,
his mistress, actors and actresses and even a Cardinal of the Church,
combine to force him to review his life and existence. He does so in
fantasy and dream, flashback and prophetic vision, gradually distilling
clarity and meaning out of the vague aspirations of his life. As he man-
ages to simplify his existence, life becomes livable once more and he
is given the courage to abandon the film he has been working on. In its
place, he assembles all the personages from past and present, film
and reality, leading them hand in hand as if in a human carousel. As
the movie ends, he and his wife join the happy group.

Direction: Movie-making is something of a mystical game

to Fellini. Although he writes a script (in order to get backers) he seldom
follows it. We find a model of his approach in Guido's work as it is por-
trayed in 8.1/2. The informal shooting schedule, intimate relation to
actors, spontaneous changes of plot, and complete confusion on how the
story will end, are all true of Fellini's films in their making. Some
directors plan the entire film and its editing in their minds. Fellini
allows the irrational to sweep his movements in the creative process.
8 1/2 gives us invaluable insights into his casting, his reaction to intel-
lectual criticism, and to creation itself. He is unafraid of errors, for
as he says:
\
"1 believe that a good picture has to have defects.
It has to have mistakes in it, like life, like people.
I don't believe that beauty, in the sense of perfection,
exists .•. except maybe for the angels."

In spite of his protests, Fellini's films are filled with a profusion of

beautiful images, rich with visual associations that make him a master
of symbolism. These images are frequently the major source of contin-
uity and unity in his films. Fellini seldom retakes scenes, and studious-
ly avoids facile resolutions of his films because he is certain life is not
that way.

The film manifests a superb cinematic fantasy in which the

poetic values dominate the sets, photography, actors and even the dialogue.
The image of oppressive confinement in the auto, followed by the freedom
of being flown like a kite, is one of the most memorable in recent film
history. Similarly, warm and loving scenes from Guido's youth, sudden
glimpses of artistic inspiration in the person of Claudia Cardinale, and
vignettes from the future, are all combined with exceptional skill. Pro-
bably one of the most original aspects of Fellini's style in this film is
the manner in which he shows the simultaneity of past, present and future
in Guido's life. The baroque extravagance of imagery has been criticized,
but it seems to suit the complexity of Fel lini ' s theme admirably. It is
the sole means of uniting visually the chaotic multiplicity of elements

23
which make up Guido's character. The average viewer may find the tech-
nique trying; but however advanced it may be for their present abilities,
it challenges them through its obvious merits to work for an understand-
ing of what it conveys so well.

The Meaning: To some, it may seem ridiculous to search

for meaning in a film whose very action is difficult to follow. Neverthe-
less, we can discover many familiar themes from Fellini's earlier films
repeated here in a different, more obscure context, and they invite our
inquiry. The meaning of human love in marriage, the role of religion
in life, the mystery of the creative process, and most of all, the wonderful,
maddening, rich complexity of the human character, are all themes which
fascinate Fel lini and fill his films with an overpowering sense of the human.
These themes give the film a contemporary tone, touching as they do on
problems of married happiness, the crisis of vocation, and the search
for personal authenticity. As is often the case in recent films, the search
is conducted in highly psychological terms, and enlightened with symbols
out of the annals of Freudian case histories. Although it searches the
past and family life for insights into Guido's character, 8 1/2 is surpassed
in this pre-occupation by Fellini's recent Giuletta of the Spirits.

The film raises serious questions well worth discussing.

Is it simply an extravagant, vague and fantastic display of cinematic vir-
tuosity' or a serious statement on real problems of human life? Do the
characters operate in complete abandonment of traditional moral codes,
or is there some pattern of moral behavior discernible in their choices?
How are we to interpret the portrait which Fellini, in this as in other
films, paints for us? Does it reflect a real situation, or a deep-seated
prejudice in the director? The film has obvious autobiographical elements
which extend even to comments on Fellini's marriage. Does this make of
it too personal a statement, obscured by the intimacy of its detail? Can
we derive something of universal value from Guido's crisis? In one
sense, as Fellini has pointed out, the film is a comedy, containing more
humor than any other film he has directed. Does this humor clash with
the potential tragedy? What are some of the more striking images which
fascinate the viewer in watching this film? How does F ellini use visual
association to give continuity to his abrupt, relational cutting? The last
scene may well hold the key to the film's problematic speculations. Does
this ending evade the problems raised by escaping once more into fantasy,
or does it give some hope of restored maturity?

24
 IKIRU

(Japan, 1952) English subtitles. 140 minutes

CREDITS:

Director .•••...••..•••.•......•....•.•.•.. Akira Kurosawa

Screenplay ......•...........•..•..•..•..•. Hideo Oguni, Shinobu
Hashimoto, and Akira
Kurosawa
Photography ....••.........••.............. Asaichi Nakai
Art director ..•............•........•...... So Matsuyama
Music' ....•....................•.........• Fumio Yawoguchi

CAST:

Kanji Watanabe ............•............... Takashi Shimura

The Young Girl ..••........•.......•..•.... Miki Odagiri
Watanabe's Son ....•....•••.....•.......... Nobuo Kaneko
The Daughter-in-law ............•....••.... Kyoko ~eki
Watanabe's Assistant. ..................•... Kamatari Fujiwara
His Wife .••.......•...•.........•......... Kumeko Urabe
The Housekeeper Yoshie Minami
The Novelist Unosuke Ito
The Reporter Fuyuki Murakami
The Deputy Mayor. ..•.•..•....••....•.•.•.. Nobuo Nakamura
The City Assemblyman ............•.••.•.•• Kusuo Abe
Petitioning Housewives ...••..•............. Kin Sugar, Eiko
Miyoshi and Fumiko
Homma

BACKGROUND:

Motion pictures arrived in Japan in 1897, one year after

their start in America, and the Japanese themselves began production
in 1904. Instead of a piano accompaniment for their silent films, there
were "benshi, " professional story-tellers who sat on the stage alongside
the screen and kept up a running commentary on what was going on. In
effect, Japanese films were made to serve as visual aids to the tale nar-
rated by these men. It was not until 1917 that Morimasa Kaeriyama
began making movies that combined three important elements: use of

25
cinematic techniques (editing, close -ups , etc.) instead of the stationary
camera photographing a play; realistic acting instead of the traditional
stagecraft; and the use of actresses in women's roles instead of the cus-
tomary female impersonators. Consequently, it was not until very late
in the period of the s ilents that the Japanese were making films that were
comparable to even inferior Western ones. The introduction of sound
in 1931 did not displace the "benshi" who only disappeared in 1934 when
the industry had been totally converted to making talkies. (In America
this was done in 1928.) The depression resulted in a heightened realism
on the screen and a tendency to scrutinize subjects of social significance.
This movement was short-lived, however, because of the war beginning
in 1937 and the government censorship that preferred films of national-
istic propaganda. The growing Japanese empire was acquiring a large
market for their films, but of their 800 or more yearly movies, there
were few works of quality. As a result, their films were very infre-
quently seen in the West and many never will be seen again by anyone
because of the great destruction of the film archives of the various studios
during the war -time bombings. The war, besides greatly expanding the
industry to meet the demand of the newly conquered territories, also
added a third category to the two basic genres of Japanese films (the
"jidai-geki" or period of drama, and the "kindai-geki" or modern story):
the war film. The modernization of Japan had been accomplished with
only two wars, both of which were predominantly naval affairs. One of
the best of Japanese films prior to 1945 was Tomotaka Tasaka's Five
Scouts, 1938, which ranks with the best war films of any country and
is remarkable for its lack of propaganda.

The nationalization of the film industry after Pearl Harbor

produced a situation similar to that of Fascist Italy. Government restric-
tions on the types of stories that could be used produced the desire to
examine Japanese society realistically instead of idealistically. The post-
war lifting of official censorship, which in Italy resulted in neo-realism,
brought to the forefront a number of able directors who honestly appraised
Japanese life. However, the directors and films that are best known to
American audiences are those specializing in period pieces such as Kenji
Mizoguchi, the old master of Japanese cinema who died in 1956 (Ugetsu,
Street of Shame, The Life of O-Haru); Uasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story, Buddha);
Kon Ichikawa (TheBurmeseHarp, Conflagration, OddObsesSiOn, a~
Fires on the Plain;) and Teinosuke Kinugasa (Gate otHell.) The movies
are bigbusiness in Japan and there are few directors in the industry who
are allowed freedom in the making of their films. They produce a large
volume of cheap films heavily larded with sex and violence. They are
presently producing two or three times the number of Hollywood films
for a country that has less than half the population of the United States.
The apparent health of the industry may in fact fade quickly as the predom-
inantly young audience looks elsewhere (i. e., television) for their enter-
tainment.

26
THE DIRECTOR:

Akira Kurosawa, born in 1910, was an unemployed artist

when in 1937 he saw an advertisement for an assistant director at Toho
Studios. He was hired on the basis of an essay he wrote on the faults
of Japanese films, and instead of returning to his painting in a few months
as he had planned, he found a medium that was better suited to his talents.
He worked as the assistant of the leading director of the time, Kajiro
Yamamoto, and he has said that his favorite film is Horse, 1941, which
took four years to complete. During the war, Yamamoto became an ex-
pert propagandist by shunning heroics and caricature in the presentation
of the war's meaning. Frank Capra, who was in charge of American
war-time propaganda, is supposed to have said of these films, "We can't
beat this kind of thing. We can make films like these maybe once in a
decade •..• " In 1943, Kurosawa made his first film which was about the
originator of judo and which the Occupation authorities ordered burned.
His second' was a propaganda piece about defense workers. His first
important film was The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, 1945, a
parody of the usual historical film :-w"t-lichwas banned b.ythe Occupation
officials who thought it a glorification of Japan's war-like past. No Regrets
for My Youth, 1946, concerned academic freedom; Drunken Angcl, 1948,
an-allegory about the post-war conditions in Japan was his first mature
film and was given the Japanese "Best One" award; Stray pog, 1949, was
a brilliant detective story which had deep social significan e; Scandal,
1950, centered on the personality of the editor of a Confidential-like
expose magazine with the corruption of modern society as the background.
His second film in 1950 was Rashomon which was exhibited at Venice
the following year brought the name of Kurosawa into prominence and
opened the world market for Japanese films. The film was highly experi-
mental in its presentation of an historical subject and was anything but
typical of the traditional period drama. Its psychological approach and
its theme of truth's relative nature made it easily acceptable to Western
viewers. Next carne Iki.ru, 1952, described by Film Quarterly as "one
of the greatest films of our time" and awarded the prize at the Berlin
Film Festival. I Live in Fear, 1952, dealt with the possibilities of nuclear
annihilation. The SevellSamurai, 1954, was another psychological period
piece and was very successful in the West. The Lower Depths; 1957, put
Gorky into a Tokyo setting of the early nineteenth century. (In 1951 Kuro-
sawa had made Dostoyevsky's The Idiot in the same way, but it did not
prove satisfactory and the studio for which it was made released a butch-
ered version of it. Of it Kurosawa said, "It may not have been the best
film I've made, but we have a saying that parents love best the child that
is lame. ") The Throne of Blood, 1957, was an artistically beautiful
rendering of MacBeth in feudal Japan. The Hidden Fortress was a period
film concerning some bandits and was done in the style of a Ford western.
One of his latest works to reach this country is Yojimbo , 1961, which is
about a samurai hired by a town to keep peace. His last film to date,
Sanjuro, 1962, is another treatment of the samurai legend.

27
 The Japanese regard Kurosawa as their most Western direc-
tor, which he denies. He said of the critics,

"Of course, they don't know anything -- in Japan

or elsewhere, for all I know. At least, I haven't
read one foreign review of anything I've done which
hasn't read false meanings into it. But the Japanese
critics go on and on about how Western I am. And
mainly just because I do my own cutting and happen
to prefer a fast tempo and am really interested in
people. That's the thing about most Japanese films
-- they don't really give a damn about the people.
Then when they get done, they call it 'artless sim-
plicity' and terribly Japanese. Well, that certainly
isn't my way. And, of course, that is why they
call me Western. That, come to think of it, is
why I don't like period films, at least not the
ordinary ones."

In addition to the artistry of his technique in presenting his

story (one of the chief criticisms of Japanese filmmaking is the fact that
they shoot much more of a scene than is needed to make their point, ) it
is his deep social concern about modern Japanese SOCiety, which is ob-
vious even in his historical films, that makes him uncharacteristic of
Japanese filmmaking as a whole. He is vitally concerned with his own
people and though he uses Western film techniques (he admits the un-
conscious influence of Ford and Clair) he is only interested in communi-
cating with the people whom he understands.

"I would never make a picture especially for foreign

audiences. If a work can't have a meaning to Jap-
anese audiences, I as a Japanese artist am simply
not interested. How can a man make a film for
another culture without a keen feeling for the people,
their likes and dislikes, the way they think and act?
If a director could live in a country for perhaps two
or three years, could learn the language and customs,
then he might be able to make some kind of film."

The fact that the Western audience has found much value in
his work is an indication of the truthfulness of his vision of humanity and
of the universality of his art.

PRODUCTION:

Kurosawa has built up his own company of craftsmen and

actors who work on all of his films together. Within this "family" he is

28
known as "Tenno" (The Emperor) and he rules the set with an iron fist,
checking everything personally. An actor such as Toshiro Mifune (the
"wild man" in Rashomon and The Seven Samurai) who can be very tem-
peramental with other directorsis very meek toward Kurosawa who made
him a star. Kurosawa is a perfectionist, and tends to retake his scenes
many times. When shooting is completed, he goes off into seclusion
and spends many weeks in editing the completed version. Since he also
believes that the director should have a hand in writing the script, if
not entirely, at least the shooting script, his films have a personal iden-
tification uncommon in most directors. After a day on the set, he spends
his evenings with his actors and technicians trying to maintain the mood
and feeling of the film which is in progress. Much of this can be imagined
from the intensity of what is presented in Ikiru.

Takashi Shimura was born in 1905. He entered film acting

from the .stage in 1943 and is a character actor. You may remember
his portrayals of the woodcutter in Rasho:non or of the leader of the sam-
urai in The Seven Samurai. He is one of Kurosawa's "stock company"
and he has done his best work for him. This has been his only starring
role.

CONTENT:
\

A man's attempt to give meaning to his life ~efore it ends

is the central theme of Iki ru , His inability to communicate his needs to
his family or associates and his desperate efforts to establish some con-
tact with the living confronts us with the vacuity that is so often mistaken
for vital activity. The wide implications of the film make plain that Wata-
nabe's "death sentence" of cancer is a prognostication that applies to our
whole society as well. In the background there is the moral squalor of
our age (the worst of what is shown is of American origin.) We can easily
identify Japanese society with our own: the calculated indifference to hu-
man need of the municipal departments, the cheaply gaudy excitement of
the night life, youth's callow disgust with the old, the cowardice of men
to reform themselves. But on the individual level of the human person-
ality that makes up Watanabe, the film executes a brilliantly concei.ved
structure. The figure of the dying man is a haunting one, filled with
human weakness and fear, and later, tenacity in trying to live long enough
to complete one meaningful act (compare this with the figure of the Knight
in The Seventh Seal ,) It is the essential honesty of the film and the acting
in particular which makes Watanabe's final effort and victory over himself
and society so powerful. The scene of Watanabe swinging beneath the sky
and the earth, framed by the jungle gym, is cinematic poetry at its best.

TECHNIQUE:

Technically, the structure of the film is out of balance. The

29
 I
J

last forty minutes of the film (about a third of its length) is anti -climactic.
But this wake scene (the Japanese "Finnegan's Wake?") is essential to the
drawing together of the individual and social elements of the story. By
showing how his last weeks affected the men around him and how they for-
get it, the point of the film becomes clearer. He had the courage to act;
it was an affirmation in life which the others cannot make. Kurosawa's
abrlity to use his camera to show us things is outstanding: the stacks of
paper which represent the bureaucracy of the departments, the plan for
improvements dated 1933 which is used for scrap paper, the isolation of
Watanabe shot from the top of the stairs as he crouches at the bottom,
and the reverse of the shot from below as he hesitates in the darkness at
the top. Many shots are simply beautiful: the movement of the beaded
curtain in front of the dancers, the shot into the dusk at the end of the
film with the bridge and its figures at the top. The flashbacks are par tic -
ularly well handled, going from a close-up of a face or object to what is
recalled. The dialogue is also effective: "Christ carrying a cross called
cancer;" "This isn't art -- it's beefsteak." The acting is uniformly excel-
lent. There is a scene in particular that is outstanding: Watanabe is
singing his song as the girl backs away from him, and then there is a close-
up which lasts for over two minutes. The only movement is that of the lips
mumbling the words but the acting is brilliantly done with the eyes. Sound
is well employed as when Watanabe leaves the doctor, knowing he has can-
cer; there is utter silence and then suddenly, natural sounds blare out
brutally. The music is an integral part of the film. When his son and
daughter-in-law return, the music is the American "Too Young". This
re-occurs this time with the vocal, as they talk so callously about the
father. When Watanabe is telling the girl that he is dying and that his life
has been a meaningless routine, the background music is "The Parade of
the Wooden Soldiers" which comes from a party of youngsters. When he
realizes that there is something useful he can do with his fleeting life and
rushes away, the children are singing "Happy Birthday"; the "Mummy"
has been reborn. The most beautiful music is the song Watanabe sings
in the night club and which he is singing at his death. "Life Is So Short"
is the theme of the movie; and hackneyed as the lyrics may be, in associa-
tion with the film, they are one of its most touching elements.

Ikiru is not easily forgotten .

.'30
 STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Why do you think the film was called Ikiru which means either
"living" or "to live"?

2. Do you recall any shots that remain vivid in your mind? What
was so striking about them?

3. Was the narration of the film necessary; that is, an integral part
of the film? Could Kurosawa have avoided using it and still have
shown what he wanted?

4.. Was the wake scene anti-climactic? What if the film had ended
just as Watanabe was beginning to start work in the park?

5. One critic objected to the use of so many close-ups. Do you think

these were overdone?

6. Was Kurasawa honest and realistic in his view of a man's reaction

to approaching death? What changes would you have made?

7. Were the flashbacks necessary to our understanding of the charac-

ter of Watanabe? Was there anyone in particular that you found
effective? \

8. Was the sequence of his visit to the "underworld" realistic? Was

it overdone? Which scene in this sequence was the best: the girls
in the cab singing "Come Ona My House", the packed dancing arena,
the piano player?

9. Were you struck by the Western appearance of some of the actors;

e . g., the novelist who looked like Anthony Quinn or the gangster
who resembled Humphrey Bogart? Do you think Kurosawa did this
on purpose? And for what reason?

10. Was the musical background effective? In what way?

11. Kurosawa has said that he feels it is necessary to spend his time
with his cast and technicians. "It is important when you are
directing a picture to be close to them. When I'm directing, I
eat supper with them every night and until we go to bed we dis-
cuss various matters. That's the best time to give direction to
your people." Do you think that this approach made Ikiru a
better movie?

12. What was the "message" of this film? Kurosawa described what
he was trying to do in his films by saying, "If I look objectively
at the pictures I have made, I think I say 'Why can't human beings
try to be happier?'"

31
 LA DOLCE VITA

(Riama Film, 1960) 180 minutes

CREDITS:

Director .........•...•.................•.. Federico Fellini

Producers ................•.............••. Giuseppe Amato and
Angelo Rizzoli
Screenplay ...•...•..••............•...•... Fellini, Tullio Pinelli,
Ennio Flaiano, and
Brunello Ronid
Photography ..••.................•......... Otello Martelli
Art director ..•.......................•.... Piero Gheradi
Editor. . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . • . . . . . . . •. Leo Gattozzo
Music ..............•..........•.......... Nino Rota

CAST:

Marcello Mastroianni •.....•.•........•..•• Marcello Rubini

Walter Santesso .••..•.•.................•. Newspaper photo-
grapher - "papa-
razzo"
Anouk Aimee . . • . . . . . • • • . . . . . . . . . . . . • . • • . •. Maddalena
Adriana Moneta .••...•••..•.••.....••.•••.. The prostitute
Yvonne Furneaux .....•.....••.....•••.•••• Emma
Anita Ekberg ....••.......•.........•..••.. Sylvia
Lex Barker ..•.•....•.•........•...••...•.• Robert
Alan Dijon ..•..•.•.....•....•..•.•........ Frankie Stout
Alain Cuny ..•..•....•.•.••..•.........•..• Steiner
Valeria Ciangottini. ..•.•................••• Paola
Annibale Ninchi. •.....................••... Marcello's father
Magali Noel ..••....••.........•......•..•. Fanny, the chorus
girl
Nadia Gray .•.•......••...•.......•........ Herself
Jacques Sernas ......•......•.............. Himself

ITALIAN FILM: Background

The Italian cinema has had a history of artistic conflict and

financial instability which makes for exciting reading but defies simple

32
explication. The very structure of Italian government has caused prob-
lems for the director and producer alike, from Mussolini's authoritarian
control to the present situation and haphazard government guidance and
support of the industry. Suspension of projects, financial disasters,
control of studios by banks, and the tragic lack of work for young direct-
ors are sad effects of the chaotic climate in which Italian film production
must exist. The work which has been done in film must, therefore, be
largely credited to individual genius and enterprise rather than to an
established tradition as fostered by national schools of cinema or a strong
studio system. From the splashy spectaculars, to the raw and wonderful
neo-realist pictures, to the modern, uncompromising cinema of Antonioni
and Olmi , Italian film spans a wide cross -section of interest and quality.
Foreign influences have always played an important part in its develop-
ment, not only in the form of American capital invested in Roman studios
but in the present practice of joint international productions.

Known for its epics of grand scale and design in the early
silent era, Italy's industry seemed to decline drastically in the Twenties.
It survived on the memory of such works as Quo Vadis, 1912, and Cabiria,
1913. In the middle Twenties, 70 percent of the average Italian theater
schedule was occupied by American material, while home products
claimed only 6 percent. Hopes that Italy might become the setting for
more American films, thus insuring jobs for native technicians and money
for native studios, were disappointed. The governme~ stepped in to
supervise filmmaking and set up the Centro Sperimentale that more
"young blood" might be recruited and trained. The Second World War
and Fascist control all but eliminated creative possibilities of the medium;
it was reduced to stylized theatrical mysteries (Italy's "white telephone"
period) or to propaganda. About the time of the liberation of Rome, how-
ever, the emergence of a vital group of men who wished to see the cinema
regain its lost tradition of realism marked a significant trend in film.

The "neo -realists , " as they were called, had Cesare Zavat-
tini as leader and spokesman; and it inspired such masterpieces as Vit-
torio De Sica's Bicycle Thief, 1948; his Miracle in Milan, 1950; Luchino
Visconti's La Terra Trema, 1948; and Federico Fellini's La Strada, 1954.
The sociallY-conscious neo-realists took the simple incidents of a man's
life, expanded them, examined them, and thereby sought to touch the
truth of the human condition. Fellini stood apart in his peculiar concen-
tration on the individual characters in those situations, bringing to his
films a warm compassion for them.

But neo -realtsm, though recognized as a major force in

world filmmaking, gave way in an upheaval of popular tastes. A renewed
interest in the spectacular and a rich market for it in other lands ushered
in the period in which Steve Reeves bared his Herculean chest to the
cameras. The contemporary scene is quite paradoxical. While young

33
directors like Vittorio De Seta (Bandits of Orgosolo, 1961) have created
works of atmosphere and realistic impact with non -professional actors
and natural settings, John Huston still struggles with an ungainly menagerie
of animals and "name" stars in a ludicrously literal adaptation of The
Bible in a pretentious project financed by Dino De Laurentiis. Despite
confusion, seeming lack of pattern, and frustrating incongruity, Italian
cinema will always hold an important place in film history; its directors
can never be forgotten.

FEDERICO FELLINI: Biography

Born in the provinces in 1920, at Rimini by the sea, Fellini

was a child who inherited the melancholy and dreams of provincial life.
It was probably not unhappiness but simple restlessness that drove him
from ho:ne at the age of 12 to join up with the travelling circus. Later
the glamor of a reporter's life (supposedly as portrayed in the Hollywood
movies) would draw him to Rome and work on newspapers as a reporter
and cartoonist. The sale of a script to a studio was his introduction to
films; and it was his relationship with Roberto Rossellini which drew him
into the production of Open City, 1945, the first film to draw attention
to neo-realism. Assistant director for Paisan, 1946, and writer and
actor for The Miracle, 1948, his career in filmmaking was established.
His first independently directed film was White Shiek, 1952, a satire
dealing with a young man, his girl, and a comic strip hero. He next
made The Wastrels, 1953, recapturing the idle dreams of his own youth
in a study of a group of young provinc ial s , The next three films, La
Strada, 1954, perhaps his best known; 11 Bidone or The Swindle, 1955,
and Nights of Cabiria, 1958, all carriedthe distinctflavor of the Italian
provinces. It was their intense involvement with characters that set
them apart from most other neo -realist works. Little wonder, then,
that La Dolce Vita caused such a stir, not only among critics of Fellini
but also among his followers. It was at this time that he took the oppor-
tunity to say that nec -realtsm "is dead today as a movement which bore
the stamp of reality as an exclusive object of interest. Today the interest
is drawn to man himself -- his metaphysical, psychological, and total
structure." He directed a segment of a film produced in reaction to cen-
sorship practices, Boccaccio '70, 1961; his part was called The Tempta-
tion of Dr. Antonio and featuredAnita Ekberg. Any question about1iIS
status as a filmmaker was settled with his semi-autobiographical 8 1/2,
a film which will make itself felt in cinema for a long time to come, so
amazing is its conception. In his latest endeavor, Fellini used his wife,
Giuletta Masina (as he did in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria), to play
the title role of Giuletta of theSpirits , 1965. Apparently Fellini's creative
days are not yetover; at least, we may hope that more surprises are in
store from this marvelously gifted artist and innovator.

34
FELLINI'S METHOD OF PRODUCTION:

The making of a film is something of a mystical "game"

to Fellini; he has freely admitted that, although he submrts a scenario
to a studio (to assure financial backing,) he rarely knows how his film
will end, even when well into production. The first few days of a shoot-
ing schedule may be devoted to moving about the set, mingling with his
regular crew of technicians (who call him "Maestro"), socializing with
his stars, and getting the "feel" of things. Then, working scene by
scene, and bringing to play his creative genius, he veritably weaves the
fabric of a film and may himself be surprised at the resulting design.
Those who criticize this method, who would require a more calculated,
rational approach, fail to grasp the large "irrational" or supra -rational
nature of the creative process; each artist must work in that way which
best suits his particular creative talent. Fellini has said, "I believe
that a good picture has to have defects. It has to have mistakes in it,
like life, like people. I don't believe that beauty, in the sense of per-
fection' exists - - except maybe for the angels." For this reason he
rarely shoots "retakes". He is opposed to the slick resolution in film,
one that neatly ties off dangling plot threads and leaves an audience in a
state of complacency; nor will he tolerate the extremes to which many
critics go in the explication of his style and symbolism. An articulate
man with a decidedly philosophical bent, he has chosen the cinema as
his medium of expression. It is a tribute to his sensit~e artistry that
his films speak so eloquently for him.

THE FILM:

La Dolce Vita is undoubtedly an important film - - important

in the history Of the cinema, important in the career of a brilliant artist,
and important in its social (or extra -aesthetic) influence. Its use of the
wide -screen process proved inconclusively that a filmmaker could master
modern technology and use it skillfully, that such a process was fit for
other things than epic adventure stories; its striking black-and-white
photography seemed a rediscovery of all the possibilities of lighting and
contrast; its treatment of a contemporary subject argued strongly for
the right of a director to treat his milieu freely (and profoundly). In
Fellini's career it marks a development from the provincial drama to
the universal and pressing struggle of modern man. In this film and in
8 1/2, he created epic works of a stature never attempted in his neo-
realist work. The reactionary uproar to La Dolce Vita's release was
instantaneous; yet international interest and acceptance gradually brought
home critics to re-examine their hostility. An excellent example of mass
appeal and exposure of our century's most expressive art form, it has
been seen by many millions of people; and estimates of the numbers who
will see it in the years to come stagger the imagination. The film's title
has become a part of a common international language, encompassing in
three words that experience which the film conveys with much more than
words.

35
 The theme, though quite apparent, is examined under many
aspects in a series of episodes tied together by the character of Marcello.
It is through his development (or rather, degradation) that the film pro-
gresses in a study that recognizes the odd fascination of humanity without
purpose and the lengths to which men will go to divert themselves from
the ugly truth. Avoiding the pitfall of simplistic moralization, Fellini
is continually eliciting sympathy or identification here and forcing re-
pul sion and alienation there. It is this mixture of emotions which so
accurately mirror the complexity of "the sweet life" with its attractions
and horrors, its interesting participants and the sickening sense of waste.
Rather than rely on a narrative, he builds separate incidents into a com-
pelling impression and does so through some wonderfully and tragically
human beings. They appear, make their contribution, and vanish, forming
what one critic called a "mosaic" of society with all the worst (and, ironic-
ally, the best) qualities to which humanity lays claim. Perhaps it is in
that way that.!:~ Dolce Vit~ becomes a film related to us all and not simply
to a small, wanton pack of aimless, hopeless people.

F ellini' s striking visual accomplishments deserve mention.

He seems capable of capturing the fascination of raw, even crude, reality
(the scene in Steiner's apartment after the suicide) and of blending it
casually with a stunning surrealism (Marcello's argument with Emma on
a deserted road at night.) His sequences have fluid movement, and
elements such as music and natural sound are skillfully added to achieve
the proper effect. Characteristic ideas or themes pervade this film;
the entertainer and the mystique that surrounds his carnival acts of magic,
superstition in religious practices, innocence riding the surface of an
ocean of corruption. Symbols are rather obvious but hardly out of place
or interjected for their own sake. They constitute a vital part or the
action, blending in comfortably to make their point.

For both the intelligent script and the masterful way in which
it has been realized on the screen, credit must go to Federico Eel lini , an
artist of considerable integrity and ability .

6
1. What is Marcello's relationship to the "sweet life?" Does it
change? Is Marcello a "hero?"

2. Steiner seems to be an ideal man. Is any hint of his suicide

given? How would you justify or explain it? What effect does
it have on Marcello?

3. Did you think the orgy scenes were titillating? What was the
reason for prolonging them? How do they fit in with other sequences
of the film?

4. Sylvia, the American screen star, seems out of place in Mar-

cello's crowd. Why do you think this is so (or do you)? How
does she affect Marcello?

5. The young waitress in the seaside cafe is from the provinces.

What is her character portrayed as? What is the significance
of Marcello s discussion with her? She ends the film. Why
t

does the camera remain on her for the last shop of the film?
(Why not the monster on the beach?)
\
6. Is the ending of La Dolce Vita pessimistic? Is its v ewpoint
cynical? - ----

37
 LA STRADA

(Italy, 1954) 107 minutes

CREDITS:

Producers . . . . . . . . . .. Carlo Ponti and

Dino de Laurentiis
Director. . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . .. Federico Fellini
Script .......•...•........................ Fellini, Ennio
Flaiano, and Tullio
Pinelli
From an original story by Fellini and Pinelli.
Photography .............................•. Otel lo Martelli
Art director .......•...................... Mario Ravasco
Music. • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Nino Rota
Editor ............•....................... Leo Cattozzo

CAST:

Giulietta Masina , . . . . . . . • . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Gelsomina

Anthony Quinn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . •. Zampano
Aldo Silvani. .........•.............••.•... Colombaioni
Marcella Rovena ..•....•...........•...•.. La Vedora

And Lidia Venturini.

AWARDS:

Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film, 1956;

Grand Prize, Venice International Film Festival; New
York Film Critics' award for Best Foreign Film; National
Board of Review; Edinburgh Film Festival, 1957.

THE HUNGER FOR REALITY:

After World War II, the new spirit of Italian filmmaking

called neo-r ealisrn gained international prominence as a result of such
men as Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio de Sica, and Luchino Visconti. The
1 ading spokesman and theoretician of the new movement was the writer,
Cesare Zavattini, who defined neo-realism as "a hunger for reality; that
is, a hunger to know the moment in which we live, in an always more
direct and immediate fashion." The basic aim of these men was to con-
centrate on the actualities of life instead of the falseness of slick and
fashionable stories. Perhaps Zavattini expressed their hopes best in a
1953 interview:

"The cinema's overwhelming desire to see, to analyze,

its hunger for reality, is an act of concrete homage
towards other people, towards what is happening and
existing in the world. And, incidentally, it is what dis-
tinguishes 'neo-realism' from the American cinema.

"In fact, the American position is the antithese of our

own. While we are interested in the reality around us
and want to know it directly, reality in American films
is unnaturally filtered, 'purified', and comes out at one
or two removes. In America, lack of subjects for films
causes a crisis; but with us, such a crisis is impossible.
One cannot be short of themes while there is still plenty
of reality. Any hour of the day, any place, any person,
is subject for narrative if the narrator is capable of
observing and illuminating all these collective elements
by exploring their interior value."

In practice, neo-realism was based on three elements:

socially significant themes, real people in actual locations, and the organ-
ic development of a situation (as close as possible to the wayan event
occurs in life) as opposed to the neat plot construction and balanced story
of the conventional narrative film. These men were in revolt against the
use of the motion picture solely as an entertainment medium instead of
primarily for serious expression. They bemoaned the fact that Hollywood
with its technical superiority turned out such shallowly juvenile films.
Even with poor equipment and lack of financing, they intended to probe
the problems of post -war society as seen in people sketched from life.

MAN AS OUTSIDER:

Neo-realist films were applauded by the critics, did well

in the art houses of the world, and were imitated and studied by direc-
tors and writers of all nations. In Italy, however, they were a failure
- - people did not want to relive on the screen what they had already
experienced in real life. The Italian film industry was revived when it
turned from realism to spectacular historical epics and the voluminous
pulchritude of Gina or Sophia or Silvana. With the financial failures of
De Sica's Miracle In Milan, 1951, and Umberto D, 1952, and his accep-
--- -
tance of Hollywood backing for the extremely poor Indi~:retions of an

39
American Wife, 1953, the neo-realist approach seemed at an end. It
had servedaspart of a general renaissance of Italian arts and letters
and the film journals began to talk of a new trend in the films called "neo-
romanticism." However, neo -realism was far from dead; it was still
developing; and although Zavattini and De Sica continued to work occasion-
ally in the same vein as before, newer directors (Antonioni, Pasolini,
Olmi) came along to change its direction and its emphasis - - more sub-
jective, more personal, and much more limited. The pivotal director
in this change was a man who was trained by Rossellini and young enough
to influence the new generation, Federico Fel lini .

THE DIRECTOR:

Federico Fellini was born in 1920. He was working as a

newspaper journalist when he met Rossellini, became interested in the
filming of Open City, 1945, and was eventually credited with being one
of the writers of that film. He quit his job and was trained by Rossellini
as the assistant director of Paisan, 1946. His first independent film was
a social satire called The White Sheik, 1952, followed by The Wastrels,
1953, a sober reflection on modern youth. Both films were well received
but it was not until the following year that La Strada marked his appear-
ance as a major force in Italian filmmaking.- In this film, his approach
was neo -realistic in that he shot his films in real locations, and the
script was based on the organic development of a single situation. But
the emphasis of the film's theme was on the individual and not on the
larger question of his relation to his society. This film and the new'
movement in Italian cinema probed personal problems and not social ones.
His next film was The Nights of Cabiria, 1957, and concerns a woman
unable to find love--as an individual. Then came La Dolce Vita, 1960,
and the high -point of his success. At the time hew-as quoted as saying
that neo-realism "is dead today as a movement which bore the stamp of
reality as an exclusive object of interest. Today the interest is drawn
to man himself - - his metaphysical, psychological, and total structure."
There is a revolution occurring in the international cinema which wishes
to go beyond examining the relationship of man and society and instead
to penetrate to the very core of man's being. Perhaps the largest prob-
lem facing the contemporary audience is that they are not prepared for
this and the non-narrative form in which these films are sometimes done;
e.g., Fellini's most recent works, 8 1/2, 1963, and Juliet of the Spirits,
released in 1965. -- - - ---

DIRECTION:

One of Fellini's major themes throughout his work has been

that of loneliness, and this is the overwhelming image in La Strada; shots
of deserted streets and roads containing nothing dramatic but effectively
creating the mood of personal emptiness. The story is episodic, and he
marks them well by the use of the fade (the screen becomes blank, and

40
the action begins a new sequence , ) His composition is sometimes hap-
hazard and pictorial beauty is not one of the strong points of this film.
This is made even more noticeable because Fellini usually employs a
stationary camera (although when he moves the camera, it is highly
effective; e.g., the camera moves in on Gelsomina after the beating, as
she says her rote piece, and the pent -up emotion in her bursts upon us.)
Fellini is a director who does not rely upon tricks to make his point.
Since he was originally a writer, the major emphasis is the script, which
he always has a hand in writing.

ACTING:

In order to get financing for this film, Fellini had to promise

to include some name actors. Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart were
in Italy trying to find scripts that were more suitable for their talents
than those they were being offered in Hollywood, and both immediately
agreed to make the film. Quinn does his usual faultless job as the inar-
ticulate performer, and there are nuances in his acting that are ingenious
(the grace of breaking a Cigarette in half, the business -Iike beating of
Gelsomina, the perfunctory performances when he has abandoned her.)
Basehart in two scenes is memorable: the baiting of Zampano and when
he is beaten to death. Giuletta Masina , who is married to Eel.lmi , has
created an unforgettable masterpiece of characterization as the simple-
minded girl who finds a place in life. There is so much in h~r role that
is beautiful: her joy in playing the trumpet, the happiness on her face as
she puts her ear to the humming electric pole, planting tomatoes just
before they leave, her attempt to make the idiot laugh. Her acting is a
rare emotional experience that a viewer is unlikely ever to forget.

CONTENT:

The character of Zampano is one of selfishness but not

brutality. He is an elemental person but one who still retains' the dignity
of the human person. Gelsomina is retarded in intelligence but her inno-
cence and goodness is that of the truly child-like. She needs to give and
receive love and the tragedy is that Zampano doesn't realize that his
needs are the same. The Fool is a drifter who needs no one because his
interests are sufficient for him. In the ending of the film, we are not
told whether Zampano ever achieves self-illumination of his suffering.
Some things suggest that he does not; for instance, when he finds out
about Gelsomina' s death he does not bother to visit her grave. And yet
it is Significant that at the end as he raises his face to the night sky,
the musical theme of Gelsomina begins to play. About the ending or
meaning of the film, Fellini has this to say: "I think it is immoral to
tell a story that has a conclusion. Because you cut out your audience
the moment you present a solution on the screen Conversely, by
not serving them the happy ending on a platter, you can make them think;

41
you can remove some of that smug security. Then they'll have to find
their own answers. Such an ending is not the same kind as 'the lady and
the tiger' but is rather something in which we are involved or 'engaged'
and therefore something which keeps working on us long after we have
witnessed it. "

FOR FURTHER READING:

Enzo Peri, "Federico Fellini: An Interview" in

Fih~ Quarterly (Fall, 1961).

Gideon Bachmann, "Interview with Federico Fellini" in

Sight an,! Soun'!. (Spring, 1964).

Gilbert Sa1achas, Federico Fel lini (Editions Saghers, 1963)

No. 13 in Cinema d'Aujourd'hui series.

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Is this movie more concerned with Zampano, Gelsomina, or both?

2. What is your interpretation of the ending? Why?

3. Is this kind of film more real than those made in Hollywood? Does
it also seem to be removed from real life? Do you think people
live like those presented in La Strada?

4. Masina has often been compared to Chaplin. Why do you suppose

this has been said, and do you agree?

5. Fellini has said that a good picture must not be a faultless work
of art but should "have mistakes in it, like life, like people."
What is your opinion of this statement, and did you find any such
mistakes in La Strada?

6. Was the film anti -cler ical in any way (the fat priest who drops
some food and then asks for more, or dissolving from The Fool
to the church framed by the sign "Bar")?

7. This has been highly praised as a very Christian film. Do you

agree?

42
 8. What was the central theme of the film? Does the film have as
many meanings as there are main characters?

9. How did the musical themes affect you? How would you describe
them? Can you recall any particular instances when they were
especially effective?

10. Does Fellini use much visual symbolism (e.g., the chain that
binds Zampano, the tightrope walking of Il Matto)?

11. How does this film compare with Fellini's other pictures, such
as Nights of Cabiria or La Dolce Vita?

12. Can you recall any memorable "shots?"

13. W.ould you see the film again? Why or why not?

43
 LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER

(Woodfall Productions, 1962) 103 minutes

CREDITS:

Director ...........................•.•.... Tony Richardson

Screenplay ........................•....... Alan Sillitoe
Music ........................•..•.•...... John Addison

CAST:

Tom Courtenay ...................•........ Colin Smith

Michael Redgrave ....•..................... Governor of Borstal
Ann Bunnage Mrs. Smith

And other non -professionals.

INTRODUCTION: The British Cinema

From its origins, the British cinema has been concerned

with social purpose in its portrayal of reality. One of the first British
filmmakers, James Williamson, shows this tendency in his quiet accounts
of 19th century country life. Britons had, of course, known the newsreel
since 1895, when Lumiere recorded such historical events as the Diamond
Jubilee of Queen Victoria. One of the earliest documentaries was pro-
duced by Percy Smith, who began his famous biological series with The
Secrets of Life in 1908. True dramatic effect awaited Frank Mottershaw's
The Life of Charles Peace, a slapstick story of the life of a famous crim-
inal.Cecil Hepworth's epic, Rescued by Rover, 1905, followed in this
tradition with some unusual low -angle camera work. The true breakthrough
which might have changed the direction of the British film came with Her-
bert Ponting's promising documentary, With Scott in the Antarctic. How-
ever, the film appeared in 1913, and the war whichfollowed broke the
trend.

The postwar period saw the production of many shoddy

films, most of them designed to raise the import quota set by the 1927
law. The one bright light in this period was the rise of the documentary
which has since become perhaps the dominant form of British film work.
John Grierson adopted the French word "documentaire" to construct what
he called "the creative use of actuality". Aided by a background in mass
communications and a convi.ction of the importance of film education in
a democracy, Grierson received his first backing for an economics pro-
ject in 1929. Drifters, a story of the daily haul of herring in the North
Sea, set the tone of the documentary, i. e., social purpose and artistic
experimentation. The attempt to understand man's relations with his
institutions did not prevent a development of technique which reached a
peak in Harry Watts' Night Mail, 1936, a film on the night express from
south England to Edinburgh, with a poetic narrative by W. H. Auden and
a musical score by Benjamin Britten (both of them students at Oxford at
the time.)

The calmness of tone of these documentaries, and their

willingness to let the facts speak for themselves, made them useful
educational devices during the Second World War. The government sup-
ported documentar ies and also feature films such as Olivier's Henry V,
which strengthened the national consciousness during hostilities. After
the war, documentarians such as Alexander Korda and J. Arthur Rank
came into their own and tried, at first unsuccessfully, to break into the
tight American market. A few years later, with some excellent comedies
leading, the superb acting of Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Peter
Sellers, Margaret Rutherford and Terry-Thomas succeeded where serious
films had not. Nevertheless, quality films were never enttrely absent
from the British industry. The fine craftsmanship of Caroj, Reed in films
such as Odd Man Out, Fallen Idol, The Third Man (1947 -49) earned him
a knighthood. David Lean is anothe-rDf the Older generation of competent
directors still producing today (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Bridge
on the River Kwai, and the recentI::awrence of Arabia.) In a real sense,
however, they are not so representative of theBritish cinema today as
the group which has given a new pride to the industry, such angry young
men as Osborne and Richardson.

The new movement in British film cannot be understood

without knowing the theatrical phenomenon which is Royal Court. Devel-
oped by George Devine, this theater became prominent when one of its
plays, Look Back in Anger, 1956, played on TV. This, the year of Suez
and Hungary, found the university students turning to a grim conscious-
ness of political problems. The under -forty generation found a new rally-
ing-point in this play, and in Colin Wilson's The Outsider. The vitality
of this movement carried into the Free Cinema which in 1956 began to
portray on the screen ideas which originated ten years earlier in the
significant Oxford magazine, "Sequence". At this time, there appeared
Tony Richardson's Momma Dorr't .Allow, Lindsay Anderson's 0 Dream-
land (on which Karl Reisz collaborll'te~) and Lorenza Mazzetti's TOgether.
The idea of the Free Cinema was "to celebrate the significance of the
everyday .... to look at jazz clubs and fun -tatrs , Covent Garden markets
and people at work." The army of young writers who rallied to this call

45
(Shelagh Delaney, Arnold Wesker, Alan Owen, Alan Sillitoe, Keith Water-
house, Willis Hall and David Storey) had the common aim of opening
British drama and film to the countryside and industrial centers of the
North - - to break the monopoly of southern England on these arts.

Room at the Top, Jack Clayton's first film, introduced the

protest movement tothescreen and met with so immediate a success
that it set a style for the new cinema. Today the formula has become
evident: frank talk about sex, class and money; innocent young characters
from outside London; and industrial landscape; and dialogue which cuts
pretense and leads to self-revelation. In spite of their lapse into a new
cliche (the ritual beating, the melancholy seaside idyll in the rain, the
teeming pub scenes), these films invoke a strong identification with an
anti -establishment attitude which attacks such symbols of conformity as
telly (TV) with savage satire. The youth of England responded imme-
diately to this grey, cramped view of life, grim even in its pleasures,
which are joyless and always end in quarrel. The notable films of this
period draw heavily on the novels which helped prepare their popularity,
and a new group of screenplay writers have learned to translate into
visual terms the stories which are a kind of belated neo-realism.

DIRECTOR:

The most important name in the new British cinema is un-

doubtedly that of Tony Richardson whose Tom Jones made him an inter-
national figure overnight. Like John Osborne, Richardson is a product
of the Royal Court Theater, and the two have fought the film industry,
which resents being taught its trade by young upstarts from the stage.
The extraordinary productivity of the director (5 films in 4 years) has
earned him a place commensurate to his very real talents. Among them
is the unusual ability to cast actors and draw from them superlative
performances. As for the film medium, he seems to understand them
well, although up to now his pre -occupation seems to be for the Free
Cinema on-location shooting, and the novelle vague (French New Wave)
hand -held camera and visual effects which bring attention to the medium.
Although he is sometimes criticized for distorting his materials in the
screenplay, he justifies the modifications by the rationale of the new
medium. His failings are perhaps those of the movement; a strong ten-
dency to make a point, to overstate the social significance of what appears
on the screen. Penelope Huston says that this is why, of British films,
one talks about what is done, while in the French and Italian, one discusses
how it is done. -Lin-dsay Anderson's recent This Sporting Life shows a
change to an emotional rather than social scene. Richardson, in the mean-
time, continues in the vein of the social satire by his current version of
Evelyn Waugh's Loved One.

46
IIII IILM:

Production: Woodfall Studios, where this film was shot,

10 I II' the point of convergence for a host of young talent stimulated
11

I, IIII''' Look Back In Anger" movement. It is today the most successful

nul p,' isuglous of British studios, the one responsible for the films of
1111 I':ntertainer; Saturday Night, Sunday Morning; and A Taste of Honey.
III' llccess of Woodfall is partially due to its rich store of talents from
1111 uther arts: John Schlesinger from television; Karel Reisz from the
dll\ 11111 ntary; Jack Clayton from the feature film; and Tony Richardson
1111111 the stage. At the same time, a talented group of young actors de-
I lop d to carry the high-powered roles being created for them: Tom
I '!111ft nay, Albert Finney, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton, Rita Tush-
IIIdlllm, and others.

Story: Colin Smith is a young man from Nottingham, near

Lund n, who has just lost his father. The story opens with a trip to
IIIIl"tal, a penal institution for first offenders. where the action takes
pill e. Colin's mother has freely spent the money she received from the
\I 'nth, and even takes in a man to live with her. As the family situation
\1('1 'riorated, Colin tries a desperate robbery, is caught, and therefore
c-uds in jail. All this is told in a series of six flashbacks which fill in
iii personal history. At Borstal, the Governor is a sports fanatic who
II -Il ves that rehabilitation comes solely through manly ~mes. Colin's
i unning ability shows at a soccer game, and the Governor grooms him
lor the long distance run. He proves so adept that he is given freedom
tor long runs during which he meditates on the meaning of his past. The
I .uon builds to a competition with the public school for a coveted cup,
wlth the Governor resting all his hopes on Colin. The race is success-
IIII, with Colin overtaking the golden boy from the Establishment at the
vnd . Then, as his recent meditations pass before his mind, he slows
nnd hesitates a few yards from the finish line. As the cheering crowds
l' III to him, Colin deliberates and makes his choice.

Direction:
Walter Lassally's camera work is considered
Iii ' best in any industry today. Some claim that today's British film
popularity is as much the triumph of Lassally as the directors. Be that
I ' it may, the shots of the long runs in the soft light, the indoor and out-
do r scenes are beautiful, capturing the loneliness of Colin and creating
II Ilttingly somber mood. The work is not uniformly good, however, as
1111 ven cuts from light to dark will indicate.

The editing shows an effective use of new techniques from

Ih Continent: contrast cutting from quiet to noisy scenes for effect;
[urnp cutting to indicate Colin's violent, yet isolated existence. The
I rnnsttions are abrupt and yet subtle, telling the story without great econ-
omy in portraying the trivia.

47
 The sound is generally good, although it is obviously added
in the studio. The jazz idiom is strangely appropriate for the long runs.
At times, however, the use of the cello seems over -dramatic. There is
a quantity of carry-over sound, either beginning a conversation before
the scene, or continuing it into a new scene as a kind of introduction.
The song, "Jerusalem ", is savagely effective as a comment on the atmos-
phere of the Borstal.

As for the acting, it is uniformly good, but rests heavily

on Tom Courtenay, a plain, ugly adolescent with sufficient humor in his
grim mouth to take the edge off his total rejection of society. Michael
Redgrave plays the Governor of the Borstal broadly but competently, as
he subtly reveals the vacuity of his pre-occupation with sports as therapy.
Some of the lesser roles derive their spontaneity from the use of non-
professionals.

The Meaning: Whatever we might assign as the meaning of

the film, it is-obviously not a naive specimen of social realism. The
social background is important to the action, but it is the development
of Colin's character up to the moment of his choice that fascinates the
viewer. As Colin reacts against the oppressive conformity of his prison
society, we can identify with his anger. We admire his independence,
but we wonder at its outcome. The film is strongly flavored with exist-
entialism, particularly in the isolation of man, the absurd universe, the
dangers of conformity, and the necessity of an absolutely free choice.
The dramatic effectiveness of existentialist ideas has long been recog-
nized in the Theater of the Absurd. While this film does in no way
qualify for a place in that movement, it capitalizes on several of its
central ideas, particularly in the search of an individual for his identity.
During his long runs, Colin Smith painfully pieces together an identity
out of the fragments of his past. His crime, the robbery, is seen to be
a reaction against conformity which ironically places him in the worst
conformism of the Borstal. He is the angry young man, lashing out at
the Establishment but unable to avoid its entanglements. His one chance
to rebel against the Borstal system is his running, which gives him an
exhilaration he has never known before.

The film invites many serious inquiries. Did Colin Smith

make the right choice at the end of the race? What is the significance
of the freeze shot at the close of the film? Does Colin's story qualify
as a tragedy, or is the action left incomplete and therefore tentative?
There is a whole area of questions concerning the director's attitude
toward the contents of the film. It has been suggested that Colin's choice
is strongly modified by the conditions under which the director presents
it. The film must be understood, and these questions answered, not
solely in terms of the words or actions of the film, but the use of the
medium and technique itself. We are drawn into the story of the runner

4
 • 'I I un the race with him .. and so his success or defeat will be ours.
1)'11 the film leave the viewer discouraged or elated? In terms of con-
II I I or comparison with the Christian Commitment, what judgment can
I nder on the personal tragedy (or comedy) of the Runner?

49
 LONELY ARE THE BRAVE

(Universal, 1962)

CREDITS:

Director ..•............................... David Miller

Photographer ..........................•... Philip Lathrop
Musical score Jerry Goldsmith
Screenplay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . .. Dalton Trumbo
From the novel, Brave Cowboy, by Edward Abbey.

CAST:

Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICA WESTERN:

The Western has been by far the most successful creation

of the American movies. It was one of the few major American film
forms to withstand the invasion of European films during the twenties.
Westerns delighted audiences both here and abroad, says Arthur Knight,
"because they were (and are) so purely and simply American. To tired
Europeans, to cramped city dwellers, to small boys, to people every-
where these films carried the message of the American dream. In them
the humble outwitted their powerful adversaries, the weak triumphed
over the strong."

It all began with The Great Train Robbery, 1903, in which

Edwin S. Porter attempted for the first time to tell a story on film. It
lasted only ten minutes, but when George Barnes fired his gun into the
audience (by aiming straight at the camera) movie-goers loved it. And
as movie techniques developed, Westerns became better and audiences
loved them even more; the speed, the timing of the action as the film
alternated shots of the pursuer and the pursued in a chase sequence;
the steady progression of the story line; the clean, bright photography.

William S. Hart added a realistic note to the Western prior

to the twenties. His hero, as he played him was the Good-Bad Man, a
"hard-drinking, hard-riding, hard-shooting he -rnan , often an outlaw,
often the enemy of law and order, but always true to the moral code of

o
 II om lcr . But with the wave of optimism that swept the country after
II Id War I came a dislike for Hart's realistic portrait of frontier life.
IIdl"ll' S preferred to return to the more romantic version of the West
h " III d above, which they could find in the films of Western stars
11111 I' Tom Mix. The hero that Mix played was the Good-Good Man,
I It! itA'the range to protect the weak and bring the outlaws to justice."
lit II -ver drank, seldom smoked -- and unlike Hart with his blazing six-
IIlIlIt 'rs - - he used his pistols only when forced to. He lived cleanly
IIld stmply . This idealized picture of the Old West has been called by
IIIlt film critics a "Puritan" strain in the American film.

In 1923 James Cruze made The Covered Wagon for Para-

III(HIIlt. This saga of pioneers moving West was the first of the "big
W, t rns ", films with huge casts and stories of significant scope which
II IV been responsible for raising the routine horse opera on occasion
III th level of national epic. The Covered Wagon gave its audiences its
I I' t look at "real dust, real Indians, and real beards on the pioneers" .
II bns been followed over the years by such milestones as John Ford's
the Iron Horse, 1924, which depicted the construction of railroads across
111' nation; The Virginian, 1929, which gave us a moral conflict in the
vlgJlante action of a lynching, and starred a youthful Gary Cooper; John
Ilord's Stagecoach, 1939, which focused its camera on a character study
01 p ssengers on a dangerous stagecoach journey and made a star of John
Wnyne. In recent years some of Hollywood's most distinguished directors
hnve tried their hand at making "big Westerns" .

William Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident, 1942, presented

I tragic situation with a message of great depth. Fred Zinneman' s High
No n , 1952, made Gary Cooper the prototype of the deserted man w~
uiust face impending doom with his own courage, moral as well as physi-
('III, the only thing standing by him. George Stevens' Shane, 1953; Wil-
111m Wyler's The Big Country, 1957; and Martin Ritt's Hud, 1963, must
II added. "Strictly speaking, these are not really Westerns at all. They
IIr' fundamentally films of social comment, realism, and poetic drama.
I h yare also few and far between, and perhaps among the only Westerns
111mdeserve serious consideration. "

IIA KGROUND:

Lonely Are the Brave was not a great popular success, partly
II' ause Universal advertised the film as if it were an ordinary, action-
Iyp Western. People who went to see it with this expectation were di s-
IIjlP inted or baffled. When film critics protested that a film of worth
II h as this deserved better treatment from the studio which produced
II, it was released again on the art theater circuit and there found an
uudience , In naming it one of the best ten films of 1962, TIME said that
I,OIl ly Are the Brave presented a picture of "man as God made him in a
world GOdnever made".

51
THEME:

Although all of the critics agree that the film has something
to say, they do not seem to agree on just what precisely the film is saying.
Moira Walsh of America writes that it is thestory of a mid-20th century
cowboy who is destroyed-because he has a free-reigning 19th century
spirit that cannot adjust to the restrictions and limitations imposed by
contemporary law and order. "The film contains a fascinating, prolonged
manhunt in which the anachronistic hero and his horse win out at least
temporarily over an astute sheriff who has all the machinery of scientific
crime detection at his disposal." Philip Hartung of Commonweal finds
the hero with his heart, if not his head, in the right place--:-"Its moral,
if any, is that modern dreamer -rebels must face reality in this world
of fences." Still others have sided with the hero of the film as represen-
ting the individual, searching for his identity, who is crushed by our
modern mechanized and materialistic society. Is it a fault or a virtue
of the film that the attitudes toward the film's theme vary so widely?

SYMBOLISM:

In a film which obviously intends to use its action and situa-

tions to imply symbolic meaning the question arises as to how far one
can "push" this symbolism without "reading it into" the film. For example,
is there some significance in the fact the pursuit of the fugitive cowboy is
uphill rather than across a plain? Moira Walsh in particular feels that
some of the symbolism in the film is awkward. "The characters seem,
not people, but puppets, being prodded willy-nilly toward predetermined
positions in a predetermined climax which is supposed to be profoundly
ironic but does not quite come off." Could you think of scenes or situations
which support Miss Walsh's comment; could you find others which were
handled with taste and artistry? If the ending seems unsatisfactory, is
it because it was intended to be so?

PRODUCTION:

Unlike a novel, a film is not the creation of a single talent;

the director must weld together the artistic contributions of several
craftsmen into a finished, unified film, with all the parts contributing
to the effect of the whole. TIME magazine, with this principle in mind,
pointed out individual aspects of the film which seemed to be first-rate.
Can you think of specific moments in the film which tend to support TIME's
remarks? Would you want to disagree instead?

CRITICAL COMMENTS:

Kirk Douglas: in a role that calls for him to be someone

rather than to act something, he is totally convincing. Walter Matthau:
as the sheriff he shows a magnetic presence and great comic flair .--

.'52
I 1IIIp t.nthrop: his camerawork has harsh dramatic clarity. Jerry Gold-
'tillt: Ill' score is just the right mixture of nostalgic balladry and per-
'I IVl' t mston , Dalton Trumbo: a literate, tart script. Final estimate:
'I ," 01 IIg their skills, they have finished a film of distinction and signed
II \·ltll II nor."

STUDY QUESTIONS

I. What message does the film contain? Does it have a central

theme? Is there a particular moral to be derived?

Are the characters as presented natural or stereotyped? Do

any of them stand for an idea, principle, or way of life?
Which contains the most truth?

I. What are the contrasts between good and evil? Are they
drawn too severely? Not severe enough?
\

I. How many symbols does the film contain? What d\ they stand
for? Which were the most effective? Is the film too laden
with symbols?

What is the interpretation given to the central role by Kirk

Douglas? By Walter Matthau, his pursuer? Are they very much
different in character? Do the minor roles add anything?

II. Does the music offer a dimension to the film's theme?

I. Would you see the film again? How does it compare with other
Western classics: High Noon, The Gunfighter, Stagecoach, The
Ox-Bow Incident, and Shane? Is the setting too modern to be
classified as a Western?

53
 A PLACE IN THE SUN

(Paramount, 1951) 120 minutes

CREDITS:

Producer and director ...............••.. ' .•.

George Stevens
Associate producer .•....•................• Ivan Moffat
Assistant director ......................•.. C. C. Coleman
Associate director .••...•.......•....•..•.• Fred Guiol
Photography William C. Mellor
Art direction ......•....................... Hans Dreier and
Walter Tyler
Editor .....•................•............ , William Hornbeck
Music .............................•...... Franz Waxman
Screenplay ...•............................ Michael Wilson and
Harry Brown
Based on Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy
and Patrick Kearney's play adapted from the novel.

CAST:

Montgomery Clift •..•.••................... George Eastman

Elizabeth Taylor ....•.•.................•.. Angela Vickers
Shelley Winters ......•.......•......•...... Alice Tripp
Anne Revere ...............•.•.•.......... George's mother
Keefe Brasselle .....................•...... Earl Eastman
Fred Clark ...•.•....•..•........•......... Bellows
Raymond Burr .•.......................•.•. Marlowe

Herbert Heyes (Charles Eastman), Shepperd Strudwick (Anthony

Vickers), Frieda Inescort (Mrs. Vickers), Kathryn Givney (Mrs.
Eastman), Walter Sande (Jansen), Ted de Corsia (Judge), John
Ridgely (Coroner), Lois Chartrand (Marsha), William R. Murphy
(Mr. Whiting), Douglas Spencer (Boatkeeper), Charles Dayton
(Kelly), and Paul Frees (Morrison).

Child stars have always been a Hollywood staple. Most of

them (e.g., Jackie Coogan or Shirley Temple) found it impossible to mature
into popularly acceptable adult star status. There have been a few, how-
ever, such as Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, who have had successful

54
 in movies. But only Elizabeth Taylor (born in 1932) was
I" III rk ' the transition from saccharine innocence to the overwrought
I1II of womanhood. Her early roles in several" Lassie" films and
I' I I Illy National Velvet, 1945, made her a national symbol of the eel-
111,0111Irl child, her only rival being Margaret O'Brien who made more
111111hilt was overly "cute." Miss Taylor turned her back on adolescence
Ilh I' IIIl r of the Bride, 1950. As she grew older, her problems as a
.,11III o[ the-screen became more and more serious: Elephant Walk,
,",1, C;I nt, 1956; Suddenly, Last Summer, 1960; Butterfield 8, 1960;
I II 111 HI r~ 1963; The Sandpiper;-!965; and finally the award-winning
hll' Afr aid of Virginia Woolf? , 1966. At present, she is the most
I 11111111 ' star inthe film world because of her past screen roles and her
I II publicized private life. Unlike Miss Taylor, Shelley Winters (born
III II)22) was not groomed by a studio for stardom. She began on the stage
11111 III vaudeville before coming to Hollywood in 1944. Her first big part
I 111A Double Life, 1948, after which she had a number of interesting
11111'but she never quite made the ranks of the top stars, A few of her
11111'r I arts were in Night of the Hunter, 1955, and Diary of Anne Frank,
III I). Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) started his stage career-in 1~
11111 did not appear on the screen until 1948 in Red River. He played the
III II ' lead in a number of important movies; namely, The Search, The
111'1 r .ss, From Here to Eternity, Lonely Hearts, TheMis1ItS""aild Judg-
1111'111 atNuremberg:- His attitude towards acting was a sincere belief-
III Il 'livability and reality at the expense of glamor and seeiment.

The first attempt to screen Dreiser's An American Tragedy

v I in 1930 when Paramount had Sergei Eisenstein under contract. After
hi wrote a screenplay of it, the project was turned over to Josef von Stern-
III rg who re-wrote and directed it in 1931. It was something less than
II' essful. The novel's theme is a basic one and has served well over
1111years (e.g., Room at the Top.) George Stevens, in re-making it,
luvlshed a great deal of time, care, and expense on it. In this way, it
III Irks the beginning of the socially conscious films that have become
" ociated with Stevens' name. He was one of Hollywood's best comedy
tlll'c tors who could also turn out action and sentimental pictures effort-
II ly. Coming from a family of actors, his first break in the movies
WI! as a cameraman in 1921. Working for Universal cowboy films or
11111 Roach two -reelers gave him the training that made it possible for
II1111 in the thirties to direct such hits as Alice Adams, 1935; Swing Time,
11):1 ; Vivacious Lady, 1938; and Gunga Din, 1939. In the forties, h-e-
III Ide Penny serenade, 1941; Woman of the Year, 1942; The Talk of the
'I'o~, 1942; and The More theMeITier -;-1943. His two years of war-
rvice changed his outlook on the purpose of the film medium and since
III 'n he has turned his talents from entertaining to questioning.

55
 THIS SPORTING LIFE

(Independent Artists, 1963) 129 minutes

CREDITS:

Producer ...•..•.•.•.•....•.............•• Karel Reisz

Director. . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . • . . . . . .. Lindsay Anderson
Script. • . • • . • . . . • • . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .• David Storey
Based on his novel.
Photography. . . • . . . . . . . . . . • . • . . . . . . • . • . . . .. Denys Coop
Art director ..•.............•.....•....... Alan Withy
Music. . . • . . . . . • • • . • . . . . • . . . . . . . . . • . . . • . .. Roberto Gerhard
Editor ....•...•.............•.......•..•.• Peter Taylor
Assistant director ..........•.......•...... Ted Sturgis
Executive producer ..•••.........•..•..•..• Albert Fennell

CAST:

Richard Harris. . • . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . • . .. Frank Machin

Rachel Roberts. . • . . . . . . . . . . • . . . • . . . • . . • . •. Mrs. Hammond
Alan Badel . • • . . • • • • • . . . . . . . . • . . . . • . . . . . . •. Weaver
William Hartnell •.....•..•....•.•.••.•.... Johnson
Colin Blakely. . • • • • • . • . . • • . . . . . • • . . • . • • . • .• Maurice Braithwaite
Yanda Godsell ..•..•.•...........••.....•.• Mrs. Weaver
Anne Cunningham. . . • • . • . . . . • . . . • . • . • • • • • •• Judith
Jack Watson •.•.••..............•..••.••.. Len Miller
Arthur Lowe. . • • • • . • . . • . . . . . . . . . . • . . . • . . .. Slomer
Harry Markham ••••.••••...••••..•.•.•••.• Wade
Frank Windsor. • • . . . . • . • . . . . . • . . . . . . . • . . •. Dentist
Katherine Parr ......•.......•..•.•.•.•...• Mrs. Farrer
Andrew Nolan. . . • • . • . . • . . . • • . . . . . . • • . . • . •. Ian

BACKGROUND:

Although the trend in Britain towards social realism in fiction

of all forms began about 1956, its roots go back to the formation of the
welfare state in England in the mid -forties. It was then that great expec-
tations were aroused in the working classes by free education and promises
of equality of opportunity. When these expectations were not fully realized,
disillusionment set in, a disillusionment that has been echoed in novels,

56
 lms . Often the setting of these stories is a northern industrial
progress and advancement have been largely unfulfilled

Lindsay Anderson credits Tony Richardson with initiating

1IIIlV-ment in the theater, with his production of John Osborne's Look
III An er in 1956, and •. in the film, with his direction of the screen
011th following year. Social realism became firmly established
'I'I s of films, the best of which have brought international promin-
to lheir directors and stars: Jack Clayton's Room at the Top, with
1111011 Signoret; Richardson's A Taste of Honey, with Rita Tushingham;
I II I It isz's Saturday Night and SundayMOTIlirig, with Albert Finney;
11111Lindsay Anderson's This Sporti!igLife, with Richard Harris and
I II Ii 1 Roberts.

I IIh I lRECTOR:

Lindsay Anderson brought to this, his first feature film,

yl II' I experience in the theater and in making documentary films.
AIII()ngthe best of his documentaries, which he began making in 1948,
II I Wakefield Express, Thursday's Children, and Every Day Except
I 'IiI I lma~Anderson has brought many o(the techniquesOf the documen-
I II Y l the filming of This Sporting Life, and they are particularly evident
III his use of editing and sound in the scenes on the play\ng field, where
hi arnera nuzzles its way right into the midst of the muddy pile-ups of
uluye rs ,

However, in his use of flashbacks, Anderson has departed

I lid ally from the traditional realism of films of this type. These flash-
""cks have been a source of great critical controversy. TIME, for example,
I r-mnrked: "Like a mirror smashed to splinters, the plot fractures into
II I hbacks , and the spectator spends half his time putting pieces together."
( 'ummonwea.l countered: "These flashbacks .•. do not turn up in chr ono-
III I al order and the viewer is expected to think and work to put them in
lilt r proper perspective. This Sporting Life is worth the effort." Since
lilt 111mis primarily concerned with the study of character, the flashbacks
II rhle the director to build the principal characters bit by bit and hence
'I ulually to reveal the source of their emotional conflicts. TIME feels
11i,11 the characters so revealed, however, remain unconvincing: Richard
1111 is plays the big brute, Frank Machin, with too much sensitivity;
C so
lilt viewer is at a loss to understand why the heroine can't love him .
..••Ii, seems unreasonable and unmotivated."

Perhaps such a criticism overlooks a point which the editor

" 111m Quarterly, Ernest Callenbach, noted in his review of the film and
iii 'ii'Justifies Harris' portrayal. The viewer is seeing life from Frank's
1',,1111[view; if the viewer can't figure out Mrs. Hammond, it is because
III lilt r can Frank.

57
FROM SOCIAL TO PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM:

Thus, This Sporting Life gives us a picture of life, but life

as Frank sees it. The series of flashbacks help the viewer to understand
how Frank's past experiences are influencing his present thought and
action. The film etches a portrait of a man at home on the playing field
but nowhere else, who is baffled by life and other people, treats everyone
as if they were members of the opposing team, and hence overpowers
even the woman he loves with his clumsy strength.

This type of story-telling, however, gives the viewer "no

apparently objective, spacious world" in which to judge Frank and those
around, as Callenbach puts it, since everyone and everything are filtered
through his own neurotic point of view. The estimate we form of Frank
is like "the estimate we form of ourselves in difficult situations: tentative,
with awful gaps, capable of sudden reverses or surprises." Anderson
has thus carried the trend in British films from social to psychological
realism with an intensity that only occasionally lapses. One such lapse
might be the symbolic appearance of the spider in the room where Frank
watches Mrs. Hammond die. The spider (which is not derived from
Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, which Anderson says he hasn't seen,
but from the novel from which This Sporting Life is taken) probably sym-
bolizes Frank's subjective norror or ceatn, especially the death of the
one person he really loved. But this is much more effectively symbolized
in the following scene, where Frank hangs like the ape Mrs. Hammond
called him, from a bar across the doorway in her empty house, falls to
the floor whimpering, and curls up like a baby. Anderson's lapses are
few and quickly compensated for. Whatever one may say of the film and
Harris' portrayal, they have conspired to create in Frank Machin a
character who is not easily forgotten.

FOR FURTHER READING:

Peter Cower, "An Interview with Lindsay Anderson, "

in Film Quarterly (Summer, 1964).

Ernest Callenbach, "This Sporting Life, " in Film Quarterly

(Summer, 1964).

Philip Hartung, review in Commonweal (August 9, 1963).

TIME review (july 19, 1963) .

.'58
 STUDY QUESTIONS

1'1111111 • Kael (in her volume of critical film essays, I Lost It At

1111 Movies) expresses the opinion that all the praise for This -
',porting Life derived from the fact that it carried "an identity
I I"d with au the outsiders". The hero is "bewildered", the
Iu-roln "bruised" and "afraid of life", the brutal rugby games
II' • probably a microcosm of corrupt society, and the film
1\111 rkily suggests all sorts of passion and protest, like a group
01 d monstrators singing "We Shall Overcome" and leaving it
to you to fill in your own set of injustices. She criticizes the
IIIm for inadequacies in both technique and content ("The bells
IIr clanging in the reviewers' heads, but what's happening on
ihe scr een?") How do you think the film will stand up in showings
tw nty-five years from now?

Stanley Kauffman in his review in The New Republic praised the

fJim for its realistic technique but felt llsbiggest flaw was the
Inct that there was "no real interaction between the football story
II nd the love story". Is there a relationship between the hero on
the rugby field and in his private life, or are they separate strands
n the film?

I. There are many indications of social protest in the film. Which,

In your opinion, are successfully stated and w~ch are only ineffec-
t Ively suggested?

I, Richard Harris was twenty-nine when he made this film, a pro-

duction which relied heavily upon his acting abil.ity , How would
you rate his performance here? Were his mannerisms suggestive
of any other screen actor? Can you compare it with his later
p rformances in Mutiny on ~~~unty, Major Dundee, or The
I d Desert?

Lindsay Anderson said his film was neither about sport nor was
lt a "story picture" but was meant as a tragedy. Is the character-
Ization of Mrs. Hammond strong enough to crystallize the tragedy
of Frank Machin as a social misfit?

Frank Machin is an outsider because he cannot fit the accepted

onventions of his society. Judith Crist wrote of him in terms of
hugene O'Neill's Hairy Ape. How would you characterize him?

59
7. The semi-documentary style of so many of the scenes in the film
provides excellent examples of fine filmmaking, especially the
film's final shots of the rugby match in subtle slow motion. What
is your opinion of the fragmentation and juxtaposition of the film's
chronology as to its overall success in character development?

o
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1,11
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tudr of t e film - The
erson and ciety

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TIlE PERSON AND SOCIE ..,

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