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EUROPEAN FILM GENRES.

Discusses outstanding films of Germany, France and Italy. German Expressionism and cinematic images that evoke psychological states of being. French avant-garde of the late 1920s and "absurd realism" cinematic art form. French films of the 1930s. Italian neorealist cinema of the post World War II period. "Metropolis," "Grand Illusion," Bicycle Thief" and other masterpieces.

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FILM GENRES OF EUROPE
While Americans were laughing at Chaplin and Keaton and the Keystone Kops, and being awed by the spectacles of Griffith, and DeMille, European cinema was much more stark and dark and realistic. From the post-World War I productions, through the realistic Italian movies of the post-World War II period, there is a distinct difference between various European countries’ films and those of the U.S. We need to take a look at Germany, France, and Italy during these periods and examine some of their outstanding masterpieces that reached the human condition often far more accurately and with greater meaning (if a darker meaning) than American movies of the same time period.
I. Germany’s Expressionism
For Germany, deep in a depression and unemployment, they seemed to thrive on “d

Finally Ricci gives up: "You live and suffer," he tellsBruno. Even during the war years, there hadbeen some official recognition of the importance of films in the nationalculture and tradition, and the important production combine UFA had beenformed in 1917 with strong financial backing by the government. There was magic in the sequences as well ashallucinations. So, it wasn't unusual for relatives, friends andfamily to send in crates of food and goodies to aid the prisoners in theirhealth and comfort. One ofthe greatest of these is Jean Renoir's "La Grande Illusion" ("The GrandIllusion"). On theme of thesesurrealist, avant garde French films was "chance occurrences". On a photographic reconnaissancemission, Marichal (Jean Gabin), an auto mechanic from Paris, and Captain deBoeldieu (Pierre Fresney), an aristocrat and member of the military elite,are shot down by the German ace Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). The authors, Janowitzand Meyer, used some of their own background- Meyer's own hypnotictreatments, "and a bizarre sex-slaying in Hamburg, witnessed by Janowitz"(Gazetos 2 4 ). Then, of course, it is stolen, no doubt by anotherman who needs a job. Thisaristocrat, therefore, becomes no better and no worse than any of hisfellow prisoners, suffering the indignities of confinement. The Grtand Illusion was, first andforemost, an anti-war film. Ricci and his small, plucky son Bruno search for thebicycle, but that's an impossible task in the wilderness of Rome, and thepolice are no help. The theme of Tyranny with which the authors were obsessed, pervades the screen from beginning to end....One should expect the pole opposing that of tyranny to be the pole of freedom....but (it) is not freedom, but anarchy by entailing chaos (Kracauer 1947 52-3).For German audiences of 1919, when the film was first released, theirpostwar "freedom" was truly anarchy. So, first, some background on German cinema following the Armistice.It was a time of tremendous unrest, civil uprisings, even murder ofgovernment officials, and an obvious swing to the right, politically. Theysurvive the crash, but are captured and sent to a German prisoner of warcamp. "To hell with it! "And then, in thefamous closing sequence of the movie, Ricci is tempted to steal a bicyclehimself, continuing the cycle of theft and poverty" (Ebert 1999 2). You want a pizza?" In a scene of great cheer, theyeat in a restaurant, Bruno even allowed to drink a little wine. They developed a surreal fantasy entitled "Un Chien Andalou/AnAndalusian Dog". (S)tarring Erich von Stroheim and Pierre Fresnay as the aristocratic officers who are linked by their heritage as professional soldiers....The film is set during World War I, but Renoir declines to depict men in combat (Gazetos 2 1 7).The French, led by Fresnay's character, are prisoners of war. One day there isa job--for a man with a bicycle. His masterpiece is "Metropolis", made in 1926, from ascript he wrote with Thea von Harbou, and which details the horrors of amodern, mechanized city. TheGerman movie industry actually got off to a late start, compared withadvances in other nations. As authorSyd Fielkd writes (2 1): I began to see what Renoir meant when he talked about 'avoiding the cliché.' Showing von Rauffenstein, the 'enemy,' offering kindness and hospitality to his prisoner, and the way he tenderly cares for his single geranium plant, reveals von Rauffenstein's own dedication to life and living. The German is an aristocrat,a member of the military elite, and the only gifts he's received for hisglorious participation in the 'art of war,' he explains, is a fracturedspine, three pieces of metal in his arms and a metal knee cap. "'The Bicycle Thief' had such an impact on its first releasethat when the British film magazine Sight & Sound held its firstinternational poll of film makers and critics in 1952, it was voted thegreatest film of all time, but now it has dropped off the list" (Ebert 19995).V. "In Paris of the 192 s, the French avant garde filmmakers joinedforces with the cubist, Dadaist and surrealist painters to createexperimental films that conjured up a cinematic dreamscape, a fantasy worldin motion" (Gazetos 2 7 ). It's a stunningmoment. A large crate arrives for Rosenthal filled with women'sclothes, which will be used as costumes for the Christmas performance. Thefilm stars Lamberto Maggiorani, not a professional actor, as Ricci, a manwho joins a hopeless queue every morning looking for work. FILM GENRES OF EUROPE While Americans were laughing at Chaplin and Keaton and the KeystoneKops, and being awed by the spectacles of Griffith, and DeMille, Europeancinema was much more stark and dark and realistic. The bicycle allows Ricci to go to work as a poster-hanger, slapping paste on walls to stick up cinema advertisements (a large portrait of Rita Hayworth provides an ironic contrast between the world of Hollywood and the everyday lives of neorealism) (Ebert 1999 1).Maria, meanwhile, goes to thank the Wise Woman, who predicted that Ricciwould get a job. "(D)uring the postwar years most Germans eagerly tended towithdraw from a harsh outer world into the intangible realm of the soul"(Kracauer 1947 5 ). Theatricality was, in fact, the outstanding characteristic ofthe German 'art' cinema, largely because so many directors, designers, andperformers came from the celebrated theatrical stable of Max Reinhardt'sDeutsches Theater. Summary "(T)he cinema has at is disposal a whole arsenal of means whereby toimpose its interpretation of an event on the spectator" (Bazin 1967 112).The periods and films covered above provide outstanding support of thepower of the moving picture, whether it is surrealistic or neo-realistic.As long as the power to exploit, explain, and move the audience remains inthe hands of dedicated movie-makers, the films will continue to move beyondthe merely "entertaining" and vapid moneymakers that are now all too oftenchurned out. Hisaction, of course, represents the death of an old way of life, which hasfailed to survive the turbulence of the changing times. At the same time, even though the French had "won" WorldWar I, they suffered nearly as much, and their territory was as trampled,as any other nation in Europe. In spite of national instability, 1919 - 1924 was to be the greatperiod of the German silent films. This film, for one, reflected "upon the dissolution of the social andpolitical aristocracy during a period of crisis brought on by the GreatDepression" (Gazetos 2 1 3). In his hopeless search forthe bicycle, he finally resorts to stealing another bicycle only to becaught while his young son witnesses the act" (Gazetos 2 138-9). So, an audience plagued with real-life concerns andworries, the art of the Continental cinema tended to be so much darker, somuch more prone to the unimaginable horrors of violence, the destruction ofthe human body as well as the spirit, and the overall superiority of oneform of society. "The Bicycle Thieves"- review on re=release of the movieMarch 19, 1999 www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/grthief.html Field, S. "La Grande Illusion Reflections by Field"www.writersstore.com/article.php?article_id=94 - Later, the distraction created by the French aristocrat, deBoeldieu, allows Marichal and Rosenthal to make their escape and begintheir trek across the mountains to Switzerland and freedom. And now,in this isolated fortress prison castle, Christmas was approaching. What happened during World War II would not be so "conventional" orhumane.IV. The story takesplace in 1916 during the First World War. Work CitedBazin, A.: "The Evolution of the Language of the Cinema" from What Is Cinema Berkeley CA: University8 of California Press, 1967 Gazetos, A.: An Introductio9n to World Cinema (2 ) Kracauer, S.: From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of theGerman Film Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press 1947Also studied and cited: Ebert, R. An ugly crowd gathers. "Films must be drawingsbrought to life" (Kracauer 1947 51) so said Caligari's designer, HermannWarm. Thereare no "sets" and no one "looks" like an actor. But, while these French classics were meat for leading actorsand actresses, some directors and screen writers paid more attention to thecoming of Fascism, the social problems in France (as well as elsewhere).One can consider some of these films as films of disillusionment. "TheCabinet of Dr. Caligari" and "Metropolis" were two movie milestones of theGerman 192 s. "Caligari" is essentially a horror story, full of psychic phenomenatold by someone eventually revealed to be a madman. Fritz Lang, who was originally scheduled to direct "The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari" but had to finish another film and therefore was replaced byRobert Wiene, is often called "the most versatile of German directors"(Gazetas 2 45). Perhaps the two greatest films of this Italian genrewere Rossellini's "Rome Open City" and DeSica's "Bicycle Thieves". His wife Maria strips the sheets fromtheir bed, and he is able to pawn them to redeem his bicycle; as he glancesthrough a window at the pawn shop, we see a man take the bundle of linenand climb up a ladder to a towering wall of shelves stuffed with otherpeople's sheets. Italian Neorealist Cinema, 1945-1954 The purpose of leading Italian film makers of the postwar era, such asRossellini, deSica, and Visconti, was "to use the power of narrative filmsto influence postwar Italians against the return of the Fascists. It takes place on Christmas Eve. Ricci, waiting for her impatiently, finally leaves hisbicycle at the door while he climbs upstairs to see what's keeping her; DeSica is teasing us, since we expect the bike to be gone when Ricci returns,and it's still there. For one reason, The narrative and pictorial elements of the film gravitate toward two opposite poles. As the text depicts, In the opening dream sequence of....Un Chien Andalou....a cloud passing by the moon, followed by the image of a man using a straight razor to slice a woman's eye, startles the audience with the shock of such an act (Gazetos 2 77).The images, as Gazetos points out (77) are both surreal, realistic, andshocking to a typical audience. Various sources show that German movies, in the decade of the Twentieswas characterized by the extraordinary high quality of its studioproduction. The French Cinema of the Thirties The coming of sound changed cinema industries world-wide, of course,One result in France, according to Gazetos (1 3) was that movies werecreated from famous novels- those of Zola, and Flaubert, Balzac anddeMaupassant. A cop arrives, but can do nothing,because there is no evidence and only Ricci as witness. One can sum up the German cinema of this postwar period by saying that"a cinema was developed upon the ways cinematic images could evokepsychological states of being" (Gazetos 2 37).Unlike American movies ofthis time, then, German movies were less entertainment than soul searching.There is no doubt that "Caligari" and "Nosferatu" influenced Tod Browningand others when, beginning in 1931 a whole series of vampire andFrankenstein monster movies were produced in Hollywood. "I have a bicycle!" Ricci cries out, buthe does not, for it has been pawned. There was even apretty awful remake (1962) of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".II. But, it only really began to move once WorldWar I was over. Film is international and its influences move across oceans.Surely Italian neorealism influenced Americans like John Cassavetes, justas Renoir's disillusionment with war influenced "All Quiet on the WesternFront" and surrealism continues in Ben Hecht's "Spectre of theRose, Hitchock's "Spellbound", Bugs Bunny, Ren & Stimpy, among others. As one way of lifeends, the two Frenchmen escape to freedom to begin a new life. Thenarrative films directed by Rossellini and deSica focus upon a narrativestyle in which each film portrays fictional events as if they were actualhappenings without calling attention to the hero or heroine in the story"(Gazetos 2 133). Germany's Expressionism For Germany, deep in a depression and unemployment, they seemed tothrive on "deep" films and horror films: the horror was a technologicalsociety against Man, and the impossibility of fighting the inevitable. We need to take a look at Germany,France, and Italy during these periods and examine some of theiroutstanding masterpieces that reached the human condition often far moreaccurately and with greater meaning (if a darker meaning) than Americanmovies of the same time period.I. No words need to be said.The contrast in image, emotion and desire dissolve into silence as the menrealize how long it's been since they've seen a woman. One realizes that, unlike the soul searching of the defeated Germansof the same decade, the French were going overboard to be unrealistic andshocking in a different way than showing grotesque creatures and settings.III. And yet, the film and its creators are considered to besocial satirists who used "surrealist techniques to a fuller extent as aweapon...against bourgeois culture and the Catholic Church" (Gazetos 2 78). From the post-World WarI productions, through the realistic Italian movies of the post-World WarII period, there is a distinct difference between various Europeancountries' films and those of the U.S. In a sense, as with "Caligari", this meant a stark stage-like realism yet somewhat removed for "real life". Tocelebrate, it was agreed that the French and English prisoners would put ona special Christmas performance for all the prisoners and guards of theprison camp. Renowned for its settings and the impact itmade on postwar German audiences, why is "Caligari" usually referred to asa masterpiece? "The film explores how certain visual stimuli dislocateand disorient a person from his or her natural surroundings and transferthe viewer into a dream-like state of being" (Gazetos 2 76). In some instances, such as Rene Clair's firstfilm, "Paris Qui Dort/ The Crazy Ray" (1923) there is an interesting newcinematic art form which is called "absurd realism". A littlelater, to his astonishment, Ricci spots the bicycle thief, and pursues himinto a brothel. What they received was usually intact, and theprisoners would usually share what they received with each other. Salvador Dali, who has always been regarded as a surrealist painter,formed a collaboration in 1928 with well-regarded Mexican director, LuisBunuel. All eyes turn andstare in silent wonder at the soldier in drag. The German masters presented a hatred of their world. AsRosenthal unpacks the crate, an English soldier removes a dress, tries iton, puts on a wig, applies some makeup, and with his pipe in his mouth,walks into the barracks looking for a mirror. It is neo-realism at itsmost powerful. The French Avant Garde of the Late Twenties. Suddenly, little by little,the hubbub surrounding the arrival of the crates stops. It presents a dimension of character that is enlightening in its simplicity (Field 2 3 3).A scene that reveals Renoir's genius in avoiding the cliché isbreathtaking. "In 'Bicycle Thieves', DeSica deals with an unemployed laborer whosebicycle is stolen on the first day of a new job. There is nodoubt that Clair was the foremost of the avant garde film directors (heeven made a couple of forgettable films in Hollywood in the Thirties). It's important to rememberthat during the First World War the Geneva Convention was, for the mostpart, strictly honored. "In a modernistic urban center, the struggle ofLove is played against the designs of a villain and his Deathmachine....Although the staging of the crowd scenes is most spectacular,the creation of an androgynous android, one of the first replicants in thehistory of cinema, becomes a turning point in the film (Gazetas 2 45). When the war begins to turn against the Germans, the prisoners aretransferred to another prison, a huge castle deep in the heart of Germany.In the kind of irony Renoir loved, the camp is supervised by VonRauffenstein, now wearing a bulky neck brace. This is important in 1937, when the MaginotLine was being constructed, when Hitler was in power and the threats to TheRhineland, Czechoslovakia, even Alsace Lorraine were no longer someone'swild imagination. One can be labeled 'Authority, or more explicitly, 'Tyranny'. It's anotherone of Renoir's ironies that the German aristocrat should be the one tofire the shot that kills de Boeldieu, his only real 'friend' in prison.

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