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| Esoteric List of film tragedies which illuminate and inspire modern film. Based on Film Structure and Film Language. Films with an * after the title were not included in the class but are here because I think them really worth watching. Note: the links to each film will take you to an Amazon.com page for each DVD. All are available for rental from Netflix and some better rental houses. | ||
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Citizen Kane |
1941. The encyclopedia of film
structure and language. Revolutionary when it came out in 1941, today
Citizen Kane remains a must see and see again for modern filmmakers. I
doubt Tarantino would have made
Pulp Fiction without
the influence of this great Orson Wells film shot by
Gregg Toland. Note
how the film plays with time, always letting us know where we are as
we are pulled into each new segment of Kane's life. Note too that much has
been written about the depth of field throughout
Kane, ignoring
that one key scene is played out in extremely shallow depth of
field. Wells and Toland wrote the film book on what is possible and
how to make it work. The overarching praxis of Citizen Kane is: To seek Kane's love. (Praxis is used here in the sense of Aristotle's
Poetics, meaning
overarching plot, the central action around which the entire work is
formed. Highly recommended: The S.H. Butcher translation of
Poetics, with an
excellent introduction by Francis Fergusson. The declarations of
praxis are my interpretations and can be disputed by any viewer.) |
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Notorious * |
1946. The overarching praxis of Notorious is: To mislead the enemy. | |
Throne of Blood |
1957. Highly stylized,
Throne of Blood is
Akira Kurosawa's version of
Macbeth. Kurosawa's radical gesture here is to fuse
Shakespeare with Noh Theater. Emerging in the 14th century and
patronized by samurai lords, Noh was contemporaneous with the time
set in Throne of Blood.
Kurosawa felt that its aesthetic style would furnish the right kind
of formal design for the film. "I like the Noh drama. I like it
because its is the real heart, the core of all Japanese drama. Its
degree of compression is extreme, and it is full of symbols..."
(quote from The Samurai Films
of Akira Kurosawa, by David Dresser, p. 72)
"Drama in the West takes its character from the psychology of men or circumstances; the Noh is different. First of all, the Noh has the mask, and while staring at it, the actor becomes the man whom the mask represents.... I showed each of the players a photograph of the mask of the Noh which came closest to the respective role; I told him that the mask was his own part. To Toshiro Mifune who played the part of Taketori Washizu, I showed the mask named Heida. This was the mask of a warrior. In the scene in which Mifune is persuaded by his wife to kill his lord, he created for me just the same life-like expression as the mask did." (quote from The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa: The Warrior's Camera by Stephen Prince. For a wonderful explanation of the Noh mask, go to: http://www.irc.atr.jp/~mlyons/Noh/noh_mask.html While viewing the film, watch for:
When he visited Kurosawa during the making of Throne of Blood, Donald Richie asked what would the picture become, what would it mean? "He answered: 'I keep saying the same thing over and over again. Why -- I ask -- is it that human beings cannot get along with each other, why can't they live with each other with more good will?' The Throne of Blood, he added, was to show several of the reasons." (from The Films of Kurosawa, by Donald Richie, p. 119) The overarching praxis of this film is: To rule a nation |
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Seventh Seal |
1957. The Seventh Seal was
Bergman's first truly intern ational
success and paved the way for others to make difficult films about
"serious" topics. Today it plays less strongly than it did
then and to some seems dated. I think
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
holds up better through time, though its place in history is less
revolutionary. Presently
Through a Glass Darkly is available for purchase only as part of a
trilogy, albeit a great one. It can be rented by itself.The overarching praxis of this film is: To escape death |
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Breathless
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1959. Jean Luc Godard
self-declared mission is to find "a new alphabet in the language of
cinema." Traditionalists initially hated
Breathless, Godard's
first feature, especially his jump cuts, not recognizing how this
director had freed all filmmakers to compress time. Shot rapidly,
with little lighting, the camera frequently hand-held, Godard opened
so many avenues to future filmmakers and firmly set forth the "auteur"
notion of filmmaking -- an idea that to this day is widely
misunderstood. The overarching praxis of this film is: To love and die -- a kind of Romeo and Juliet, and the end is a double suicide. Even though Patricia continues to "live" she is dead. |
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Chinatown |
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Taxi Driver |
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Thelma and Louise |
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Pulp Fiction |
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Requiem for a Dream |
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City of God |
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