Notes: "Odessa Steps" sequence is a textbook example of Russian montage.
Storyline:A dramatized version of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers of the Tsarist regime.
The film is composed of five episodes:
"Men and Maggots" (Люди и черви), in which the sailors protest at having to eat rotten meat;
"Drama on the Deck" (Драма на тендре), in which the sailors mutiny and their leader, Vakulinchuk, is killed;
"A Dead Man Calls for Justice" (Мёртвый взывает) in which Vakulinchuk's body is mourned over by the people of Odessa;
"The Odessa Staircase" (Одесская лестница), in which Tsarist soldiers massacre the Odessans.
"The Rendez-Vous with a Squadron"
(Встреча с эскадрой), in which the squadron tasked with intercepting
the Potemkin instead declines to engage, lowering their guns, its
sailors cheer on the rebellious battleship and join the mutiny. [wikipedia]
Notes: Surrealist comedy with science-fiction angle.
Storyline:Early roots of sci-fi magic are given to us in the form of a scientist
who invents a ray that makes people caught in its beam fall asleep where
they stand. With magical and wonderful shots of a Paris long gone, it
is the adventure of a group of unaffected who with their sudden freedoms
play the game of mice while the cat is away. With a narrative that
sways toward a moralistic stance on the principles of fair play and
responsibility, this little science fiction fable can still be poignant
today as when the magnificent views were first shot from the dizzy
heights of the Eiffel Tower. Written by
Cinema_Fan
Storyline:In
the 1923 silent short of the same title, Man Ray filmed barely
discernible scenes of Paris at night along with his own enigmatic
photograms and conglomerations of spiraling or gyrating objects. The
resulting sequence of near-total abstractions seems devoid of sense or
purpose. The "return to reason" in the film comes finally in the form of
a woman's torso–modeled by cabaret personality Kiki de
Montparnasse–turning to and fro beside a rain-covered windowpane. Man
Ray reproduced the seductive finale, as well as other moments from the
film, as photographs, singly and in strips [artic.edu]
Storyline:The Black Plague is ravaging Spain. As Camille Saint-Saëns's "Danse
Macabre" plays on the soundtrack, a mix of animation and acted scenes
tells the story of Youth and Love meeting one night. They dance,
embrace, and kiss. As the night wears on, exuberant Death, a skeletal
figure with a violin, pursues the couple. They try to elude him.
Eventually, Love swoons. Youth is powerless to protect her. Is she
doomed? Written by
<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Storyline: Manhatta documents the look of early-20th-century Manhattan.
With the city as subject, the film consists of 65 shots sequenced in a
loose non-narrative structure, beginning with a ferry approaching
Manhattan and ending with a sunset view from a skyscraper.
The primary objective of the film is to explore the relationship
between photography and film; camera movement is kept to a minimum, as
is incidental motion within each shot. Each frame provides a view of the
city that has been carefully arranged into abstract compositions.[1]
The film was an attempt to show the filmmakers' love for the city of New York. Manhatta was a collaboration between painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand. The intertitles include excerpts from the writings of Walt Whitman. [wikipedia]
Notes: Expressionist horror film, greatly influential on avant-garde filmmakers, particularly in the United States. The first film ever that was accepted as a piece of art.
Storyline:The main narrative is introduced using a frame story in which most of the plot is presented as a flashback, as told by the protagonist, Francis (one of the earliest examples of a frame story in film).
Francis (Friedrich Fehér) and an elderly companion are sharing stories when a seemingly distracted woman, Jane (Lil Dagover), passes by. Francis calls her his betrothed and narrates an interesting tale that he and Jane share.
Francis begins his story with himself and his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), who are both good-naturedly competing to be married to the lovely Jane. The two friends visit a carnival in their German mountain village of Holstenwall. They encounter the captivating Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) and a near-silent somnambulist, Cesare (Conrad Veidt), whom the doctor keeps asleep in a coffin-like cabinet, controls hypnotically,
and is displaying as an attraction. Caligari hawks that Cesare's
continuous sleeping state allows him to know the answer to any question about the future. When Alan asks Cesare how long he shall live, then Cesare bluntly replies that Alan shall die at dawn — a prophecy which is fulfilled. Alan's violent death at the hands of some shadowy figure becomes the most recent in a series of mysterious murders in Holstenwall.
Francis, along with Jane (whom he is now officially engaged to),
investigates Caligari and Cesare, which eventually results in Caligari's
order for Cesare to murder Jane. Cesare does so nearly, revealing to
Francis the almost certain connection of Cesare and his master Caligari
to the recent homicides. However, Cesare refuses to fulfill the killing
be done because of Jane's beauty and he carries her out of her house
instead, pursued by the townsfolk. Cesare releases Jane after a long
chase, falls over from exhaustion, and dies.
In the meantime, Francis goes to Holstenwall's local insane asylum to ask if there has ever been a patient there by the name of Caligari,
only to be shocked to discover that Caligari is the asylum's director.
With the help of some of Caligari's oblivious colleagues at the asylum,
Francis discovers through old records that the man known as "Dr.
Caligari" is obsessed with the story of a mythical monk called Caligari,
who, in 1703, visited towns in northern Italy
and, in a similar manner, used a somnambulist under his control to kill
people. Dr. Caligari, insanely driven to see if such a situation could
actually occur, deemed himself "Caligari" and has since successfully
carried out his string of proxy murders.
Francis and the asylum's other doctors send the authorities to
Caligari's office. Caligari reveals his lunacy only when he understands
that his beloved slave, Cesare, has died; Caligari gets imprisoned in
his own asylum then.
The narrative returns to the present moment, with Francis concluding his tale. A twist ending reveals that Francis' flashback, however, is actually his fantasy:
he, Jane and Cesare are all in fact inmates of the insane asylum, and
the man that he says is "Caligari" is his asylum doctor, who, after this
revelation of the source of his patient's delusion, says that now he shall be able to cure Francis. [wikipedia]
Πλοκή: Κάποτε σε ένα πανηγύρι εμφανίζεται ένας πλανόδιος μάγος, ο Δρ. Καλιγκάρι που στην σκηνή του έχει ένα μέντιουμ, τον υπνοβάτη Τσέζαρε (Cesare, Καίσαρας)
που βρίσκεται σε διαρκή λήθαργο εδώ και 25 χρόνια. Ο μάγος δίνει
παραστάσεις, στις οποίες ξυπνάει τον υπνοβάτη για να απαντήσει στις
ερωτήσεις του έκθαμβου κοινού. Ένας από τους θεατές τον ρωτάει: «Πόσο θα ζήσω ακόμα;» και ο Τσέζαρε του απαντάει: «Το τέλος σου θα έρθει σύντομα. Απόψε θα πεθάνεις.»
Πραγματικά ο θεατής αυτός θα δολοφονηθεί την ίδια νύχτα, και ο φίλος
του θα πιστέψει τις μαντικές ικανότητες του μέντιουμ. Από κει και πέρα η
μικρή πόλη αρχίζει να τρομοκρατείται από μια σειρά μυστηριωδών
νυκτερινών δολοφονιών. Η αστυνομία θα πιάσει έναν μικρολωποδύτη που θα
ομολογήσει ότι δολοφόνησε μια γριούλα, αλλά υποστηρίζει ότι για τις
άλλες δολοφονίες είναι αθώος.
Ο Φράνσις, φίλος του δολοφονημένου θεατή, αρχίζει να κάνει έρευνες
και ανακαλύπτει μια τρομερή αλήθεια, σύμφωνα με την οποία ο μάγος στην
πραγματικότητα είναι ο τρελός διευθυντής του τρελοκομείου της πόλης, που
χρησιμοποιεί για ψευδώνυμο το όνομα Δρ. Καλιγκάρι. Ο Δρ. Καλιγκάρι είχε
κάνει μια διατριβή με θέμα τον ομώνυμο μύθο του 11ου αι., σύμφωνα με
τον οποίο ο ομώνυμος μάγος είχε δημιουργήσει έναν δαίμονα,
τον Τσέζαρε. Ο Καλιγκάρι είχε συνεχίσει στην διάρκεια της σταδιοδρομίας
του να ασχολείται με τον μύθο αυτό, προσπαθώντας να τον επαναλάβει.
Όταν μια μέρα οι γιατροί του τρελοκομείου του έφεραν έναν ασθενή
υπνοβάτη που κοιμόταν διαρκώς, ο Δρ. Καλιγκάρι συνειδητοποιεί ότι αυτή
είναι μια μοναδική ευκαιρία και αποφασίζει να χρησιμοποιήσει τον
υπνοβάτη για να πραγματοποιήσει κρυφά τα σχέδιά του. Ο υπνοβάτης παίρνει
το όνομα του πνεύματος Τσέζαρε και γίνεται άβουλος δούλος του Δρ. Καλιγκάρι· μέσα στον ύπνο του εκπληρώνει τις νυκτερινές δολοφονίες που αυτός του υπαγορεύει.
Τελικά ο Φράνσις αποκαλύπτει την αλήθεια και κατορθώνει να πιάσουν
τον Δρ. Καλιγκάρι και να τον κλείσουν μέσα στο ίδιο το τρελοκομείο
φορώντας του τον ζουρλομανδύα.
Το έργο θα καταλήξει όμως με μια άλλη, απρόβλεπτη τροπή, αφού ο
Φράνσις, φεύγοντας ικανοποιημένος από το τρελοκομείο θα συλληφθεί με την
σειρά του και θα κατηγορηθεί για παράνοια, ενώ ο Δρ. Καλιγκάρι θα παρουσιαστεί και πάλι ως διευθυντής του τρελοκομείου με τα λόγια: «Τον καημένο, τρελάθηκε. Αλλά εγώ θα τον κάνω καλά.» [ wikipedia]
Notes: Stylized, almost surrealistic, fantasy film
Storyline:Two peasant children, Mytyl and Tyltyl, are led by Berylune, a fairy, to
search for the Blue Bird of Happiness. Berylune gives Tyltyl a cap with
a diamond setting, and when Tyltyl turns the diamond, the children
become aware of and conversant with the souls of a Dog and Cat, as well
as of Fire, Water, Bread, Light, and other presumably inanimate things.
The troupe thus sets off to find the elusive Blue Bird of Happiness.
Written by
Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
Notes: Allegorical and highly symbolic religious picture; nude principal character.
Storyline:The story of St. Gabriel, who was killed by an ignorant mob for making a
nude statue representing Purity, who is also represented by a ghostly
naked girl that flits through the film.
Notes: Archaic trick film, shot through Anamorphic lens
Storyline:A scientist takes a white powder, and then hallucinates. Gance shows the man's hallucinations by using a series of distorting lenses on the camera. A print of the film survives.
Notes: Often attributed to Emile Cohl; recent scholarship points toward Bosetti.
Storyline: This is a cute and simple little film from 1910 about a magic moving
company. The film begins with some unseen persons opening a letter and
learning about a family that needs their furniture moved. Instead of
seeing the movers, the belongings seem to move themselves and decorate
the new apartment! This is actually achieved using stop-motion
cinematography--literally starting and stopping the film probably
thousands of times and slightly moving each object. Once the film is
run, the objects appear to move on their own. This sort of work was
later popularized in KING KONG and the Ray Harryhausen films of the
50s-80s. Here, it's a little crude, but very effective and amazing for
the era.[ author:
planktonrules ]
Notes: Exceptional trick film, shot from the ceiling facing downward.
Storyline: A family troupe of acrobats, made up to appear Japanese, perform various
unbelievable stunts in front of the camera, achieved through a trick of
the camera.
Notes: Shot from front of subway car, largely abstract.
Storyline: Starting at Union Square, we are taken for an underground excursion,
following the path of a subway train as it makes its way through New
York City subway tunnels on its journey to the old Grand Central
Station.
Written by
Thomas McWilliams <tgm@netcom.com>
Notes: Single-frame, time-lapse travel actually "up" the Hudson River.
Storyline: Film taken from a boat heading down the Hudson is shown at varying
speeds, often giving a sense of rapid transit. We see empty hills
sweeping by, then a steamboat passes. A few houses appear in woods along
the river's bank. The camera goes around a curve in the river; a train
track is visible at the water's edge. The occasional sign of
industrialization appears, then a working rail yard. Around another bend
are more steamboats, a three-masted sailboat, and barges. In the
distance, a train heads south. After awhile, we reach a city.
Written by
<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Storyline: Pluto, having seen the earth, comes back home amazed at the success of
that well-known dance, the "cake-walk." He has brought back with him two
noted well-known dancers, who start their favorite dance amidst the
flames. A queer and ugly being wishes also to join in the dance, but his
limbs break away and dance far from him. All the subjects of His
Majesty are seized with the irresistible mania for dancing, and start an
unbridled provincial dance. At this sight Satan starts out of the earth
a large blaze, which annihilates everything around him, disappearing
himself through the flames. This view has beautiful new effects and much
improves with colors. For the first time in a cinematograph view one
can see some of the will-o'-the-wisp wandering among human beings. The
effect is magical.
Written by
Méliès Catalog
Notes: Use of overprinting; section shown in negative
Storyline:A stationary camera looks down several sets of tracks; workmen are on
either side. A train comes into view: engine, with engineer leaning out,
coal car, and four passenger cars. In the upper left of the frame, the
moon shines next to a few clouds. The rest of the sky is dark. The train
sweeps by. Someone waves from between a couple of the cars. The look is
spectral, because we're seeing a print of the negative. Written by
<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Storyline: A woman in ballet slippers wearing a large white hat and a long white
dress - with ruffles, puffy sleeves and petticoats - dances across water
with roiling waves behind her. She holds the edges of the skirt with
her hands, lifting and twirling, sometimes exposing her bloomers and a
dark garter on one leg. Her style combines ballet with the exuberant
kicks and twirls of a burlesque dance hall. With churning waves behind
her, the water seems to wash beneath her feet. Written by
<jhailey@hotmail.com>
