Unit-2: Lesson 1

Various Movements in Cinema:

Expressionism,
Italian Neo Realism and French New
Wave

Dr. Rajesh Agrawal

Associate Professor
Journalism & Mass Communication
 Various Movements in Cinema
Expressionism
⚫ Expressionism is an artistic style that departs from the
conventions of realism and naturalism and seeks to
convey inner experience by distorting rather than
directly representing natural images.

⚫ Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in

poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the
beginning of the 20th century.

⚫ Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of

emotional experience rather than physical reality.
 Various Movements in Cinema
Expressionism
⚫ Expressionist films were initially born out in Germany
during the 1910s and quickly generated high demand.

⚫ German Expressionism consisted of a number of related

creative movements before the First World War that
reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s.

⚫ By 1922 the international audience had begun to

appreciate German expressionist cinema, in part due to
a decreasing anti-German sentiment following the end
of World War I.
 Various Movements in Cinema - Expressionism
Dominant characteristics of Expressionism
⚫ Expressionism use heavy atmosphere
⚫ Long shadow effects
⚫ Artificial sets with realistic details
⚫ The details in the sets bring forth the emotional, that
stirs audience mind
⚫ Camera set in unexpected angles gives audience a
different perception
⚫ Aims in evoking mystery, hallucinations (an experience in
which you see, hear, feel, or smell something that does
not exist) and extreme emotional stress
⚫ Slow pace than other regular movies
 Various Movements in Cinema
Expressionism
⚫ Important examples of Expressionist style in the
cinema are - Fritz Lang’s Destiny (1921)
 Various Movements in Cinema
Expressionism
⚫ Robert Wiene’s The Hands of Orlac (1924)
 Various Movements in Cinema
Expressionism
⚫ Robert Wiene’s ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Calligeri (1920)
 Various Movements in Cinema
Italian Neo-Realism
⚫ Italian Neo-realism is a national film movement
characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the
working class, filmed on location, frequently using
non-professional actors.

⚫ Italian Neo-realist films mostly contend with the difficult

economic and moral conditions of post-World War II,
representing changes in the Italian psyche and conditions
of everyday life, including poverty, oppression, injustice
and desperation.
 Various Movements in Cinema
Italian Neo-Realism
⚫ Neo-realism was a sign of cultural change and social
progress in Italy. It presented contemporary stories and
ideas, and were often shot in the streets because the film
studios had been damaged significantly during the war.
⚫ Neorealist films often feature children in major roles,
though their characters are frequently more
observational than participatory.
⚫ Italian Neo-realism came about as World War II ended in
1945 and became famous globally in 1946 with Roberto
Rossellini's Rome, Open City.
 Italian Neo-Realism
Characteristics of the Neo-Realsim
⚫ Noticeable long take style
⚫ Poor neighborhood and readymade location
⚫ showed the situation of the common in the refugee camps to
the disaster brought in by the war.
⚫ The realism was blend with the Marxist humanism that
brought forward those raw emotions of both the artists and its
audience
⚫ Films avoided editing and lighting of the location
⚫ The dialogue of the film focused on conversational script and
not the scripted dialogue
⚫ Since this movement was also an opposition to Hollywood and
its Happy ending films, realist directors made it as a point not
to make films with happy ending.
 Various Movements in Cinema
Italian Neo-Realism
⚫ Important examples of Italian Neo-Realism style in the
cinema are - Vittorio De Sica's ‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948)
 Various Movements in Cinema
Italian Neo-Realism
⚫ Roberto Rossellini's ‘Rome Open City’ (1945)
 Various Movements in Cinema
Italian Neo-Realism
⚫ Federico Fellini's ‘La strada’ (1954)
 Various Movements in Cinema
French New Wave
⚫ "New Wave" is an example of European art cinema.
Many also engaged in their work with the social and
political upheavals (Uthal-Puthal) of the era, making
their radical experiments with editing, visual style and
narrative part of a general break with the conservative
paradigm.

⚫ The New Wave was a term coined by critics for a group

of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s.
 Various Movements in Cinema
French New Wave
⚫ Using portable equipment and requiring little or no
setup time, the New-Wave way of filmmaking
presented a documentary style.

⚫ Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous

editing, and long takes.

⚫ The combination of objective realism, subjective

realism, and authorial commentary created a narrative
ambiguity in the sense that questions arise in a film are
not answered in the end.
 French New Wave
Characteristics of the Neo-Realism
⚫ French New Wave director’s background in film theory
⚫ Critics and their willingness in experimenting
⚫ Breaking established film rules to keep with
contemporary French culture.
⚫ Using non-linear narrative to present the story whereby
the beginnings of films were not started as the classic
narrative that tells the story with linear plot structure.
⚫ The arrangement of the plot was not in order and
sometimes flashback scene appeared.
⚫ The film usually ends ambiguously with no resolution at
the end and story is left open for the plot to continue.
 French New Wave
Characteristics of the Neo-Realsim
⚫ Setting, lighting, staging and sound in terms of mise-en-scène.
Using a lot of mise-en-shot like panning, tracking follow the
character movement, handheld, and point of view of the
character and so on.
⚫ The setting usually shoot on real or natural locations .
⚫ Used natural sound in staying real to the very nature of film.
⚫ Natural lighting is used because lights were another big cost
⚫ The staging has its own style especially in actor’s performance
including speech or dialogue patterns. The actors were
encouraged to improvise their lines, or talk over each other’s
lines as would happens in real-life. The arrangement of the
plot was not in order and sometimes flashback scene
appeared.
 Various Movements in Cinema
French New Wave
⚫ Important examples of French New Wave style in the
cinema are - Jean-Luc Godard's ‘Breathless’ (1960)
 Various Movements in Cinema
French New Wave
⚫ Claude Chabrol's ‘Les Bonnes Femmes’ (1960)
 Various Movements in Cinema
French New Wave
⚫ Francois Truffaut's ‘Shoot the Piano Player’ (1960)