UNIT III

World Cinema:
Since the end of World War I, the US film industry has been
the dominant cinema in the world and this has also meant that it has enjoyed
pre-eminent positions within film studies. For this reason, a separate volume
has been devoted to the study of American cinema and Hollywood. As a result,
world cinema is devoted to non- Hollywood cinemas, both in the sense of films
that are made geographically outside Hollywood and films which have adopted
a different aesthetics mode of film making from Hollywood. The non
Hollywood, 'world' cinemas have been characterized by considerable
aesthetics, culture and ideological diversity and have generated a whole range
of critical discussion and debate.

Schools of World Cinema.

The different schools of world cinema are:-

1. Classic Hollywood Cinema: The films produced in Hollywood and around

America are called as Classic Hollywood cinemas.

2. Asian Commercial Cinema: The films produced in India and Hong Kong
with large market and reliable local box office collections are called as
Asian Commercial cinema. These movies are more or less imitation of
Hollywood cinemas.

3. European Totalitarian Cinemas: Cinemas produced in Europe countries

with high standard. Mostly the European cinemas are made against the
commercial Hollywood cinemas. The movies produced in Germany, Italy,
France, Russia and other part of Europe is called European Totalitarian
Cinemas.

4. Third Cinema: The term originally referred to the anti imperialist cinemas
of Latin America are called as Third Cinema.
5. Art Cinema: These movies vary somewhat in their
Finances and in their textual characteristics.

German Expressionism:
Expressionism was an 'avant-garde' [advanced-thinking or futuristic]
movement which had begun in painting around 1905 was later taken up in
theater, literature, architecture and finally in film. German Expressionism was
developed as a reaction against realism. The followers supported excessive
changes to express an inner emotional reality rather than surface appearances.
German Expressionist use large shapes of bright, unrealistic colors with dark,
cartoonlike outlines and avoid using the shading, colors, volume and depth like
realist paintings.

The majority of film expressionists came from Germany, therefore the term
German Expressionism is so popular when describing about this movement in
film. However there were so many film makers who conveyed Expressionist
themes but were not German. The intention of German Expressionist film
is to express feelings in the most direct and extreme fashion like figures with
stretched out structure, faces wear ugly, worried expressions and etc. Buildings
looked slanting with the ground tilted up suddenly that are against traditional
perspective. German Expressionism is the first and foremost x characteristic
for use of mise-en-scene.

At the time Germany had just recovered from the consequences of World War
I and many Germans were mislead by their government, which made many
German Expressionist directors to project their authority figures as villains to
convey a sense of how no one could be trusted in the world. In 1919, Robert
wiene introduced the Expressionism style in his movie 'The Cabinet of
Dr.Caligari', which became a critical and commercial success particularly
in America and France. In this film, style of so called 'express' was unclear or
vague viewpoint of a mad-man and we look into world in his vision as the mad
narrator do.

There were other common patterns with this movement of

filmmaking. Movies like Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' in 1926 conveyed a growing
sense of disbelief towards industrialism and the roles that society had placed
on its citizens. Introduction of sound after 1928 forced the expressionism films
to become more realistic. In the movie 'The Golem: How He Came into the
World', a Jewish community was victimized and categorized against that they
create a golem to protect them.

This highlights the growing amount of religious discrimination and intolerance

by many minorities facing at that time, mainly in Germany. Expressionism style
was the main element that freed the directors to think creatively in a
new area that highlighted their appeal in the film.Unfortunately the German
Expressionism was a short lived movement from 1919 to 1933. Because by
1930 a certain German dictator had enhanced complete control of the
German government and dishonored German Expressionism as a shameful art
and misleading style of film making in Germany. However this did not mark the
end of the road for Expressionists.

As a result of harassment many expressionist directors left Germany and found

place for them in the land of glitz and glamour, so called Hollywood. Later the
Hollywood started showing interest in the German style, as a result the
popular German actors, cameramen and film makers shifted to Hollywood,
which invoked the horror and fantasy genres in Hollywood.

Style:
The 'German style' highlights on design with mysterious atmosphere and
composition, not like Hollywood style of storytelling. Expressionism means the
style that abstracts and alters the reality that can be known through:-
• Photography- unexpected camera angles and little camera
movement.
• Lighting- harsh and contrasts of light and shadow for various effects.
• Set- totally artificial and stylized sets that exposed all realistic details and
psychology. That is, the sets become the symbolic diagrams of emotional
states.
• Acting- anti-naturalist acting style like actors move in bouncy, slow and
twisting patterns and the actors are always seen in heavy make-up
• Composition- combination of all elements of mise-en- scene is
used to create an overall style.
Golden Age of German Film:
The First World War brought a new agenda for the German film industry. With
the entry of the America into the First World War in 1917, the German Army
Head decided that more strong measures should be taken to meet the
universal wave of anti-Germany propaganda spread from the well- equipped
American studios.On December 18, 1917, the German High Command formed
‘Universal Film A.G.' (UFA), which brought together the famous financiers and
industrialists with the largest film companies in Germany. The official mission
of UFA was to advertise Germany according to German authorities command,
which ordered not only to counter the American's propaganda, but also to use
film to promote the characteristic of German culture and for the purpose of
national education.
The objective of UFA was soon recognize by Ernst Lubitsch with his film
‘Madame Dubarry' released in 1918, which achieved a close revolution in the
art of film with the help of camera that was missing with other German film
director. The release of 'Madame Dubarry' in America as 'Passion' in 1920
was highly praised as the most important European picture, which highlighted
Lubitsch as promising director and achieved an important breakthrough
for the German films in International Market.

But later, the German government separated itself from UFA in 1921, when
Deutsche Bank purchased UFA shares and reconstituted it as a private
company, which concentrated on the production of commercial films with high
artistic value that would challenge the world market, especially the America.
By the end of First World War German became very poor with many citizens
were dying of hunger as the country was facing high price rises and widespread
unemployment. The German's suffering of the period was reflected in Fritz
Lang's films 'Dr. Mabuse the Gambler' (Dr. Mabuse der Spieler], released in
1922 and 'Metropolis' in 1926 portrayed the darker aspect of expressionism.

The films produced during this period are called 'Aufklarungs filme', which
were actually sex films, which indirectly told for education. Soon legal actions
were taken on this films by National Assembly proposed nationalization of the
film industry which disrespected the National Censorship Law established in
1920. Under this law, children under twelve were prohibited to see these films
and children between 12 to 18 could be admitted only to the films that been
selected with a special certificate.For many German directors, success was
measured by their American popularity. Ernst Lubitsch was the first German
directors to accept the American assignment by directing the Hollywood film
'Rosita' in the 20's. He was followed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, who
directed four Hollywood films. Soon many other German directors and actors
entered Hollywood in the 20's and the trend still continues even
today.

Third Reich Films (State Films) :

The rise of Hitler to power of Germany, regained the track of German film. By
assigning Dr. Joseph Goebbels as the Minister for Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda by Hitler was the beginning of the most famous propaganda
machine ever used by any government. Goebbels established the 'State
Chambers of Culture' (Reichs kulturammer) for art, music, theater, authorship,
press, radio and film.

The Filmmaking was established as an official section of the Chamber, because

Goebbels was very interested in the implementing film as a propagandistic tool
and took an active role in its development during the twelve years of the Third
Reich. Goebbels called upon Fritz Lang to his office to offer Lang a position
within the new' German film industry. As Lang belongs to Jewish ancestry, the
new order from Hitler brought no mercy on Lang, so he left Germany and
started a new career in France and later in Hollywood.

Lang's relocation was followed by many German film producers, directors,

cameramen, technicians, writers and actors, who contributed so much to the
German cinema to make it an international success. With the relocate of great
German film personalities, the 'Golden Age' of German cinema came to an end.

Later the films produced in German were too political and not popular among
the people, soon Goebbles realized that propaganda has to be delivered in the
form of entertainment. and not to be preached. A historical film 'Das Madchen
Johanna' (Joan the Girl) directed by Ucicky was screened at the International
Film Congress in Berlin in 1935, which portrayed Hitler as Joan of Arc, who
saved her people from depression and had belief in her country that received
great response by the German people.

Post World War II Films:

During the Post World War II, the heart of Germany's film industry fell within
the Soviet occupation zone. Soon the Soviet authorities reopened nearly thirty-
six Lichtspielhauser in the Soviet zone of Berlin. But the British and American
zones were comparatively slow in responding to the German films. While the
Soviet zone played older and non- propagandistic films, the allied zone used
the German motion pictures strictly for de-Nazification policy and not to
associate with National Socialist propaganda.In the name of democracy, both
the British and American authorities purposely combined and separated the
functions of film production, distribution, and exhibition. The German citizens
were shown 'Welt im Film’ (World on Film), the official Anglo-American
newsreels, in an attempted goal of educating German public opinion on sound
democratic lines.

Film policy in the American zone was guided by the Office of War Information
Overseas Motion Picture Bureau (OWI). During the spring of 1945, German
films were confiscated by the OWI in hopes of impressing upon the German
people their responsibility for the war. Short documentaries of awareness
camps were shown to German audiences during the first weeks of occupation.
The OWI regarded film as a tool for the re-education of the Germans. These
films lacked entertainment value and were considered boring by Germans. But
the Germans were curious to see certain American films such as ‘Gone with
the Wind, which censored during the Nazi era. But the film was not allowed in
Germany as it did not meet the objective of re-education.

The first post-war German production to receive an American license was 'Und
uber uns der Himmel' (The Sky above Us) directed by Josef von Baky. This film
portrayed Berlin as it was, with shots of the miles of rubble and the hardships
of its citizens. The more destroyed Germany appeared in a film, the more
support it received from OWI. Anyhow, the OWI had succeeded in re-educating
the Germans; it had succeeded in subordinating the German film industry to
the America, making the American films to dominate in Germany.
The New German Cinema:
By 1960s, the West German film production had declined and majority
of the films during this period were of poor quality with no opportunity of
competing with world market, especially the America. In 1962, during the
German Festival for Short Films, a group of twenty-six young German directors
wrote and signed the Oberhausen Manifesto, which boldly declared that the
old German cinema was dead, that is 'Papas Kino ist tod' (Papa's movies are
dead).

These youngsters highlighted the importance of short films as a tool to educate

rather than entertain. Their short and unstructured films were produced on
very low budgets,which reflected their philosophy that the German film should
concern itself with contemporary German problems like the statues of post-
war society, the honesty of the bourgeoisie, the separation of youth, and the
moral tragedy of the Nazi heritage. Some of the filmmakers made
autobiographical films in the belief that one's personal problem was also the
world’s problem.
Many of the young German filmmakers were strongly political, by mocking of
'artistic quality' and 'entertainment'. Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder,
Werner Herzog and Volker Schlondorff stood in the forefront of this 'Neu
Welle' (the German 'New Wave'). Younger German directors have been shown
attention to study the works of Francis Ford Coppola, Hal Ashby, Martin
Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Peter Bogdanovich, the representatives of the
new Hollywood cinema. Anyhow, it is difficult to define the 'New German
Cinema' because all the directors have their own unique styles which are
specific to their films.

Fritz Lang:

Fritz Lang, born on 5th December, 1890 was an artist and a painter who joined
in the army and fought in First World War, got wounded and recovering from
both injuries and shell shock, joined Germany's UFA studio during the shining
of the Expressionist movement in Germany.
Lang produced a number of crime dramas before directing his most famous
film 'Metropolis', in 1927, which greatly impressed the leaders of the growing
Nazi movement, even though Lang hated the Nazi's philosophy. After
Metropolis, Lang directed his masterpiece film 'M' in 1931, a disturbing
story of a murderer of children, which still remains as a powerful movie was
remade in 1951 and 1956 don t attracted the audience.

His film 'The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse' in 1933 was banned by the Nazi's when
they came to power due to the anti-Nazi statements. But still, Lang was
respected by the Nazis authorities and offered him the head position in the
German film industry. But, instead of accepting the offer, Lang escaped
from Germany and settled at America. But at the same time, his wife and
longtime partner Thea von Harbou joined the Nazi party and stayed in
Germany.

After reaching America, Lang entered into Hollywood and joined MGM Studio.
Lang started directing number of impressive and colorful melodramas over a
period of twenty years mostly based on Film Noir. During 1950s, Lang found it
difficult to work in the Hollywood and returned back to Germany and started
making films in Germany. But his movies were not well received and Lang
retired from directing and passed away in 1976.

Italian Neo-Realism:

Before the Indians and even before the French New Wave, Italian neo-realism
ventured out a new cinematic territory. Key elements are an emphasis on real
lives (close to but not quite documentary style), an entirely or largely non
professional cast, and a focus on collectivity rather than the individual.
Solidarity is important, along with an implicit criticism of the status quo. Plot
and story come about organically from these episodes and often turn on quite
tiny moments.
Cinematically, neo-realism pushed filmmakers out of the studio and on to the
streets, the camera freed-up and more vernacular, and the emphasis away
from fantasy and towards reality. Before the start of Second World War, the
country was under the control of powerful hand of Benito Mussolini since
1924.
The origin of neo-realism can be traced to Lucino Visconti's 'Obsession'
(ossessione) in 1943, an adaptation of 'the postman always rings twice', a
novel by James M. Cain. The movie was made exclusively on the countryside of
the Italy, which tells a tragic story of sexual surrender and murder. Rossellini's
'Rome Open City' (Roma, Citaa Aperta) in 1945, the disturbing Italian conflict
movie, nearly- documentary feel of the action becomes a permanent addition
to the neorealist aesthetic. 'Shoe Shine' (Sciuscia) in 1946, is the first neorealist
film scripted by Zavathini and directed by Vittorio de Sica was followed 'Bicycle
Thieves' (Lardi di Biciclette) in 1948 becomes the most mature exponent of
neo-realism.

Soviet Montage (1924-1930)

The first film in Russia was screened in 1896 and the cinema in Russia was seen
as entertainment rather than an art form. Within the ten years of time, the
Russian domestic productions were started and they were not related to
communists. The Russian cinemas at the time were just a series of short films
that would run continuously. But the Russian were not satisfied with these
films because they were silent and the Russians usually called it 'dumb' films.

The real breakthrough for the Russian cinema happened after the start of
First World War, were the imported cinemas were stopped and the demand
for domestic cinema was increased,The duration of cinema was increased and
was tightly fixed into melodramas. Evgeny Bauer became the first Russian
director to have overall creative control of his films, which were much interest
and based on the Great Russian novels of the 19th century. But the
communists hated these rich and unrealistic films, which very soon suffered a
lot and faced an end.

The Orthodox Church of Russia was particularly distrustful of popular and

vulgar of cinema. The Communists, who came to power in 1917 and were
more concerned with strengthening their unstable power and the
filmmakers, were more concerned with escaping from the Communists. The
films after the revolution were 'agit- prop' (agitation propaganda)
works that used to educate a largely illiterate population about the goals
of Communism and in some areas, specially converted 'agit trains' are made
to tour the country to educate through screening.

With the old filmmakers largely excelled and new political changes took place,
helped for emerging young filmmakers who created a new way of looking at
reality, which resulted as one of the most powerful periods of creativity in
Russian cinema history. The early Soviet directors were highly influenced by
the American films.

Montage is a French term literary means 'putting together'. Soviet montage

theory is an approach to understand and create cinema that depends heavily
on the editing. Montage is the technique of selecting and editing separate
sections of film together to create a constant meaning. Although Soviet
Film makers in the 1920s disagreed with how exactly to view montage, Sergei
Eisenstein marked a note that montage is the nerve of cinema' and the nature
of the montage is to 'solve the
specific problem of cinema'.

While several Soviet filmmakers, such as Lev Kuleshov, Dziga Vertov, and
Vsevolod Pudovkin put forward the explanations of what represents the
montage effect. But, Eisenstein view that 'montage is an idea that developed
from the conflict of independent shots 'wherein' each sequential element is
not next to the other, but on top of the other' has become most widely
accepted. In formal terms, this style of editing suggests discontinuity in graphic
qualities, violations of the 180 degree rule and the creation of impossible order
matches.

French impression & Surrealism (1917-1930) :

Surrealist cinema is a modernist approach to film theory, criticism, and
production with origins in Paris in the 1920s. Related to mega cinema,
Surrealist cinema is characterized by juxtapositions, the rejection of dramatic
psychology, and a frequent use of shocking images. The first Surrealist
film was 'The Seashell and the Clergyman' in 1928, directed by
Germaine Dulac. Other films include 'Un Chien Andalou' and 'L'Age
d'Or' by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali; Bunuel went on to direct many more
films, with varying degrees of Surrealist influence.

Surrealism draws upon irrational imagery and the subconscious mind.

However, Surrealists should not be mistaken as whimsical or incapable of
logical thought; rather, most Surrealist promotes themselves as
revolutionaries. Surrealist works cannot be defined by style or form, but rather
as results of the practice of surrealism. Rather than a fixed aesthetic,
surrealism can be defined as an ever-shifting art form.
The French New Wave (1959 – 1964) :
The term French New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague refers tothe work of a
group of French film-makers between the years 1958 to 1964. The French New
Wave has become one of the most famous movements in the perspective
of non-Hollywood cinema. New Wave directors have achieved International
image and their films are still available has a significant influence on world
cinema over the 40 years, which left an important heritage for succeeding
generations of directors in France.
In 1951, Jacques Doniol Valcroze and Andre Bazin founded a new journal,
'Cahiers du cinema' and the development of a critical concept 'La politique
des auteurs', which focused on film reviews and theoretical discussions
played a major role in the evolution of critical analysis and emergence of the
New & Wave in the 1950s that influenced the reaction to the mainstream
'quality tradition' and passionate directors working in the Hollywood.
A young director Alexandre Astruc in 1948 wrote a powerful article in the
cinema journal 'L’Ecran Fran^ais' entitled 'La camera stylo' (the camera-pen),
which associated the work of the film director with the writer. The young
critics of 'Cahiers' later adopted this as a manifesto: the camera used as a pen
creates its own unique language, and the images (and the dialogue) add
nuance and develop the narrative.
The film directors who formed the core of this group, Francois Truffaut, Jean-
Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer, were once all
film critics for the magazine Cahiers du Cinema. Other French directors,
including Agnes Varda and Louis Malle, soon became associated with the
French New Wave movement.
Andre Bazin was also know for his powerful attack in 1954 on contemporary
mainstream French quality, which he renamed as 'Cinema de papa' in an essay
titled 'A Certain Tendency of French Cinema', he criticized the uniform and
unimaginative form of the French productions dominated that time.
In the meantime, the serious critical writing team of 'Cahiers' focused on the
work of specific directors or auteurs and on the 'mise-en-scene' strategies
recognized their films, which refers to the shooting, camera use, acting
direction, sequencing, editing and all aspects of filming.
 UNIT IV

Japanese Cinema:
Japan has one of the world's oldest and most productive film industries. The
first film ever produced in Japan was a short documentary about geishas
playing musical instruments, screened in June 1899. Throughout the silent era,
Japanese cinemas employed narrators known as 'benshi' who describe
the action to audience in a running commentary as the film played, even giving
a short lecture about the historical or narrative context of the story.
Because of the volatile nature of early nitrate stock, an earthquake that struck
the film archives and the damage created by World War II , more than 90
Percent of Japanese Films of the silent era have been lost forever.

The first acknowledged master of Japanese cinema was Kenji Mizoguchi, who
began his career early in the silent era. Starting out as an actor, made his debut
as a director in 1920 when he was the only person available to work during an
industrial dispute. He worked quickly, typically shooting and editing in a couple
of weeks and completed over fifty films in the decade between 1920 and 1930.
The leading light in what became known as the Golden Age of Japanese
cinema, Mizoguchi favored long takes and little camera movement. Revered as
a cultural icon in Japan during his lifetime, his most popular films include
'Osaka Elegy', 'The Story of the last Chrysanthemum', 'Sansho the Bailiff and
'Ugetsu'. The international success of his 1952 masterpiece 'The Life of Oharu”,
Which won the silver Lion at the venice film festival, did much to popularize
Japanese cinema in the west.

The 1940’s saw the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa make his debut
with the action film “Sugata Sanshiro”. His first collaboration with the then-
unknown actor Toshiro Mifune came in 1948 in his breakthrough film 'Drunken
Angel' and followed with Academy Award winning classic 'Rashomon' in
1950 and 'Seven Samurai' in 1954s. After the costly failure of his American-
Japanese WWII co-production 'Tora Tora Tora in 1970, Kurosawa made far
fewer films but with the support of high-profile fans including Martin Scorsese,
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, he completed two epics late in his career
with 'Kagemusha' in 1980 and 'Ran' in 1985.
The third of the great masters of the Golden Age, Yasujird Ozu started his
career as an assistant director before directing his first film, ‘The Sword of
Penitence', in 1927. He went on to direct short comedies, documentaries and
love stories before being conscripted into the army. On his return, he made his
lirst popular success'Brothers and Sisters'in 1941 and his reputation was sealed
by the end of the decade, which saw the release of'Late Spring'in 1949
and'Tokyo Story'in 1953, considered to be his masterpiece.At the same time,
popular Japanese cinema was proving equally fashionable overseas. In 1953
'Gate of Hell' by Teinosuke Kinugasa, was the first Japanese colour film
released internationally. Ishiro Honda's low-budget monster movie 'Gojira' was
released, which was dubbed into English and re-named as 'Godzilla' became a
worldwide hit and emerged as the icon of Japan's film industry, spanning
dozens of sequels, animations and a 1990s American remake.

The 1960s also saw the rise of the New Wave of filmmakers, with the best
known example, Seijun Suzuki's gangster epic 'Branded to Kill' released in
1967. Suzuki was fired by his studio shortly afterwards for "making films that
don't make any sense and don't make any money". Other examples from the
era include Nagisa Oshima's 'Cruel Story of Youth', Masahiro Shindo's 'Onibaba'
and Shohei Imamura's'The Insect Woman'. Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1964 drama
'Woman in the Dunes'won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated
for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.

In the 1970s, Japanese cinema saw a major change in depictions of sexual

relationships with Oshima making his controversial 1976 period drama 'In the
Realm of the Senses . With frank depictions of a sadistic love affair, the film has
never been shown uncensored in Japan. The 1980s saw a rebirth in production
of Japanese feature-length animations, known as anime'.

Mamoru Oshii released his landmark 'Angel's Egg' in 1983. In the late 1980s,
comedian, writer and actor Takeshi Kitano emerged as a significant filmmaker
with works such as 'Violent Cop' in 1989, 'Sonatine' in 1993 and 'Hana-bi'
(Fireworks) in 1997, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

At the same time a peculiarly Japanese strain of horror films based on old folk
tales and creepy urban legends known as J- Horror began to emerge. Films
such as Hideo Nakata's 'Ring' franchise, begun in 1998 and his 2001 film 'Dark
Water' were screened internationally to critical and commercial acclaim.

Nakata made his English language debut with the American remake of his own
'Ring II' by American studios. His most recent film, 'Chatroom', about five
teenagers who meet online, was written by Irish playwright and screenwriter
Enda Walsh and premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010
Cannes Film Festival.

Third world cinema:

Third Cinema is an aesthetic and political project whose principles have guided
filmmakers throughout the regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America. While its
principles were originally defined and used to rally filmmakers in the 1960s and
1970s, Third Cinema still influences filmmaking strategies and projects today.

Third Cinema continues to evolve as political, social and cultural climates

change throughout the world; the tone of a Third Cinema film can reflect a
revolutionary atmosphere and deliver its message with confidence, Convey the
disappointment of failed or co-opted revolutions or express frustration with
class, racial or gender oppression continued colonial desires from developed
World nations. For this reason, Third Cinema's importance in filmmaking
history and its power to deliver social commentary with the aim of inspiring
change cannot be understated.

The term 'Third Cinema' reflects its origins in the so-called Third World, which
generally refers to those nations located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
where historical encounters with colonial and royal forces have shaped their
economic and political power structures. The term also illustrates a response
to the dominant cinematic forms of First World nations and commercial
national film industries. Where First Cinema invoke images of Hollywood
movies, consumption and bourgeois values and Second Cinema refers to
European art house films demonstrating aesthetic, but not always political,
innovation, Third Cinema takes a different approach to filmmaking, by
threatening cinematic codes, embracing revolutionary ideals and combating
the passive film-watching experience of commercial cinema.
In its earliest stages, as articulated by the classic manifestoes and theories of
the 1960s and 1970s, Third Cinema was a militant practice parallel with
revolutionary struggles of this period, produced with the intention of
provoking discussion with and amongst its viewers and proposing
alternative visions of the past, present, and future.

While some of this militancy has faded as revolutionary struggles have changed
or failed and new issues have arisen, Third Cinema has evolved to address
problems in nation-building projects, to express disillusionment and
impotence, to respond to new forms of cultural oppression.

In general, Third Cinema's aesthetic innovations involve the mixing of different

genres and visual styles to situate both cultural and political critiques, rather
than aiming solely for artistic excellence and expression. While the content and
message of Third Cinema films vary depending on the filmmaker, the country
of origin, the resources available, and the political and social climate, these
films are part of the Third Cinema project because they address certain topics
and adhere to particular guiding principles.

Third Cinema films generally engage the following issues and address the
following questions:
• Third Cinema questions structures of power, particularly
colonialism and its legacies.
• Third Cinema aims for liberation of the oppressed,
whether this oppression is based on gender, class, race,
religion, or ethnicity.
• Third Cinema engages questions of identity and
community within nations and diasporas populations who have left their home
countries because of exile, persecution, or
economic migration.
• Third Cinema opens a dialogue with history to challenge previously held
conceptions of the past, to demonstrate their legacies on the present, and to
reveal the 'hidden' struggles of women, impoverished classes, indigenous
groups, and minorities.
• Third Cinema challenges viewers to reflect on by the experience of poverty
and subordination by showing how it is lived, not how it is imagined.
• Third Cinema facilitates interaction among intellectuals and the masses by
using film for education and dialogue.
• Third Cinema strives to recover and rearticulate the nation, using politics of
inclusion and the ideas of the people to imagine new models and new
possibilities.

By incorporating cultural and political critiques and challenging viewers with

new compositional structures and genre juxtaposition, Third Cinema harnesses
the power of film to increase social consciousness about issues of power,
nationhood, identity, and oppression around the world. Finally, it is important
to note the distinction between Third Cinema and Third World Cinema.As
indicated above, Third Cinema is an aesthetic and political project which is
guided by certain principles in order to challenge power structures. Third
Cinema films are generally produced by filmmakers located within the Third
World regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America and intended for audiences in
these regions.

The filmmakers of Third Cinema employed a variety of styles and forms to

illustrate their message. The methods selected often reflected the resources
they had available, the content of their work, and the filmmaking conditions of
the period. The styles and forms described below are some of the most
common in Third Cinema.

Documentry :
The film makers of the third cinema produced some of the most innovative
works using various forms of documentary. Ranging from newsreel styles, to
TV reportage and eyewitness reports fused with fictional accounts, to creative
use of heavy-handed propaganda, television commercials, and photographs,
documentary styles illustrated their revolutionary message in innovative ways.

Cinema Novo:
Cinema Novo was a cinematic style used in Brazilian films of the 1960s and
1970s. The main aim of Cinema Novo was to clearly demonstrate the
scarcity of resources experienced by many in the Third World.
Cinema Novo was often filmed from the perspective of the people, avoided
actors with major star power, and used lighting, cameras, and camera angles
creatively to fit the film's budgets.
Allegory :
Allegory is used in Third Cinema to illustrate problems in a few different ways.
In many films, one character is used to represent a larger group, particularly
Members of a particular social or political class and illustrates the problems
and conflicts experienced within this group. Particular sequences or scenes can
be used as symbolic examples of desire or frustration experienced by those
involved in a struggle against colonialism or domination.