FILM ANALYSIS

We are going to learn about Cinematography History through the analysis of some of the better films of 20th century. Each one will chose a film and made an analysis following next instructions:

Fim Analysis 

If you need something more specific next questions could help you:
Questions about the film

1. A trip to the Moon, Georges Melies 1902
2. The Cabinet of the Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene, 1920
3. Battleship Potemkin, Sergei Eisenstein, 1925
4. The General, Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, 1926
5. Metropolis, Fritz Lang, 1927 
6. An Andalusian Dog, Luis Buñuel, 1929
7. City Lights, Charlie Chaplin, 1931 
8. Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs, Willian Cottrell et al., 1937
9. Citizen Kane, Orson Welles, 1941 
10. Casablanca,  Michael Curtiz, 1942
11. Bicycle Thieves, Vittoria De Sica, 1948 
12. Singin’ in the Rain, Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly,1952
13. Seven Samurai, Kurosawa Akira, 1954 
14. The 400 Blows, François Truffaut, 1959 
15. Some Like It Hot, Billy Wilder, 1959 
16. Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock, 1960 
17. La dolce vita, Federico Fellini, 1960
18. The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966 
19. A Space Odissey, Stanley Kubrick 1968
20. The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola, 1972
21. Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976 
22. Monthy Pyton and the Holy Grial, Terry Gilliam et al., 1975
23. Annie Hall, Woody Allen, 1977 
24. Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford, 1979
25. Blade Runner, Riddle Scott, 1987

Once you have completed the essay you need;
- to write the PITCH of your film
- to apply the model proposed in "Every story is the same" to your film.
- Prepare an ORAL PRESENTATION of the film for the rest of the students supported by a scene of the filmfollowing next points:

1. Identification of the film: year, company, director, actors...
2. Content, a thematic analysis: details about the story...
3. Technical analysis: photography, special effects...
4. Context, historical importance in Cinema History.

Here you have an example with  

Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI

The Pitch could be something like that:
- A 16th cetury japanese village is terrorized by bandits-
- Local farmers look fo the help of a group of Samurais.
- Seven Samurais trained and leaded the farmers to fight the bandits,

The Story Pattern 

1.  YOU: Japanese village peasents live from their Rice Fileds
2. NEED: Finish with the bandits attacks and raids.
3. GO: Look for the help of hungry Samurais
4. SEARCH: Peasents are trained by Seven Samurais.
5. FIND: All together defeat the bandits.
6. TAKE: Some farmers and Samurais die in the battle.
7. RETURN: The peasents return to the rice fields and samurais leave the town
8. CHANGE:: The village can live in peace.

An example with a brief scheme of the work: 
SEVEN SAMURAIS

Data Sheet:
Influential Japanese film from 1954. ("The magnificents Seven", "Bugs"...)
Long film of 207 minutes, 3h27' by Akira Kurosawa.

Plot:
- A 16th cetury japanese village is terrorized by bandits.
- Local farmers look fo the help of a group of Samurais.
- Seven Samurais trained and leaded the farmers to fight the bandits.
 The film has the mother of all ‘assembling the team’ sequences, nowadays an obligatory part of all action movies.

Interesting points of the film which created a pattern for future movies:

• Differentiated characters: so the spectator is atached to them.
• Plot ideas: Reluctant heroe, the recruitment of the heroes, the romance between the younster and the local girl.
• Action scenes: Innovative use of cameras, General and "Guerrilla Unit".

So this is a classic film about Honnor and Duty with memorable characters and stunning action that owes its popularity to the fact that it was one of the first Japanese films arrived to the western viewers.
It introduced a culture that was foreign and intriguing, but a the same time accessible to the audience. Kurosawa achievement was to combine the conventions of the western films with a Japanese genres, combiningclassical story telling with innovative technical camera language.