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At the end of the 1800s a new artform
flickered into live.
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00:00:06,584 --> 00:00:08,620
It looked like our dreams.
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00:00:16,658 --> 00:00:20,342
Movies are multi-billion dollar
global entertainment industry now.
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00:00:20,900 --> 00:00:24,988
But what drives them
isn't box-office or showbiz.
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00:00:25,651 --> 00:00:28,271
It's passion, innovation!
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00:00:29,487 --> 00:00:34,007
So let's travel the world
to find this innovation for ourselves.
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00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:38,800
To discover it in this man,
Stanley Donen,
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00:00:38,825 --> 00:00:40,252
who made Singing in the Rain.
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00:00:41,401 --> 00:00:43,330
And in Jane Campion in Australia.
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00:00:44,342 --> 00:00:46,361
And in the films of Ky�ko Kagawa
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00:00:46,386 --> 00:00:49,087
who was in perhaps
the greatest movie ever made.
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00:00:50,798 --> 00:00:54,697
And Amitabh Bachchan,
the most famous actor in the world.
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00:00:55,097 --> 00:00:58,233
And in the movies
of Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee,
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00:00:58,233 --> 00:01:00,664
Lars Von Trier and Akira Kurosawa.
15
00:01:01,947 --> 00:01:05,205
Welcome to the story of film,
an odyssey.
16
00:01:05,516 --> 00:01:08,955
An epic tale of innovation
across twelve decades,
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00:01:09,475 --> 00:01:13,381
six continents
and a thousand films.
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00:01:24,500 --> 00:01:26,975
In this chapter we meet
the master-directors
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00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,090
Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchkock.
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00:01:29,326 --> 00:01:31,681
And explore the beauty of French cinema
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00:01:31,681 --> 00:01:33,315
of the 1930's.
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00:01:36,082 --> 00:01:38,540
America. The end of the 20s.
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00:01:38,565 --> 00:01:40,770
The world is changing fast.
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00:01:41,740 --> 00:01:43,365
The wall street crash.
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00:01:43,669 --> 00:01:49,135
The great depression,
which would last for 12 years, begins.
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00:01:49,872 --> 00:01:53,062
The movie world upended
at the end of the 20s too.
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00:01:53,441 --> 00:01:55,890
Sound cinema was taking off.
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00:01:56,046 --> 00:02:02,052
Talking pictures sold ten million
more tickets a year than silent cinema.
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00:02:02,057 --> 00:02:03,750
There was money in sound.
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00:02:03,900 --> 00:02:05,694
So movie theatres like this one:
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the Palace Theatre in Time Square,
New York, wired for sound.
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00:02:13,375 --> 00:02:17,656
Filmmaking with sound was
a whole new way of making movies.
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00:02:21,871 --> 00:02:25,227
Real locations were hard to use now
because someone was bound
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00:02:25,227 --> 00:02:28,048
to start hammering metal
or digging a road.
35
00:02:28,998 --> 00:02:35,908
So filmmakers were forced back into studios
like this that were re-named sound stages.
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00:02:36,318 --> 00:02:38,716
What happened in such stages?
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This scene from the 1931 film
Her Dilemma [Confessions of a Co-Ed]
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00:02:42,069 --> 00:02:43,801
shows what happened.
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00:02:44,687 --> 00:02:47,893
Because recording sound
was suddenly the main thing,
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00:02:47,893 --> 00:02:50,657
picture became secondary.
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00:02:51,534 --> 00:02:54,005
When we cut to the close
up of singer Bing Crosby,
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00:02:54,005 --> 00:02:57,647
the violinist is still playing,
in the exact same position,
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slightly awkwardly framed
beside Crosby's face.
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00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,784
This is because it's shot with two cameras,
filming at the same time,
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00:03:05,784 --> 00:03:08,256
for sound reasons, like TV.
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00:03:09,490 --> 00:03:14,040
If the close up had been shot single camera
the violinist could have been moved
47
00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:16,763
and the close up would have
looked less cluttered.
48
00:03:17,426 --> 00:03:18,813
And notice the lighting.
49
00:03:19,008 --> 00:03:23,490
It's flatter and more overhead than
we've seen in Hollywood movies so far,
50
00:03:23,490 --> 00:03:26,012
like lighting in
a TV soap opera.
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00:03:26,278 --> 00:03:30,125
This is because, if you shoot a close up
and a wide shot at the same time
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00:03:30,125 --> 00:03:32,128
you can't light
them differently.
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00:03:32,650 --> 00:03:39,152
So at the start of the sound era,
cinema became far less cinematic.
54
00:03:42,178 --> 00:03:46,236
But, again, the story of film
is full of inventive people
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00:03:46,236 --> 00:03:49,876
with ideas who
overcame these limitations.
56
00:03:50,179 --> 00:03:53,425
Rouben Mamoulian directed opera
and was impatient
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00:03:53,450 --> 00:03:55,657
with static cinema
and naturalism.
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00:03:56,118 --> 00:04:01,403
In 1932, Mamoulian made a musical
that was so explosively inventive
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00:04:01,403 --> 00:04:04,878
that it makes most other films
from the time look creaky.
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00:04:06,161 --> 00:04:08,972
Love me tonight
is set in Paris.
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00:04:09,482 --> 00:04:13,432
Mamoulian is so excited
by the new possibilities of sound
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00:04:13,432 --> 00:04:18,740
that he depicts the morning awakening
of Paris as a kind of emerging symphony
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00:04:18,740 --> 00:04:20,848
of everyday noises.
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00:04:51,054 --> 00:04:55,405
Then we meet our main character,
this plucky tailor who will fall in love
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with a Princess
who lives in a chateau.
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00:04:58,302 --> 00:05:00,923
The tailor sings,
isn't it romantic.
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00:05:03,431 --> 00:05:06,187
This is overheard
by this customer...
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00:05:09,369 --> 00:05:11,901
Romantic da da dad a da
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00:05:11,926 --> 00:05:12,977
Taxi!
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00:05:12,979 --> 00:05:14,811
Oh no, I need some air
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00:05:14,813 --> 00:05:16,661
Isn't it romantic?
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00:05:17,371 --> 00:05:19,953
And then picked
up by this composer.
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00:05:19,955 --> 00:05:21,755
At last I've got a fair!
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00:05:21,757 --> 00:05:23,684
Railroad station!
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00:05:23,686 --> 00:05:25,773
A, b, a, b
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00:05:25,775 --> 00:05:27,830
Who writes it down
as sheet music.
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A, b flat
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00:05:29,054 --> 00:05:31,239
isn't it romantic
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00:05:31,241 --> 00:05:33,713
da da da da da
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00:05:33,715 --> 00:05:37,896
And then, turned into
a marching song by these soldiers.
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00:05:38,956 --> 00:05:44,388
Isn't it romantic...
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00:05:44,390 --> 00:05:46,159
Then it becomes fiddle music.
83
00:05:51,391 --> 00:05:56,033
And finally, reaches the ears
of the stranded Princess herself.
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00:05:56,679 --> 00:05:59,531
This was sound
unifying a sequence.
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00:05:59,719 --> 00:06:02,027
Sound as a metaphor for travel.
86
00:06:02,170 --> 00:06:05,024
Sound as the thing
that cinema follows.
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00:06:05,433 --> 00:06:08,412
Sound calls, image responds.
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00:06:08,950 --> 00:06:12,839
Isn't it romantic
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00:06:12,841 --> 00:06:14,768
music in the night
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00:06:14,770 --> 00:06:18,558
a dream that can be heard
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00:06:19,024 --> 00:06:21,776
But Mamoulian was
more inventive yet.
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00:06:24,550 --> 00:06:30,037
He put the sound of yappy dogs
onto a shot of old ladies to mock them.
93
00:06:36,898 --> 00:06:43,677
He substituted real sound
for metaphorical sound
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00:06:43,702 --> 00:06:49,039
and, in doing so, helped free directors
from sonic literalness.
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00:06:53,186 --> 00:06:58,876
So, sound made money for the movie world
and brought new styles to cinema.
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00:06:59,716 --> 00:07:04,632
But it also helped to standardize films
into types, with recognizable stories,
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00:07:04,632 --> 00:07:06,578
styles and pleasures.
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00:07:07,203 --> 00:07:09,932
There were
six such movie genres.
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00:07:10,232 --> 00:07:15,231
They became the familiar staples of
entertainment cinema for decades to come.
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00:07:16,445 --> 00:07:19,185
There'd been horror movies
since the 1920s.
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00:07:19,574 --> 00:07:20,923
The best were German.
102
00:07:21,227 --> 00:07:24,951
This one, The Golem, has
daring diagonal compositions
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00:07:24,976 --> 00:07:27,313
and beautiful expressionist design.
104
00:07:27,758 --> 00:07:30,443
The Golem has been made
of clay, by a rabbi,
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00:07:30,443 --> 00:07:33,762
to protect the Jews
from persecution.
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00:07:35,382 --> 00:07:39,764
James Whale's film Frankenstein,
made in the Universal Studio
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in Hollywood in 1931,
borrowed heavily from The Golem.
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00:07:45,540 --> 00:07:49,532
It realizes that borrowing the
look of German expressionism,
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00:07:49,532 --> 00:07:54,168
would give popular Hollywood horror
a striking style and mood.
110
00:07:55,273 --> 00:07:59,176
Frankenstein tells the story
of a scientist who makes a monster,
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00:07:59,176 --> 00:08:03,550
who's then shunned by society
because he's visually repulsive.
112
00:08:04,218 --> 00:08:08,971
In the original novel by Mary Shelly,
the monster speaks frequently.
113
00:08:09,244 --> 00:08:13,304
Whale and his screenwriters
had him hardly speak at all.
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00:08:14,860 --> 00:08:16,975
Take care,
herr Frankenstein, take care!
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00:08:17,757 --> 00:08:21,349
Boris Karloff's tender
performance made Frankenstein
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00:08:21,349 --> 00:08:24,881
studio cinema's
greatest essay in prejudice.
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00:08:34,695 --> 00:08:41,698
Horror became Universal Studio's trademark,
as its back lot tours for tourists today show.
118
00:08:42,283 --> 00:08:47,294
The success of Frankenstein
added fear to the pleasures of movie going.
119
00:08:49,259 --> 00:08:53,107
The best horror directors
used this fear imaginatively.
120
00:08:53,471 --> 00:08:58,287
In the French film Eyes without a Face
for example, a surgeon's daughter
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00:08:58,287 --> 00:09:01,690
has a disfigured face,
so she wears a mask.
122
00:09:06,249 --> 00:09:09,264
Emotionless, she seems to float.
123
00:09:14,201 --> 00:09:16,913
We're desperate to see
what's behind the mask.
124
00:09:17,184 --> 00:09:21,024
Horror cinema is often
about the dread of the unseen.
125
00:09:21,416 --> 00:09:26,089
And in the Japanese film Audition
[Odishon] an eerily calm young woman
126
00:09:26,089 --> 00:09:31,111
is angry at an older man
who's been trying to make her his wife.
127
00:09:31,637 --> 00:09:35,619
Her phone rings and then this.
128
00:09:42,550 --> 00:09:45,013
One of the greatest shocks
in cinema.
129
00:09:45,530 --> 00:09:47,641
Our nervous system spasms.
130
00:09:48,212 --> 00:09:50,900
Horror movies get closer
to our nervous systems
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than almost any other genre.
132
00:09:54,149 --> 00:09:58,504
Another genre that came of age
in the 1930s was the gangster picture.
133
00:10:00,093 --> 00:10:03,612
Unlike horror films,
these had no European roots.
134
00:10:04,866 --> 00:10:09,260
Alcohol was illegal in America
between 1920 and 1933.
135
00:10:09,241 --> 00:10:15,356
So, gangs of entrepreneurial lawbreakers,
gangsters, ran it between country and city.
136
00:10:15,559 --> 00:10:18,312
Often of Italian or Irish decent.
137
00:10:18,337 --> 00:10:21,720
They structured
their empires like families.
138
00:10:22,227 --> 00:10:26,305
One of the first great gangster pictures
was this one, Public Enemy.
139
00:10:26,345 --> 00:10:29,472
Made just two years
after sound came in.
140
00:10:29,690 --> 00:10:34,948
James Cagney is a sparky, rat-a-tat opportunist,
who's made money running liquor.
141
00:10:35,135 --> 00:10:36,932
This is him and his childhood buddy.
142
00:10:37,089 --> 00:10:38,656
They're always on the alert.
143
00:10:43,780 --> 00:10:47,550
But then the buddy's gunned down
from an opposite building,
144
00:10:47,575 --> 00:10:49,884
beautifully staged
in deep focus.
145
00:10:50,051 --> 00:10:51,578
Cagney runs for cover
146
00:10:51,603 --> 00:11:13,878
but then emerges,
almost smirking.
147
00:11:14,208 --> 00:11:16,025
No grief here.
148
00:11:19,029 --> 00:11:21,981
Cagney, a former dancer,
had charm.
149
00:11:22,537 --> 00:11:27,015
Many organizations in America denounced
the film for indulging this charm.
150
00:11:27,186 --> 00:11:30,365
This was the start
of the moral debate about gangster films
151
00:11:30,365 --> 00:11:32,442
that continues to this day.
152
00:11:32,999 --> 00:11:36,459
Also in the 1930s,
journalist Ben Hecht wrote
153
00:11:36,484 --> 00:11:40,289
and Howard Hawks directed
Scarface, the Shame of the Nation
154
00:11:40,289 --> 00:11:43,569
turning the gangster genre
into Greek tragedy.
155
00:11:44,124 --> 00:11:46,372
This is the end of the film.
156
00:11:46,374 --> 00:11:48,365
A lover's clinch.
157
00:11:48,367 --> 00:11:50,204
And yet they're not lovers,
158
00:11:50,229 --> 00:11:51,806
they're brother and sister.
159
00:11:52,114 --> 00:11:53,670
Why didn't you shoot?
160
00:11:53,672 --> 00:12:01,039
I don't know maybe it's
because you're me and I'm you.
161
00:12:01,238 --> 00:12:02,443
It's always been that way.
162
00:12:02,468 --> 00:12:05,954
Paul Muni is the ultra-violent,
not very bright gangster
163
00:12:05,979 --> 00:12:09,629
with a thick Italian accent,
as if he's just arrived in America.
164
00:12:09,939 --> 00:12:13,577
His eyebrows were thickened
to make him look almost apelike.
165
00:12:15,565 --> 00:12:17,045
She's shot.
166
00:12:18,393 --> 00:12:20,417
He says he's nothing
without her.
167
00:12:20,419 --> 00:12:21,426
You're all I got left!
168
00:12:21,451 --> 00:12:23,604
Little boy, he's gone.
Angelo, he's gone.
169
00:12:23,629 --> 00:12:25,056
I'm no good without you,
Jessica.
170
00:12:25,081 --> 00:12:26,325
I'm no good with myself.
171
00:12:26,326 --> 00:12:27,279
Jessica!
172
00:12:28,873 --> 00:12:29,717
Jessica!
173
00:12:29,903 --> 00:12:31,671
They're out there. They want to get me.
They're all there.
174
00:12:31,696 --> 00:12:33,653
Jessica, they won't give me a chance.
Please!
175
00:12:34,115 --> 00:12:36,833
The tragic neediness
beneath the macho surface.
176
00:12:37,104 --> 00:12:39,162
The smallness of the big man.
177
00:12:39,836 --> 00:12:41,583
Jessica don't go.
Please, Jessica.
178
00:12:41,785 --> 00:12:45,755
Scarface was remade,
with cold brilliance, in 1983.
179
00:12:46,137 --> 00:12:49,836
This time Oliver Stone wrote
and Brian De Palma directed.
180
00:12:50,414 --> 00:12:53,193
He used his
trademark crane shots.
181
00:12:53,872 --> 00:12:58,321
Camonte's now called Montana.
He's again a recent immigrant.
182
00:12:58,323 --> 00:13:01,059
Now, a Cuban thug
dealing cocaine.
183
00:13:01,916 --> 00:13:05,371
The film chimed well
with the consumerist 1980s.
184
00:13:05,489 --> 00:13:08,237
Shiny buildings
and flashy pop music.
185
00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:17,092
In the original film Camonte
dies under a sign that says,
186
00:13:17,092 --> 00:13:19,386
The world is yours.
187
00:13:25,406 --> 00:13:29,004
De Palma takes this moment
and turns it into a baroque scene
188
00:13:29,004 --> 00:13:30,648
in the middle of his film.
189
00:13:43,677 --> 00:13:46,854
His craning camera points
to the irony.
190
00:13:47,363 --> 00:13:49,540
The world is not Montana's.
191
00:13:50,493 --> 00:13:52,889
The world is over for Montana.
192
00:14:08,229 --> 00:14:13,124
Hollywood made 70 gangster films
in the 3 years after 1930 alone.
193
00:14:13,473 --> 00:14:17,648
They influenced cinema
on every continent for decades.
194
00:14:18,901 --> 00:14:23,434
In Japan, in 1954,
The seven Samurai mixed gangster themes
195
00:14:23,459 --> 00:14:27,574
with a traditional Japanese story
of swordsmen and villagers.
196
00:14:27,796 --> 00:14:31,261
Scenes like this,
that were lashed with rain,
197
00:14:31,286 --> 00:14:33,375
looked like they were
drawn in charcoal.
198
00:14:33,683 --> 00:14:34,761
And The seven Samurai
199
00:14:34,761 --> 00:14:38,252
became one
of the most influential films of all time.
200
00:14:41,941 --> 00:14:43,308
Once upon a Time in America
201
00:14:43,308 --> 00:14:46,096
was perhaps
the best gangster film of the lot.
202
00:14:50,261 --> 00:14:53,220
This character, Noodles,
played by Robert De Niro,
203
00:14:53,220 --> 00:14:57,272
had, in his downward look,
the dismay of the movie gangster.
204
00:14:57,468 --> 00:15:03,130
His fascism, victim-hood,
hubris, style, and enigma.
205
00:15:03,485 --> 00:15:05,436
A complex set of ideas.
206
00:15:05,639 --> 00:15:09,520
All deriving from America cinema
of the 1930s.
207
00:15:12,155 --> 00:15:14,671
Musicals, horror films,
and gangster pictures
208
00:15:14,696 --> 00:15:16,517
all exploded in the 30s.
209
00:15:17,476 --> 00:15:19,218
But it was the western
that had been going
210
00:15:19,243 --> 00:15:21,201
from the first decade of cinema.
211
00:15:22,759 --> 00:15:26,140
Most are set between
1860 and 1900.
212
00:15:26,465 --> 00:15:29,696
This scene, from John Ford's
The iron Horse,
213
00:15:29,696 --> 00:15:32,297
shows so much
about the western genre.
214
00:15:32,669 --> 00:15:35,490
It's a landscape film of course,
not a cityscape.
215
00:15:35,786 --> 00:15:40,398
The camera is moving fast,
in a chase scene, a staple of westerns.
216
00:15:40,476 --> 00:15:43,879
Whereas, in gangster pictures,
the camera was often static.
217
00:15:44,129 --> 00:15:47,679
The Iron Horse of the title is,
of course, the railway.
218
00:15:47,771 --> 00:15:51,107
The coming of modernity.
A big theme in westerns.
219
00:15:53,562 --> 00:15:57,527
Ford actually films from the train,
using it as a camera Dolly.
220
00:15:57,792 --> 00:16:04,076
And, of course, the drama is a shoot-out
between white settlers and indigenous Indians.
221
00:16:04,639 --> 00:16:09,073
Nearly all the mob films are
about lawbreakers, in a cynical age.
222
00:16:09,790 --> 00:16:14,690
Many of the best westerns are
about lawmakers, in an idealistic age.
223
00:16:15,184 --> 00:16:20,215
In this much later western by John Ford,
Henry Fonda plays Wyatt Earp.
224
00:16:20,617 --> 00:16:26,205
Here sitting on the right, who's become
Marshall in Tombstone to create the law.
225
00:16:26,469 --> 00:16:30,687
I'm leaving in 30 minutes,
see you around.
226
00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:37,041
The town, society,
is just being born.
227
00:16:37,271 --> 00:16:38,785
For white people at least.
228
00:16:39,355 --> 00:16:43,520
Fonda surveys the town
as if it's virgin territory.
229
00:16:44,053 --> 00:16:46,173
The light's clean and white.
230
00:16:47,012 --> 00:16:50,781
In gangster movies, of course,
the town, the city, is dying.
231
00:16:50,781 --> 00:16:52,433
The world is dark.
232
00:16:53,526 --> 00:16:56,199
No one remembers
the law being made.
233
00:17:01,872 --> 00:17:04,094
Comedy, which had been
the greatest genre
234
00:17:04,094 --> 00:17:08,434
in silent American cinema,
changed course with the coming of sound.
235
00:17:08,822 --> 00:17:10,603
It became feminized.
236
00:17:11,327 --> 00:17:16,578
The first of these new farcical female films
was this one: 20th Century.
237
00:17:16,894 --> 00:17:20,939
A down-at-heel theatre producer
tries to convince his former lover,
238
00:17:20,939 --> 00:17:25,875
who's now a Hollywood star, to return
to Broadway, to revive his career.
239
00:17:26,280 --> 00:17:27,739
But there's only one problem.
240
00:17:27,966 --> 00:17:29,224
They hate each other.
241
00:17:29,364 --> 00:17:31,368
A film of hilarious rows.
242
00:17:31,617 --> 00:17:35,725
$10,000-$15,000 in front of your nose,
your mouth would begin to water,
243
00:17:35,750 --> 00:17:39,383
you'd start drooling and squealing,
gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.
244
00:17:39,397 --> 00:17:42,146
That's right, Oscar. Now get out
before I have the porter
245
00:17:42,171 --> 00:17:43,236
throw you off the train.
246
00:17:43,236 --> 00:17:46,023
You'll see who's going
to be thrown off this train.
247
00:17:46,149 --> 00:17:50,532
John Barrymore, who played the producer,
was a distinguished dramatic actor,
248
00:17:50,532 --> 00:17:53,578
but made a complete idiot
out of himself in this picture.
249
00:17:54,774 --> 00:17:57,873
Wild gestures, mad eyes,
unkempt hair.
250
00:17:59,666 --> 00:18:03,892
Carole Lombard was ever better.
Natural, but fast.
251
00:18:03,894 --> 00:18:05,142
Very fast.
252
00:18:06,394 --> 00:18:07,815
The film's director said:
253
00:18:07,815 --> 00:18:11,688
I told Lombard
that if she acted, I'd fire her.
254
00:18:12,386 --> 00:18:16,784
She would just throw lines at him so fast
that he didn't know what to do sometimes.
255
00:18:17,016 --> 00:18:20,618
It was so fast,
I didn't know what to do sometimes.
256
00:18:20,858 --> 00:18:23,881
This speed was new in cinema.
257
00:18:24,772 --> 00:18:29,744
Bringing up Baby, by the same director,
took the speed, the mayhem, further.
258
00:18:30,034 --> 00:18:33,231
A scientist wants
to buy a dinosaur bone.
259
00:18:33,533 --> 00:18:38,598
A millionaires will help him,
if he travels with her and her pet leopard.
260
00:18:38,623 --> 00:18:40,536
Yes, leopard, called baby.
261
00:18:40,561 --> 00:18:42,421
I don't believe you, Susan.
But you have to believe me.
262
00:18:42,421 --> 00:18:44,948
I've been the victim
of your unbridled imagination once more.
263
00:18:49,548 --> 00:18:51,984
That'll teach you to go round
saying things about people.
264
00:18:52,345 --> 00:18:54,324
Again, a feeble man.
265
00:18:54,507 --> 00:18:56,231
Again, a brassy dame.
266
00:18:56,449 --> 00:18:58,983
Her apartment is
almost entirely white,
267
00:18:59,008 --> 00:19:02,188
so the two characters
and the leopard stand out visually.
268
00:19:02,406 --> 00:19:06,410
Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn
overlapped each other's dialogue.
269
00:19:07,132 --> 00:19:09,882
This had never been done
so emphatically before.
270
00:19:10,023 --> 00:19:12,949
It added to the realism
of film acting thereafter.
271
00:19:13,150 --> 00:19:15,337
Realism and surrealism.
272
00:19:15,673 --> 00:19:19,242
A sparky new combination
in sound cinema.
273
00:19:19,556 --> 00:19:22,177
20th Century and Bringing up Baby
were both made
274
00:19:22,177 --> 00:19:27,606
by one of the most talented studio directors
working in the 1930s, Howard Hawks.
275
00:19:27,841 --> 00:19:30,769
Hawks' nickname was
"the old grey fox",
276
00:19:30,769 --> 00:19:35,478
plainly spoken and slightly gruff
as this interview shows.
277
00:19:36,016 --> 00:19:39,952
I never believed in staying
under contract or being under contract.
278
00:19:39,952 --> 00:19:44,615
I've never been under contract.
Consequently, I can choose.
279
00:19:44,944 --> 00:19:49,930
Or if I like a story that a studio
has, I can say to them in advance:
280
00:19:49,930 --> 00:19:51,910
"I'm going to change it."
281
00:19:51,910 --> 00:19:54,066
And they say, "well, go ahead."
282
00:19:55,943 --> 00:19:59,483
And if you get lucky the way I did, well,
they let you do what you want to do.
283
00:20:00,059 --> 00:20:01,636
And he did.
284
00:20:03,402 --> 00:20:06,436
He made movie icons
that people still remember.
285
00:20:09,542 --> 00:20:14,572
As well as the screwball comedies,
Hawks directed Scarface for Howard Hughes,
286
00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:22,755
The big Sleep, one of the definers of film noir
and with Red River and Rio Bravo,
287
00:20:22,755 --> 00:20:27,795
he became a maker and baker
of rich and beautiful character westerns.
288
00:20:28,306 --> 00:20:31,327
He helped shape
the popular movie genres.
289
00:20:31,790 --> 00:20:34,764
Maybe because he was such
a mix of personalities.
290
00:20:35,721 --> 00:20:40,345
One critic called Hawks, 'the greatest optimist
the cinema has produced'.
291
00:20:41,402 --> 00:20:45,661
Another refers to his
'distinctively bitter view of life.'
292
00:20:47,428 --> 00:20:51,990
Somehow, he's both.
He's at a motocross bike race here.
293
00:20:52,193 --> 00:20:53,652
A very male world.
294
00:20:53,812 --> 00:20:54,929
Living simply.
295
00:20:55,097 --> 00:20:56,371
Sitting on a box.
296
00:20:56,761 --> 00:20:58,481
His son's at the race.
297
00:20:59,715 --> 00:21:03,667
When Hawks heard that his oldest son
was badly injured in a car accident,
298
00:21:03,667 --> 00:21:06,219
he apparently just
kept on filming.
299
00:21:06,714 --> 00:21:10,349
Some say he was anti-semitic,
others that he was bisexual.
300
00:21:11,095 --> 00:21:17,005
Whatever the complexities of his life,
Hawks was a studio director of the purest kind.
301
00:21:17,247 --> 00:21:18,559
Its poster boy.
302
00:21:18,841 --> 00:21:20,510
Its patron Saint.
303
00:21:27,191 --> 00:21:31,236
We've already seen examples of
the fifth Hollywood sound genre
304
00:21:31,261 --> 00:21:32,535
of the 1930s: the musical.
305
00:21:32,831 --> 00:21:36,740
This scene from Gold Diggers of 1933
was choreographed
306
00:21:36,765 --> 00:21:40,963
by one of the most innovative people
in musicals, Busby Berkley.
307
00:21:41,153 --> 00:21:42,264
He'd been in the army.
308
00:21:42,457 --> 00:21:45,479
He loved its marching patterns
and theatricality.
309
00:21:45,782 --> 00:21:49,556
So, in his film, he has soldiers
marching in the rain.
310
00:21:49,930 --> 00:21:53,974
On moving walkways,
to emphasise this theatricality.
311
00:21:54,408 --> 00:22:00,075
The second source of his ideas was this:
he took a 30-minute hot bath every morning.
312
00:22:00,829 --> 00:22:02,968
Looked at the geometry
of a bathroom.
313
00:22:03,244 --> 00:22:05,774
Dreamt up dance routines.
314
00:22:15,287 --> 00:22:24,568
And once he used to love meI was happy then.
315
00:22:24,779 --> 00:22:27,583
In the finale of Gold Diggers of 1933,
316
00:22:27,583 --> 00:22:30,855
a chorus girl sings
about the forgotten men.
317
00:22:30,950 --> 00:22:34,987
Ex-soldiers, who had come back from war,
traumatized.
318
00:22:35,167 --> 00:22:37,283
And who were then hit
by the depression.
319
00:22:37,803 --> 00:22:39,086
A double whammy.
320
00:22:39,702 --> 00:22:43,115
Most Hollywood films of the time
were seen from a man's point of view.
321
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:47,388
Here, a woman sings about
the humiliation of a generation of men.
322
00:22:47,758 --> 00:22:54,884
Social comment is married with patterned
images, erotic longing, and filmic display.
323
00:22:55,281 --> 00:22:58,972
One of the most innovative moments
in 30s cinema.
324
00:23:04,810 --> 00:23:06,940
A sixth type of film
made in Hollywood,
325
00:23:06,940 --> 00:23:11,232
took the world by storm
in th 1930s: the cartoon.
326
00:23:11,901 --> 00:23:14,614
There'd been animated films
from 1906.
327
00:23:14,763 --> 00:23:20,183
Like this one, drawn in pencil,
black and white, flickering, comic.
328
00:23:21,314 --> 00:23:23,468
And in Germany, 20 years later,
329
00:23:23,493 --> 00:23:29,197
Lotte Reineger used Victorian cutout techniques
to create this remarkable movie
330
00:23:29,222 --> 00:23:31,503
The Adventures of Prince Achmed.
331
00:23:33,949 --> 00:23:38,796
The little metal hinges on this original cut-out
shows how she created the movement.
332
00:23:39,986 --> 00:23:45,150
But Walt Disney turned animation
into an internationally popular art form.
333
00:23:46,670 --> 00:23:49,537
He loved Robert Louis Stevenson
and Charlie Chaplin.
334
00:23:50,740 --> 00:23:55,431
In New York, he started working
with a brilliant Dutch draftsman, Ub Iwerks.
335
00:23:55,653 --> 00:23:59,284
They decided to create
a new, likable cartoon character.
336
00:23:59,896 --> 00:24:02,146
Disney decided on a mouse.
337
00:24:02,734 --> 00:24:06,599
This is their first Mickey Mouse film,
Plane Crazy.
338
00:24:07,007 --> 00:24:07,921
Black and white.
339
00:24:07,921 --> 00:24:09,546
Simple line drawings.
340
00:24:09,766 --> 00:24:14,326
Mickey, agog, magically changes
a car into an aeroplane.
341
00:24:17,305 --> 00:24:23,719
In 1937, Disney had a worldwide box office hit
with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
342
00:24:24,409 --> 00:24:29,080
As snow white was a human character,
not an animal, Disney filmed a real actress
343
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:34,145
in costume and transcribed
the individual images of her on to paper.
344
00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:35,587
This was a first.
345
00:24:36,048 --> 00:24:39,687
The sort of thing that's done today
with what's called motion capture.
346
00:24:39,969 --> 00:24:42,232
Snow white danced
like a real girl.
347
00:24:42,477 --> 00:24:46,636
Gracefully, no jerky action
or distortions of her body.
348
00:24:47,298 --> 00:24:50,172
The result got
standing ovations.
349
00:24:51,170 --> 00:24:53,467
Reviews were raves.
350
00:24:57,234 --> 00:25:01,903
It was painstakingly drawn in buildings
long gone from this street corner.
351
00:25:03,759 --> 00:25:06,358
Disney, it seemed,
could do no wrong.
352
00:25:07,971 --> 00:25:10,586
But gradually his work
became less innovative
353
00:25:10,586 --> 00:25:12,477
and he became more conservative.
354
00:25:14,958 --> 00:25:20,720
After World War II, Disney testified
at the McCarthy anti-communist witch hunts.
355
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:24,929
His production process changed,
so that drawings were, in effect,
356
00:25:24,929 --> 00:25:27,072
"photocopied" onto film.
357
00:25:27,317 --> 00:25:31,750
This was cheaper but meant
that the dog, window, and cushion
358
00:25:31,750 --> 00:25:36,025
in this scene in 101 Dalmatians
had black lines around them.
359
00:25:39,758 --> 00:25:43,018
The early Disney films had
touches of surrealism
360
00:25:43,018 --> 00:25:44,648
and were technically innovative.
361
00:25:45,073 --> 00:25:48,957
But, as the decades went on,
surrealism and innovation
362
00:25:48,957 --> 00:25:53,897
were gradually replaced by more
conservative techniques and messages.
363
00:25:56,830 --> 00:26:01,193
Horror movies, gangster pictures,
westerns, comedies, cartoons,
364
00:26:01,193 --> 00:26:02,728
Hollywood was agog.
365
00:26:02,728 --> 00:26:06,048
In love with itself
and the world was in love with it.
366
00:26:10,339 --> 00:26:15,897
Here in the most luminous city of the 1930s,
Paris, there were standardized films too.
367
00:26:16,378 --> 00:26:20,819
But the best directors extended cinema
in both the magical direction
368
00:26:20,819 --> 00:26:25,488
of Georges M�li�s and beyond
the realism of the Lumi�re Brothers.
369
00:26:28,212 --> 00:26:30,312
The greatest magician
of French cinema,
370
00:26:30,312 --> 00:26:33,857
the poet, and artist Jean Cocteau,
was born here.
371
00:26:34,179 --> 00:26:36,782
In the grand leafy outskirts
of Paris.
372
00:26:37,661 --> 00:26:40,574
In Cocteau's, The Blood of a Poet
[Le sang d'un Po�te]
373
00:26:40,599 --> 00:26:44,960
a statue tells a young artist
that to get out of his studio
374
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:46,750
he must go through a mirror.
375
00:26:47,250 --> 00:26:48,437
So he does.
376
00:26:48,579 --> 00:26:53,189
This unnerving scene where Cocteau
has voices shout as he plunges in.
377
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,986
Not something
that could have been done in silent cinema.
378
00:27:01,546 --> 00:27:05,117
Beyond the mirror he finds
the hotel of dramatic lunacies.
379
00:27:05,117 --> 00:27:10,395
A world, perhaps his unconscious mind,
where gravity doesn't apply.
380
00:27:11,982 --> 00:27:15,772
Cocteau was influenced by Picasso,
the impresario Diaghalev,
381
00:27:15,772 --> 00:27:17,634
and by smoking opium.
382
00:27:19,750 --> 00:27:25,366
In this corridor scene, the set was shot
on its side and the action was reversed.
383
00:27:25,775 --> 00:27:28,785
The simple techniques
of early cinema and surrealism.
384
00:27:31,915 --> 00:27:35,600
Eighty years later, this
scene in Christopher Nolan's
385
00:27:35,625 --> 00:27:38,304
Inception, was under its spell.
386
00:27:38,888 --> 00:27:43,610
This time the corridor was built
in a huge barrel and spun.
387
00:27:46,415 --> 00:27:49,807
As inventive as Cocteau
and even more about youth,
388
00:27:49,807 --> 00:27:55,304
and far more political, are the astounding
30s films of French director Jean Vigo.
389
00:27:56,185 --> 00:27:59,809
Look at this scene, for example,
from Vigo's zero de conduite.
390
00:27:59,809 --> 00:28:02,698
It seems to be snowing inside.
391
00:28:03,183 --> 00:28:07,262
Boys in a repressive boarding school
are having a pillow fight in their dormitory.
392
00:28:08,057 --> 00:28:10,138
Vigo slows the action.
393
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,783
Like Cocteau,
Vigo plays with sound.
394
00:28:14,116 --> 00:28:18,127
His composer wrote this piece
of music to be played backwards.
395
00:28:18,476 --> 00:28:22,123
Again, a brilliant innovation
that came with sound.
396
00:28:27,150 --> 00:28:28,359
The boys riot.
397
00:28:28,384 --> 00:28:30,438
The shoot was fun and chaotic.
398
00:28:31,713 --> 00:28:34,746
The film was seen as
an attack on French schools
399
00:28:34,746 --> 00:28:37,808
and banned until the mid-1940s.
400
00:28:38,524 --> 00:28:43,803
It inspired Lindsay Anderson's film
If, which combined Vigo's radicalism
401
00:28:43,803 --> 00:28:45,853
with the British class structure.
402
00:28:46,997 --> 00:28:50,199
Anderson had his students rebel
from a rooftop too.
403
00:28:50,652 --> 00:28:53,427
But he set his film
in an elite school.
404
00:28:53,889 --> 00:28:59,721
And rather than throwing buckets and books,
Anderson's students had machine guns.
405
00:29:02,564 --> 00:29:06,818
Vigo's next movie, l'Atalante,
had the same non-conformism.
406
00:29:06,919 --> 00:29:08,169
The same wonder.
407
00:29:08,507 --> 00:29:11,923
It's about a woman, Dita Parlo,
who marries a young man.
408
00:29:12,147 --> 00:29:14,211
Joins him on his barge.
409
00:29:14,502 --> 00:29:18,247
Parlo is like a child,
discovering the poetry of the world.
410
00:29:18,247 --> 00:29:19,908
Tenderness and humour.
411
00:29:23,523 --> 00:29:26,187
Vigo filmed on this canal
in Paris.
412
00:29:29,154 --> 00:29:33,507
Halfway through the shoot it snowed,
causing continuity problems.
413
00:29:33,507 --> 00:29:37,210
So, Vigo had his brilliant
cameraman, Boris Kaufman,
414
00:29:37,210 --> 00:29:40,054
the brother of Soviet
director Dziga Vertov,
415
00:29:40,054 --> 00:29:45,616
point his camera upwards,
so we see Parlo against the sky.
416
00:29:54,867 --> 00:29:58,972
Parlo soon gets bored
and sets off for the bright lights of Paris.
417
00:29:59,143 --> 00:30:02,464
Her husband swims
in the canal because he's heard
418
00:30:02,489 --> 00:30:04,950
that if you swim
under water and open your eyes,
419
00:30:04,950 --> 00:30:07,264
you see the one you love.
420
00:30:14,060 --> 00:30:17,894
Like Z�ro de Conduite,
the response to L'Atalante was turbulent.
421
00:30:18,454 --> 00:30:20,693
But Vigo's aim remains clear.
422
00:30:21,868 --> 00:30:26,312
Many admired its visual beauty
but wanted a more conventional story.
423
00:30:27,161 --> 00:30:31,768
Like Ozu and, later, the French
comedy director Jacques Tati
424
00:30:31,793 --> 00:30:36,715
and the Scottish director Bill Forsyth,
Vigo wasn't interested in plot.
425
00:30:37,126 --> 00:30:41,325
He wanted to show the joyous,
fascinated, uncensored way
426
00:30:41,350 --> 00:30:44,163
in which this woman
was opening up to life.
427
00:30:44,842 --> 00:30:47,637
Alas Vigo's own life
was closing down.
428
00:30:47,639 --> 00:30:50,364
He had leukaemia and died in1934.
429
00:30:50,515 --> 00:30:54,562
Aged just 29, in a building
that used to stand here.
430
00:31:01,639 --> 00:31:06,597
This canal in Paris that Vigo used was
also one of the favourite filming locations
431
00:31:06,622 --> 00:31:10,451
of a writer/director team,
Marcel Carn� and Jacques Pr�vert.
432
00:31:11,365 --> 00:31:16,275
The innovative Carn�-Pr�vert films
of the 30s were about forgotten people
433
00:31:16,300 --> 00:31:19,968
encountering each other
in the bleak morning or evening light.
434
00:31:20,293 --> 00:31:23,102
Coming alive for a moment
in each other's company,
435
00:31:23,102 --> 00:31:26,488
but then retreating
into themselves and their pessimism.
436
00:31:27,176 --> 00:31:31,616
Unemployment in France stood
nearly 1/2 million in 1935.
437
00:31:31,867 --> 00:31:33,784
There was political instability.
438
00:31:34,482 --> 00:31:37,633
Then, of course,
the Nazis marched into Paris.
439
00:31:38,455 --> 00:31:41,023
And the film industry
itself was unstable.
440
00:31:41,657 --> 00:31:47,213
The haunting Carn�-Pr�vert films that
resulted are often called "poetic realist".
441
00:31:48,161 --> 00:31:51,932
Le Quai des Brumes, is one
of the signature poetic realist films.
442
00:31:52,561 --> 00:31:57,566
Jean Gabin is a deserter from the foreign legion,
whose whole life has been bad luck.
443
00:31:57,906 --> 00:31:59,963
He wants to leave France.
444
00:31:59,988 --> 00:32:00,983
Start again.
445
00:32:01,250 --> 00:32:03,518
He gets a lift in a truck
to a port.
446
00:32:04,055 --> 00:32:05,193
It's night time.
447
00:32:05,436 --> 00:32:07,277
The truck's headlights light up
448
00:32:07,277 --> 00:32:08,096
the gloom.
449
00:32:08,685 --> 00:32:11,511
The mist and the dusk
make the world look weary.
450
00:32:12,542 --> 00:32:15,606
Carn� had this scene shot
with diffusion on the lens.
451
00:32:16,529 --> 00:32:20,666
Gabin has an expressionless face,
like Humphrey Bogart.
452
00:32:27,363 --> 00:32:30,510
He's alone, except for a dog
that befriends him.
453
00:32:37,012 --> 00:32:38,823
It's a beautiful mood piece.
454
00:32:38,848 --> 00:32:41,229
A film with its eyes lowered.
455
00:32:49,047 --> 00:32:52,139
Where Hollywood characters
looked optimistically upwards
456
00:32:52,139 --> 00:32:56,457
to a new dawn,
writer Pr�vert's world was tragic.
457
00:32:57,017 --> 00:33:00,570
Quai des Brumes so defined
the mood of France in the 30s,
458
00:33:00,595 --> 00:33:04,640
that a spokesman of the Vichy government,
which sided with the Nazis, said,
459
00:33:04,665 --> 00:33:08,361
"if we have lost the war
it's because of Quai des Brumes".
460
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:13,130
Director Carn� retorted that you
"can't blame a storm on the barometer".
461
00:33:15,281 --> 00:33:17,179
He was a master filmmaker.
462
00:33:17,418 --> 00:33:20,922
As at home in this studio
in Joinville near Paris.
463
00:33:20,922 --> 00:33:23,523
As Howard Hawks
was in Hollywood.
464
00:33:27,854 --> 00:33:29,553
Behind these walls.
465
00:33:29,553 --> 00:33:33,605
And here, at the former Path� studios,
466
00:33:33,630 --> 00:33:38,708
Carn� and his great designer,
Alexander Trauner, conjured worlds.
467
00:33:39,290 --> 00:33:44,777
None was greater, grander than
Les Enfants du Paradis.
468
00:33:51,433 --> 00:33:55,841
Les Enfants du Paradis is set
around a 19th century Parisian theatre.
469
00:33:56,610 --> 00:34:02,170
Its story sweeps through the lives of many
people, including this courtesan, Garance,
470
00:34:02,195 --> 00:34:05,443
who's accused of stealing the watch
of the rich man on the right here.
471
00:34:05,569 --> 00:34:11,758
Baptiste, a mime, sees that she's innocent
and shows what really happened.
472
00:34:25,022 --> 00:34:27,974
Suddenly, Carn� introduces music
to the mime.
473
00:34:28,313 --> 00:34:30,342
A street scene becomes theatre.
474
00:34:30,655 --> 00:34:35,035
Jean-Louis Barrault, all in white,
is brilliant at the mime.
475
00:34:45,477 --> 00:34:47,723
And there's a political edge.
476
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:52,046
His wordless eyewitness account
shows that the rich man is lying
477
00:34:52,046 --> 00:34:56,242
and saves the beautiful
but lowly courtesan.
478
00:34:56,846 --> 00:34:59,083
The mime falls in love with her.
479
00:35:01,092 --> 00:35:04,718
As France was under Nazi control
at the time of its production,
480
00:35:04,718 --> 00:35:08,452
Les Enfants du Paradis
couldn't refer to contemporary reality.
481
00:35:08,691 --> 00:35:11,306
It was enforced escapism,
as it were.
482
00:35:12,257 --> 00:35:13,716
This man knew Carn�
and owns the theatre
483
00:35:13,716 --> 00:35:17,004
where some of
Les Enfants du Paradis was shot.
484
00:36:07,177 --> 00:36:09,834
The title of the film,
The Children of Paradise,
485
00:36:09,834 --> 00:36:12,784
refers to the cheap seats in
"the gods of the theatre",
486
00:36:12,809 --> 00:36:14,439
where the poor people are.
487
00:36:17,230 --> 00:36:20,903
From up here you have
a realistic overview of life,
488
00:36:20,903 --> 00:36:24,495
which matches the overview
of Carn� and Pr�vert.
489
00:36:25,407 --> 00:36:29,683
If Carn� was a realist and a romantic,
this man, Jean Renoir,
490
00:36:29,683 --> 00:36:32,977
was a great humanist
of French cinema of the '30s.
491
00:36:33,649 --> 00:36:37,716
The veteran actor Norman Lloyd
worked with Renoir in the 40s.
492
00:36:39,886 --> 00:36:43,753
What he wanted
and what you get from his pictures,
493
00:36:43,753 --> 00:36:48,459
we're talking about Renoir, is
the great sense of humanity,
494
00:36:48,459 --> 00:36:51,225
of people vis-a-vis one another.
495
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:56,734
And something comes off the screen
that you don't see with any other director.
496
00:36:57,505 --> 00:37:04,715
And actually, while Jean had a great visual sense,
a lot of the stuff is just very simply shot.
497
00:37:05,441 --> 00:37:09,483
This scene shows what Lloyd
means about the humanism in Renoir.
498
00:37:10,043 --> 00:37:11,523
It's from his most famous film,
499
00:37:11,548 --> 00:37:12,998
The Rules of the Game.
[La r�gle du Jeu]
500
00:37:13,256 --> 00:37:17,200
We're in a drawing room of a
chateau, owned by aristocrats,
501
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:19,518
who know about nothing real life.
502
00:37:19,863 --> 00:37:22,551
These two old friends
discuss love.
503
00:37:22,844 --> 00:37:28,189
Renoir himself plays Octave,
the one in the suit, an unemployed playboy.
504
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,890
The framing, the lighting,
the camera angles are not innovative.
505
00:37:32,193 --> 00:37:37,039
Renoir's camera just seems to observe
the decline and fall of this civilisation.
506
00:37:37,497 --> 00:37:41,154
But then, Renoir delivers
the film's famous lines.
507
00:37:43,147 --> 00:37:44,428
And how would this help you?
508
00:37:44,453 --> 00:37:47,400
This would help me having nothing,
not having to search anymore
509
00:37:47,425 --> 00:37:49,147
knowing what's good, what's evil.
510
00:37:49,686 --> 00:37:52,893
Tu comprends, sur cette terre,
il y a quelque chose d'effroyable,
511
00:37:52,918 --> 00:37:54,664
c'est que tout le monde
a ses raisons
512
00:37:54,689 --> 00:37:59,171
On the eve of World War II, with the Nazis
breathing down France's neck,
513
00:37:59,171 --> 00:38:00,911
this was remarkable.
514
00:38:01,178 --> 00:38:04,003
Film historian, Jean Michel Frodon:
515
00:38:04,003 --> 00:38:09,219
The most meaningful sentence
from Renoir is
516
00:38:09,244 --> 00:38:11,217
"everyone has his own reasons."
517
00:38:11,217 --> 00:38:19,475
Meaning that it's not about good and bad,
future and past, you know, things with capital.
518
00:38:19,475 --> 00:38:25,178
There is no capital letters
in Renoir vocabulary.
519
00:38:25,178 --> 00:38:28,972
And this is what makes
this film so alive
520
00:38:28,997 --> 00:38:33,055
but also so difficult
to deal with to a certain extent,
521
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:36,888
because you cannot rely
on solid basics like, you know:
522
00:38:36,913 --> 00:38:38,668
who are the good guys
and who are the bad guys?
523
00:38:38,693 --> 00:38:41,833
You know that
there is a fight to be fought
524
00:38:41,815 --> 00:38:45,347
and where we are headed to
and why we are heading there?
525
00:38:45,372 --> 00:38:45,828
No.
526
00:38:45,907 --> 00:38:50,024
Renoir was born in this mansion
in Montmarte in Paris.
527
00:38:51,379 --> 00:38:55,496
His father was the French impressionist painter,
Pierre August Renoir.
528
00:38:56,036 --> 00:39:00,447
Renoir's La grande Illusion,
is all about human balance.
529
00:39:01,663 --> 00:39:05,534
A French officer in a German
World War I prison camp
530
00:39:05,534 --> 00:39:07,485
is befriended by his enemy.
531
00:39:07,638 --> 00:39:11,614
That typecast monster of silent cinema,
Eric Von Stroheim,
532
00:39:11,614 --> 00:39:13,581
who's the German camp commander.
533
00:39:13,786 --> 00:39:17,304
They're the same dying,
aristocratic class.
534
00:39:17,628 --> 00:39:19,905
Renoir frames them equally.
535
00:39:20,479 --> 00:39:23,493
But Stroheim treats
the prisoners decently too.
536
00:39:23,567 --> 00:39:26,501
They're French soldiers,
of ordinary background.
537
00:39:27,038 --> 00:39:29,869
They have equal weight
within the frame also.
538
00:39:30,864 --> 00:39:34,930
War films and most genre films
of the 30s usually stereotype
539
00:39:34,955 --> 00:39:40,221
goodies and baddies but Renoir
saw good in each of the pairs of men
540
00:39:40,246 --> 00:39:44,905
and, also, respect
between their very different classes.
541
00:39:45,427 --> 00:39:49,857
He said that he wanted to
"constantly to insert wedges" in his films.
542
00:39:50,089 --> 00:39:52,185
Their design, their world.
543
00:39:52,501 --> 00:39:54,647
As you would
under a wobbly table.
544
00:39:55,254 --> 00:39:58,743
Like Vigo, Renoir disliked
a straight story.
545
00:39:59,509 --> 00:40:03,004
He liked his films to zigzag,
to go off on tangents.
546
00:40:03,176 --> 00:40:06,659
One famous tangent is this scene
in La grande Illusion,
547
00:40:06,684 --> 00:40:10,533
in which the men talk
about Jewish generosity.
548
00:40:34,319 --> 00:40:36,100
Renoir had stopped his plot
549
00:40:36,125 --> 00:40:40,634
for a moment to have the soldiers
discuss decency and goodness.
550
00:40:41,428 --> 00:40:45,288
Having travelled in India,
he had an Asian philosophy.
551
00:40:47,603 --> 00:40:50,554
He said that people create
a veil in their lives
552
00:40:50,554 --> 00:40:53,812
that screens them off
from the joy of the real world.
553
00:40:55,287 --> 00:40:59,390
Jean Renoir films
try to let us glimpse this joy.
554
00:41:02,037 --> 00:41:07,339
But it wasn't only France that was making
great non-genre films in the 1930s.
555
00:41:09,144 --> 00:41:14,882
In 1930 itself, South America made
its first surviving innovative movie.
556
00:41:15,159 --> 00:41:18,925
Mario Peixoto's film Limite,
made in Brazil,
557
00:41:18,950 --> 00:41:22,801
when the director was just 19,
was called "very beautiful"
558
00:41:22,801 --> 00:41:26,364
by the Soviet montage master
Sergei Eisenstein.
559
00:41:26,697 --> 00:41:29,059
A woman sits on a hill, alone.
560
00:41:29,784 --> 00:41:30,825
No dialogue.
561
00:41:31,015 --> 00:41:32,217
No reverse angle.
562
00:41:32,324 --> 00:41:34,003
A series of dissolves.
563
00:41:34,005 --> 00:41:35,922
As if we're walking towards her.
564
00:41:39,254 --> 00:41:41,493
She seems worn down
by something.
565
00:41:41,689 --> 00:41:43,292
The atmosphere's sultry.
566
00:41:43,457 --> 00:41:44,564
Then this.
567
00:41:44,785 --> 00:41:48,105
The camera is lifted
and rushes towards her face.
568
00:41:48,412 --> 00:41:49,796
Hand held.
569
00:41:52,518 --> 00:41:53,722
Then this.
570
00:41:55,512 --> 00:41:57,384
It seems to soar.
571
00:42:01,247 --> 00:42:03,670
When we hear that she's
probably just out of prison,
572
00:42:03,670 --> 00:42:05,452
maybe we understand more.
573
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:07,170
Maybe she's exhausted.
574
00:42:07,324 --> 00:42:09,286
Traumatized by confinement.
575
00:42:09,675 --> 00:42:11,796
She's beginning to unwind.
576
00:42:13,525 --> 00:42:16,575
The first Brazilian film
was made in 1906.
577
00:42:16,723 --> 00:42:20,417
By the late 20s,
more than 100 features had been made.
578
00:42:20,746 --> 00:42:24,483
Limite seems to have been
the most remarkable and pensive of them.
579
00:42:24,634 --> 00:42:28,499
It refined the ideas of the
French impressionist filmmakers.
580
00:42:28,652 --> 00:42:33,966
Not until the 1950s would
Brazil again make films of such splendor.
581
00:42:35,119 --> 00:42:41,491
And it's in the 1930s that Poland, too,
makes its first major contribution to the story of film.
582
00:42:41,619 --> 00:42:45,294
The country's first movie studio
started production in 1920,
583
00:42:45,294 --> 00:42:50,474
but in 1938,
this very non-genre film made waves.
584
00:42:51,184 --> 00:42:54,452
It was made by Stefan
and Francizka Themerson.
585
00:42:55,222 --> 00:42:58,556
Men carry a mirrored wardrobe
into a forest.
586
00:42:58,537 --> 00:43:00,982
A surreal adventure
that's sometimes lyrical.
587
00:43:01,498 --> 00:43:06,002
The Themersons seem to love to
play with light and exposure,
588
00:43:06,027 --> 00:43:08,089
and it's sometimes experimental.
589
00:43:08,650 --> 00:43:12,366
Off horizontal angles,
reverse action, etc.
590
00:43:14,514 --> 00:43:18,022
Thirty years later, Poland's
most famous filmmaker,
591
00:43:18,022 --> 00:43:22,548
Roman Polanski, seemed to have the
Themersons pioneering film in mind,
592
00:43:22,548 --> 00:43:25,235
for one of his
experimental shorts.
593
00:43:26,159 --> 00:43:29,334
Poland had a hard time in the 1930s,
594
00:43:29,359 --> 00:43:33,478
and then was invaded by
its neighbour, Germany.
595
00:43:42,958 --> 00:43:46,939
Popular German films
of the 1930s tended to be folksy,
596
00:43:46,964 --> 00:43:49,589
about mountains
and music and homeland.
597
00:43:49,876 --> 00:43:55,497
Soon Adolf Hitler's national socialists
banned Jews from working in the film industry.
598
00:43:55,856 --> 00:44:00,761
Into this moral wilderness strode
this filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl.
599
00:44:01,425 --> 00:44:05,568
She used soft light, mists,
mountain landscapes.
600
00:44:12,017 --> 00:44:13,826
Romantic close-ups of herself.
601
00:44:14,308 --> 00:44:18,920
Talented and outrageous,
beautiful and resolute.
602
00:44:20,285 --> 00:44:23,625
Hitler and Reichsminister of
propaganda, Josef Goebbels,
603
00:44:23,625 --> 00:44:26,993
asked Riefenstahl to
film a Nazi party rally.
604
00:44:27,688 --> 00:44:30,455
The result was Triumph of the Will,
[Triumph des Willens]
605
00:44:30,455 --> 00:44:33,829
a documentary of sorts,
which pictured Hitler
606
00:44:33,829 --> 00:44:37,144
and the party almost
in mythic terms.
607
00:44:39,671 --> 00:44:42,536
Riefenstahl was given the
resources that Griffith had
608
00:44:42,536 --> 00:44:46,488
for Intolerance or
Gance for Napoleon.
609
00:45:09,642 --> 00:45:15,393
Her images were geometric,
epic, euphoric, bombastic.
610
00:45:17,178 --> 00:45:23,501
Then, here in the olympic stadium
in Berlin, she filmed the 1936 games.
611
00:45:24,892 --> 00:45:27,090
This is one of the cameras
she used.
612
00:45:27,409 --> 00:45:32,972
She attached them to balloons
and dug others into the ground,
613
00:45:32,997 --> 00:45:36,239
so she could get
at the same level of the athletes.
614
00:45:36,490 --> 00:45:40,511
Zoom lenses, which allow close-ups
to be taken from a distance,
615
00:45:40,536 --> 00:45:44,946
and give the feeling of intimacy
became available around 1932.
616
00:45:45,604 --> 00:45:49,557
Riefenstahl used them
to pick out details in the crowd.
617
00:45:57,499 --> 00:46:01,747
In this diving sequence she cut
before the athletes hit the water,
618
00:46:01,747 --> 00:46:05,970
or reversed the action, or
turned some shots upside down,
619
00:46:05,970 --> 00:46:09,735
to make them soar,
balletic, like a musical.
620
00:46:10,046 --> 00:46:14,598
Hollywood choreographer Busby Berkeley
nicked visual ideas from military marching,
621
00:46:14,598 --> 00:46:18,945
and, in turn, Riefenstahl seemed
to steal ideas from him.
622
00:46:19,714 --> 00:46:24,045
Riefenstahl was interested
in the sublime, something grand and fearful
623
00:46:24,045 --> 00:46:26,459
glimpsed beyond the everyday.
624
00:46:29,039 --> 00:46:32,056
She filmed these people as
if they were Greek gods,
625
00:46:32,056 --> 00:46:36,696
apparently approving of the political
obscenity of her paymasters.
626
00:46:36,890 --> 00:46:42,477
Next to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock,
Riefenstahl thought in terms of cinema
627
00:46:42,502 --> 00:46:45,791
more than any other filmmaker
of the 30s or 40s.
628
00:46:46,029 --> 00:46:48,166
Though she disputed it
to the end of her life,
629
00:46:48,166 --> 00:46:51,326
she seems to have used people
from concentration camps
630
00:46:51,326 --> 00:46:54,731
as extras in this
film, Tiefland.
631
00:46:56,758 --> 00:46:59,016
Again, using glossy film techniques,
632
00:46:59,041 --> 00:47:01,907
an elaborate tracking shot
and moody lighting.
633
00:47:03,792 --> 00:47:08,205
Even with the coming of modernity and
new ideas about the divided self,
634
00:47:08,205 --> 00:47:11,389
Riefenstahl didn't change
her style one bit.
635
00:47:11,651 --> 00:47:14,625
Her 70s photographs
of African people here,
636
00:47:14,625 --> 00:47:18,672
are similar to her images
of athletes in the 30s.
637
00:47:21,726 --> 00:47:23,945
The story of film
so far in the 30s
638
00:47:23,945 --> 00:47:26,385
has been about the great
American movie genres
639
00:47:26,385 --> 00:47:29,386
versus movie innovation elsewhere.
640
00:47:29,744 --> 00:47:33,659
But then, in London in the 30s,
we meet a man who was
641
00:47:33,659 --> 00:47:38,138
both one of the great genre directors,
and seriously innovative.
642
00:47:39,430 --> 00:47:41,536
His name is Alfred Hitchcock.
643
00:47:41,536 --> 00:47:46,116
You have to remember
that this process of frightening
644
00:47:46,116 --> 00:47:50,182
is done by means
of a given medium.
645
00:47:50,190 --> 00:47:54,130
The medium of pure cinema is
what I believe in.
646
00:47:55,593 --> 00:48:00,489
Is the assembly of pieces
of film to create fright
647
00:48:00,514 --> 00:48:03,148
is the essential part of my job.
648
00:48:03,614 --> 00:48:07,161
Hitchcock became the greatest image maker
of the 20th century.
649
00:48:07,398 --> 00:48:10,195
More significant even
than Pablo Picasso.
650
00:48:10,415 --> 00:48:11,575
How can we say this?
651
00:48:11,848 --> 00:48:13,609
For seven reasons.
652
00:48:15,695 --> 00:48:17,628
The first is
about point of view.
653
00:48:17,924 --> 00:48:22,473
In his youth, Hitchcock saw,
here, on Oxford Steet in London,
654
00:48:22,498 --> 00:48:27,709
a phantom ride film... shot with
the camera attached to the front of a tram.
655
00:48:27,991 --> 00:48:29,130
He loved it.
656
00:48:29,155 --> 00:48:32,329
He saw that the camera
could become the eye of a character.
657
00:48:32,711 --> 00:48:37,559
Nearly 50 years later, in this scene
in Hitchcock's dreamy sex film Vertigo,
658
00:48:37,584 --> 00:48:40,328
his camera becomes
the eye of James Stewart,
659
00:48:40,353 --> 00:48:45,144
filming through his windscreen as
Stewart tracks a woman in a green car,
660
00:48:45,169 --> 00:48:47,080
with whom he's obsessed.
661
00:48:55,635 --> 00:49:00,247
The second reason why Hitchcock's images
are great is because of where he was born.
662
00:49:00,456 --> 00:49:01,196
Here.
663
00:49:01,549 --> 00:49:03,326
Essex in england.
664
00:49:06,199 --> 00:49:07,641
A place with a lot of life.
665
00:49:08,300 --> 00:49:12,863
But Hitchcock thought, perversely,
that movies should not be about life.
666
00:49:13,847 --> 00:49:16,324
He said that they're stronger
than realism.
667
00:49:17,045 --> 00:49:19,754
He cut the everyday world
out of his pictures.
668
00:49:21,739 --> 00:49:22,231
Why?
669
00:49:22,832 --> 00:49:24,540
Maybe because of this place.
670
00:49:25,519 --> 00:49:28,690
The catholic Jesuit college
where Hitchcock studied.
671
00:49:29,005 --> 00:49:31,721
He said that the Jesuits taught
him a logic
672
00:49:31,721 --> 00:49:36,248
that allowed him to prove the improvable,
for example, that god exists,
673
00:49:36,248 --> 00:49:39,569
which gave his films
an otherworldly logic.
674
00:49:42,138 --> 00:49:46,058
For example in this film:
a decent man is locked up
675
00:49:46,083 --> 00:49:47,846
in the larder of a posh house.
676
00:49:47,940 --> 00:49:49,009
He needs to get out.
677
00:49:49,227 --> 00:49:53,147
So he holds a match
to the house's smoke detector.
678
00:49:53,148 --> 00:49:55,589
His clothes are rumpled
and he gets a bit wet.
679
00:49:57,145 --> 00:50:00,318
But a moment later he's out.
On the street.
680
00:50:00,343 --> 00:50:03,319
Patting himself down,
far less rumpled.
681
00:50:04,364 --> 00:50:06,958
No scenes to show
how he got out.
682
00:50:07,384 --> 00:50:08,836
A story miracle.
683
00:50:10,185 --> 00:50:14,389
Jesuitical logic that would continue
throughout Hitchcock's career.
684
00:50:20,552 --> 00:50:24,275
And the third brilliance of Hitchcock
is his understanding of fear.
685
00:50:25,327 --> 00:50:27,170
That it's in ordinary places.
686
00:50:27,546 --> 00:50:29,685
That it's different from shock.
687
00:50:31,661 --> 00:50:34,287
Look at this scene
in his film about a German
688
00:50:34,269 --> 00:50:36,424
trying to bomb London, Sabotage.
689
00:50:37,029 --> 00:50:39,105
A boy is on a London bus.
690
00:50:41,729 --> 00:50:44,965
Suddenly what he is carrying
explodes.
691
00:50:50,982 --> 00:50:53,112
Well, now everything
seems to be alright.
692
00:50:53,424 --> 00:50:54,688
The boy dies.
693
00:50:54,796 --> 00:50:56,375
Shock and tragedy.
694
00:50:56,910 --> 00:50:59,353
But fear is different to shock.
695
00:51:00,209 --> 00:51:05,175
In Sabotage, Hitchcock tells
us no less than 15 times,
696
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:11,227
that the boy's package is a bomb and that
it will blow up at 1:45 pm on Saturday.
697
00:51:23,846 --> 00:51:27,248
Fear comes from knowing
that the shock is coming.
698
00:51:35,397 --> 00:51:38,563
Throughout his career, Hitchcock
told us well in advance,
699
00:51:38,563 --> 00:51:41,855
to be scared, and so we were.
700
00:51:44,865 --> 00:51:46,789
Hitchcock worked
in German cinema.
701
00:51:46,982 --> 00:51:49,909
Then came here,
the first film production company
702
00:51:49,909 --> 00:51:52,137
built in Britain by the Americans.
703
00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:54,478
Hitchcock met his wife here
704
00:51:54,503 --> 00:51:58,865
and learnt from the great female
American script-editors who worked here.
705
00:51:59,259 --> 00:52:01,899
Hitchcock's films
were very female.
706
00:52:04,569 --> 00:52:08,646
The fourth reason that Hitchcock was great
was due to his use of close-ups.
707
00:52:08,954 --> 00:52:13,581
More than any director since Eisenstein,
Hitchcock loved close ups.
708
00:52:14,026 --> 00:52:18,618
His great British film
The 39 Steps is obsessed by hands.
709
00:52:23,123 --> 00:52:26,423
That of the mysterious man
with the severed finger,
710
00:52:26,423 --> 00:52:28,613
who knows what the 39 steps are.
711
00:52:30,774 --> 00:52:33,601
The hands of Madeline Carroll,
the reluctant girl
712
00:52:33,601 --> 00:52:37,917
that Hannay gets hand-cuffed to,
as she takes off her stockings.
713
00:52:41,930 --> 00:52:45,374
They're holding hands
in the end.
714
00:52:47,745 --> 00:52:52,016
"Close ups," said Hitchcock,
"are crashes of cymbals."
715
00:52:52,368 --> 00:52:55,055
Dramatic punctuation in a story.
716
00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:04,391
And close ups lead to the fifth reason
why Hitchcock was so innovative.
717
00:53:05,848 --> 00:53:08,879
Where most directors started
with establishing shots
718
00:53:08,879 --> 00:53:14,876
then cut to mid shots then close
ups, to take us into a world gently,
719
00:53:14,876 --> 00:53:17,244
Hitchcock tended to the opposite.
720
00:53:17,460 --> 00:53:19,715
This is the start
of The 39 Steps.
721
00:53:20,335 --> 00:53:22,903
We start with a close up
of a neon.
722
00:53:23,230 --> 00:53:24,860
We don't know where we are.
723
00:53:27,711 --> 00:53:29,023
Then a ticket booth.
724
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:36,051
Then carpet.
725
00:53:37,010 --> 00:53:38,263
Then feet.
726
00:53:42,843 --> 00:53:43,819
Then a back.
727
00:53:48,385 --> 00:53:51,034
Then the top of a double bass
and a conductor.
728
00:53:54,102 --> 00:53:56,692
Only then do we widen out.
729
00:53:56,813 --> 00:53:58,847
We're in a London theatre.
730
00:54:00,929 --> 00:54:04,634
But we see no cityscape,
no theatre exterior.
731
00:54:05,300 --> 00:54:09,960
The 39 Steps was written here
where Hitchcock lived,
732
00:54:09,985 --> 00:54:11,885
where he had his ideas.
733
00:54:15,003 --> 00:54:18,205
Norman Lloyd produced lots
of Hitchcock's TV shows
734
00:54:18,205 --> 00:54:21,381
and was in this scene
that shows the sixth reason
735
00:54:21,381 --> 00:54:24,994
why Hitchcock was the greatest image-maker
of the century.
736
00:54:26,115 --> 00:54:30,491
We're in America, and Lloyd is hanging
from the statue of Liberty.
737
00:54:32,755 --> 00:54:34,741
It just has the sound
of wind.
738
00:54:36,549 --> 00:54:40,008
You hear the slight...
739
00:54:40,033 --> 00:54:44,565
It isn't the whistle, quite,
it's just the almost murmur of wind.
740
00:54:48,065 --> 00:54:49,509
I'll get your sleeve.
741
00:54:50,290 --> 00:54:54,713
The standard thriller way to play
this scene would be big dramatic music.
742
00:54:54,904 --> 00:54:58,518
Lloyd shouting for help
from the nice guy, Robert Cummings.
743
00:54:59,471 --> 00:55:01,897
But Hitchcock uses no music.
744
00:55:02,075 --> 00:55:04,147
Almost whispered dialogue.
745
00:55:06,691 --> 00:55:07,972
I'll clear you.
746
00:55:09,629 --> 00:55:11,128
I swear I will.
747
00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:13,876
I'll clear you.
748
00:55:14,063 --> 00:55:15,310
Hurry up with the rope!
749
00:55:16,888 --> 00:55:18,661
Why so little sound?
750
00:55:19,403 --> 00:55:21,147
Because lots of noise
would take away
751
00:55:21,147 --> 00:55:25,530
from the tiny detail of the stitches
on the sleeve loosening.
752
00:55:31,389 --> 00:55:33,710
But, also, because Hitchcock,
753
00:55:33,735 --> 00:55:38,358
who learnt his techniques
in silent cinema, loved silence.
754
00:55:47,340 --> 00:55:48,306
Tell them quick.
755
00:55:48,778 --> 00:55:49,926
The sleeve.
756
00:55:50,138 --> 00:55:51,766
Sleeve.
757
00:56:00,651 --> 00:56:02,056
There was an urgency.
758
00:56:02,762 --> 00:56:05,062
He was pleading
with the guy to save him.
759
00:56:06,482 --> 00:56:09,257
And at the same time
he felt he was falling.
760
00:56:10,549 --> 00:56:19,884
And somehow in trying
to get at Bob Cummings,
761
00:56:19,909 --> 00:56:23,729
he didn't feel
that shouting would do it.
762
00:56:23,729 --> 00:56:28,077
He just felt if he could
give the urgency to him
763
00:56:28,077 --> 00:56:30,541
that he would really save him.
764
00:56:33,028 --> 00:56:35,972
And look at this scene
from Hitchcock's film, Marnie.
765
00:56:37,390 --> 00:56:40,654
It shows the seventh reason
why Hitchcock is great.
766
00:56:41,598 --> 00:56:45,017
Sean Connery is with Tippi Hedren
who plays Marnie.
767
00:56:46,291 --> 00:56:50,951
They're on a cruise
and he wants sex and she doesn't.
768
00:56:51,949 --> 00:56:53,208
No!
769
00:56:55,001 --> 00:56:57,034
So he rips off her gown.
770
00:56:57,360 --> 00:56:58,912
She freezes.
771
00:57:03,299 --> 00:57:04,683
I'm sorry, Marnie.
772
00:57:17,939 --> 00:57:19,512
And what does Hitchcock do?
773
00:57:29,016 --> 00:57:31,999
He cuts to a high angle
for a moment.
774
00:57:34,531 --> 00:57:35,375
A shriek.
775
00:57:39,978 --> 00:57:41,103
Her shriek?
776
00:57:46,037 --> 00:57:49,987
Hitchcock said that where a
close up is a clash of cymbals,
777
00:57:49,987 --> 00:57:52,989
a high level shot is a tremolo.
778
00:58:03,593 --> 00:58:07,591
Back in London, where the studio,
where he made the great British films,
779
00:58:07,591 --> 00:58:10,805
once stood,
there are posh flats now.
780
00:58:11,524 --> 00:58:17,219
And at their centre is a massive sculpture
of Hitchcock as a Buddha.
781
00:58:17,683 --> 00:58:19,639
Wise and inscrutable.
782
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:25,696
Hitchcock, the great image-maker
and entertainer, would surely have chuckled.
783
00:58:29,309 --> 00:58:34,002
Hitch had a certain physical presence,
as a consequence of that
784
00:58:34,002 --> 00:58:42,761
it came him a certain churchillian,
Buddha-like, masterful presence
785
00:58:42,786 --> 00:58:50,333
when he sat there and he would
just stare at you, as if to say:
786
00:58:50,358 --> 00:58:55,394
"are you sure that what
you're saying makes sense?"
787
00:59:00,571 --> 00:59:04,338
Looking back at the 1930s,
the first decade of sound cinema,
788
00:59:04,338 --> 00:59:08,489
it's clear that the new movie genres became,
at their best,
789
00:59:08,489 --> 00:59:12,877
dazzling inventive friends,
familiar and beloved.
790
00:59:13,848 --> 00:59:17,833
But cinema at the time was full
of haunting strangers too,
791
00:59:17,834 --> 00:59:23,489
uncategorizable directors like Cocteau
and Vigo, the French poetic realists,
792
00:59:23,514 --> 00:59:26,803
brilliant scary talents
like Leni Riefenstahl
793
00:59:26,805 --> 00:59:30,207
and an obsessive trickster
like Alfred Hitchcock.
794
00:59:33,201 --> 00:59:37,587
As the decade came to an end,
as war was declared in Europe,
795
00:59:37,587 --> 00:59:42,480
three films about three women,
debated the roles that pleasure
796
00:59:42,480 --> 00:59:45,002
and escape play in our lives.
797
00:59:45,258 --> 00:59:49,505
Ninotchka is a joyless communist,
who finds love in Paris
798
00:59:49,505 --> 00:59:51,656
and starts dressing
like a Princess.
799
00:59:51,681 --> 00:59:56,605
Comrades, people of the world.
The revolution is on the march.
800
00:59:56,607 --> 01:00:00,173
I know.
Bombs will fall.
801
01:00:00,175 --> 01:00:05,588
Civilisation will crumble.
But not yet please.
802
01:00:05,588 --> 01:00:08,239
Wait!
What's the hurry?
803
01:00:08,216 --> 01:00:10,009
Give us our moment.
804
01:00:10,009 --> 01:00:14,289
She's intoxicated with love,
diamonds, the glittering city,
805
01:00:14,289 --> 01:00:17,797
and lit like romantic cinema
of the 1920s.
806
01:00:18,759 --> 01:00:20,754
So happy and so tired!
807
01:00:22,834 --> 01:00:25,771
Like Ninotchka, Dorothy
in The wizard of Oz
808
01:00:25,771 --> 01:00:28,051
lives in a grey reality too.
809
01:00:29,848 --> 01:00:33,061
In this famous moment,
we see the back of an actress,
810
01:00:33,061 --> 01:00:35,708
wearing sepia clothes
in a sepia set.
811
01:00:35,708 --> 01:00:39,520
The door opens from her world
onto a fantastic colour set
812
01:00:39,520 --> 01:00:44,250
and a second actress, Judy Garland,
in blue gingham check,
813
01:00:44,250 --> 01:00:48,301
walks into a land
of apparent pleasure: Oz.
814
01:00:54,937 --> 01:00:58,107
A fantasy world like
Ninotchka's Paris.
815
01:01:01,117 --> 01:01:04,196
Yet Oz is a false dream
for Dorothy.
816
01:01:04,405 --> 01:01:07,424
She comes to understand
that there's no place like home.
817
01:01:07,704 --> 01:01:11,184
As the camera cranes, the
film gently questions
818
01:01:11,184 --> 01:01:13,626
the very 30s idea of escapism.
819
01:01:13,771 --> 01:01:16,650
And here's the third woman
dealing with escapism.
820
01:01:16,875 --> 01:01:20,364
Scarlett O'Hara in
Gone with the Wind is rich and spoilt.
821
01:01:20,650 --> 01:01:25,540
She starts life in a fantasy world
but steps into reality and war.
822
01:01:25,675 --> 01:01:28,690
The rising camera in this
brilliant single shot
823
01:01:28,690 --> 01:01:30,665
shows the scale of the trauma.
824
01:01:30,849 --> 01:01:34,473
The previous two films didn't blame
Ninotchka or Dorothy
825
01:01:34,498 --> 01:01:38,959
for making mistakes about escapism, but
Gone with the Wind's god's eye view
826
01:01:38,959 --> 01:01:41,246
punishes Scarlet for her denial.
827
01:01:41,412 --> 01:01:43,253
She loses everything.
828
01:01:43,734 --> 01:01:46,556
Gone with the Wind is thought of
as one of the most escapist films
829
01:01:46,556 --> 01:01:51,290
ever made yet its content
explicitly attacks escapism.
830
01:01:51,748 --> 01:01:53,661
Its form is another matter.
831
01:01:54,738 --> 01:01:58,123
It created so vivid
an emotional universe.
832
01:01:58,374 --> 01:02:00,432
Its craning camera was so grand.
833
01:02:00,715 --> 01:02:05,910
Its music was so lush,
that the film's bitter pill was sugared.
834
01:02:06,880 --> 01:02:13,404
Ninotchka, Dorothy and Scarlett show
that escapism was the main melody in 1939,
835
01:02:13,404 --> 01:02:19,380
but listen carefully and you can hear
the distant drums of war, realism,
836
01:02:19,380 --> 01:02:21,226
and Orson Welles.
837
01:02:22,252 --> 01:02:26,248
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