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At the end of the 1800s a new art form
flickered into live.
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It looked like our dreams.
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Movies are multi-billion dollar
global entertainment industry now.
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But what drives them
isn't box-office or showbiz.
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It's passion, innovation!
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So let's travel the world
to find this innovation for ourselves.
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To discover it in this man,
Stanley Donen,
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who made Singing in the Rain.
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And in Jane Campion in Australia.
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And in the films of Ky�ko Kagawa
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who was in perhaps
the greatest movie ever made.
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And Amitabh Bachchan,
the most famous actor in the world.
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And in the movies
of Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee,
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Lars Von Trier and Akira Kurosawa.
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Welcome to the story of film,
an odyssey.
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An epic tale of innovation
across twelve decades,
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six continents
and a thousand films.
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In this chapter we discover
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the emotional Hollywood film
of Douglas Sirk
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and explore
melodrama around the world.
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The 1950s.
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Widescreen.
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Color.
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A young American actor,
James Dean.
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Head hung, crippled with rage,
kicks and punches a desk.
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His emotions are bursting
at the seams.
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One of the key images of the 50s,
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and the passionate theme
of this part of the story of film.
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To get to the heart
of these emotional times
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you have to start,
not in America, but here: Egypt.
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The youth rebellion of James Dean
was taking place here too,
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where there was even more
to kick out against.
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As usual the movies, the great mirror
of their times, reflected the strain.
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The 50s became
the era of the melodrama.
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There had been formulaic filmmaking
here in Egypt since the 1920s.
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Until, that is, this rebel.
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The real James Dean
of 50s cinema, came along.
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He's the founding father
of creative African cinema.
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In 1958, Youssef Chahine
changed film history.
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Until then, Africa had played
no significant part in the story of film,
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but in that year he wrote,
directed and starred
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in the complex melodrama
Cairo Station [Bab el hadid].
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The first great African film,
the first great Arab film.
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Scenes like this
had a sweaty intensity.
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Chahine films himself alone,
with his erotic imagination.
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Chahine was a born boundary pusher
and that's what Cairo Station did.
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More than anything it captured
the tension of its times.
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The sexual repression.
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The buried rage.
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It was very daring.
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I was talking about a sexual pervert
and they spat in my face on opening night.
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Nobody talked about real things.
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20 percent of the young people in Egypt
were frustrated because of the taboos,
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because of the religion,
because of idiotic parents
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who were not open enough,
who were not civilized enough.
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Chahine plays a crippled newspaper seller,
obsessed by Hind Rostom
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who plays a voluptuous
cold drinks seller.
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He films himself staring at her,
close to the camera, outside, looking in.
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Look at this scene in which he listens
as she has sex with another man.
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Dolly cut, dolly, cut.
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Then the tracks taking the strain
of the weight of the train,
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a symbol of
Chahine's emotional strain.
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No other African or Arab
had thought so cinematically before.
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Cairo Station was a masterpiece.
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it was melodramatic, sexual
and about social justice.
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Like the best films of the 50s.
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So where did the film and Chahine
get the balls to be so innovative?
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In part, from this world
changing conference.
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In 1955, the leaders
of 29 Asian and African countries
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met in Bandung in Indonesia
to forge economic and cultural links.
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They were allied
neither to the first capitalist world,
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nor the second communist world
of the Soviet union.
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They were a self-styled 'Third world.'
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Cairo station came out
of this new, non-aligned sensibility.
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But this new anger
and confidence
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could be seen in many places
around the world.
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Nowhere more so
than this vast country, India.
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The story of Indian film
is as vast as the country.
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India knew as much, if not more,
about devastation as Europe in the 50s.
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Decolonization, partition, famine
and the caste system had traumatized it.
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In all this turmoil,
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you'd think that the country
would have no time for cinema,
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but you'd be wrong.
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By the 1950s,
India seemed made for cinema.
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Its colors seem to have the hand
of a production designer about them.
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Its luminosity has the feel
of a studio arc light.
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Look at this scene from one
of the great Indian films, Paper Flowers.
[Kaagaz Ke Phool]
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A beam of light opens up
in a film studio.
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The camera tracks around it,
towards a man, the film's director,
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Guru Dutt, the country's
Orson Welles.
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He plays a director who looks
at a woman he wants to cast in the film.
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She's lit from below, no hair light,
the opposite of Hollywood lighting.
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Back on India's streets,
you have the feeling
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that a movie director
has designed the action.
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Worshipping movie stars
wasn't a stretch for Indians.
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The country is photogenic
like Marilyn Monroe is photogenic.
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The first movies made by Indians
were about the lives of saints
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or what were called
mythologicals, like this one.
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Superimpositions like early M�li�s' films
show a mythic king being tested.
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Then in the 30s India's film
industry wired for sound.
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Immediately it drew on the traditions
of musical theatre in the country.
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As a result, India's became
the only national cinema
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where musical interludes
became the norm.
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And the seeds of what would become known
as Bollywood were sewn.
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Color, display, theatricality.
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This sounds familiar,
like Hollywood.
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Cinema as bauble.
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But the less told story of Indian cinema
is how it turned its face towards reality.
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What became known as 'socials,'
reforming films
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challenging the caste system or materialism
or poverty, emerged in the 1930s.
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The realism of such scenes
predates Italian Neo-realism.
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The tidal wave of post-World War II realism
that swept across the world
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in the late 40s and early 50s
reached its greatest heights
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here in Kolkata, in the work of a man
who lived in this house, Satyajit Ray.
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Ray's father and grandfather were
famous publishers and illustrators here.
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Bollywood films, like Hollywood films,
were usually set
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in a fantasy everywhere land but
Satyajit Ray wanted to make
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his film about a very specific place.
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So he and his cinematographer Subrata Mitra
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and his non-professional actors
went somewhere very specific.
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They drove 30 minutes from Kolkata
to this small Bengali village Boram,
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to make their first film
Pather Panchali.
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Most of them had never shot
a foot of film before,
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yet the imagery they made
here changed film history.
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Its cinematography had texture,
lustre, tenderness.
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It's like we were opening
our eyes to India for the first time.
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Pather Panchali was a portrait
of the life of Apu, the son of a priest,
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and his relationship with his sister,
mother, and old aunt
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who was brilliantly
played by Chunibala Devi.
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Her amazingly lined face was the opposite
of the smooth faces in glossy cinema.
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This was new.
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She was living in a brothel
when ray found her
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and needed a dose of morphine
every day to keep her going.
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What was so new was
that we were seeing
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a real Indian village on screen
for the first time.
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The movie dispelled ignorance
about village life.
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Real, not idealized kids,
domestic details.
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Cooking,
drying clothes.
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But what was so 50s was
that Ray was also a modernist.
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He believed in prime minister Nehru's
plans to industrialize India
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so the arrival of the train is treated,
here, as an event of great wonder and hope.
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The train plume of smoke is beautiful,
like the plumes of pampas grass.
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The camera swishes
with excitement.
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Apu runs with excitement.
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This man Soumendu Roy,
was camera assistant onPather Panchali
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and went on to be Ray's D.P.
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Roy still handles the original camera
that they used with great pride.
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It looks like a tank compared to
the small cameras today.
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It's amazing that they captured
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so many intimate scenes
with such an unwieldy thing.
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Though most of the
filming was on location,
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key scenes were shot in this studio,
Tollygunge, in the south of Kolkata,
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where many of the great Bengali films
were made.
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This is the actual sound stage where some
of the Pather Panchali sets were built.
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The great actress Sharmila Tagore
worked with Ray many times.
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She was just 14 when he cast her
in the lead in his masterpiece Devi
[The Goddess].
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about a girl whose father in law
dreams that she's a goddess.
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She was filmed
as if by candle light, eyes lowering.
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Like, I was an amateur
when I worked in "Devi".
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That was my second film with him,
after "Apur Sansar"
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and I was very young,
I was just 14.
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As you know he was a very tall person,
so he sat down on a stool
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and made eye contact with the child,
just read out the scene once
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and with sort of animatedly, like you know,
with a lot of expression he would read out,
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with his, as you know, he had
a very expressive, well-modulated voice.
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So he made it very exciting,
and just hold the child's attention.
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And somehow he communicated and the child
was able to replicate it almost exactly.
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He knew exactly what kind of a
face he wanted.
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But of course there was a lot of stress
on eyes and also the framing
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and I think he believed,
like Devi as you know,
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especially my role was treated
in very big close up
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and after the film is over,
the face really haunts you
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and that shot where I am sitting
in the pudja place.
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And the husband comes
and that little exchange
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between the husband and Doyamoyee,
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I thought that was wonderful, because that
little shake of the head that I'm...
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It's not what it seems.
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You know, the helplessness of her
and that slowly...
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You know, her getting confused.
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I mean she is just a village girl
and very young.
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All that confusion in a little...,
you know,
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somebody who has not quite
finished growing up yet,
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I think that is just so tragic, you know,
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how she becomes the victim
of this regressive mindset,
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orthodox mindset.
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Manik-da as you know,
Ray we called Manik-da,
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he knew a lot about
painting and...
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and that control, he had
tremendous control, everything.
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There was not an extra note,
it was so well orchestrated.
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So, I think that's the kind
of search for truth,
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through his own work
and through his own...
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He wanted to evolve
through the film, you know?
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And he was... this eternal quest, so,
you know, he had all that element.
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He... had in bite all that within
him and music.
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And he used this beautiful medium
to express himself.
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Crumbling buildings,
long shadows, playing kids.
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The world of Pather Panchali
made it a huge hit.
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00:19:30,904 --> 00:19:34,688
It played for six months
in New York city alone.
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Its landscapes, shaded pathways
and natural soundscapes
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made India central
to the story of film for a moment.
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It and two follow ups, the "Apu trilogy,"
are sometimes called
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the best Asian films ever made.
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But Satyajit Ray's films weren't
bursting at the seams with emotion,
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like 50s melodramas were.
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00:19:57,765 --> 00:19:59,840
They were too quiet for that.
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But then came an Indian film
that certainly was bursting at the seams.
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Mother India [Bharat Mata]
about this woman, Radha.
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She's getting married.
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Cerise red,
veils.
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Close ups of hands and feet,
a couple gently stepping into the world.
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Here's the world she discovers.
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Hard work, mud, sweat.
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00:20:28,443 --> 00:20:33,634
An independent, worker's India,
laboring to be modern and socialist.
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00:20:33,658 --> 00:20:36,535
Filmed in much more
earthy colors.
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00:20:40,869 --> 00:20:44,179
The combination of romance
and struggle made many call the film
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00:20:44,203 --> 00:20:46,937
the Indian Gone with the Wind.
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In this extraordinary scene
peasants stand on the map of India
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in a way that echoes Hollywood musicals
but also Soviet propaganda.
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The main character and the whole of India
are strong but fated to fail.
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Mother India
was a state of the nation film
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and a landmark in world cinema.
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This vast country to the north
of India, China,
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had its own unique social pressures
in the 1950s.
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00:21:35,052 --> 00:21:38,874
As we've seen, the country had
a movie golden age in the 1930s.
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00:21:38,898 --> 00:21:42,202
Chairman Mao took control
of the country in the late 40s,
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and filmmaking came
under state control.
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Few people would know more about this,
than this remarkable man, director Xie Jin.
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00:21:51,468 --> 00:21:56,347
Xie was reputedly born in 1923
to a family so wealthy
229
00:21:56,372 --> 00:22:00,515
that his mother's dowry
was delivered on 20 boats.
230
00:22:00,539 --> 00:22:03,516
He made his first films in the 50s
and then became
231
00:22:03,540 --> 00:22:07,740
the greatest Chinese filmmaker
of the day, a major stylist,
232
00:22:07,764 --> 00:22:11,917
a star director and
a winner of scores of awards.
233
00:22:12,296 --> 00:22:15,530
Xie feels that Chinese film culture
is unique.
234
00:22:37,147 --> 00:22:40,540
Chinese film was produced
in unique circumstances,
235
00:22:40,564 --> 00:22:44,611
but look at Xie's greatest film,
Two Stage Sisters
[Wutai jiemei].
236
00:22:45,806 --> 00:22:47,446
A woman in tears.
237
00:22:47,448 --> 00:22:49,366
Highlights in her eyes.
238
00:22:49,391 --> 00:22:52,821
The camera moves in
to get a closer look at her emotions.
239
00:22:52,823 --> 00:22:55,910
We recognize this type
of filmmaking.
240
00:22:55,912 --> 00:23:02,248
Like the 50s films we've looked at in Egypt
and India, it's a brilliant melodrama.
241
00:23:02,254 --> 00:23:04,956
The woman and her sister
join a Chinese opera troupe.
242
00:23:04,958 --> 00:23:06,822
Look at Xie's shot here.
243
00:23:06,824 --> 00:23:11,099
The camera rushes left, ravishing color,
then a look behind the curtain.
244
00:23:11,105 --> 00:23:13,774
Then the emergence
of the actresses.
245
00:23:13,776 --> 00:23:17,944
Everything beautifully placed
in the moving frame.
246
00:23:21,888 --> 00:23:24,331
The first sister
becomes a revolutionary.
247
00:23:24,355 --> 00:23:27,604
The second is seduced
by fame and fortune.
248
00:23:28,004 --> 00:23:32,109
A painful human drama viewed
through a gorgeous lens.
249
00:23:32,133 --> 00:23:33,833
What a lens!
250
00:23:33,857 --> 00:23:37,742
Xie's camera tilts down
into the world of the story
251
00:23:37,767 --> 00:23:40,378
and then we notice
that it is also craning down.
252
00:23:41,351 --> 00:23:44,416
The roof of the stage
seems to rise.
253
00:23:55,106 --> 00:23:58,309
From a god's eye view,
to the peasants.
254
00:24:03,252 --> 00:24:04,919
Very Chinese.
255
00:24:04,943 --> 00:24:06,419
Very melodrama.
256
00:24:06,443 --> 00:24:08,062
Very 50s.
257
00:24:09,126 --> 00:24:12,903
Mao's cultural revolution
devastated Xie's career.
258
00:24:22,122 --> 00:24:25,507
Both Xie's parents killed themselves
in its aftermath
259
00:24:25,531 --> 00:24:30,117
and Two Stage Sisters was accused
of "cinematic confucianism."
260
00:24:32,900 --> 00:24:37,610
He himself was given a job cleaning
the toilets of the movie studio
261
00:24:37,634 --> 00:24:40,190
where he once
a leading director.
262
00:24:40,758 --> 00:24:44,347
Few lives in movie history,
not even Roman Polanski's,
263
00:24:44,371 --> 00:24:46,752
have such amplitude.
264
00:24:50,465 --> 00:24:53,735
Further east, in the early 50s
Japan was recovering
265
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:57,468
from its disastrous
wartime experiences.
266
00:24:59,005 --> 00:25:02,165
Legendary actress Kyoko Kagawa,
who worked with Ozu,
267
00:25:02,189 --> 00:25:04,413
Mizoguchi and then Kurosawa.
268
00:25:40,885 --> 00:25:44,061
As we've seen, the country had already,
in the 1930s,
269
00:25:44,085 --> 00:25:46,654
experienced a cinematic golden age.
270
00:25:51,861 --> 00:25:54,678
But the 1950s heralded another.
271
00:25:56,946 --> 00:26:01,031
Central to this golden age
was Akira Kurosawa.
272
00:26:57,956 --> 00:27:02,414
Akira Kurosawa did indeed look
at individuals with a long lens.
273
00:27:02,438 --> 00:27:05,601
Look at this scene
from his film Ikiru.
274
00:27:05,625 --> 00:27:08,528
A bureaucrat has just learnt
that he's got cancer.
275
00:27:08,552 --> 00:27:10,784
The weight of the world
on his shoulders.
276
00:27:10,808 --> 00:27:12,643
Downcast eyes.
277
00:27:12,667 --> 00:27:15,624
He grew up under
the feudal emperor.
278
00:27:15,648 --> 00:27:17,423
This taught him to be passive.
279
00:27:17,447 --> 00:27:18,833
Trudge along.
280
00:27:18,858 --> 00:27:22,119
But then he was hit
by the juggernaut of modern life.
281
00:27:22,443 --> 00:27:24,471
Japan lost the war.
282
00:27:24,473 --> 00:27:27,142
He has to start thinking
for himself.
283
00:27:27,166 --> 00:27:31,146
Kurosawa's shot pulls back
to show the breadth of life.
284
00:27:31,170 --> 00:27:32,939
Where does he fit in?
285
00:27:36,278 --> 00:27:40,854
Most of the movies of Kurosawa
are about this emerging of the individual.
286
00:27:40,878 --> 00:27:45,632
How someone distinguishes themselves
from others, without being selfish.
287
00:27:46,307 --> 00:27:48,173
A very 50s tension.
288
00:27:48,934 --> 00:27:51,912
Filmmaker and critic
Donald Ritchie:
289
00:27:51,936 --> 00:27:57,819
The hero in a Kurosawa film
is notable for his staying power,
290
00:27:57,843 --> 00:28:04,371
even though it won't work,
he does it over and over and over again.
291
00:28:04,395 --> 00:28:10,230
All of the Kurosawa heroes
keep at it, until finally...
292
00:28:10,255 --> 00:28:14,448
Once I was with Kurosawa
and I saw an example of this...
293
00:28:14,473 --> 00:28:17,236
He had a pen that didn't work,
you know, ball point,
294
00:28:17,261 --> 00:28:19,970
and it wouldn't work and
most people would say
295
00:28:19,995 --> 00:28:24,982
bring me another ball pen, but he didn't,
he started working that ball pen
296
00:28:25,006 --> 00:28:30,089
and finally, after about ten minutes
of manipulation it worked.
297
00:28:30,113 --> 00:28:38,999
And I thought this is sort of a metaphor
for Kurosawa himself
298
00:28:39,024 --> 00:28:41,478
and for the way that he thinks
about his people.
299
00:28:41,502 --> 00:28:46,929
The detective in Stray Dog
doesn't have a one chance in hell
300
00:28:46,954 --> 00:28:50,435
of ever getting that gun back again
but he tries and he tries
301
00:28:50,460 --> 00:28:53,877
and he tries and he tries
and he does.
302
00:29:04,817 --> 00:29:07,642
In Kurosawa's epic film Seven Samurai
[Shichinin no samurai],
303
00:29:07,666 --> 00:29:10,593
a group of swordsmen
defend a village.
304
00:29:12,980 --> 00:29:16,145
This man on the right with black hair,
Katsushiro,
305
00:29:16,169 --> 00:29:18,901
has become the greatest swordsman
of them all.
306
00:29:18,925 --> 00:29:24,215
It's the end of an epic battle,
Katsushiro thinks it's still winnable.
307
00:29:24,239 --> 00:29:28,305
He walks around in a circle
but then throws the sword away.
308
00:29:28,329 --> 00:29:32,836
He's been shot.
309
00:29:35,396 --> 00:29:37,577
The era of the sword is over,
310
00:29:37,601 --> 00:29:40,001
the era of the gun has begun.
311
00:29:42,628 --> 00:29:46,252
The film's set in the past,
but it echoes in the 50s,
312
00:29:46,276 --> 00:29:49,767
because it's about
the beginning of a new era.
313
00:29:52,479 --> 00:29:56,870
John Ford would have filmed
such a scene simply, purely.
314
00:29:56,895 --> 00:30:02,162
Yet look at the rain in Kurosawa's film,
and the mud and the grey.
315
00:30:02,167 --> 00:30:08,927
Kurosawa was far more interested than Ford,
or most directors, in atmospheric effects,
316
00:30:08,951 --> 00:30:11,408
the poetic rush of imagery.
317
00:30:17,433 --> 00:30:20,469
In Throne of Blood [Kumonosu-j�],
one of his Shakespeare adaptations,
318
00:30:20,494 --> 00:30:23,398
look how he films the
lady MacBeth character,
319
00:30:23,422 --> 00:30:29,098
like a ghost, gliding through a room,
her kimono squeaking.
320
00:30:51,242 --> 00:30:55,111
And in the same film look
how he shows Birnham wood
321
00:30:55,136 --> 00:30:58,896
advancing like
in a nightmare, like waves.
322
00:30:58,921 --> 00:31:01,453
It's like the trees
have fingers.
323
00:31:08,730 --> 00:31:13,437
Look how MacBeth dies,
his body pierced a hundred times.
324
00:31:30,948 --> 00:31:34,031
It's clear where this scene
from The Godfather came from.
325
00:31:34,055 --> 00:31:39,601
Another human body jerking,
shaking, staccato as it dies.
326
00:31:44,004 --> 00:31:48,538
Kurosawa's work became,
in effect, a style-book for cinema.
327
00:31:49,666 --> 00:31:52,013
He was like a one man
film school.
328
00:31:52,834 --> 00:31:56,351
The Seven Samurai was remade
as The Magnificent Seven,
329
00:31:56,375 --> 00:31:59,176
with James Coburn playing
the Katsuchiro part.
330
00:32:00,849 --> 00:32:04,144
Widescreen, color,
bright sunlight
331
00:32:04,169 --> 00:32:07,973
rather than Kurosawa's
square charcoal downpour.
332
00:32:07,997 --> 00:32:12,726
The symbolic knife is even seen
in close up this time.
333
00:32:23,140 --> 00:32:26,453
The western world in the 50s
knew about Satyajit Ray,
334
00:32:26,455 --> 00:32:30,806
Kurosawa and Ozu
but move, say, to Latin America
335
00:32:30,831 --> 00:32:35,193
and it drew a blank, which was
the western world's loss,
336
00:32:35,218 --> 00:32:38,974
because filmmaking in Brazil
and Mexico was revving up.
337
00:32:39,827 --> 00:32:43,714
As we've seen, Brazil had taken
the lead in Latin American cinema.
338
00:32:43,738 --> 00:32:49,174
One of its first innovative films
was this one, Limite, made in 1930.
339
00:32:49,198 --> 00:32:52,606
Its soaring camera
expressing a woman's Liberty.
340
00:32:53,305 --> 00:32:57,427
25 years later, this
film: Rio 40 degrees,
[Rio 100 Degrees F.]
341
00:32:57,452 --> 00:33:00,546
brought Brazilian cinema
back to the spotlight.
342
00:33:00,570 --> 00:33:06,559
It starts with the aerial shots
and big band sounds of a tourist film,
343
00:33:06,584 --> 00:33:11,242
but soon it's on the ground
with boys from poor backgrounds,
344
00:33:11,266 --> 00:33:13,463
they sell nuts and papers.
345
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:18,041
The camera tracks back,
a boy walks into the foreground,
346
00:33:18,065 --> 00:33:20,470
bold use of deep staging.
347
00:33:21,065 --> 00:33:24,672
The director of this film,
Nelson Pereira dos Santos,
348
00:33:24,696 --> 00:33:26,902
was influenced
by Neo-realism and became
349
00:33:26,926 --> 00:33:31,266
the most influential Brazilian filmmaker
of the 1950s.
350
00:33:31,290 --> 00:33:36,826
Santos filmed in slum locations
but used advanced visual techniques.
351
00:33:41,276 --> 00:33:44,423
Rio 40 Degrees had
multiple storylines.
352
00:33:44,447 --> 00:33:48,941
Here, Santos, tracks from the boys
who feature throughout
353
00:33:48,965 --> 00:33:51,785
to two men who talk about adult problems.
354
00:33:53,946 --> 00:33:57,479
An innovative shift in story
without a cut.
355
00:34:13,787 --> 00:34:16,483
The realism and the energy
of Rio 40 Degrees
356
00:34:16,507 --> 00:34:19,195
was like Youseef Chahine's Cairo Station.
357
00:34:19,653 --> 00:34:24,297
Travel northwest from Brazil in the 50s
and we find that Mexico's film industry
358
00:34:24,321 --> 00:34:26,777
is more advanced than Brazil's.
359
00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:32,427
Movies in Mexico had been intertwined
with life since the 1910s.
360
00:34:32,451 --> 00:34:36,876
The revolutionary Pancho Villa
held off an assault on Ojo de Agua
361
00:34:36,900 --> 00:34:40,309
until an American company
got its cameras in a position
362
00:34:40,333 --> 00:34:46,628
to film and Villa got paid
the tidy sum of $25,000 for doing so.
363
00:34:48,243 --> 00:34:52,416
Come the 30s, Mexican cinema
had great directors.
364
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:58,972
Fernando de Fuentes who made this film
Dona Barbara, was perhaps the best.
365
00:35:01,769 --> 00:35:06,167
He virtually invented
Mexican national cinema
366
00:35:06,191 --> 00:35:14,059
and its themes of rich and poor,
feminine suffering and display.
367
00:35:15,247 --> 00:35:17,602
Brilliantly controlled melodrama.
368
00:35:18,660 --> 00:35:22,469
Here de Fuentes films
the greatest star of Mexican cinema,
369
00:35:22,493 --> 00:35:27,806
Maria Felix, on a boat as her character
is about to be raped.
370
00:35:28,968 --> 00:35:34,858
De Fuentes had his D.P. film from
Dona Barbara's point of view: low down.
371
00:35:34,882 --> 00:35:39,060
As in many Mexican films, the men
are photographed against the sky.
372
00:35:52,682 --> 00:35:55,709
Dona Barbara is hardened
by the assault.
373
00:35:55,733 --> 00:35:59,873
She becomes a landowner
and rules with an iron fist.
374
00:36:07,478 --> 00:36:10,581
Even more influential
on Mexican cinema than de Fuentes
375
00:36:10,605 --> 00:36:16,435
was this man on the left, Emilio
"El Indio" Fernandez, actor and director.
376
00:36:17,282 --> 00:36:20,207
This is him in Sam Peckinpah's
The wild Bunch.
377
00:36:20,231 --> 00:36:25,590
He was macho and cocky
and Peckinpah cast him as such.
378
00:36:25,614 --> 00:36:28,718
And in films that he directed
like this one, The Pearl,
379
00:36:28,742 --> 00:36:31,800
he was great
at muscular storytelling.
380
00:36:31,824 --> 00:36:35,671
Here the main character
is a poor Mexican Indian fisherman.
381
00:36:35,695 --> 00:36:41,123
Fernandez himself was half Indian
and often portrayed mixed race characters.
382
00:36:41,147 --> 00:36:43,454
The fisherman finds a pearl.
383
00:36:46,816 --> 00:36:49,696
His life can at last change
for the better.
384
00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:52,549
But people become jealous
of him and his wife,
385
00:36:52,573 --> 00:36:54,723
and they can't sell the pearl.
386
00:36:54,747 --> 00:36:58,678
It becomes a cancer
in their lives, poisoning everything.
387
00:37:00,581 --> 00:37:03,179
The film was shot by Gabriel Figueroa,
388
00:37:03,203 --> 00:37:06,608
one of the greatest cinematographers
of his day, who studied
389
00:37:06,632 --> 00:37:11,869
with Orson Welles' favorite director
of photography, Gregg Toland.
390
00:37:11,893 --> 00:37:18,061
The Fern�ndez-Figeroa films were luminous,
the space deep and rounded by light,
391
00:37:18,085 --> 00:37:20,286
like Michelangelo sculptures.
392
00:37:22,522 --> 00:37:26,431
But they also showed life to be doomed,
fated to fail.
393
00:37:26,924 --> 00:37:32,186
An innovative combination
of gleaming light and dark human themes.
394
00:37:34,170 --> 00:37:38,183
A kind of landscape,
Mexican film noir.
395
00:37:43,450 --> 00:37:47,395
By the late 1940s,
Mexican cinema was on a roll.
396
00:37:47,419 --> 00:37:51,478
But then came Luis Bu�uel,
guns blazing.
397
00:37:52,357 --> 00:37:54,243
The last time we met him
was here,
398
00:37:54,267 --> 00:37:57,310
at the premiere of his surrealist
film l'�ge d'or.
399
00:37:57,641 --> 00:38:04,147
By the 50s, his wanderlust had taken him
to Mexico and this film, Los Olvidados.
400
00:38:04,171 --> 00:38:08,279
He walked around the slums of Mexico City
for a month to see the reality
401
00:38:08,303 --> 00:38:10,627
of the lives
of the young and poor.
402
00:38:12,914 --> 00:38:16,037
He filmed street gangs,
physically disabled people
403
00:38:16,062 --> 00:38:20,806
in scorching daylight
with high contrast film stocks.
404
00:38:21,939 --> 00:38:24,950
But realism wasn't enough
for Bu�uel.
405
00:38:24,974 --> 00:38:28,022
He found it too earthbound
and conventional.
406
00:38:28,024 --> 00:38:31,497
So he added a sequence
like this.
407
00:38:31,499 --> 00:38:34,395
One of the hungry boy's dreams.
408
00:38:34,397 --> 00:38:35,844
Slow motion.
409
00:38:35,846 --> 00:38:37,529
Wind in the bedroom.
410
00:38:37,554 --> 00:38:41,557
Meat as a thing to hunger for,
to fear.
411
00:38:54,966 --> 00:39:00,830
Mexico is rightly proud of the films
Bu�uel made here between 1946 and 1965,
412
00:39:00,855 --> 00:39:06,500
though his mockery of its religion,
its fetishism of motherhood and suffering,
413
00:39:06,524 --> 00:39:11,326
and of middle class life
was very much of its time,
414
00:39:12,012 --> 00:39:14,504
and created mixed feelings.
415
00:39:33,844 --> 00:39:36,964
And in this journey
around the movie world in the 50s,
416
00:39:36,989 --> 00:39:39,828
we then come to
the land of the free.
417
00:39:39,852 --> 00:39:41,875
America.
418
00:39:41,930 --> 00:39:44,239
An idealized America.
419
00:39:48,950 --> 00:39:52,835
Eisenhower became
president in 1953.
420
00:39:52,859 --> 00:39:59,066
Where the political leaders of Egypt,
India and Mexico aimed for socialism,
421
00:39:59,091 --> 00:40:01,845
Eisenhower's vision
was rather different.
422
00:40:01,869 --> 00:40:06,435
Christian, middle-class,
decent and suburban.
423
00:40:09,047 --> 00:40:12,117
And at first glance, the best
and most popular American movies
424
00:40:12,141 --> 00:40:14,999
of their day seemed
to reflect this.
425
00:40:15,023 --> 00:40:20,875
Here in All that Heaven Allows,
is Eisenhower's America at its most lush.
426
00:40:20,899 --> 00:40:23,307
White picket fence.
427
00:40:23,331 --> 00:40:25,301
Beautiful Autumn day.
428
00:40:25,325 --> 00:40:27,169
Perfectly clean car.
429
00:40:27,193 --> 00:40:29,812
The swish of an a-line skirt.
430
00:40:29,836 --> 00:40:31,383
And a craning camera.
431
00:40:31,895 --> 00:40:36,613
But All that Heaven Allows is far more
innovative and subversive than it seems.
432
00:40:37,694 --> 00:40:40,219
Martin always made the arrangements
with the nursery
433
00:40:40,243 --> 00:40:44,443
and after his death the service
just automatically continued.
434
00:40:44,467 --> 00:40:47,928
Carrie Scott, here on the right,
has been widowed.
435
00:40:50,584 --> 00:40:53,160
Polite society expects her
to settle down
436
00:40:53,184 --> 00:40:55,823
to a life of coffee mornings
and charity work.
437
00:40:56,607 --> 00:40:59,943
When she doesn't and starts
an affair with Rock Hudson,
438
00:40:59,967 --> 00:41:04,502
her gardener, much younger than she is,
and of a much lower class
439
00:41:04,526 --> 00:41:08,098
and filmed in darker settings
and more moody lighting.
440
00:41:08,122 --> 00:41:11,085
She's shunned by her friends.
441
00:41:25,567 --> 00:41:31,188
Director Douglas Sirk, who fled the Nazis,
exposed the conformity and viciousness
442
00:41:31,212 --> 00:41:33,681
of the 50s American dream.
443
00:41:35,482 --> 00:41:40,237
Society can't cope with Cary's
continuing sexual desire.
444
00:41:40,262 --> 00:41:41,883
And nor can her children.
445
00:41:42,809 --> 00:41:48,308
In this devastating scene, they buy her
that most 50s of consumer goods,
446
00:41:48,332 --> 00:41:54,328
a TV set, to keep her company at night
and distract her from the gardener.
447
00:41:56,964 --> 00:42:02,559
Sirk's camera tracks in to one of the
most potent filmic metaphors of the 50s.
448
00:42:03,603 --> 00:42:08,849
Carrie not watching the TV,
but imprisoned by its rectangle.
449
00:42:08,851 --> 00:42:11,167
Right there on the screen:
450
00:42:11,192 --> 00:42:12,430
Drama.
451
00:42:12,455 --> 00:42:13,901
Comedy.
452
00:42:13,903 --> 00:42:17,046
Life's parade at your fingertips.
453
00:42:20,695 --> 00:42:24,589
The film used the gloss
of Hollywood to attack gloss.
454
00:42:24,591 --> 00:42:28,707
Surface niceties
and 50s sexual sublimation.
455
00:42:28,731 --> 00:42:33,300
Exactly the same approach
as Youssef Chahine in Cairo Station.
456
00:42:34,059 --> 00:42:39,346
Social pressure in very different societies
around the world was building.
457
00:42:40,769 --> 00:42:45,267
Psychoanalysis, the study of the unconscious,
and its disruptive desires
458
00:42:45,292 --> 00:42:47,109
had gone mainstream in the 50s.
459
00:42:47,133 --> 00:42:49,110
And movies loved this.
460
00:42:50,607 --> 00:42:55,005
Every genre was swelling
with Freudian feeling in those days.
461
00:42:57,279 --> 00:43:01,212
Director Nicholas Ray brought the sexuality
of 50s America
462
00:43:01,237 --> 00:43:04,636
to that most traditional genre:
the western.
463
00:43:04,660 --> 00:43:06,561
He was a passionate drunk.
464
00:43:06,586 --> 00:43:11,561
Here he is filmed later in life, handheld,
on a student production.
465
00:43:11,585 --> 00:43:15,036
Enraged and arguing
with an actress.
466
00:43:18,667 --> 00:43:23,983
In his western Johnny Guitar, Ray argued
with 30s movie star Joan Crawford.
467
00:43:24,493 --> 00:43:29,996
She strides into a world of outlaws,
builds this highly decorated saloon
468
00:43:30,020 --> 00:43:32,257
with its back wall
like a cave...
469
00:43:34,638 --> 00:43:36,602
You wanted the dancing kid,
Marshall?
470
00:43:36,921 --> 00:43:40,619
And is waiting for
the railroad to bring customers.
471
00:43:43,358 --> 00:43:46,202
The straight laced locals
hate this.
472
00:43:46,226 --> 00:43:47,781
They form a Lynch mob.
473
00:43:47,805 --> 00:43:50,412
Here's someone
from that Lynch mob.
474
00:43:50,436 --> 00:43:53,753
Emma, who's dressed in black,
the color of villainy,
475
00:43:53,777 --> 00:43:55,984
spits almost fascist fury.
476
00:43:56,092 --> 00:43:58,528
Bringing thousands of new people
from the east.
477
00:43:58,553 --> 00:44:02,758
Farmers, dirt farmers,
squatters.
478
00:44:02,782 --> 00:44:04,805
They'll push us out!
479
00:44:05,750 --> 00:44:10,838
Emma's line about people from the east
is code for modern people, communists.
480
00:44:10,862 --> 00:44:15,063
Director Ray saw Emma and the mob
as the House Un-American Activities
481
00:44:15,087 --> 00:44:20,529
Committee bullies, thus adding to the
film's subversion, its political anger.
482
00:44:22,706 --> 00:44:26,780
Crawford's body language
makes her the strongest man in the film.
483
00:44:26,804 --> 00:44:32,047
She looks down on the other men,
and is hated for her sexual deviance.
484
00:44:35,144 --> 00:44:38,513
Never seen a woman who was more a man,
she thinks like one, acts like one,
485
00:44:38,537 --> 00:44:41,189
and sometimes makes me feel
like I'm not.
486
00:44:45,477 --> 00:44:47,371
Eddie, that's
last month's paper.
487
00:44:47,396 --> 00:44:48,990
How many times
do you have to read it?
488
00:44:49,402 --> 00:44:53,554
Johnny Guitar was released
in America to pretty terrible reviews.
489
00:44:53,858 --> 00:44:57,284
But this French director and critic
Fran�ois Truffaut
490
00:44:57,308 --> 00:45:02,155
wrote that 'anyone who rejects it
should never go to see movies again,
491
00:45:02,179 --> 00:45:07,368
such people will never recognize
inspiration, a shot, an idea,
492
00:45:07,392 --> 00:45:11,015
a good film
or even cinema itself.'
493
00:45:12,168 --> 00:45:15,477
The camp of Johnny Guitar,
its Freudian sexuality
494
00:45:15,501 --> 00:45:20,043
showed that the lid could not be kept
on the pressure cooker of sex
495
00:45:20,067 --> 00:45:21,909
in movies of the 1950s.
496
00:45:22,526 --> 00:45:27,965
In the films of underground maestro,
Kenneth Anger, the lid blew off.
497
00:45:28,707 --> 00:45:33,669
In this scene in his 1947 film,
Fireworks, Anger himself
498
00:45:33,693 --> 00:45:36,409
is stripped and
beaten by sailors.
499
00:45:41,595 --> 00:45:44,387
It was shot silent,
lit from below.
500
00:45:44,411 --> 00:45:47,051
A dream about pain and sex.
501
00:45:47,075 --> 00:45:50,699
The French director Jean Cocteau,
who's film, The Blood of the Poet,
502
00:45:50,723 --> 00:45:53,803
helped found poetic underground cinema,
503
00:45:53,827 --> 00:45:58,037
saw fireworks and wrote a fan letter
to Anger about it.
504
00:46:01,086 --> 00:46:04,625
Seventeen years later,
his Scorpio Rising, once again
505
00:46:04,649 --> 00:46:09,820
combined masculine costumes with
bodily close ups, low level lighting
506
00:46:09,844 --> 00:46:15,405
and fetishism but this time added
rock and roll songs to the sound track.
507
00:46:15,429 --> 00:46:18,977
This was the first time
this had been done in this way,
508
00:46:19,001 --> 00:46:20,528
highly innovative.
509
00:46:20,716 --> 00:46:24,541
A technique that would be copied
by Martin Scorsese in Mean Streets
510
00:46:24,565 --> 00:46:27,273
and David Lynch in Blue Velvet.
511
00:46:35,949 --> 00:46:41,231
The magic techniques of Georges M�li�s
begat Cocteau begat Anger
512
00:46:41,255 --> 00:46:43,374
begat Scorsese and Lynch.
513
00:46:43,674 --> 00:46:46,458
Quite a chain of command.
514
00:47:04,017 --> 00:47:08,267
Kenneth Anger, Douglas Sirk and Nick Ray
were all working in California,
515
00:47:08,292 --> 00:47:12,122
but perhaps an even bigger challenge
to the Eisenhowerian idea
516
00:47:12,146 --> 00:47:17,865
that 50s America was heaven,
came from this city: New York.
517
00:47:20,690 --> 00:47:25,139
Suspicious of all that sun and
sky and all those palm trees,
518
00:47:25,163 --> 00:47:32,235
New York had its own ideas about imagery
and reality, acting and landscape and sex.
519
00:47:32,890 --> 00:47:34,980
TV was made here.
520
00:47:34,982 --> 00:47:40,050
Its low resolution black and white imagery
was plain, compared to Hollywood spectacle.
521
00:47:40,647 --> 00:47:47,142
But a TV drama like this, Marty,
about this lonely butcher was a sensation.
522
00:47:47,536 --> 00:47:50,173
He phones a girl,
asks her out.
523
00:47:50,175 --> 00:47:55,612
But his confidence is low.
He's had many knock-backs from women.
524
00:47:58,125 --> 00:48:06,560
Yeah. Yeah, I understand.
Sure.
525
00:48:10,270 --> 00:48:12,898
This was live TV.
526
00:48:12,900 --> 00:48:16,629
The camera is right next to actor
Rod Steiger who played the butcher.
527
00:48:17,299 --> 00:48:19,687
Character rather than gloss.
528
00:48:25,882 --> 00:48:30,235
Marty led to more character based films
like On the Waterfront
529
00:48:30,259 --> 00:48:32,434
and, even, Taxi Driver.
530
00:48:33,310 --> 00:48:36,692
Steiger trained here:
The Actors Studio.
531
00:48:37,079 --> 00:48:38,789
Some of the teaching here said
532
00:48:38,813 --> 00:48:44,148
that actors should access their inner fears
and desires, then suppress them.
533
00:48:44,172 --> 00:48:48,974
Access then suppress,
acting as a pressure cooker,
534
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:51,803
identity as a melodrama.
535
00:48:51,827 --> 00:48:55,301
A new performance technique
called The Method resulted.
536
00:48:56,110 --> 00:48:59,327
One of the great method films,
On the Waterfront,
537
00:48:59,351 --> 00:49:02,590
was shot here, across the water
from Manhattan.
538
00:49:03,161 --> 00:49:05,944
It was directed by Elia Kazan.
539
00:49:05,968 --> 00:49:09,616
Marlon Brando, who'd also
studied in the actors studio,
540
00:49:09,641 --> 00:49:13,614
confronts a union boss
who'd been responsible for a murder.
541
00:49:15,251 --> 00:49:20,955
Hey, Friendly!
John Friendly, come out of there.
542
00:49:20,979 --> 00:49:25,405
Friendly!
Come out of there.
543
00:49:25,429 --> 00:49:28,027
Brando's character
doesn't think much of himself.
544
00:49:28,051 --> 00:49:32,234
He's inarticulate
and slow to anger, but his fury,
545
00:49:32,258 --> 00:49:35,577
long suppressed,
finally explodes.
546
00:49:36,504 --> 00:49:37,707
Wait a minute you.
547
00:49:37,732 --> 00:49:40,599
You take them heaters away from you
and you're nothing!
548
00:49:40,623 --> 00:49:41,619
You know that?
549
00:49:41,644 --> 00:49:43,015
You'll talk yourself
in the river.
550
00:49:43,039 --> 00:49:47,020
You take the good goods away
and the kickbacks and a shakedown cabbage
551
00:49:47,045 --> 00:49:49,479
and them pistoleros
are you're nothing!
552
00:49:49,503 --> 00:49:52,442
You're guts is all in your wallet
and your trigger finger, do you know that?
553
00:49:52,599 --> 00:49:54,980
As he was taught,
to prepare for the scene,
554
00:49:55,004 --> 00:49:58,687
Brando will have remembered
some fury in his personal life
555
00:49:58,711 --> 00:50:01,840
then tried to hide it,
then let it all come out.
556
00:50:01,922 --> 00:50:04,512
You give it to Jerry, you give it to Dugan,
you give it to Charley,
557
00:50:04,536 --> 00:50:05,934
it was one of your own.
558
00:50:06,890 --> 00:50:11,237
In this famous scene,
Rod Steiger plays Brando's brother,
559
00:50:11,261 --> 00:50:13,589
he works for the Union boss.
560
00:50:13,613 --> 00:50:15,846
Has the cashmere coat
to show it.
561
00:50:15,870 --> 00:50:17,360
Listen to me, Terry!
562
00:50:17,385 --> 00:50:18,486
Take the job, just take it.
563
00:50:18,510 --> 00:50:19,476
No questions, take it.
564
00:50:19,764 --> 00:50:22,059
Steiger pulls a gun
on his brother.
565
00:50:22,084 --> 00:50:24,845
You'd think that Brando
would get enraged by this
566
00:50:24,869 --> 00:50:26,898
but the opposite happens.
567
00:50:26,922 --> 00:50:30,339
He pushes the gun away,
tenderly.
568
00:50:37,609 --> 00:50:38,761
Oh, Charley.
569
00:50:42,962 --> 00:50:46,947
The emotion that has been
suppressed, hidden, is not rage,
570
00:50:46,971 --> 00:50:50,939
but disappointment
and, even, brotherly love.
571
00:50:53,499 --> 00:50:55,340
Okay, Derrik.
572
00:50:59,226 --> 00:51:02,165
There'd been many types
of realism in acting before it,
573
00:51:02,189 --> 00:51:07,126
but now actors no longer displayed
their characters but tried to hide them.
574
00:51:07,853 --> 00:51:12,545
As Freud had taught,
the surface is a lie, a mask.
575
00:51:13,503 --> 00:51:17,301
Modern western, inchoate
masculinity came out of moments
576
00:51:17,326 --> 00:51:20,169
like the back of the taxi scene.
577
00:51:22,950 --> 00:51:26,199
In this scene in Howard
Hawk's western Red River,
578
00:51:26,223 --> 00:51:28,421
old and new cinema
fought it out.
579
00:51:28,446 --> 00:51:32,872
You're soft. Won't anything make
a man out of you?
580
00:51:32,896 --> 00:51:35,859
You once told me never
to take your gun away from you.
581
00:51:38,253 --> 00:51:42,878
John Wayne, an old style action man,
squared up to the actor who,
582
00:51:42,902 --> 00:51:48,340
at the Actors' Studio, was even more
troubled than Brando, Montgomery Clift.
583
00:51:55,008 --> 00:51:55,476
Alright.
584
00:51:55,500 --> 00:51:58,322
For 14 years I've been scared,
but it's going to be alright.
585
00:51:58,346 --> 00:52:01,129
But Clift fights back.
586
00:52:02,589 --> 00:52:03,713
Come on, get up.
587
00:52:04,118 --> 00:52:08,102
The 1950s standing up
to the 30s and 40s.
588
00:52:08,776 --> 00:52:11,425
Judy Balaban was engaged
to Montgomery Clift.
589
00:52:11,908 --> 00:52:16,643
Monty was sort of the forerunner...
590
00:52:16,667 --> 00:52:19,915
of the sensitive man,
if you will. You know?
591
00:52:19,939 --> 00:52:25,004
He was the sort of beginning
of accepting the notion
592
00:52:25,190 --> 00:52:29,559
that guys were just not these
cut out masculine figures
593
00:52:29,584 --> 00:52:31,689
of masculine traits,
or whatever.
594
00:52:31,713 --> 00:52:36,467
And I think he was the precursor
of Marlon and Jimmy Dean.
595
00:52:36,491 --> 00:52:40,451
He was just at the edge of that,
coming into that.
596
00:52:41,740 --> 00:52:47,434
James Dean, in Rebel without a Cause,
was the icon of these modern men.
597
00:52:47,458 --> 00:52:50,152
He's the son of a rich family.
598
00:52:52,226 --> 00:52:53,632
Dad, stand up for me.
599
00:52:54,041 --> 00:52:58,672
Director Nicholas Ray's wide screen
shows the posh family home.
600
00:52:58,696 --> 00:53:04,215
But then Dean, like cinema itself
in the 50s, explodes.
601
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:05,566
Stand up!
602
00:53:05,591 --> 00:53:10,009
Tilted camera,
he attacks his father.
603
00:53:12,838 --> 00:53:15,278
Do you want to kill
your own father?
604
00:53:27,650 --> 00:53:30,706
He puts the boot
into all that good taste.
605
00:53:35,410 --> 00:53:41,287
There was no social reason for his
rebellion, it was personal, existential.
606
00:53:44,578 --> 00:53:48,477
Dean died aged 24 in 1955,
607
00:53:48,502 --> 00:53:52,284
just as teenagers and rage
had really got going.
608
00:53:52,753 --> 00:53:58,810
Suddenly, American cinema was all about
young, angry, East Coast, inarticulate men.
609
00:53:59,609 --> 00:54:03,373
They knew that 50s America
wasn't all Doris day and Disney.
610
00:54:03,375 --> 00:54:07,334
It was rife with tensions
between parents and kids,
611
00:54:07,358 --> 00:54:10,514
management and workers,
white and black.
612
00:54:11,658 --> 00:54:17,300
And back here in California the tension
in 50s cinema gets even more intriguing.
613
00:54:18,621 --> 00:54:22,181
As if to prove that it wasn't only
the trendy young American directors
614
00:54:22,205 --> 00:54:25,206
who were making swollen movies in the 50s,
615
00:54:25,230 --> 00:54:28,725
let's look at what four
of the American master directors,
616
00:54:28,749 --> 00:54:30,931
Orson Welles, John Ford,
617
00:54:30,955 --> 00:54:34,263
Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks
were up to.
618
00:54:34,264 --> 00:54:37,640
Each of them made masterpieces
in those years.
619
00:54:37,664 --> 00:54:41,870
Welles filmed his movie Touch of Evil
in Venice, California.
620
00:54:42,581 --> 00:54:47,161
He plays Hank Quinlan,
a corrupt lawman bulging at the waist.
621
00:54:47,186 --> 00:54:52,248
Welles filmed with wide-angle lenses
to make the imagery bulge.
622
00:54:52,272 --> 00:54:55,965
Even the building here
seems to curve around the man.
623
00:55:02,122 --> 00:55:06,311
Hank's desperately lonely
and obsessed by a woman.
624
00:55:07,826 --> 00:55:10,671
I don't know what Willard thinks
she's got to do with it?
625
00:55:10,695 --> 00:55:17,065
Maybe she'll cook chili for him,
or bring out the crystal ball.
626
00:55:32,545 --> 00:55:36,320
John Ford's greatest film
of the 50s, The Searchers,
627
00:55:36,345 --> 00:55:39,601
is also about a lonely man,
obsessed by a woman,
628
00:55:39,625 --> 00:55:42,102
his niece, who's been abducted.
629
00:55:42,522 --> 00:55:45,435
When he finds her
he holds her up to the sky,
630
00:55:45,459 --> 00:55:48,876
not sure whether
to hug or harm her.
631
00:55:55,397 --> 00:56:01,037
The abductors were native Americans,
Edwards' rage is racist.
632
00:56:01,523 --> 00:56:04,907
In 50s America,
the biggest drama of them all.
633
00:56:05,827 --> 00:56:11,412
Scotty in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
is as obsessed as Ethan and Hank,
634
00:56:11,436 --> 00:56:14,052
but with an apparently dead woman.
635
00:56:19,682 --> 00:56:23,985
He follows her look alike,
his eyes burning blue.
636
00:56:30,496 --> 00:56:35,302
Hitchcock films his point of view,
putting us in his driving seat.
637
00:56:35,326 --> 00:56:38,704
Scottie slips into
an erotic dream state.
638
00:56:39,721 --> 00:56:42,670
In an era when families
were the social norm,
639
00:56:42,694 --> 00:56:44,859
none of these men is in one.
640
00:56:45,398 --> 00:56:50,153
And, neither is this man, John Wayne
in Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo.
641
00:56:50,177 --> 00:56:53,613
He plays a sheriff
who's assembled this motley posse
642
00:56:53,637 --> 00:56:56,043
to defend a town
against bandits.
643
00:56:56,459 --> 00:57:00,838
The men sit around,
joke, talk and sing.
644
00:57:04,167 --> 00:57:07,216
In the era of Chahine's sexual frustration,
645
00:57:07,240 --> 00:57:11,571
of Sirk's conformity,
of Mehboob's symbolic women,
646
00:57:11,595 --> 00:57:15,473
of James Dean and Marlon Brando's
unraveling men,
647
00:57:15,497 --> 00:57:21,152
this posse, filmed in warm colors, smoking,
strumming and drinking coffee,
648
00:57:21,177 --> 00:57:27,768
were the closest mature American cinema
got to showing an ordinary family at all.
649
00:57:30,932 --> 00:57:32,925
650
00:57:32,927 --> 00:57:36,273
651
00:57:36,275 --> 00:57:41,828
652
00:57:44,356 --> 00:57:47,905
In Britain in the 50s,
tensions about sex and society
653
00:57:47,929 --> 00:57:50,569
were more hidden
beneath the surface.
654
00:57:50,593 --> 00:57:54,453
The films of this man, David Lean,
didn't scream like the melodramas
655
00:57:54,477 --> 00:57:57,510
of Egypt, India,
Mexico and America.
656
00:57:58,019 --> 00:58:00,413
But still waters run deep.
657
00:58:00,437 --> 00:58:04,247
Lean's films contain the emotions
of Britain in the 50s,
658
00:58:04,271 --> 00:58:06,328
its empire in decline.
659
00:58:07,653 --> 00:58:12,551
Like Akira Kurosawa in Japan,
Lean's black and white films of the '40s
660
00:58:12,575 --> 00:58:17,290
were taut stories of his nation, England,
on a human scale.
661
00:58:18,106 --> 00:58:22,323
In this scene in his adaptation
of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations,
662
00:58:22,347 --> 00:58:26,025
the young Pip, who comes
from a humble background,
663
00:58:26,049 --> 00:58:30,219
encounters another class,
which is haughty and stopped in time.
664
00:58:32,580 --> 00:58:35,546
Your clock's stopped, miss.
It should say a quarter past three.
665
00:58:35,571 --> 00:58:37,033
Don't loiter, boy!
666
00:58:38,049 --> 00:58:40,616
Gothic and erotic.
667
00:58:44,323 --> 00:58:46,726
And then, like Kurosawa's,
668
00:58:46,750 --> 00:58:50,328
Lean's films seemed to become
as much about landscape.
669
00:58:50,352 --> 00:58:52,275
How it dwarfs people.
670
00:58:53,502 --> 00:58:58,942
In this scene from Lawrence of Arabia,
Lawrence imagines going to the desert.
671
00:58:58,966 --> 00:59:03,510
In the burning match he sees
the heat of the Arab sun.
672
00:59:03,534 --> 00:59:10,442
Then the famous cut that seems to picture
T.E. Lawrence's colonial dream of elsewhere.
673
00:59:11,008 --> 00:59:14,416
What makes the film very
50s is that it hints
674
00:59:14,440 --> 00:59:20,134
that Lawrence's attraction
to Arabia was sexual too.
675
00:59:42,881 --> 00:59:48,673
The director who made this film
held David Lean in total contempt.
676
00:59:48,697 --> 00:59:55,540
Working class people at an amusement park,
having fun, believing in life, optimism.
677
00:59:55,564 --> 00:59:59,595
The film is interested in these people
but its director Lindsay Anderson,
678
00:59:59,619 --> 01:00:03,851
who was bookish
and caustic, didn't believe.
679
01:00:04,471 --> 01:00:08,402
He thought that human beings
were selfish, especially posh ones.
680
01:00:08,426 --> 01:00:12,282
So O Dreamland
is a hot subject, filmed coolly.
681
01:00:13,332 --> 01:00:16,903
Anderson was a leftist,
but O Dreamland's irony
682
01:00:16,927 --> 01:00:21,386
is far from this, the most famous
leftist film in movie history,
683
01:00:21,410 --> 01:00:23,734
Battleship Potemkin.
684
01:00:23,758 --> 01:00:28,143
In Potemkin the working classes
were pictured as noble types.
685
01:00:30,173 --> 01:00:33,597
A caring mother,
children of the revolution.
686
01:00:38,502 --> 01:00:45,052
O Dreamland's people or, rather,
its stare at them, was not simple at all.
687
01:00:45,076 --> 01:00:48,196
It was full of pity
and admiration but,
688
01:00:48,220 --> 01:00:53,430
also, disappointment and
maybe even contempt.
689
01:00:54,590 --> 01:00:57,907
How conflicted and class ridden.
690
01:00:57,931 --> 01:01:02,578
Just like Britain
itself in the 50s.
691
01:01:09,401 --> 01:01:12,892
And, finally, in our travel
around the world in the 1950s,
692
01:01:12,916 --> 01:01:16,360
if we move to France
not long after O Dreamland,
693
01:01:16,384 --> 01:01:22,290
we find this 22-year-old ballet dancer
and model, Brigitte Bardot.
694
01:01:22,314 --> 01:01:26,296
She had the kind of beauty
that made the box office go "ka-ching."
695
01:01:26,320 --> 01:01:29,845
There was nothing ambiguous
about this stare.
696
01:01:29,870 --> 01:01:33,008
Bardot's hair was unkempt,
she refused to dress
697
01:01:33,032 --> 01:01:35,013
like posh Parisian woman.
698
01:01:35,604 --> 01:01:39,179
Eventually she brought more money
to the French economy
699
01:01:39,203 --> 01:01:42,376
than the motorcar
manufacturer Renault.
700
01:01:42,892 --> 01:01:46,531
Sex was coming out
in the open in the movies.
701
01:01:54,548 --> 01:01:58,322
The 1950s were
the pressure cooker years in the movies.
702
01:01:58,346 --> 01:02:02,374
The non-western world decolonized,
got confidence
703
01:02:02,399 --> 01:02:05,379
and you could see
this in its movies.
704
01:02:05,445 --> 01:02:08,978
The western world had sex
and power on its mind,
705
01:02:09,002 --> 01:02:11,962
and you could see this
in its movies.
706
01:02:11,987 --> 01:02:15,084
Audiences got hot
under the collar.
707
01:02:17,866 --> 01:02:21,732
They were swollen with
the desires of their times.
708
01:02:23,488 --> 01:02:27,456
The language of the movies
was straining at the seams,
709
01:02:27,457 --> 01:02:30,548
something had to give.
710
01:02:30,572 --> 01:02:34,591
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job0@whatkeepsmebusy.today