A Trip Through Cinema Industry
“A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet”
~ Orson Welles
This snippet was spoken by Orson Welles, thought to be one of the best filmmakers, screenwriters, and directors of the famed Golden Age of Hollywood. Welles made his debut in 1941 with Citizen Kane which is acclaimed to be the greatest movie ever made. It follows around the death of a newspaper tycoon, Charles Foster Kane, who rose greatly to become the most influential person in America, and his last words that lead the whole country into confusion and speculation over his life.
This was just an example of many movies made over the last century that changed the way people viewed storytelling. The dawn of new technology saw a contorted transition from Black and White to colored films. Although there have been colored films during the early cinema period, the first one being Anabelle Serpentine Dance made in 1895 and the more prominent ones being Trip to the Moon or The Life and Passion of Christ both made in 1902 and 1903 respectively, only a few parts of these films were in color and those frames used a technique called hand stenciling where each frame was drawn by hand. With the advancements that happened over a period of half a decade, the films went from two and three colors or black and white to multi-colored. The most well-known and well-regarded color movie, also referred to as the first color movie, was The Wizard of Oz in 1939 which served as a shift from the Old Hollywood Era to the Golden Age.
In spite of the Great Depression hitting the world in the ’30s, it barely had an impact on the rising industry and its triumph in that period which was a form of therapeutic diversion for millions who needed to get away from the perils of this economic downturn. When the market crashed in 1929, Hollywood was switching to sound, which was there to stay. Huge investments were made to convert shooting sets and movie theaters to sound. Careers had ended — and were launched — overnight. Fortunately, the industry’s only major competition was the radio and the theater, one is only sound and the other being way too expensive for layman. While America and UK, strived to make the films enjoyable for the viewers, that was not the only idea behind them. Films also served the purpose of showing nationalistic propaganda to instill a sense of patriotism amongst the people.
While Hollywood made movies that had shown communism and Nazism in a bad light, the Axis Powers had their own plans. Leni Riefenstahl and Joseph Goebbels were the most famous Nazi propagandists who had produced a plethora of controversial movies and documentaries emphasizing the solidarity and supremacy of the German Reich. The films, in general, were seen as a tool to captivate the audience for fulfilling a much larger worldwide agenda. But this idea didn’t last very long as people shifted to watching movies for leisure and recreation.
The Modern Hollywood Era or the Hollywood Renaissance came after this, which changed the story-driven industry to a more visually pleasing one. The characters became a means of furthering the plot rather than having the plot revolve around them. Soundtracks were used to convey a message rather than tedious and repetitive dialogue. The films now let a simple scene do the talking enabling the viewer to interpret that scene rather than blindly handing him the script. Movies like The Godfather and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly are great examples of this where a specific shot shows the inner turmoil of the main character rather than him blatantly saying “I am agitated.” This instills an understanding between the subject and the viewer. It equips the viewer to look inside the mind of the subject and understand his emotion.
Films like Jaws and 2001: A Space Odyssey were visual masterpieces, way ahead of their time. These films have set the bar very high for the current generation of movies because during the ’60s and the ‘70s it was virtually impossible to create since CGI and animation weren’t even developed till the early ’70s. Filmmakers like George Lucas and Stanley Kubrick used miniature sets and models to film their movies. This style was what made Star Wars and Star Trek a cultural phenomenon. That and of course the storytelling.
You can make all the movies you want with all the special effects in the world but nothing ever beats a good story, something that captures the audience’s attention. Something that makes a good movie is firstly the story and secondly the dialogue. Quentin Tarantino has stated that he believes in each frame telling a story and the dialogue as just the filler in between. Inglorious Basterds captures and executes this idea marvelously. The movie unfolds over five chapters following World War 2. The opening chapter has the title “Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France” which serves as a comic juxtaposition between a fairy tale and real history. The use of brute force in the film serves as a mode of delivery and artistry. This movie, along with many of Tarantino’s other, steals segments from different genres be it spaghetti western or war-led. As Tarantino quoted, “Great artists steal, they don’t do homages.” And that is exactly what he does.
The next best thing a film can do is make an unforgettable character. Walter White from Breaking Bad, Tony Montana from Scarface, Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds, or Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. What all these characters have in common is that apart from their stories, the performance given by the respective actors is phenomenal. While a writer writes the character on paper, it becomes the actor’s job to bring that character from paper to life. Even if the character is an antagonist, Christoph Waltz played Hans Landa in such a way that you can’t help but like him. Waltz made the character his own, adopted his personality, and then portrayed it magnificently on screen rather than just reading notes and saying his lines.
To conclude, cinema is more than just moving pictures. It is an emotion. That emotion leaves a feeling of satisfaction along with inquisitiveness in the minds of the viewer.
