tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/history-of-cinema-7575/articlesHistory of cinema – The Conversation2020-04-21T20:05:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1329762020-04-21T20:05:05Z2020-04-21T20:05:05ZWar movies are big earners. What does that say about us?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320503/original/file-20200314-115112-1d8lbl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1200%2C799&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DreamWorks Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>War film is serious business. It has been from the beginning, when William Wellman’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/movies/homevideo/william-a-wellmans-wings-with-clara-bow-on-blu-ray.html">Wings</a> (1927) became the first World War I romantic drama to win an Oscar for best picture. One hundred years later, the supply of war films seems inexhaustible and their box-office attraction unbroken. </p>
<p>Adjusted for inflation, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Lawrence of Arabia</a> (1962) made US$589.2 million and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Schindler’s List</a> (1993) US$569.5 million. Michael Bay’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213149/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Pearl Harbor</a> (2001) grossed US$648.5 million. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">American Sniper</a> (2015) grossed US$590.5 million. </p>
<p>The war film genre and its fascination remains. </p>
<p>There we sit, watching generations get wiped out. We see terrifying technological inventions like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgp6ZH-by-E">atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima</a>. Removed from actual war in time and place, these big-screen productions are horrible yet spellbinding at the same time. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">War Horse</a> (2011) is a particularly effective exploration of this experience and what it gives to audiences. Steven Spielberg’s film tells the story of a young horse and his owner forced from the idyllic fields of rural England into the bloody trenches of first world war France. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JPNyNr2Kp4w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>War Horse illustrates the fragile balance of peace, and how sacrifice forms lasting bonds across borders, languages and species, echoing the Great War’s <a href="https://enrs.eu/afterthegreatwar">hard-won reconciliation process</a> as Europeans bonded over grief and common trauma. Spielberg pairs moral guidance and a sense of what really matters in life with breathtaking landscape shots and fast-paced action sequences. </p>
<p>But this is only one story and only one way to present war as a noble sacrifice to forge unity. There is no standard formula to explain why the experience of war continuously attracts millions of viewers. The answer is different for each war story, and it is different in each nation.</p>
<h2>The national war complex</h2>
<p>The first Australian film to win an Academy Award was Damien Parer’s documentary of the fighting in New Guinea in 1942. The film <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/kokoda-front-line-oscar-best-documentary">garnered a Best Documentary Oscar</a> for bringing the immediate experience of humanity at war to Australia: the wounded; the anxiety; the young soldiers’ fear of death far from home. </p>
<p>Parer himself was <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2599060">killed in action in 1944</a> in the Palau archipelago in Micronesia. His cinematic legacy is a sobering documentation of Australians at war without flagwavers or hyper-masculine action heroes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329349/original/file-20200421-104221-19wj80c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329349/original/file-20200421-104221-19wj80c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329349/original/file-20200421-104221-19wj80c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329349/original/file-20200421-104221-19wj80c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329349/original/file-20200421-104221-19wj80c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329349/original/file-20200421-104221-19wj80c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329349/original/file-20200421-104221-19wj80c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Damien Parer also shot photographs while in New Guinea, including this one at a rest spot on the Kokoda Trail.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian War Memorial</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>SBS recently ran a <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2020/02/27/here-eternity-power-our-war-week-movies">week of war films</a> in the lead-up to ANZAC Day, leading with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2674454/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Churchill</a> (2017), which portrays the inner world of Britain’s wartime prime minister. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Downfall</a> (2004) looks at Hitler’s final days barricaded in his Berlin <em>Führerbunker</em>. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441953/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Testament of Youth</a> (2015) is a heart-swollen romance of WWI nurse Vera Brittain’s literary memoirs and her calls for pacifism.</p>
<p>SBS’s War Week included no actual documentary footage like that of Parer’s. </p>
<p>Today, the idea of an authentic representation of war seems less appealing to audiences. Marvel Studios <a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Marvel-Cinematic-Universe#tab=summary">broke box-office records</a> all over the world with its fantasy battle and sci-fi war film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Avengers: Endgame</a> (2019). Perhaps too much reality in depicting war, the starkest of all modern realities, is simply unbearable. And so the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2011/06/06/136998090/the-re-enchantment-of-humanity">re-enchantment</a> of war comes with laser battles and magic gauntlets. </p>
<h2>Fact versus fiction</h2>
<p>How we explore war on film has sparked heated debates. </p>
<p>One argument holds the true horror of war is increasingly obscured by technology, Hollywood star power, and clever marketing campaigns. </p>
<p>The popular HBO documentary television miniseries <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185906/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Band of Brothers</a> (2001) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374463/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Pacific</a> (2010) caused controversy among <a href="https://www.smh-hq.org/gazette/bandbrothers.html">military historians</a> who accused the series of endorsing war nostalgia, making the audience take sides, and actively shaping collective modern memory through re-enacted combat scenes.</p>
<p>War has been co-opted as an entertainment favourite in countries all across the world, allowing audiences to think of it as a metaphor to explore issues like sexism or mortality. </p>
<p>One of the most popular South Korean war films, Jang Hoon’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2007387/">The Front Line</a> (2011), suggests the meaning of life cannot be found in senseless wars. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7178226/?ref_=nm_knf_t2">The Cave</a> (2019), a war documentary by Syrian director Feras Fayyad, shows how a group of female doctors in Ghouta struggle with systemic sexism while tending to thousands of the injured. </p>
<p>Peter Jackson’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7905466/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">They Shall Not Grow Old</a> (2018) drew almost <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-few-thoughts-on-the-authenticity-of-peter-jacksons-they-shall-not-grow-old">unanimous</a> critical acclaim.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IrabKK9Bhds?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Jackson’s film produces a modern war experience by enhancing documentary footage of the first world war. We see the real faces of war: they talk, they smoke makeshift cigarettes, they are shellshocked victims of their time. </p>
<p>Jackson used <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a25607316/world-war-i-footage-colorized/">computerised colouration</a> and recordings of veteran interviews as voiceovers. He hired forensic lip readers to superimpose dialogue on the previously silent combatants’ voices.</p>
<p>The result is a conflicting truth about war and how its memories grow truer and more real before our eyes and in our ears if we want them to, rather than feeling safe in the fact those bombastic Hollywood scenes on screen can never become our reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Nickl does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>War movies are an enduring genre, making hundreds of millions at the box office. With Anzac Day approaching, we ask: does Hollywood go too far in obscuring the true horrors of battle?Benjamin Nickl, Lecturer in International Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1318992020-02-25T18:53:56Z2020-02-25T18:53:56Z100 years of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: the film that inspired Virginia Woolf, David Bowie and Tim Burton<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316565/original/file-20200221-92541-134f7mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C8%2C1192%2C741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Decla-Bioscop AG</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Berlin. February 26 1920. A new silent film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0010323/?ref_=ttmi_tt">The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari</a>, is released to unsuspecting German audiences and quickly becomes a worldwide sensation. “When will I die?” asks one character to another. “At first dawn” is the chilling reply.</p>
<p>Werner Krauss plays Dr. Caligari, a demented hypnotist who uses a somnambulist, Cesare (Conrad Veidt), to commit horrific murders. But wait! All is not as it seems. In the film’s still stunning twist ending, the whole story is revealed to be the mad ramblings of a mentally ill inmate in a lunatic asylum. </p>
<p>So, 100 years on, why does The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari continue to shock?</p>
<h2>Spirits surround us on every side</h2>
<p>A milestone in the evolution of the horror genre, Robert Wiene’s brisk 75-minute masterpiece showcased a new cinematic style: <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-german-expressionist-films">German expressionism</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IAtpxqajFak?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Heavily influenced by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15012.The_Haunted_Screen?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=60Eukwnhwl&rank=1">new theories</a> about the subjectivity of art, architecture and visual culture, and symptomatic of a nation coming to terms with its post-war neuroses, films like Caligari depicted a highly stylised, distorted vision of the world, full of jagged camera angles, hyper-artificial sets and jerky, robotic acting. </p>
<p>Everything we see feels off-kilter, from the excessive make-up to the highly stylised title cards to alienating close-up shots. Themes of nightmare, paranoia, insanity and murder meet larger concerns about modern dehumanisation and mind-numbing authority. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316419/original/file-20200220-92493-m2ekd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316419/original/file-20200220-92493-m2ekd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316419/original/file-20200220-92493-m2ekd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316419/original/file-20200220-92493-m2ekd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316419/original/file-20200220-92493-m2ekd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316419/original/file-20200220-92493-m2ekd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316419/original/file-20200220-92493-m2ekd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conrad Veidt as Cesare, the unwitting murderer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Decla-Bioscop AG</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Right at the start, a menacing iris-in shot (a small black circle opening up to show the whole scene) telegraphs the dread to come, beckoning us into this nightmarish world.</p>
<p>Part scary movie, part avant-garde, part Surrealist fever dream, Caligari still feels profoundly modern. </p>
<p>Production designers Walter Reimann, Walter Röhrig and Hermann Warm created a harrowing world of dark alleys, imposing rooftops and vertiginous staircases. Large shadows and occult symbols painted onto whitewashed walls resemble a bizarre mash-up of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso">Picasso</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD">Dalí</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch">Munch</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316549/original/file-20200221-92502-puczyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316549/original/file-20200221-92502-puczyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316549/original/file-20200221-92502-puczyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316549/original/file-20200221-92502-puczyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316549/original/file-20200221-92502-puczyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316549/original/file-20200221-92502-puczyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316549/original/file-20200221-92502-puczyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The production design echoes Picasso, Dali and Munch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Decla-Bioscop AG</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The film’s use of unreliable narrators, flashbacks and twist endings reminds us of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe">Edgar Allan Poe</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm">Grimms’</a> warped fairy tales. The central tyrant figure who exploits a society eager to submit to his will is an appropriate allegory for the German psyche at the time. Cesare is us – the common man, blindly following orders, killing at the behest of others. </p>
<p>Small wonder the film struck a chord with war-weary audiences across Europe. </p>
<h2>Judge for yourselves</h2>
<p>Critics have had a field day ever since. Siegfried Kracauer <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1090902.From_Caligari_to_Hitler?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=RIh96L1ggE&rank=5">persuasively argued</a> Caligari and other horror films released in Weimar-era Germany, like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013442/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Nosferatu</a> (1922) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014586/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Waxworks</a> (1924), subconsciously laid the groundwork for the rise of fascism and Hitler. </p>
<p>Virginia Woolf <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-cinema-by-virginia-woolf-from-the-nation-and-athenaeum">marvelled</a> at how the set design mirrored the emotions felt by the characters and the audience: “it seemed as if thought could be conveyed by shape more effectively than words”. David Thomson claims it is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3359703-have-you-seen?from_search=true&qid=i4Oj8XYaJu&rank=1">very first</a> “mad psychiatrist” movie. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-true-horror-movies-are-about-more-than-things-going-bump-in-the-night-104278">Why true horror movies are about more than things going bump in the night</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Hollywood also took note: early Universal horror films such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021814/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Dracula</a> (1931) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021884/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2">Frankenstein</a> (1931) owe a clear debt to Caligari’s visual texture and brooding menace. The classic noir films of the 1940s share the same DNA – the city is a site of paranoia and hidden dangers, where shadows are everywhere and staircases lead nowhere.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316550/original/file-20200221-92530-qndpzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316550/original/file-20200221-92530-qndpzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316550/original/file-20200221-92530-qndpzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316550/original/file-20200221-92530-qndpzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316550/original/file-20200221-92530-qndpzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316550/original/file-20200221-92530-qndpzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316550/original/file-20200221-92530-qndpzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tod Browning’s 1931 film Dracula owed a visual debt to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Universal Pictures</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari resonates in other formats too. </p>
<p>It has been adapted for the <a href="https://brightestyoungthings.com/articles/play-dc-doctor-caligari-pointless-theater">stage</a>, turned into an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkW_nbZTxVY">opera</a>, and was screened by the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/22/david-bowie-surrealist-inspired-dali-duchamp-dr-caligari">David Bowie is</a> exhibition in 2013. Apparently, Bowie loved the film so much that he asked that the stage sets for his 1974 Diamond Dogs tour <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=LqFkDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT1301&lpg=PT1301&dq=diamond+dogs,+stage+design+,caligaRI&source=bl&ots=c222_Vtl4q&sig=ACfU3U3uCyIfrs5t0_kSG7uDQ-AN55aupQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjttfGMxuHnAhXHfn0KHdK1A-kQ6AEwEnoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=diamond%20dogs%2C%20stage%20design%20%2CcaligaRI&f=false">capture the spirit</a> of the original.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316562/original/file-20200221-92530-u0u5ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316562/original/file-20200221-92530-u0u5ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316562/original/file-20200221-92530-u0u5ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316562/original/file-20200221-92530-u0u5ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316562/original/file-20200221-92530-u0u5ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316562/original/file-20200221-92530-u0u5ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316562/original/file-20200221-92530-u0u5ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The set design for David Bowie’s 1974 tour was based on the production design in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdport/3329402768/in/photolist-fhV3H3-fhV3B3-fhV3JJ-65d4sA-fgYVA4-8LUHUv-fhELFa-65d4xS-fhV3N9-fhELNn-fhV3Eu-fhELx4-fhV3uS-fhV3xd-fhV3ru-fhV3FG-fhELAa-fhV3zw-fhELtV-658N9X-fhean1-65d4hN-65d4Cj-fgYVHz-658MD6-fgYVKk-65d4s1-658MBF-658MKV-65d4gm-65d4cW-fheayC-8NjkdV-8Nnq8b-fgYVQV-fheapo-fheax3-658N6P-658N5F-65d4oj-658MEe-658MZD-65d4cy-658MVH-658NaP-658N7T-65d4fb-658MJR-8NjkeH">Hunter Desportes/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the cult 1989 erotic sequel, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097228/?ref_=nm_flmg_pdsg_2">Dr. Caligari</a>, the granddaughter of the original Caligari performs illegal experiments on her patients at the CIA – the Caligari Insane Asylum. </p>
<p>Wiene’s film continues to echo in contemporary cinema. Its dream-like cityscapes have seeped into virtually every Tim Burton film from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096895/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6">Batman</a> (1989) to <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121164/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Corpse Bride</a> (2005). It’s no coincidence Johnny Depp’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099487/">Edward Scissorhands</a> is made up to look like Cesare. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316552/original/file-20200221-92507-1w2tiv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316552/original/file-20200221-92507-1w2tiv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316552/original/file-20200221-92507-1w2tiv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316552/original/file-20200221-92507-1w2tiv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316552/original/file-20200221-92507-1w2tiv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316552/original/file-20200221-92507-1w2tiv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316552/original/file-20200221-92507-1w2tiv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The make-up for Edward Scissorhands was based on Cesare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">20th Century Fox</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And isn’t Martin Scorsese’s much underrated <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130884/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Shutter Island</a> a modern remake, right down to the twist ending, the unstable narration and Ben Kingsley’s shadowy psychiatrist? </p>
<p>Themes of madness, small-town tyranny and zombie-like obedience have remained mainstays of horror films, from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Exorcist</a> (1973) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Shining</a> (1980) right up to TV series like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2243973/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Hannibal</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4093826/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Twin Peaks</a>. </p>
<p>And it’s clear audiences continue to respond: Caligari remains one of only a handful of films with a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_cabinet_of_dr_caligari">100% rating</a> on Rotten Tomatoes.</p>
<h2>Mr Director, unmask yourself</h2>
<p>The great German expressionist filmmakers would eventually disperse. </p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Murnau">F.W. Murnau</a> emigrated to Hollywood in search of bigger budgets and more technically ambitious films. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Lang">Fritz Lang</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Wilder">Billy Wilder</a> fled to Paris to escape the rise of Nazism, eventually ending up in America for long and illustrious careers. </p>
<p>Wiene was not so lucky. He died from cancer at age 65 in 1938, forever shackled to the legacy of his most famous film. But, a century on, Cesare’s ghoulishly staring eyes remain as frightening as ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben McCann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The groundbreaking German expressionist film Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered in 1920. It is just as shocking – and influential – 100 years on.Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/545072016-02-16T04:22:07Z2016-02-16T04:22:07ZHow to get the African films we all should see onto our screens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111513/original/image-20160215-22563-1lduea1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nate Parker, director of the recent revolutionary US film "Birth of a Nation".</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Confronted with questions about why the jury of the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has no people of colour, the jury president - and three-time Oscar-winner - Meryl Streep said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are all Africans really. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the wake of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/35349772/oscars-so-white-what-people-are-saying-about-diversity-in-hollywood">OscarsSoWhite</a> controversy about lack of diversity in the film industry, Streep’s comment added fuel to the fire and prompted a storm of <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/02/against-humanism/462597/">criticism</a> about what was seen as a patronising attempt to silence the debate. </p>
<p>Few of the critiques of Streep’s comment focus on its original context. It was actually made in response to an Egyptian journalist asking her whether she knew anything about the Middle East or Africa and about films made in these regions. She admitted she didn’t.</p>
<p>At best, Streep’s comment was a clumsy attempt to show solidarity. But what it underlined was the continued absence of Africans and African film-making from international film festivals and mainstream cinema. If we are all Africans, why are we not watching African films? </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111510/original/image-20160215-22570-3n7w1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111510/original/image-20160215-22570-3n7w1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111510/original/image-20160215-22570-3n7w1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111510/original/image-20160215-22570-3n7w1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111510/original/image-20160215-22570-3n7w1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111510/original/image-20160215-22570-3n7w1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111510/original/image-20160215-22570-3n7w1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meryl Streep, president of the international jury for the 2016 Berlin film festival.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Stefanie Loos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>History of racism in movie making</h2>
<p>Racism is a charge that could be leveled at cinema from its very inception. Film professor <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Film-Theory-Introduction-Robert-Stam/dp/063120654X">Robert Stam says</a> that of all the conditions that attended cinema’s birth, “it is cinema’s coincidence with imperialism that has been least studied”.</p>
<p>Many films made in the early 20th century whitewash black narratives and characters, and justify white violence against people of colour as righteous. D.W. Griffith’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ871wZd7UY">Birth of a Nation</a> (1915), set during the North American Civil War, glorifies the Ku Klux Klan. Instead of being condemned, the film is hailed as a “<a href="http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html">masterpiece</a>” for its pioneering film techniques. </p>
<p>While Griffith has been canonised, black and African filmmakers have struggled to get their work featured at international festivals, or picked up by distributors and exhibitors, even after the strides achieved by the Civil Rights and independence movements. An instructive example is the representation of African films at Cannes, the most prestigious international film festival.</p>
<p>Since Cannes began in 1946, a mere <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curating-Africa-Film-Festivals-Framing/dp/1137404132">3%</a> of the films in competition have been African. And from 1946 to 2013, only 14 African films won prizes. Only one African film - Chronicle of the Year of Embers (1975) - has ever won the <a href="http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/about/palmeHistory.html">Palme d'Or</a>. The decision was so contentious that the jury members and filmmakers received death threats, and required police protection as they were leaving the Palais des Festivals. This is because the film dared to tell a story about the Algerian War of Independence from the Algerian, rather than French, perspective. Although the ‘Father of African Cinema’, Ousmane Sembene, was invited to be a Cannes jury member as early as 1967, few people of colour have since been welcomed into this inner circle. </p>
<p>In contrast, films that use Africa as a backdrop for white adventure narratives are still widely screened globally - such as Out of Africa (1985), starring Streep herself, which won seven Oscars and grossed more than <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=outofafrica.htm">$100 million worldwide</a>.</p>
<h2>Why?</h2>
<p>The answer of course encompasses racism but also goes beyond it. It has to do with the perception that African and black films will not attract audiences. </p>
<p>When he set out to make a film about the revolutionary slave Nat Turner, filmmaker <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1676649/">Nate Parker</a> was told that such a film would not succeed because</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Movies with black leads <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/birth-a-nation-slave-revolt-857177">don’t play</a> internationally.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A few weeks ago, Turner’s film – purposefully titled Birth of a Nation – secured the most lucrative distribution deal ever recorded at the Sundance Film Festival: <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-flashback-a-century-before-861075">$17.5 million</a> from Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film was also included in a rich programme of black and African films screened at the 2016 Pan-African film festival of Los Angeles. </p>
<p>There are other signs that the industry is transforming.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Franklin Leonard’s <a href="http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/could-the-black-list-change-the-game-for-black-hollywood-writers-032#axzz408mTM0ZQ">The Blacklist</a> has helped to catapult screenwriters of colour into the limelight.</p></li>
<li><p>The Toronto International Film Festival’s Artistic Director, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0047172/">Cameron Bailey</a>, is an African film specialist whose connection with the continent’s film production goes back 25 years.</p></li>
<li><p>The Sydney Film Festival’s Director, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/nashen-moodley">Nashen Moodley</a>, is a South African who is also the curator of the AsiaAfrica programme at the Dubai International Film Festival.</p></li>
<li><p>Since 2006, the Dubai festival has also run the lucrative <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=27y_BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=Muhr+Awards+for+Arab,+Asian+and+African+filmmakers.&source=bl&ots=L7z1V4YP_9&sig=mMIX8S8qQDngcDorgYkRXoLk1Gg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOkOeY6fnKAhXHDxoKHZZ3CcgQ6AEINjAF#v=onepage&q=Muhr%20Awards%20for%20Arab%2C%20Asian%20and%20African%20filmmakers.&f=false">Muhr Awards</a> for Arab, Asian and African filmmakers.</p></li>
<li><p>Selma director <a href="http://qz.com/567617/the-barbie-doll-of-selma-director-ava-duvernay-is-already-sold-out/">Ava DuVernay</a> has recently started a film distribution company, Array, through which she is supporting African films such as Ayanda (2015). </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>It will take more than just black lead actors</h2>
<p>But it is the internet - as the new frontier of film distribution - that will be the real yardstick of change. There are some promising signs here, too, with the recent arrival of African video-on-demand platforms such as AfricaFilms.tv, buni.tv, and iroko.tv.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111514/original/image-20160215-22587-1s4hubo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111514/original/image-20160215-22587-1s4hubo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111514/original/image-20160215-22587-1s4hubo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111514/original/image-20160215-22587-1s4hubo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111514/original/image-20160215-22587-1s4hubo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111514/original/image-20160215-22587-1s4hubo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111514/original/image-20160215-22587-1s4hubo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Idris Elba.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Blake</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is not simply an issue of black lead actors, though. It is a sobering fact that the film about Africa that has performed best on Netflix is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/27/beasts-of-no-nation-netflix-three-million-views-original-feature">Beasts of No Nation</a>, a child soldier movie that rehashes stereotypes of an endemically violent continent. We need more diverse narratives about Africa - the ones in films like Sex, Okra and Salted Butter (2008), Pumzi (2009), Love the One You Love (2015) and so many others.</p>
<p>And it is not just up to the film industry. As individuals we can make a difference through the films we choose to see. I will also be boycotting the Oscars on 28 February. I have something much more exciting to do: watching <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0162878/">Souleymane Cissé’s</a> film Yeelen (1987) and discussing it with him at the CinemAfrica film festival in Stockholm. </p>
<p>We need to vote with our cinema tickets and our internet clicks. And if Hollywood refuses to change itself, why do we even give it the time of day?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindiwe Dovey has received funding for her research from The Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>Racism is a charge that could be leveled at cinema from its very inception. There are some positive signs of change, but audiences have a role to play in making sure African films flourish.Lindiwe Dovey, Senior Lecturer in African Film and Performance Arts, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/484442015-10-12T02:48:58Z2015-10-12T02:48:58ZDeath of a film legacy: remembering Indonesia’s Bachtiar Siagian<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97745/original/image-20151008-9679-187phh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4000%2C3676&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The anti-communist pogrom in Indonesia 50 years ago not only destroyed human lives but also significant cultural works made by the country's left-inspired artists. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Molodec/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month marks the 50th anniversary of the start of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-indonesias-1965-1966-anti-communist-purge-remade-a-nation-and-the-world-48243">Indonesia’s anti-communist purge</a> that killed nearly a million people between 1965 and 1966. </p>
<p>The pogrom not only destroyed human lives but also cultural artefacts made by the country’s left-inspired artists. Cinema reels in particular were obliterated more completely than other art forms such as literature or paintings. Wanton destruction and later wilful neglect and suppression completed the wipe-out of the fragile celluloid. </p>
<h2>The coup and its consequences for Bactiar Siagian</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97751/original/image-20151008-9685-1irkyv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97751/original/image-20151008-9685-1irkyv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97751/original/image-20151008-9685-1irkyv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97751/original/image-20151008-9685-1irkyv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97751/original/image-20151008-9685-1irkyv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97751/original/image-20151008-9685-1irkyv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97751/original/image-20151008-9685-1irkyv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97751/original/image-20151008-9685-1irkyv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bachtiar Siagian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/images/gallery/IdFC_gal_30112011_163753.jpg">from www.indonesianfilmcenter.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Arguably the country’s most significant leftist film director and theorist, Bachtiar Siagian was among the millions who fell prey to the anti-communist purge. He was imprisoned without trial for 12 years, and was released from prison in December 1977. </p>
<p>Siagian was shooting a documentary at a conference in Tokyo when a coup attempt in the morning of October 1 1965 was crushed within hours by the senior leadership of the army. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-the-coup-that-backfired-the-demise-of-indonesias-communist-party-47640">botched coup became the pretext</a> for General Suharto’s anti-communist crackdown and laid the foundations for Suharto’s long reign. </p>
<p>Several weeks after returning from Japan Siagian realised his life was in danger. He read in a newspaper article that authorities were offering a cash reward for his arrest. He went underground but was captured in early 1966.</p>
<h2>A founding father of Indonesia’s cinema?</h2>
<p>Siagian’s film career spanned 1955-65, the period of the most open conflict of ideology and interest, often simplistically presented as being between religion and communism. Cinema was caught up in this strife most directly through conflicts between the PKI-connected (Indonesian Communist Party) film workers’ organisation, SABUFIS, and the PPFI, an alliance of film producers. </p>
<p>In that decade Siagian wrote and directed 13 feature films. This made him one of the most prolific indigenous Indonesian directors of his time, in an industry dominated by overseas Chinese money and talent. </p>
<p>Histories of cinema written under Suharto’s New Order cast Siagian as the communist who politicised cinema, in contrast to Usmar Ismail, another indigenous filmmaker, who led the defence of cinema as an art form. Ismail was eventually anointed the “father of national cinema” by New Order-endorsed film archivists. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97760/original/image-20151008-9675-1aebrat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97760/original/image-20151008-9675-1aebrat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97760/original/image-20151008-9675-1aebrat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97760/original/image-20151008-9675-1aebrat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97760/original/image-20151008-9675-1aebrat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97760/original/image-20151008-9675-1aebrat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97760/original/image-20151008-9675-1aebrat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97760/original/image-20151008-9675-1aebrat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Usmar Ismail.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Usmar_Ismail_Kesusastraan_Indonesia_Modern_dalam_Kritik_dan_Essai_1_(1962)_p30.jpg#/media/File:Usmar_Ismail_Kesusastraan_Indonesia_Modern_dalam_Kritik_dan_Essai_1_(1962)_p30.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In reality, Ismail and Siagian, both born in Sumatra in the early 1920s, were in many ways each other’s foils.</p>
<p>Born into an aristocratic family, Ismail received a Dutch education that very few of his generation of native Indonesians could aspire to. Siagian was the son of a railway worker who grew up among children of plantation labourers. That he went to school at all was thanks to a Dutch woman for whom he worked as a domestic servant. He received no formal education beyond primary school. </p>
<p>Like many filmmakers of his generation, Siagian learned his craft during the Japanese occupation of 1942-45. In 1950, he joined LEKRA, the Indonesian Communist Party’s (PKI) cultural organ. </p>
<p>Experience of Japanese war propaganda convinced Siagian of the political power of cinema. He started reading and writing extensively about Russian cinema. By contrast, Ismail was enthralled by Hollywood, particularly after a study tour to the US in 1953.</p>
<h2>Life after prison</h2>
<p>When I first met him in 1981, “Pak Bachtiar” was nearly 60, living in dire poverty on the edge of Jakarta. He was not part of the network of former political prisoners that was emerging in Jakarta in the early 1980s. Nor, unlike many of his literary counterparts (most famously Pramoedya Ananta Toer and his publishers), did he acquire a following among students and young intellectuals who had come to adulthood since 1965 and were trying to make sense of their cultural heritage. </p>
<p>Siagian had never been good at toeing the line either personally or artistically. In his active years, he often fell out with the leadership of the PKI. His films fell afoul of the Censorship Board regardless of who was in charge in the constantly changing dynamics of 1955-65. </p>
<p>Siagian was transferred from prison to prison during his incarceration: first, Jakarta’s Salemba; then Nusakambangan, the island prison off the Java’s South Coast; finally Buru, the notorious penal colony in the Moluccas Islands. Yet his years of imprisonment had not dampened his charisma nor his conviction that a film could only ever be a vehicle for an ideology. </p>
<p>Banned from participating in media work after his release, he eked out a miserable living writing film scripts anonymously. This work dried up too after 1983, when new regulations by the Suharto government, under the euphemistic banner of “<em>bersih lingkungan</em>” (clean environment), further restricted former political prisoners and their families from work in education and the media industries.</p>
<p>Siagian died in 2002, entirely unnoticed by the media. </p>
<h2>Progressive cinema?</h2>
<p>We will probably never know Siagian’s films beyond what can be glimpsed in his annotated scripts. Neither contemporaneous reviews nor later attacks on Siagian have seriously argued that his films contained communist propaganda. </p>
<p>Siagian wrote his own film scripts, most of which have thankfully survived. Whether or not there was artistic merit in his films, his stories are clear: in them the socially weak and powerless, <em>wong cilik</em> (literally “small people”), in his Indonesia do great things against great odds. </p>
<p>His first film, Kabut Desember (December Mist) in 1955, remained until the 1980s the only Indonesian film that treated prostitutes as anything but abject. In 1961, the PKI leadership tried to stop the circulation of Baja Membara (Burning Steel) because of what they saw as its pro-Islam stance. </p>
<p>Violetta, created in 1962, is the only film of his that survived. </p>
<p>Bachtiar Siagian’s films were shown in festivals in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries. Unless his other films remain to be found in the archives of those nations, Indonesia will always be left with a gaping hole in its film history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Krishna Sen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Arguably Indonesia’s most significant leftist film director and theorist, Bachtiar Siagian, was among the millions who fell prey to the communist purge carried out between 1965 and 1966.Krishna Sen, Professor of Indonesian Studies and Dean of Arts, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/424622015-05-29T13:47:37Z2015-05-29T13:47:37ZMad Moses: beneath Max’s desert rampage is a classic Jewish odyssey<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83380/original/image-20150529-15207-rz3ep5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Road to the promised land.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros. Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://forward.com/culture/film-tv/308575/what-if-mad-max-were-jewish/">What if Mad Max were Jewish?</a> So asks Neil Pollack in American Jewish magazine The Forward. Certainly, on the surface, there is probably nothing more obviously gentile than a film set in post-apocalyptic Australia, featuring a series of war-mongers in souped-up cars, jeeps, trucks, rigs, motorbikes and so on, and in which no one ever seems to eat. </p>
<p>The endless deserts and salt flats evoke no land overflowing with milk and honey. But probe a little deeper and a subsurface Jewish ethos can be found in Mad Max: Fury Road.</p>
<p>First, there is the name of our protagonist, Max Rockatansky. Both his given and family names suggest an eastern or central European Jewish heritage.</p>
<p>Second, Max is a nomad. A survivor. Homeless, he evokes the Wandering Jew.</p>
<p>Third, and most significantly, as Nick Pinkerton points out in <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/max-max-fury-road">Sight & Sound</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Miller is making an epic, and has chosen his visual references accordingly: Joe’s ‘Citadel’ reproduces the high and low strata of Lang’s Metropolis (1927), while the flight across the desert, replete with a sandstorm whipped up by a freak cyclone, evokes the Old Testament shock and awe that evaded Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Exodus</h2>
<p>Max is initially imprisoned in the Citadel run by a warlord name Joe who has constructed a cult of personality around himself that reveres him as a godlike saviour. Meanwhile he has enslaved the local inhabitants by restricting their access to water. Just like any dictator, or Pharaoh, he also has a personal harem. </p>
<p>While incarcerated, Max’s back is tattooed in a manner reminiscent of the Jewish author Franz Kafka’s bodily-inscription-as-execution as recounted in his short story <a href="http://www.kafka-online.info/in-the-penal-colony.html">In the Penal Colony</a>. Of course, the tattoo also suggests the numbers on the arms of Holocaust survivors.</p>
<p>Like Moses, Max is a reluctant hero. Also similar to Moses, he is a man of few words. In Exodus 4:10, Moses initially resists being God’s messenger, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Please, O Lord, I have never been a man of words … I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Max is haunted by visions of a child just as Moses (Christian Bale) is in Exodus: Gods and Kings. But Max does not encounter a burning bush so much as burning gasoline and flame throwers.</p>
<p>Max escapes from captivity when warlord Joe seeks to recapture his harem whom Furiosa (Charlize Theron) has smuggled out of the Citadel. In this, Furiosa resembles other Jewish heroines, principally <a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/esther-bible">Queen Esther</a> who intervenes to save her people from potential genocide. Furiosa can also be seen as a combination of <a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jael-bible">Yael</a> from the Book of Judges who kills the general Sisera with a mallet and tent peg, or <a href="http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/judith-a-remarkable-heroine/">Judith</a> who decapitates another general, Holofernes. </p>
<p>Joe sends his post-apocalyptic equivalent of Pharaoh’s chariots to recover his harem and to bring back Furiosa. Although the women eventually find freedom, Max leads them back to the “promised land”, that is, an unguarded Citadel which, if they can make it back alive, is theirs for the taking. When they do, images of the heroic Max among the starving and thirsty slaves evoke those of the biblical Exodus.</p>
<h2>Ghosts of the Holocaust</h2>
<p>Mad Max was shot in the Namib Desert of south-west Africa. This is also where the footage for the front projection in the The Dawn of Man sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was filmed. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this sequence also has biblical resonances, invoking the Garden of Eden and the story of Cain and Abel.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U2iiPpcwfCA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>This Namibian landscape also bears the traces of the Holocaust. Under German colonial administration it is where Germany <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/namibia-germanys-african-holocaust/5403852">rehearsed</a> for what would turn out to be the Final Solution, carrying out a genocide on the native populations. And if Mad Max resembles Metropolis, then this too invokes the Holocaust – for in that film one can see the harbingers of Nazism.</p>
<p>So perhaps it is not such a stretch to imagine that Mad Max is Jewish after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Abrams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Furiosa’s revenge to Max’s exodus, there are shades of Judaism in this desert epic.Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/403862015-04-21T04:49:38Z2015-04-21T04:49:38ZStar Wars offers enduring themes that appeal to our deepest selves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78688/original/image-20150421-12015-16hdqv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A second teaser for The Force Awakens has been released – a gift for the truly devoted.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>“No. I am your father.” The shocking words of Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker, as Luke clings for life at the end of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080684/">The Empire Strikes Back</a> (1980), made an enduring impression on more than one generation of fans. </p>
<p>That same Star Wars effect, remarkably, continues 35 years on, albeit with some dispute over the franchise’s legacy. These high emotions come to the surface when new teasers are released to whet audience expectations about the release of new features.</p>
<p>Now it is the turn of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496/">The Force Awakens</a>, which is due for release at the end of this year. A second teaser was released last week to much excitement. The film is seventh in the Star Wars series, which began in 1977 with Star Wars: A New Hope, followed by The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086190/">Return of the Jedi</a> in 1983. </p>
<p>Director George Lucas returned to the franchise in 1999 with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120915/">The Phantom Menace</a>, a prequel to the original films, followed by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121765/">Attack of the Clones</a> (2002) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121766/">Revenge of the Sith</a> (2005). </p>
<p>Those recent additions to the Star Wars canon received mixed responses and expectations are high for a return to form with The Force Awakens, now under the ownership of Disney. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ngElkyQ6Rhs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Teaser for The Force Awakens.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A new mythology for a new age</h2>
<p>I was born after Darth Vader broke the bad news to Luke but was captivated with the films from a young age. It is interesting to see this same captivation seize the imaginations of children today and re-live the entry into a world that I had lived with such excitement and wonder. </p>
<p>The lightsabers and guns, the heroes and villains, the Empire and Rebellion, the light and the dark, the adventures and adversities, all make for a rich, imaginative world of which one can become part.</p>
<p>When <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/">Star Wars</a> was released in 1977, all those factors, as well as the powerful special effects, cinematography, soundtrack and production, provided the foundations of a new mythology in the premiere medium of the day, cinema. </p>
<p>George Lucas’ stated aim was to create a mythology that could provide moral guidance within the context of renewed sense of spirituality and transcendence. </p>
<p>Lucas was concerned this mythology was lacking both in cinema (following the decline of the Western) and in a post-60s social context. In a 1999 interview with Time magazine, he <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,23298,00.html">reflected</a> on these mythic qualities:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I see Star Wars as taking all the issues that religion represents and trying to distill them down into a more modern and easily accessible construct […] I put the Force into the movie in order to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people – more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vP_1T4ilm8M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Star Wars.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This, in large part, helps to explain the enduring quality of Star Wars: it sought to take us deep into the mystery of life and existence through an imaginative and engaging story. </p>
<p>Star Wars purposefully engaged with the full potential of storytelling in film to address a social and cinematic gap. As the enduring popularity of science fiction and fantasy films shows, there is a yearning and need for big stories to be told that deal with universal themes – good, evil, love, friendships, violence and the transcendent. </p>
<p>This trend stands in contrast to the relativist and postmodern tendencies of the age. </p>
<h2>The story goes deeper</h2>
<p>Star Wars has powerful themes, within a well-constructed galaxy and adventure narrative that appeals to the times. </p>
<p>The story centres on the battle between the evil Empire and virtuous Rebellion, which appeals for its action as well as the injustice that is being fought. But the narrative moves beyond a conventional political and military fight to deeper considerations of character, friendship, technology, transcendence and redemption. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78670/original/image-20150421-25679-azkda3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78670/original/image-20150421-25679-azkda3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78670/original/image-20150421-25679-azkda3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78670/original/image-20150421-25679-azkda3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78670/original/image-20150421-25679-azkda3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78670/original/image-20150421-25679-azkda3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78670/original/image-20150421-25679-azkda3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78670/original/image-20150421-25679-azkda3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stormtrooper figurines on display in an exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Juan Herrero</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A viewer can enjoy the story on two levels, then: as an action-adventure of good versus evil, or as a reflection on the deepest human themes. Literary-critic and philosopher <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/girard/">René Girard</a> argues that the most enduring stories function on these two levels by simultaneously appealing to different audiences, with the deeper level effectively subverting and deepening the most superficial level over time. </p>
<p>In his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Gospel-according-Star-Wars/dp/066423142X">The Gospel According to Star Wars</a> (2007), John McDowell argues that over the course of the films, Star Wars problematises and/ or deepens some of its seemingly more simplistic starting points, such as the power of redemptive violence and the binary of good and evil. </p>
<h2>The fall and redemption of the ‘Chosen One’</h2>
<p>This movement is shown in the primary story-line of Star Wars – the fall and redemption of Darth Vader/ Anakin Skywalker. Vader began as the archetype of the evil villain, following Star Wars: A New Hope. </p>
<p>Yet, as the series progressed, it became clearer that Vader was a complex character. In fact, he is the “Chosen One” who is meant to provide balance to the Force.</p>
<p>Here we see clear allusions to a saviour figure, even to Jesus Christ. </p>
<p>But the story that unfurls is an inversion of the Christian Gospel: the Chosen One does not save others but falls into the depths of evil, power and anger by following a false model (The Emperor) who in a sense personifies evil (“Satan”). Vader thinks he can restore order to the galaxy – as he says to Luke after revealing his identity – but his evil is ultimately destructive of others and himself.</p>
<p>In a parallel way to humanity in the Christian story, Vader falls and cannot find his way out of the dark side – “You don’t know the <em>power</em> of the dark side! I <em>must</em> obey my Master”, he says to Luke. Yet, Vader is eventually redeemed, though not through his own power or by his manipulation of the Force, but through his son, Luke Skywalker. In the same moment, the Force is purified of evil. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pjSZ4Pxbz5M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Darth Vader delivers the Emperor’s comeuppance.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the Force, we can read “transcendence” in general - that which goes beyond the material world - and more specifically, “God”. (“May the Force be with you” parallels the Christian greeting of “May the Lord be with you”.) It will be interesting to see how the new film deals with this legacy. In the most recent three outings we were introduced to the genetic-sounding Midi-chlorians – intelligent microscopic life-forms that allow their hosts to detect the Force.</p>
<p>The Force itself is too abstract and impersonal to equate with the biblical God and is more readily identifiable with concepts in Eastern religions (Lucas came to describe himself as a “Buddhist Methodist” ). </p>
<p>Over the course of the films, the Force is purified away from violence, power, anger, fear, aggression and toward love, forgiveness and friendship. </p>
<p>This purification occurs because Luke has a personal faith in Vader’s “real self” – his goodness despite his evil persona – that provides the impetus for Vader’s conversion and redemption. </p>
<p>While Star Wars emphasises moral responsibility by choosing between good and evil, Luke’s faith goes beyond categorising people by their choices to something deeper – something that can only be seen in the light of love and forgiveness. </p>
<p>Luke holds onto this madness and folly – as St Paul called Christian faith in the love of the Crucified Christ – even to the point of risking his life to spare Vader, and is eventually vindicated. It is Vader’s conversion prompted by Luke’s faith and impending death that leads to Vader’s rejection of evil (throwing the Emperor away to save Luke) and to the breakdown of the Empire’s efforts in battle. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78672/original/image-20150421-25701-12x86ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78672/original/image-20150421-25701-12x86ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78672/original/image-20150421-25701-12x86ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78672/original/image-20150421-25701-12x86ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78672/original/image-20150421-25701-12x86ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78672/original/image-20150421-25701-12x86ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78672/original/image-20150421-25701-12x86ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78672/original/image-20150421-25701-12x86ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Darth Vader rises.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">tzotzil</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vader’s journey, then, moves beyond the good-evil binary – not by goodness violently suppressing evil, but a person realising his true self in converting from evil into goodness (which has a distinctively biblical resonance).</p>
<p>Similarly, Luke himself undergoes a conversion – away from the violent, swashbuckling hero to the monk-like Jedi Knight who gives up on violence and anger. At the climatic end of Return of the Jedi, Luke refuses his chance to kill Vader – and indeed tries to save him – aware that by using violence he risks becoming a half-human enslaved to a false master, who promises liberation through anger and hate. </p>
<p>Redemptive violence and heroism are set aside for a spiritual path of non-violent love (heavily influenced in Lucas’ thought by Buddhism and Christianity). Crucially, the story here turns from Luke becoming a violent victor to a loving victim who is willing to give his life rather than take another’s life. In suffering and confronting evil with love, evil can be transformed, resisted and overcome.</p>
<h2>Heeding the call into mystery …</h2>
<p>The important and enduring themes in Star Wars appeal to our deepest selves and sense of goodness and transcendence. </p>
<p>Beyond the action, it is the mystery of the spirit that endures, which is what makes Star Wars itself enduring. But the Star Wars story is just that: a story. It is not a complete picture of human life, but is a way of pointing us to contemplate and live life more authentically. </p>
<p>To become fixated on the story alone or to use it for a particular agenda – such as by trying to create a Jedi religion and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9737886/Jedi-religion-most-popular-alternative-faith.html">have that included in census data </a> or claim ownership of the franchise’s direction/ meaning – is to ignore the message of Star Wars itself. </p>
<p>And that is, to go beyond ourselves, and the binaries and limits of our own secular time and compromised identities, to contemplate the mystery of life and become our true selves in the loving fellowship and transcendence of the Force.</p>
<p><br>
<em>This article is part of The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/religion-mythology">Religion + Mythology</a> series</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Hodge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Star Wars is not a complete picture of human life, but is a way of pointing us to contemplate and live life more authentically.Joel Hodge, Lecturer in Theology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/371032015-02-18T10:58:30Z2015-02-18T10:58:30Z100 years ago, the first White House film screening sparked nationwide protests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72164/original/image-20150216-18463-1hs0ru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A still shot from DW Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2015/02/the_birth_of_a_nation_still.jpg">The Hollywood Reporter</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last month President Obama <a href="http://time.com/3672767/president-obama-selma-mlk-common-oprah-oyelowo-duvernay/">welcomed the film Selma into the White House</a> – a first-family showing that, as it happens, occurred a century after the first-ever screening of a movie inside the White House.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72148/original/image-20150216-18489-7m9s0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72148/original/image-20150216-18489-7m9s0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72148/original/image-20150216-18489-7m9s0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72148/original/image-20150216-18489-7m9s0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72148/original/image-20150216-18489-7m9s0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72148/original/image-20150216-18489-7m9s0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72148/original/image-20150216-18489-7m9s0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In February 1915, President Woodrow Wilson held showing of a film at the White House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Woodrow_Wilson_1902_cph.3b11773.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For on February 18 1915 a very different president, Woodrow Wilson, showcased what was then a revolutionary form of entertainment: the feature film. Wilson, his daughter Margaret and select guests gathered in the East Room to view director DW Griffith’s just completed masterpiece, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004972/">The Birth of a Nation</a>.</p>
<p>But where Selma’s White House screening was a crowning moment for a film that has generally garnered <a href="http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/selma-review/">rave reviews</a> from black film critics, the response in the black community to the overtly-racist The Birth of a Nation was overwhelmingly negative. The controversy came to a head in Boston, where a largely-forgotten Civil Rights activist led mass protests in an effort to ban the film. </p>
<h2>Audiences blown away by innovative film</h2>
<p>The president had agreed to host a movie night as a favor to the writer Thomas Dixon, an old college buddy, a fellow Southerner – and an unapologetic racist. Dixon’s bestselling novel The Clansman was the basis for filmmaker DW Griffith’s three-hour dramatization of the Civil War and Reconstruction, which depicted Ku Klux Klan members as heroes and martyrs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72146/original/image-20150216-18458-mg8bvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72146/original/image-20150216-18458-mg8bvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72146/original/image-20150216-18458-mg8bvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72146/original/image-20150216-18458-mg8bvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72146/original/image-20150216-18458-mg8bvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72146/original/image-20150216-18458-mg8bvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72146/original/image-20150216-18458-mg8bvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72146/original/image-20150216-18458-mg8bvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Birth of a Nation was based on Southern writer Thomas Dixon’s novel The Clansman, which portrayed the KKK in a heroic light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mormonitemusings.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/the-clansman-1905-title-page.jpg">Mormonite Musings</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Griffith later bragged to a reporter from the New York American that “The Birth of a Nation received very high praise from high quarters in Washington.” Coy about presidential name-dropping, he continued, “I was gratified when a man we all revere, or ought to, said it teaches history by lightning.”</p>
<p>Wilson had <a href="http://www.bu.edu/professorvoices/2013/03/04/the-long-forgotten-racial-attitudes-and-policies-of-woodrow-wilson/">loved the film</a>. So did most of the viewing public. </p>
<p>Audiences were swept away by Griffith’s storytelling prowess, in awe of his recreation of Civil War battles and his innovative film techniques – scenes shot from multiple angles, the close-up and the fade-out, to name a few. Viewers wept, cheered and jumped to their feet at different moments in the epic story. Heaping praise, one Atlanta Constitution critic later gushed, “Ancient Greece had her Homer, modern America has her David W. Griffith.” </p>
<p>To most Americans, the production was flawless. But there was a major fault: the film’s bigotry. Griffith portrayed blacks as heathens and sexual predators, undeserving of emancipation and unfit to exercise newly gained voting rights – in short, as a danger to American values. Meanwhile, the KKK was portrayed as a healing force, riding to the rescue to restore order amidst the chaos and lawlessness of Reconstruction.</p>
<h2>Trotter and NAACP respond to film’s racism</h2>
<p>The movie triggered mass protests across the nation, a rolling thunder that rumbled loudest in Boston. Leading the charge was a now largely forgotten civil rights leader and newspaper editor named William Monroe Trotter, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard whose father had fought for the Union as an officer in an all-black regiment from Boston.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72149/original/image-20150216-18456-1kqmz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72149/original/image-20150216-18456-1kqmz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72149/original/image-20150216-18456-1kqmz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72149/original/image-20150216-18456-1kqmz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72149/original/image-20150216-18456-1kqmz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72149/original/image-20150216-18456-1kqmz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72149/original/image-20150216-18456-1kqmz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil Rights activist William Monroe Trotter appealed to Boston mayor James Michael Curley to block the film.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/WMTrotter1915.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During a hearing early that April at Boston’s City Hall before Mayor James Michael Curley, Trotter argued that Griffith’s film was pure racist propaganda. In a bid to convince Curley – who also acted as the city’s Culture Czar – to banish the film (as he had controversial stage plays), Trotter claimed Griffith’s bigoted take on blacks was designed “to rouse the passions of white men to a hostile, retaliatory, even murderous feeling toward Colored men.”</p>
<p>Though censorship in America is almost unheard of today, in the context of the time, Trotter and other black leaders from Boston’s branch of the fledgling NAACP had every reason to think Curley would ban Griffith’s work. For one thing, no less a body than the US Supreme Court had ruled film did not warrant the First Amendment’s protection for free speech and expression. The previous month, in <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=236&invol=230">Ohio v. Mutual Film</a>, the court unanimously decided that movies were not art but a business – and thus subject to government regulation. </p>
<p>Yet the Boston mayor refused to budge, allowing the film’s showing to proceed. “You have introduced no evidence that I could use in stopping at least one performance,” <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Birth-Nation-Legendary-Filmmaker/dp/1586489879">Curley told Trotter and other anti-film militants</a>.</p>
<p>In response, a defiant Trotter drummed up a call to action, leading protests that played out throughout the spring on 1915 in every venue imaginable: city hall, the courts, the state legislature, the streets. Foreshadowing the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the organized demonstrations featured several thousand marchers. During one protest outside the movie theater, Trotter and others were arrested by Boston police and hauled away. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72152/original/image-20150216-18482-vug3cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/72152/original/image-20150216-18482-vug3cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72152/original/image-20150216-18482-vug3cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72152/original/image-20150216-18482-vug3cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72152/original/image-20150216-18482-vug3cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72152/original/image-20150216-18482-vug3cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/72152/original/image-20150216-18482-vug3cc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boston’s populist mayor James Michael Curley resisted the attempts of black activists to ban the racist film.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/curleythumb.jpg">New England Historical Society</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Trotter certainly knew that calling attention to the film had the unintended consequence of fueling public interest and ticket sales. But he also knew that to not speak out – to swallow the film’s racism – would be worse. It was as if he understood the new medium’s potential power to shape public opinion – that he might circulate a year’s worth of newspapers and still not reach the numbers of people filling movie houses around the country. The writer Dixon was one who surely understood the potency of “moving pictures.” In a letter that spring to President Wilson, he riffed on harnessing that power for electoral politics. </p>
<p>“The next political campaign may witness a revolution in political method,” he wrote. Old media – meaning newspapers – were old hat, he said. “We have launched a cyclone before whose beast the press is a zephyr.”</p>
<h2>Trotter’s legacy</h2>
<p>The protest story of 1915 became equal to the film’s prominence, so that one cannot consider the debut of Griffith’s film at the White House without taking on the other. Trotter’s militant refusal to accept a film – regardless of its artistic value to the medium – indicated his awareness of the damage it could cause. The film was ultimately part of <a href="http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/brute/">a long line of post-Civil War literature</a> that sought to reshape the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction – and return blacks to a position of inferiority.</p>
<p>While today The Birth of a Nation is considered a virulent brand of hate speech, the stereotypes of blacks embedded in the film – their depiction as lawless brutes and a danger to American values – continue to haunt public discourse about race in America. Whether it’s the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri or the police killing of Eric Garner in New York City, <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/matthew-vadum/michael-brown-a-criminal-and-a-thug/">many continue to frame racially charged tragedies in similar terms</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Trotter’s concerns were not just rooted in 1915 America, but echoed throughout the century – and into this one. Trotter, scholar and journalist Lerone Bennett Jr. <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HNoDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">later wrote</a>, “was a true pioneer, decades ahead of his time.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dick Lehr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Last month President Obama welcomed the film Selma into the White House – a first-family showing that, as it happens, occurred a century after the first-ever screening of a movie inside the White House…Dick Lehr, Professor of Journalism, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/352422014-12-18T18:35:56Z2014-12-18T18:35:56ZRebooting the history of the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67698/original/image-20141218-31034-i9un8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston's Moses is presented straightforwardly as a man certain of his mission.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlton_Heston_in_The_Ten_Commandments_film_trailer.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The term “reboot” means something particular in the movies. The metaphor is drawn from computers: a “reboot” restarts a machine whose software has malfunctioned. But in cinematic terms a reboot refers to a particular sort of revision of familiar properties. Characters who have grown tired and typical and situations that have become predictable and self-referential are reimagined in a bolder, more believable style. </p>
<p>Recent examples include 2005’s Batman Begins and Casino Royale, released the following year.</p>
<p>Ridley Scott’s new film Exodus: Gods and Kings is another. In this case, Scott makes Cecil B. DeMille’s Technicolor spectacle The Ten Commandments, released in 1956, grittier and more plausible. To audiences today, the acting in DeMille’s epic seems bombastic, while the special effects appear naïve and literal. The hero Moses (Charleton Heston) is presented as a man facing straightforward choices between right and wrong, who never doubted his mission.</p>
<p><a href="http://youtu.be/OqCTq3EeDcY">With arms spread wide</a>, Heston’s Moses orders the Red Sea to part before him. “The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us!” he cries. “Behold His mighty hand!”</p>
<p>The film was not exactly subtle.</p>
<p>In contrast, Scott’s revision contains more ambiguity. Moses (Christian Bale) is caught by surprise as much as anyone when the waves begin to pull back from the rocky shores of the Red Sea. Here, the parting acknowledges present day <a href="http://www.newsleader.com/story/life/2014/12/13/scientific-explanation-behind-parting-red-sea/20288229/">speculations</a> that unusual tidal, meteorological, or seismic circumstances could have created a temporary land bridge across a shallow section of sea.</p>
<p>Indeed, removing magic from the miraculous is Scott’s rebooting strategy. Unlike DeMille, who used special effects to show magical violations of natural laws, like the parting of the seas, Scott marshals his extensive digital manipulations mostly to increase the scale of natural events. Miraculous here means huge and spectacular, not supernatural; the ten plagues are rendered as ecological and climatological disasters, not demonstrations of Moses’s direct power over nature. </p>
<p>But in making Exodus more natural and Moses more believable, Scott’s reboot raises interesting theological questions. How does this strange and violent story fit into our own moral universe? </p>
<p>In The Ten Commandments, this wasn’t a problem. Despite its biblical trappings, DeMille’s movie was not asking questions of faith. Its “message” was political – a distinctly mid-twentieth-century American version of politics at the height of the Cold War. The conflict between Moses and Yul Brynner’s Rameses was “the story of the birth of freedom,” DeMille informs us in a <a href="http://youtu.be/o8iNvzzak5U">prologue</a>.</p>
<p>His film poses the question: “Are men the property of the state, or are they free souls under God?”</p>
<p>Exodus <em>is</em> a story of political freedom, of course, which is why it has inspired so many people who have struggled against oppression. But it is also a story of God destroying an entire society. In DeMille’s version of Exodus, these two aspects are in harmony. God and Moses visit the plagues on Egypt because that is the only way to free the Israelites from bondage.</p>
<p>In Scott’s movie, on the other hand, Moses is first shown organizing the Israelites into a resistance movement. But God grows impatient with this strategy, and tells Moses to stand aside while He batters the Egyptians with frogs, flies, blood, boils, etc. – before eventually killing the eldest child in every Egyptian family.</p>
<p>Moses himself refuses to take responsibility for this cruelty, questioning God and telling Ramses (Joel Edgerton) that these events are out of his control. Here, God’s intervention in history is shown as an alternative to political organization. </p>
<p>In The Ten Commandments, the end – political freedom – was shown to justify the means (divine plagues). In Exodus: Gods and Kings, the plagues are so spectacular and the Egyptian suffering so real that we must wonder, along with Moses, whether such means – in particular the killing of innocent children – could ever be justified. Like the tidal wave on the movie poster, this God is naturally powerful but morally inscrutable.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67695/original/image-20141218-31018-pmrwxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ridley Scott’s God is naturally powerful but morally inscrutable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://api.comingsoon.net//images//2014/Exodus:_Gods_and_Kings_16.jpg">comingsoon.net</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scott’s movie is dedicated to his brother and professional partner, the director Tony Scott, who committed suicide in August of 2012. No doubt the incomprehensibility of such a desperate act informs Scott’s depiction of God as ethically baffling.</p>
<p>But beyond this personal motivation, Scott’s movie captures something real about religion in the contemporary world. God seems to reveal Himself most clearly in catastrophic “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God">acts of God</a>” that interrupt human purposes. The Greek word for this kind of “revelation,” where God and the world are absolutely opposed, is “apocalypse.”</p>
<p>Scott has given us a Moses for our times – a Moses whose God is not a comprehensible law giver and emancipator but an incomprehensible judge and destroyer. Call it the ultimate reboot, a reboot of all creation. </p>
<p>Apocalypse: Gods and Kings – that’s the real title of Ridley Scott’s new film.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James McFarland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The term “reboot” means something particular in the movies. The metaphor is drawn from computers: a “reboot” restarts a machine whose software has malfunctioned. But in cinematic terms a reboot refers…James McFarland, Assistant Professor of German, Cinema and Media Arts, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/339222014-11-24T09:56:48Z2014-11-24T09:56:48ZEvent cinema could save the movie theater<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65223/original/image-20141121-1037-u9tayv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Movie theaters have seen declining box office revenues over the past two years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rodgers_Theatre,_204-224_N._Broadway_Street,_Poplar_Bluff,_Mo,_USA.jpg">Michael Gabler/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If Dumber and Dumber To, Interstellar and Big Hero 6 didn’t get you to the movies last week, you weren’t alone: just before Thanksgiving, Box Office Mojo put year-to-date gross receipts at almost <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/">$9 billion</a>. </p>
<p>This substantial sum is actually not–so-good news for the movie business, since it represents a decline of almost 4% compared to 2013 – which also saw a box office sales decrease from 2012.</p>
<p>Is the future of public movie going in jeopardy? What might be its salvation?</p>
<p>Almost every Main Street had a cinema until mall-based, multi-screen cineplexes forced many local marquees to go dark. Then home video and cable television came along. Theater owners responded by investing in bigger screens and better projection and versioning (2D, 3D, 70mm and IMAX), which kept the box office booming through 2012.</p>
<p>But now the movie theater business has approached what appears to be a tipping point, where annual box office increases are no longer guaranteed. Affordable home entertainment systems, handheld devices with brilliant displays, and on-demand access to almost any movie ever made – many of them free – pose escalating challenges for theater owners.</p>
<p>Movie theaters still have an appeal. One is better technology. A pristine 35mm print of “Interstellar” or an IMAX 3D Experience of “Big Hero 6” cannot be delivered anywhere except on a big screen. Another is novelty. Many theaters have dressed up their operation, offering full food and drink service in lieu of sticky sodas and buttery popcorn. Watching Dumb and Dumber To inside Showcase Cinemas’ <a href="http://www.showcasecinemas.com/dining/superlux-inseat-dining">Lux Level</a> while eating “succulent steaks” and choosing from a “world-class wine list” might be a tempting experience for adults. </p>
<p>But novelties wear off, and audiences need additional incentives before spending their entertainment dollars. After all, why go to the movies when the same shows can be enjoyed – privately and much more conveniently – for less?</p>
<p>Enter The Vatican – featuring Popes Francis and Benedict XVI – and something called “event cinema.” Its arrival happened not a moment too soon for theater owners in need of new content to attract general audiences. </p>
<p>Last April, in Rome, two of the most iconic Popes in history, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, were jointly canonized. These dual ceremonies are widely considered to be among the highest-profile public events in Vatican history. To mark the historic occasion, the Vatican embarked on a mission to create a landmark movie and television event as part of the Vatican’s new technological initiative. Sister Susan Wolf, a Digital Media Consultant for Religious Services in the US, explained the initiative on <a href="http://www.catholicwebsolutions.com/2013/11/12/the-vaticans-social-media-intiatives-insights-and-reflections/">catholicwebsolutions.com</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is very important for those of us in ministry to learn and adapt to this new digital world, realizing that digital technology is not just a means to an end, but it is creating a new environment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For the first time an official papal ceremony could be experienced in theaters worldwide in an immersive, 3D environment. 33 cameras were deployed: 13 in 3D, 15 in High-Definition and five in the UltraHD 4K format.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65229/original/image-20141121-1055-rb3xkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">April’s canonization of Pope John Paul II and John XXIII was a landmark moment for event cinema.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canonization_2014-_The_Canonization_of_Saint_John_XXIII_and_Saint_John_Paul_II_(14036819834).jpg">Jeffrey Bruno/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of the approximately 500 theaters showcasing the event, Italy led with more than 120, closely followed by the Unites States, where more than 100 opted in. Latin America followed with 29. The canonization was shown exclusively in 3D in Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Croatia and the UK. Half of the theaters in Italy offered 3D showings, while none of the American did. There was no admission charge and attendance <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/05/prweb11825706.htm">exceeded</a> owners’ expectations in the United States. </p>
<p>The screening of the canonization was so successful that it has already spawned a theatrical release and a sequel.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Sony, which broadcast last summer’s World Cup in 4K in select theaters across England, announced it is installing upgraded 3D and 4K systems in 400 theaters across the UK, with other countries soon to follow.</p>
<p>According to a knowledgeable industry source, at least one Major League Baseball franchise tested 4K transmission of a simulated game in a ballpark setting this fall, launching speculation that the team may begin offering games in UltraHD in theatrical settings. Not only could this attract a global fan base and create new revenue streams, but theater lobbies worldwide – which currently contain little more than ticket takers and concession stands – could also morph into sports bars and betting parlors. Depending on what’s playing, paying audiences will no longer have to be so courteous and quiet during the show.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, an HD broadcast of the current Broadway smash hit Of Mice and Men, starring James Franco, was beamed to 900 theaters across the U.S. and Canada, the first time the esteemed “National Theater Live” series chose an American play for its popular theatrical distribution. The ticket price? $20, or about one-sixth of its live-show equivalent.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65228/original/image-20141121-1061-6xxv82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Broadway fans have been able to see Of Mice and Men, starring James Franco, streamed in HD at movie theaters across the country – for one-sixth of the price of seeing the play in person.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://variety.com/2014/legit/news/broadways-of-mice-and-men-with-james-franco-hits-movie-theaters-in-november-1201303845/">Variety</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the Associated Press <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1bf707fd3a5946b5952ec1f460facf05/james-franco-helps-event-cinema-come-age">recently reported</a>, the landmark broadcast comes at a time when so-called event cinema has exploded: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When once there was just the Metropolitan Opera at the movie theater, now there’s the Bolshoi Ballet, concerts from One Direction and a steady stream of English plays. Other brands jumping in include The Royal Ballet, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Monty Python and the Big Apple Circus. Movie patrons can even enjoy museum exhibitions, like one on Pompeii from the British Museum.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Content is King,” goes the time-honored Hollywood adage. And American theater owners are wisely moving beyond Hollywood royalty by including singers, Broadway stars, world-renowned athletes – and even saints – in their repertoire, hoping that event cinema may ultimately be their theaters’ salvation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Bogosian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If Dumber and Dumber To, Interstellar and Big Hero 6 didn’t get you to the movies last week, you weren’t alone: just before Thanksgiving, Box Office Mojo put year-to-date gross receipts at almost $9 billion…Ted Bogosian, Instructor and Visiting Filmmaker, Duke UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/306582014-09-24T20:30:07Z2014-09-24T20:30:07ZExplainer: film lighting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58999/original/tnjnts8d-1410758097.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Light levels in film have markedly declined from 1935.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mirjaleed Biteng</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lighting is a fundamental property of cinema. So called “<a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=aPU384tJCHAC&dq">writing in light</a>”, photographed images, whether live-action or cell animation, need illumination. It is the most essential part of a cinematographer’s job to design and implement that illumination – in England and Australia the term “lighting cameraman” is equivalent to “director of photography”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Films are light. – Federico Fellini</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But if lighting is an eternal, omnipresent concern, then techniques, uses, and styles of lighting have varied enormously over time.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58988/original/35mvcnrd-1410754946.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58988/original/35mvcnrd-1410754946.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58988/original/35mvcnrd-1410754946.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58988/original/35mvcnrd-1410754946.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58988/original/35mvcnrd-1410754946.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58988/original/35mvcnrd-1410754946.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58988/original/35mvcnrd-1410754946.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58988/original/35mvcnrd-1410754946.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Federico Fellini’s 1960 film La Dolce Vita showing Marcello Mastroianni kissing Anita Ekberg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Blue Box Toys/ HO </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Figure lighting</h2>
<p>In cinema’s beginnings, lighting was almost entirely natural, filming largely executed in glass studios (one reason American companies moved to California was its brighter, year-round sunlight). </p>
<p>By the mid-1910s, however, lighting was mostly artificial, with cinematographers turning to mercury vapour tubes for overall, soft illumination, and carbon-arc spotlights for dramatic effects. </p>
<p>By the 1920s, most of the basic dramatic techniques and functions of lighting used today were acknowledged in craft discourses. In 1931, cinematographer James Wong Howe <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14902-0/hollywood-lighting-from-the-silent-era-to-film-noir">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With the early films, lighting merely meant getting enough light upon the actors to permit photography; today it means laying a visual, emotional foundation upon which the director and his players must build.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57709/original/p3b22gj9-1409284851.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57709/original/p3b22gj9-1409284851.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57709/original/p3b22gj9-1409284851.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57709/original/p3b22gj9-1409284851.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57709/original/p3b22gj9-1409284851.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57709/original/p3b22gj9-1409284851.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57709/original/p3b22gj9-1409284851.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57709/original/p3b22gj9-1409284851.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Standard three-point lighting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Figure lighting is used to highlight and model the principal actors in a scene. The most common approach to this is “three-point lighting” (above): a “key light” that provides the main illumination; a “fill light” that fills in shadows on the performer’s face and background; and a backlight to separate the performer from the backdrop (less critical in colour filming).</p>
<p>Three-point lighting is such a prevalent convention in narrative cinema that it is virtually a rule. This will often be supplemented with an eye-light to heighten actors’ expressions. Another aspect of this is “glamour lighting”, designed to enhance the attractiveness of the leading, especially female, performers, and heavily influenced by portrait and fashion photography. </p>
<p>The high point of this technique arguably continues to be the lighting used on Marlene Dietrich in Josef Von Sternberg’s films, images so stylised that the story seems to come to a halt to contemplate the actress purely as an icon.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57712/original/s5qjg6x5-1409285603.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57712/original/s5qjg6x5-1409285603.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57712/original/s5qjg6x5-1409285603.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57712/original/s5qjg6x5-1409285603.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57712/original/s5qjg6x5-1409285603.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57712/original/s5qjg6x5-1409285603.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57712/original/s5qjg6x5-1409285603.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57712/original/s5qjg6x5-1409285603.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932), directed by Josef von Sternberg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Practical’ lighting</h2>
<p>Effects lighting indicates the use of lighting to create the illusion of light sources emanating from within the story-world. Chiefly, this involves “practical” lighting, made to seem as if emanating from a lamp or window visible in the shot. </p>
<p>Practical lighting is one way cinematographers can shape colour in a scene, using coloured gels over sources in the frame to bathe the entire scene in colour as in the use of the stained glass in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047811/">All That Heaven Allows</a> (1955), hyperbolising the angst of the mother-daughter dialogue, or to provide splashes of colour for atmosphere and visual density, as in the neon-soaked <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Blade Runner</a> (1982).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iYhJ7Mf2Oxs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Blade Runner.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If effects lighting is driven by verisimilitude, the use of practical sources is often motivated as much by dramatic concerns, and so may be more or less central depending on overall lighting aesthetics. </p>
<h2>High-key and low-key lighting</h2>
<p>Through the 1930s, comedies, musicals, and many dramas were dominated by high-key lighting – a high ratio of fill to key light. This was typically a form of low-contrast soft lighting (dominant in the 1920s and 30s), providing a diffuse, even brightness (below). </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pkgYjeFYQ2c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Thin Man (1934).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Horror films and particular scenes in crime films often made use of high-contrast low-key lighting, with a low ratio of fill to key. This was hard lighting (itself increasingly common from the 1940s), the frame dominated by deep, clearly defined shadows, suiting the dramatic moods of those films, and creating a sense of mystery and suspense through concealment (below).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57717/original/nnvmzx3y-1409287743.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57717/original/nnvmzx3y-1409287743.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57717/original/nnvmzx3y-1409287743.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57717/original/nnvmzx3y-1409287743.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57717/original/nnvmzx3y-1409287743.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57717/original/nnvmzx3y-1409287743.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57717/original/nnvmzx3y-1409287743.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57717/original/nnvmzx3y-1409287743.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the late 1940s, low-key lighting was pursued much more widely, seen to be an aspect of realism (in life, no-one is always evenly illuminated). But the technique is still particularly associated with the <em>film noir</em>, wherein it suggests not just a sense of dread, but also the duality of the characters and the world they inhabit, a pervasive moral darkness eating them from within and without.</p>
<p>Superseding attempts at realism that drove many cinematographers in the 1970s to aim for an illusion of muted, natural light, low-key lighting has been increasingly central from the 1980s across a range of genres (below). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57720/original/nrchjbz6-1409288612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57720/original/nrchjbz6-1409288612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57720/original/nrchjbz6-1409288612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57720/original/nrchjbz6-1409288612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57720/original/nrchjbz6-1409288612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57720/original/nrchjbz6-1409288612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57720/original/nrchjbz6-1409288612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57720/original/nrchjbz6-1409288612.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The West Wing (2003).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, <a href="http://people.psych.cornell.edu/%7Ejec7/pubs/dissolvesESA.pdf">a recent study</a> from Cornell University has found that light levels in film have markedly declined from 1935. This can be attributed realism, storytelling, and mood, but it also speaks to an under-acknowledged fact of lighting, its impact on actors. </p>
<p>Arc lights in early filmmaking caused “Klieg eyes” from the intensity of their ultraviolet radiation. With the development of more sensitive film stock, incandescent, tungsten, and halogen lamps largely eliminated this. </p>
<p>In the decades since, as film stock has become more and more sensitive, light levels on set have declined consistently to ease the physical burden on actors and allow them to concentrate on performance; as with glamour lighting, this is a way cinematography serves their interests. </p>
<p>With the rise of digital cinematography today, lighting can be more minimal than ever, while allowing filmmakers to achieve effects, as in night shooting, that will provide grist for exciting innovations for years to come.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>Correction: based on a study of film technology, this article initially stated that Klieg eyes were caused by carbon dust from arc lights. However, sources from the archives of the Journal of the American Medical Association clearly state that ultraviolet radiation was to blame.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30658/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Ramaeker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lighting is a fundamental property of cinema. So called “writing in light”, photographed images, whether live-action or cell animation, need illumination. It is the most essential part of a cinematographer’s…Paul Ramaeker, Lecturer in Film, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/270742014-06-25T20:26:15Z2014-06-25T20:26:15ZAre you monomythic? Joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52002/original/k7x7h8jp-1403584041.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The hero’s journey in three stages - separation, initiation, return - offers a narrative framework for understanding character progression.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pineapples101</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you tell someone a story, do you plan it out beforehand so that it’ll sound good? Do you carefully plot what you’ll say, in a specific order? Or does the story find a way of telling itself, the plot coming from within you – from an inherent understanding of story structure? </p>
<p>This is what American mythologist, anthropologist, writer and professor <a href="http://www.egs.edu/library/joseph-campbell/biography/">Joseph Campbell</a> (1904–1987) was interested in. Inspired as a child by Native American culture and artefacts, he spent his life comparing myths and religions from around the world in an attempt to understand humanity and its fascination with stories. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51997/original/pvwcwd8y-1403583087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51997/original/pvwcwd8y-1403583087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51997/original/pvwcwd8y-1403583087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51997/original/pvwcwd8y-1403583087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51997/original/pvwcwd8y-1403583087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51997/original/pvwcwd8y-1403583087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51997/original/pvwcwd8y-1403583087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51997/original/pvwcwd8y-1403583087.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joseph Campbell circa 1982.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This resulted in numerous publications, including the books <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/787565.The_Mythic_Image_Bollingen_Series">The Mythic Image</a> (1974), <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/588138.The_Hero_With_a_Thousand_Faces">The Hero with a Thousand Faces</a> (1949), and with journalist Bill Moyers, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35519.The_Power_of_Myth">The Power of Myth</a> (1988).</p>
<p>Throughout his writing, Campbell draws from a range of influential historical figures, including James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Pablo Picasso, Abraham Maslow, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. This combination of writers, artists and psychologists provides not only a rich source of inspiration for Campbell’s theories, but also strong responses to his work from a number of disciplines. </p>
<p>The most widely known application of Campbell’s work, particularly his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, is to the area of film.</p>
<h2>The Hero with a Thousand Faces</h2>
<p>In this book, Campbell studies many hundreds of fairy tales, folk tales and legends in order to unearth a common “pattern” in the structure of stories. Campbell defines this as the “monomyth” – the typical trajectory of a story, across all cultures and religions. This monomyth is known as the “hero’s journey”.</p>
<p>Comprising three stages – separation, initiation and return – the hero’s journey offers a narrative framework for understanding the progression of a character, namely the protagonist. The journey, Campbell argues, usually includes a symbolic death and re-birth of the character. The religious idea of “cleansing” is also important, giving a sense of the character transforming from old to new – the character arc. </p>
<p>Campbell summarises the monomythic character journey as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52030/original/csp7p868-1403587653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52030/original/csp7p868-1403587653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52030/original/csp7p868-1403587653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52030/original/csp7p868-1403587653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52030/original/csp7p868-1403587653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52030/original/csp7p868-1403587653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52030/original/csp7p868-1403587653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52030/original/csp7p868-1403587653.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within this overall structure, Campbell proposes 17 story stages:</p>
<ol>
<li> The Call to Adventure</li>
<li> Refusal of the Call</li>
<li> Supernatural Aid</li>
<li> Crossing the First Threshold </li>
<li> Belly of the Whale </li>
<li> The Road of Trials </li>
<li> Meeting with the Goddess/Love </li>
<li> Temptation </li>
<li> Atonement with the Hero’s Father</li>
<li>Peace and Fulfilment Before the Hero’s Return (Apotheosis)</li>
<li>The Ultimate Boon</li>
<li>Refusal of the Return </li>
<li>Magic Flight</li>
<li>Rescue from Without </li>
<li>Return</li>
<li>Master of Two Worlds </li>
<li>Freedom to Live</li>
</ol>
<p>The journey undertaken sees the character undergo both physical and emotional battles, which work together to bring them to a better understanding of their life and their place in the world. As such, the journey is full of duality – symbol and spirit; body and soul; manifest and myth; plot and story. In other words, as the character does (action), he or she becomes (character arc).</p>
<h2>Lucas and Campbell</h2>
<p>Hollywood filmmaker <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000184/">George Lucas</a> openly declared the influence that Campbell’s theories had on his work. As American philosopher John Shelton Lawrence wrote in his paper on <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Finding_the_Force_of_the_Star_Wars_Franc.html?id=PB57P_dOF7EC">Campbell, Lucas and the Monomyth</a> (2006):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In Joseph Campbell the evangelically inclined Lucas had found a kindred spirit, since the younger man also felt a mythic decline that left youth drifting without the moral anchor sensed in the heroic genre films of his own youth. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52004/original/sqtgpq8t-1403584276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52004/original/sqtgpq8t-1403584276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52004/original/sqtgpq8t-1403584276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52004/original/sqtgpq8t-1403584276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52004/original/sqtgpq8t-1403584276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52004/original/sqtgpq8t-1403584276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52004/original/sqtgpq8t-1403584276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52004/original/sqtgpq8t-1403584276.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">George Lucas with a Storm Trooper at the premiere of the film Star Wars - Return of the Sith in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Richard Lewis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Screenwriter <a href="http://www.keithcunningham.net/">Keith Cunningham</a> also talks about Campbell’s influence on Lucas’ work, noting more broadly that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The era of the blockbuster mentality was born, and a high-concept, high-stakes approach to story development was initiated. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cunningham’s comment is specifically about the development of the quest story – the hero’s journey being a very useful model for this type of structure.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52036/original/9str4y48-1403590179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52036/original/9str4y48-1403590179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52036/original/9str4y48-1403590179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52036/original/9str4y48-1403590179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52036/original/9str4y48-1403590179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52036/original/9str4y48-1403590179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52036/original/9str4y48-1403590179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52036/original/9str4y48-1403590179.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1983, Lucas invited Campbell to his Skywalker Ranch in California to share with him a viewing of the completed Star Wars trilogy. Here they discussed the mythical structure employed in the films’ narratives, which led to the creation of the PBS series, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296362/">The Power of Myth</a> (1988), filmed at Lucas’ ranch. </p>
<p>Campbell tells Moyers in the series that as humans we purposefully probe stories in order to extract meaning that will help us move forward in life. He says that we’re seeking myths (themes; meaning) within manifestations (films; stories). For Campbell, the remnants of mythology “line the walls of our interior systems of belief, like shards of broken pottery in an archaeological site”. </p>
<p>This series was eventually published as <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35519.The_Power_of_Myth">a book of the same name</a>, further connecting Campbell’s work with that of film.</p>
<h2>The Writer’s Journey</h2>
<p>Some years later, in the early 1990s, screenwriting author <a href="http://www.christophervogler.com/#!about-chris/c161y">Christopher Vogler</a> studied Campbell’s work at the University of Southern California. Vogler was already working in Hollywood, as a story analyst, and began to see strong connections between the monomythic hero’s journey and the piles of scripts and stories he was reading day in, day out. </p>
<p>Vogler decided to create a short summary document of how he saw Campbell’s work in relation to Hollywood. It was intended initially for just himself and his story analyst friends working in the studios – but the response was so overwhelming that he was encouraged to turn the summary into a more official guide. </p>
<p>What emerged was <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Journey-Structure-Edition/dp/193290736X">The Writer’s Journey</a> (2007), one of the most successful screenwriting books of all time and still extremely popular with today’s students, writers and industry professionals.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g_SuA8zEWAs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In the book, Vogler adapts Campbell’s 17-stage monomyth into a 12-stage model for mapping the hero’s journey in film. This translates as:</p>
<ol>
<li> Ordinary World<br></li>
<li> Call to Adventure<br></li>
<li> Refusal of the Call<br></li>
<li> Meeting with the Mentor<br></li>
<li> Crossing the First Threshold<br></li>
<li> Tests, Allies, Enemies<br></li>
<li> Approach to the Inmost Cave</li>
<li> Ordeal<br></li>
<li> Reward<br></li>
<li>The Road Back<br></li>
<li>Resurrection</li>
<li>Return with Elixir</li>
</ol>
<p>The success of The Writer’s Journey has certainly kept the work of Campbell alive. Vogler is honest about his inspiration from The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and like all scholarship his book became an extension of the original – a new way of applying prior research. </p>
<p>I followed this trajectory myself when I went back to Campbell’s work to help expand Vogler’s model, differentiating between the character’s physical journey and emotional journey. This became the basis for the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Movies-That-Move-Screenwriting-Protagonists/dp/0230278345">Movies That Move Us: Screenwriting and the Power of the Protagonist’s Journey</a> (2011).</p>
<p>Although Joseph Campbell died more than 25 years ago, he is still heralded as one of the great story theorists and his work is studied and applied in practice around the world. </p>
<p>So when you next tell a story and find yourself structuring it in a particular way, think about how and why you’re doing it. And if you haven’t read Campbell’s work, try it and see whether you think his ideas were on the mark. </p>
<p>See if it’s true or not that despite the story you’re telling, you’re always framing it in a monomythic way – as some kind of hero’s journey.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Batty does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When you tell someone a story, do you plan it out beforehand so that it’ll sound good? Do you carefully plot what you’ll say, in a specific order? Or does the story find a way of telling itself, the plot…Craig Batty, Creative Practice Research Leader & Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/275062014-06-23T17:47:38Z2014-06-23T17:47:38ZNorman McLaren: a late, great animator now drawing applause<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51255/original/2ndsnhsy-1402968532.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Norman McLaren working on Begone Dull Care, 1949.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Film Board of Canada</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Animation is all around us – from Pixar to manga to animated gifs. As with any creative field, it has its unsung heroes – the innovators who have shaped and defined the art form. </p>
<p>So it was a great delight to see one of those innovators, Scottish-born Canadian animator <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0572235/bio">Norman McLaren</a> (1914-1987), <a href="http://www.miaf.net/2014/mclaren.html">recognised</a> at the Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF) this month and the breadth of his influence across the globe acknowledged.</p>
<p>Animation is an exhausting business, particularly the way Norman McLaren did it … But some of the obvious problems with McLaren’s process were converted by him into defining assets. Let’s break down some of the innovative techniques McLaren developed which saw him extend the boundaries of creative animation.</p>
<p>To achieve the illusion of movement in animation, the image on each film frame has to be minutely different from its neighbours. The classic Disney animation technique was to photograph differing drawings onto the film stock, using mass-production lines to produce the zillions of required drawings thereby saving on labour, time, and money. </p>
<p>But in the 1930s, McLaren cut through all that – he drew directly onto the film stock, frame by frame. He didn’t need a camera and he could see how his film was going while he was making it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51266/original/y86pk3ck-1402970595.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51266/original/y86pk3ck-1402970595.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51266/original/y86pk3ck-1402970595.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51266/original/y86pk3ck-1402970595.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51266/original/y86pk3ck-1402970595.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51266/original/y86pk3ck-1402970595.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51266/original/y86pk3ck-1402970595.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51266/original/y86pk3ck-1402970595.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blinkity Blank, Norman McLaren, 1955.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Film Board of Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The film frame is tiny, a mere 16 or 35mm across, and drawing onto such a tiny area meant that the image could only be very simple. This marvellous simplicity and directness was literally magnified when viewed on the big screen. </p>
<p>Slight misregistrations from one image to the next are unavoidable and when the moving image is projected, it trembles. Rather than seeing this as a flaw, this so-called “boiling” gives the image energy, an enhanced liveliness.</p>
<p>McLaren’s hand-drawn method involved an immense amount of drawing. When run through the projector, 24 frames of film only lasted one second. One minute of film required 1,440 frames – and just five minutes needed a staggering 7,200 frames. </p>
<p>McLaren quickly found ingenious shortcuts. Take colour. McLaren drew in black in clear film and had colour added in the processing lab. If a negative was also made and processed in a different colour the overlay of the positive and negative gave two colours. </p>
<p>McLaren discovered when the lab made a botch up – if either the positive or negative was slightly mismatched when overlaid, the moving images acquired white or dark borders. The 1945 animation <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq8yqduOJOA">Hen Hop</a> (below) is a wonderful and colourful example of all this.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xq8yqduOJOA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Even with his labour-saving methods it could take McLaren more than a year of laborious drawing to make a short film. McLaren’s wears and tears ensured dramatic technical changes with almost every successive film. </p>
<p>Tired of the constant effort to keep his clear film free of dirt, dust and fingerprints (which would be hugely enlarged on the big screen), McLaren decided to draw or scratch on black film. Problem solved. But then he could no longer see where the frames’ boundaries were, making even approximate image registration chancy. </p>
<p>McLaren’s solution was to restrict his drawing to clusters of four or five successive frames leaving blank the stretches of a dozen to 20 frames between the clusters. The resulting film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBVWCs1KW4&feature=kp">Blinkity Blank</a> (1955) (below), is a stroboscopic explosion of delight.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vRBVWCs1KW4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In another solution to the problem of drawing frame by laborious frame, McLaren literally ignored the frame divisions – he painted, splashed and dabbed across whole lengths of film. By careful editing, McLaren co-ordinated the visual track to the soundtrack’s musical phrases achieving his wonderfully effervescent film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svD0CWVjYRY">Begone Dull Care</a> (1949).</p>
<p>Occasionally McLaren explored an animation technique that did not involve drawing — stop motion — but instead of moving inanimate objects, he animated people. By photographing his actors frame by frame and moving them slightly between frames, he endowed them with extraordinary abilities, such as self-propelled sliding, gravity-defying leaping and, of course, flying. </p>
<p>The major film using this technique is his powerful, and sometimes disturbing, anti-war parable <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YAYGi8rQag">Neighbours</a> (1952).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51263/original/6rqz5q7q-1402970271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51263/original/6rqz5q7q-1402970271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51263/original/6rqz5q7q-1402970271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51263/original/6rqz5q7q-1402970271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51263/original/6rqz5q7q-1402970271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51263/original/6rqz5q7q-1402970271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51263/original/6rqz5q7q-1402970271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51263/original/6rqz5q7q-1402970271.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neighbours, Norman McLaren, 1952.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Film Board of Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As he got older, McLaren turned increasingly to manipulating machines rather than a pen. For his 1968 film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bXWWz5Tv_I">Pas de deux</a> he used the optical printer when he repeatedly superimposed delayed image after delayed image of two dancers, the effect being an enhancing of the movement and an enrapturing of the viewer. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51264/original/xk4h7yh2-1402970393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51264/original/xk4h7yh2-1402970393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51264/original/xk4h7yh2-1402970393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51264/original/xk4h7yh2-1402970393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51264/original/xk4h7yh2-1402970393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51264/original/xk4h7yh2-1402970393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51264/original/xk4h7yh2-1402970393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51264/original/xk4h7yh2-1402970393.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pas de deux, Norman McLaren, 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Film Board of Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ever the inventive pragmatist, or should that be magician, Norman McLaren could also turn one film into three. In 1960 he made, with Canadian animator <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0483021/">Evelyn Lambart</a>, a film in which a vertical line moves laterally and also multiplies, all the while gathering speed to reach a climactic frenzy of lines. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51268/original/bq8h37br-1402971154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51268/original/bq8h37br-1402971154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51268/original/bq8h37br-1402971154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51268/original/bq8h37br-1402971154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51268/original/bq8h37br-1402971154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51268/original/bq8h37br-1402971154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51268/original/bq8h37br-1402971154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51268/original/bq8h37br-1402971154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Norman McLaren working on Lines Horizontal, 1961.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Film Board of Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He observed that, perhaps through a subconscious awareness of gravity, horizontal moving lines engender a completely different kinaesthetic response. So, for his next film McLaren simply rotated each frame of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnbavAYULUU&feature=kp">Lines Vertical</a> (1960) through 90 degrees (using a prism and an optical printer). He also changed the colours from muted to strident, swapped the calm sounds of Maurice Blackburn’s electronic piano for the dynamic strumming of Pete Seeger’s music, and he had <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJwfeG3Mntk">Lines Horizontal</a> (1962). </p>
<p>The best of several stories accounting for the third film’s genesis tells of a private screening of the two Lines films that McLaren was asked to give to a visiting eminent mathematician. A mix-up occurred. </p>
<p>Instead of being screened sequentially, the two films were projected simultaneously so that only the moving intersections of the vertical and horizontal lines were visible. The mathematician swooned. McLaren felt the combination idea worth pursuing. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yJRWUAKgnY">Mosaic</a> (1965) was the triumphant result. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51269/original/f558c939-1402971355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51269/original/f558c939-1402971355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51269/original/f558c939-1402971355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51269/original/f558c939-1402971355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51269/original/f558c939-1402971355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51269/original/f558c939-1402971355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51269/original/f558c939-1402971355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51269/original/f558c939-1402971355.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mosaic, Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart, 1965.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Film Board of Canada</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Technology was used by Norman McLaren as a catalyst in his aim to make films of charm, wit, whimsy and sometimes despair, but always to enrich his viewer. His more than 50 films give us cause to celebrate his centenary and, as well, they give us the delightful means to do so.</p>
<p><br>
<em>The <a href="http://www.miaf.net/">Melbourne International Animation Festival</a> (MIAF) continues at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image until June 29.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terence Dobson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Animation is all around us – from Pixar to manga to animated gifs. As with any creative field, it has its unsung heroes – the innovators who have shaped and defined the art form. So it was a great delight…Terence Dobson, Lecturer in Animation, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191572013-10-21T19:51:37Z2013-10-21T19:51:37ZGravity lends weight to cinema – and always has<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33367/original/32t4vd4n-1382330205.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In letting go, we have the chance to find ourselves. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros Pictures/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cinema’s relationship to gravity is a fascinating one. </p>
<p>At the time of its birth, in 1895, cinema was seen as a revolutionary machine that didn’t simply defy gravity through moving pictures seemingly suspended in air, but allowed one to experience the forces of the world directly, sweetly, intimately. </p>
<p>The stories of the first movie patrons hurrying away from the screen in case they were run over as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000012/">The Train Arrived at the Station</a> (The Lumière Brothers, 1896) flickered before them is a startling – if perhaps mythical – account of cinema’s gravitational grandeur.</p>
<p>The awe and wonder of cinema lies in its remarkable ability to visualise and texturise the weight and feel of things, to render movement and velocity realistically, and to create spaces deep, far and wide. The precipice is one of cinema’s favourite environments. Directors turn to it to create a sense of depth and distance, and to enact the experience of falling. </p>
<p>An iconic cinematic moment, captured in such films as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Vertigo</a> (Hitchcock, 1958) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114558/">Strange Days</a> (Bigelow, 1995), involves a character looking down from the precipice, to then either jump, fall or be pushed off the edge, with a corresponding cinematography that captures them hurtling, hurtling, hurtling towards the nadir. Then splat.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zaO_H2cUh60?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Lumière Brothers’ The Train Arrived at the Station.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The power and beauty of cinema in part resides in its ability to effectively engage the viewer’s emotions, and to envelop the body in a sea of sensations that are directly felt. Cinema is a sentient machine that awakens the senses in all of us. </p>
<p>Cinema can create the conditions for viewers to sweat, feel nauseous, or be aroused. In action sequences or scenes of terror, it can lead to an increase in viewers’ heart-rates and make their pupils dilate. </p>
<p>At its most awesome, when we are faced by something extraordinary or perplexing, cinema can take our breath away, render us speechless and powerless before its infinite gaze. Many critics argue that the Star Gate sequence in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">2001: A Space Odyssey</a> (Kubrick, 1968) is one such sublime moment. The viewer is taken along an unknown colourised vector, without “narrative” coordinates to anchor them, enabling them to experience the existential nothingness of (anti) gravity as they do so.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Imbxqv_5TJU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Star Gate Sequence from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Science fiction cinema is particularly suited to capturing the sensorial qualities of movement and speed. Its special effects and future settings enable it to legitimately defy gravity; to take the viewer through incandescent wormholes at light speed and out into alien environments where objects, spaces, things don’t follow gravitational laws or the iron cage of physics. </p>
<p>The expansive space of science fiction creates the sense that gravity is a minor factor in the workings of the universe. When these films are set in outer space, science fiction is able to demonstrate the giddiness of weightlessness, the eerie silence of dark space, and the absolute terror of being untethered from Earth.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GnpZN2HQ3OQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Gravity</a> (Cuarón, 2013) is perhaps one of the most perfect demonstrations of cinema’s intimate and inter-connecting relationship to the forces of nature and the forces that lie beyond them, nestled as they are amongst the vast, undulating sheets of the cosmos. </p>
<p>The film’s unbroken opening “floating” shot, lasting more than 13 minutes, captures the weightlessness and the spinning vastness of space, the distant, rotating beauty of Earth, and humankind’s sense of isolation and isolating melancholy as the astronauts go about their daily, routinised work, as if they have clocked in at an inter-stellar factory. </p>
<p>Gravity’s 3D spatial arrangements induce a sense of vertigo, disorientating the viewer, creating the sensation that one is in outer space, beholden by its massiveness, and yet trapped precisely because one is not tethered to anything. Debris shoots out from the darkness; lines dangle; space is not logical. There is zero gravity in Gravity. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C4pcg7bXgmU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is no single or singular precipice in the film: the mise-en-scène combines zenith and nadir. One is constantly falling or climbing, climbing and falling. It is difficult to breathe while watching the movie, and almost impossible to not experience one’s own body as if it is stranded in outer space, without gravitational crampons to hold onto, to root one to <em>terra firma</em>. </p>
<p>If newspaper <a href="http://movies.about.com/od/gravity/fl/Gravity-Movie-Review.htm">reports are accurate</a>, then just as the train that arrived at the station created hysteria in those who watched it more than 100 years ago, so today Gravity sends people running down the aisles, too discombobulated to carry on watching.</p>
<p>Much of contemporary blockbuster cinema functions simply to activate the senses; to enact and embody the “thrill aesthetic” through its lavish special effects and immersive 3D technology. </p>
<p>There is much criticism of this as a cinematic form. Some argue that complex characterisation and serious storytelling are marginalised or juvenilised in favour of the kinetic ride. </p>
<p>Thrill, however, is an expansive concept and the senses are not necessarily crude or divisible in the way. Spectacle can create the conditions for profound contemplation, as Gravity clearly does. </p>
<p>Gravity releases the viewer into an unknown or unknowable void and in so doing asks, or rather compels, them to consider what it is that makes one human, social, and connected. </p>
<p>Lost in space, caught floating and fleeing in the pure realm of the senses, we find out who we truly are and can be.</p>
<p><br>
See <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/oscars-2014">further Oscars 2014 coverage</a> on The Conversation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19157/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Redmond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cinema’s relationship to gravity is a fascinating one. At the time of its birth, in 1895, cinema was seen as a revolutionary machine that didn’t simply defy gravity through moving pictures seemingly suspended…Sean Redmond, Associate Professor of Media and Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.