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Art Film
An art film, arthouse film, or specialty film is an independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit", and containing "unconventional or highly symbolic content". Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an art film as possessing "formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films". These qualities can include (among other elements) a sense of social realism; an emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and a focus on the thoughts, dreams, or motivations of characters, as opposed to the unfolding of a clear, goal-driven story. Film scholars David Bordwell and Barry Keith Grant describe art cinema as "a film genre, with its own distinct conventions". Art film producers usually present their films at special theaters (repertory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Theodor Dreyer (1965) By Erling Mandelmann
Carl Theodor Dreyer (; 3 February 1889 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers in history, his movies are noted for emotional austerity and slow, stately pacing, frequent themes of social intolerance, the inseparability of fate and death, and the power of evil in earthly life. His 1928 movie ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' is considered to be List of movies considered the best, one of the greatest movies of all time, renowned for its cinematography and use of close-ups. It frequently appears on ''Sight & Sounds lists of the great films ever made, and in 2012's The Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012, poll, it was voted the ninth-best film by film critics and 37th by film directors. His other well-known films include ''Michael (1924 film), Michael'' (1924), ''Vampyr'' (1932), ''Day of Wrath'' (1943), ''Ordet'' (''The Word'') (1955), and ''Gertrud (film), Gertrud'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blockbuster (entertainment)
A blockbuster is a work of entertainment—typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studios, but also other media—that is highly popular and financially successful. The term has also come to refer to any large-budget production ''intended'' for "blockbuster" status, aimed at mass markets with associated merchandising, sometimes on a scale that meant the financial fortunes of a film studio or a distributor could depend on it. Etymology The term began to appear in the American press in the early 1940s, referring to the blockbuster bombs, aerial munitions capable of destroying a whole block of buildings. Its first known use in reference to films was in May 1943, when advertisements in '' Variety'' and '' Motion Picture Herald'' described the RKO film, '' Bombardier'', as "The block-buster of all action-thrill-service shows!" Another trade advertisement in 1944 boasted that the war documentary, '' With the Marines at Tarawa'', "hits the heart like a two t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Dovzhenko
Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko, also Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko (, ; November 25, 1956), was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Ukrainian origin. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, and Vsevolod Pudovkin, as well as being a pioneer of Soviet montage theory. Biography Oleksandr Dovzhenko was born in the hamlet of Viunyshche located in the Sosnitsky Uyezd of the Chernihiv Governorate of the Russian Empire (now part of Sosnytsia in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine), to Petro Semenovych Dovzhenko and Odarka Yermolayivna Dovzhenko. His paternal ancestors were Chumaks who settled in Sosnytsia in the eighteenth century, coming from the neighbouring province of Poltava. Oleksandr was the seventh of fourteen children born to the couple, but due to the deaths of his siblings he was the oldest child by the time he turned eleven. Ultimately, only Oleksandr and his sister Polina, who later becomes a doct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The General Line
''The General Line'', also known as ''Old and New'' (), is a 1929 Soviet propaganda film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov. ''The General Line'' was begun in 1927 as a celebration of the collectivization of agriculture, as championed by old-line Bolshevik Leon Trotsky. Hoping to reach a wide audience, the director forsook his usual practice of emphasizing groups by concentrating on a single rural heroine. Eisenstein briefly abandoned this project to film ''October: Ten Days That Shook the World'', in honour of the 10th anniversary of the Revolution. By the time he was able to return to this film, the Party's attitudes had changed and Trotsky had fallen from grace. As a result, the film was hastily re-edited and sent out in 1929 under a new title, ''The Old and the New''. In later years, archivists restored ''The General Line'' to an approximation of Eisenstein's original concept. Much of the director's montage-like imagery—such as using simple props to trace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
October Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks as part of the broader Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It began through an insurrection in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) on . It was the precipitating event of the Russian Civil War. The initial stage of the October Revolution, which involved the assault on Petrograd, occurred largely without any casualties. The October Revolution followed and capitalized on the February Revolution earlier that year, which had led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the creation of the Russian Provisional Government. The provisional government, led by Alexander Kerensky, had taken power after Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, Grand Duke Michael, the younger brother of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ten Days That Shook The World
''Ten Days That Shook the World'' (1919) is a book by the American journalist and socialist John Reed. Here, Reed presented a firsthand account of the 1917 Russian October Revolution. Reed followed many of the most prominent Bolsheviks closely during his time in Russia. Background John Reed was on an assignment for '' The Masses'', a magazine of socialist politics, when he was reporting on the Russian Revolution. Although Reed stated that he had "tried to see events with the eye of a conscientious reporter, interested in setting down the truth" during the time of the event, he stated in the preface that "in the struggle my sympathies were not neutral" (since the book primarily shares the perspective of the Russian working class). Before John Reed left for Russia, the Espionage Act was passed on June 15, 1917. This provided for fines and imprisonment as a punishment for interference with the recruiting of soldiers and prohibited the mailing of any newspaper or magazine that pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Battleship Potemkin
'' Battleship Potemkin'' (, ), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship ''Potemkin'' rebelled against their officers. In 1958, the film was voted on Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. ''Battleship Potemkin'' is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. In the most recent ''Sight and Sound'' critics' poll in 2022, it was voted the fifty-fourth-greatest film of all time, and it had been placed in the top 10 in many previous editions. Plot The film is set in June 1905; the protagonists of the film are the members of the crew of the ''Potemkin'', a battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet. Eisenstein divided the plot into five acts, each with its own title: Act I: Men and Maggots The scene begins with two sailors, Matyushenko and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is noted in particular for his silent films '' Strike'' (1925), '' Battleship Potemkin'' (1925) and ''October'' (1928), as well as the historical epics '' Alexander Nevsky'' (1938) and ''Ivan the Terrible'' (1945/1958). In its 2012 decennial poll, the magazine '' Sight & Sound'' named his ''Battleship Potemkin'' the 11th-greatest film of all time. Early life Sergei Eisenstein was born on in Riga, in the Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (present-day Latvia), to a middle-class family. His family moved frequently in his early years, as Eisenstein continued to do throughout his life. His father, the architect Mikhail Osipovich Eisenstein, was born in the Kiev Governorate, to a Jewish merchant father, Osip, and a Swedish mother. Sergei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intolerance (film)
''Intolerance'' is a 1916 American Anthology film, anthology silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Subtitled as ''Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages'' and ''A Sun-Play of the Ages'',Internet Archive foIntolerance (1916), D. W. Griffith. Retrieved May 21, 2016. the three-and-a-half-hour Epic film, epic intercuts four parallel storylines, each separated by several centuries: first, a contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; second, a Biblical story: Christ's mission and death; third, a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572; and fourth, a Babylonian story: the Battle of Opis, fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own distinctive Colour Tint, color tint in the original print. The scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle. Griffith chose to explore the theme of Toleration, intolerance partly in response to his previous film ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'Inferno
''L'Inferno'' () is a 1911 Italian silent film, loosely adapted from '' Inferno'', the first canticle of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. ''L'Inferno'' took over three years to make, and was the first full-length Italian feature film. It is also one of the first films to be shown in its entirety. Plot Dante is barred from entering the hill of salvation by three beasts that block his path ( Avarice, Pride, and Lust). Beatrice descends from above and asks the poet Virgil to guide Dante through the Nine Circles of Hell. Virgil leads Dante to a cave where they find the river Acheron, over which Charon ferries the souls of the dead into Hell. They also see the three-headed Cerberus and Geryon, a flying serpent with a man's face. They see the Devil eating human beings whole, harpies eating the corpses of suicides, an evil man forced to carry his own severed head for eternity, people half-buried in flaming lava, etc. There follows a series of encounters in which the two meet up w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae ( résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality. Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography. An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An unauthorized biography is one written without such permission or participation. An autobiography is written by the person themselves, sometimes w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and Media studies, media analyst Bill Nichols (film critic), Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries". Research into information gathering, as a behavior, and the sharing of knowledge, as a concept, has noted how documentary movies were preceded by the notable practice of documentary photography. This has involved the use of singular Photograph, photographs to detail the complex attributes of History, historical events and continues to a certain degree to this day, with an example being the War photography, conflict-related photography achieved by popular figures such as Mathew Brady during the Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
