CinemaVIEW• RWU Spring 2012

Classic Comedy Film Trailers

2010-12-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

The Art of Comedy

2010-12-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

For more information, please go to this URL: http://www.filmsite.org/comedyfilms1.html

Comedy Films are "make 'em laugh" films designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are light-hearted dramas, crafted to amuse, entertain, and provoke enjoyment. The comedy genre humorously exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters. Comedies observe the deficiencies, foibles, and frustrations of life, providing merriment and a momentary escape from day-to-day life. They usually have happy endings, although the humor may have a serious or pessimistic side.

Types of Comedies:
Comedies usually come in two general formats: comedian-led (with well-timed gags, jokes, or sketches) and situation-comedies that are told within a narrative. Both comedy elements may appear together and/or overlap. Comedy hybrids commonly exist with other major genres, such as musical-comedy, horror-comedy, and comedy-thriller. Comedies have also been classified in various subgenres, such as romantic comedy, crime/caper comedy, sports comedy, teen or coming-of-age comedy, social-class comedy, military comedy, fish-out-of-water comedy, and gross-out comedy. There are also many different kinds, types, or forms of comedy, including:

Slapstick

Slapstick was predominant in the earliest silent films, since they didn't need sound to be effective, and they were popular with non-English speaking audiences in metropolitan areas. The term slapstick was taken from the wooden sticks that clowns slapped together to promote audience applause.

This is primitive and universal comedy with broad, aggressive, physical, and visual action, including harmless or painless cruelty and violence, horseplay, and often vulgar sight gags (e.g., a custard pie in the face, collapsing houses, a fall in the ocean, a loss of trousers or skirts, runaway crashing cars, people chases, etc). Slapstick often required exquisite timing and well-honed performance skills. It was typical of the films of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, W. C. Fields, The Three Stooges, the stunts of Harold Lloyd in Safety Last (1923), and Mack Sennett's silent era shorts (for example, the Keystone Kops). Slapstick evolved and was reborn in the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s (see further below).

More recent feature film examples include the comedic mad chase for treasure film by many top comedy stars in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and French actor/director Jacques Tati's mostly dialogue-free Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953, Fr.), and Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (1993) and The Mask (1994).
The Blake Edwards series of Pink Panther films with Peter Sellers as bumbling Inspector Clouseau (especially in the second film of the series, A Shot in the Dark (1964) with Herbert Lom as Clouseau's slow-burning boss and Burt Kwouk as his valet and martial arts judo-specialist) are also great examples. Cartoons are the quintessential form of slapstick, i.e., the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, and others.

Deadpan

This form of comedy was best exemplified by the expression-less face of stoic comic hero Buster Keaton.

Verbal comedy

This was classically typified by the cruel verbal wit of W. C. Fields, the sexual innuendo of Mae West, or the verbal absurdity of dialogues in the Marx Brothers films, or later by the self-effacing, thoughtful humor of Woody Allen's literate comedies.

Screwball

Screwball comedies, a sub-genre of romantic comedy films, was predominant from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s. The word 'screwball' denotes lunacy, craziness, eccentricity, ridiculousness, and erratic behavior.

These films combine farce, slapstick, and the witty dialogue of more sophisticated films. In general, they are light-hearted, frothy, often sophisticated, romantic stories, commonly focusing on a battle of the sexes in which both co-protagonists try to outwit or outmaneuver each other. They usually include visual gags (with some slapstick), wacky characters, identity reversals (or cross-dressing), a fast-paced improbable plot, and rapid-fire, wise-cracking dialogue and one-liners reflecting sexual tensions and conflicts in the blossoming of a relationship (or the patching up of a marriage) for an attractive couple with on-going, antagonistic differences (such as in The Awful Truth (1937)). Some of the stars often present in screwball comedies included Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, William Powell, and Carole Lombard.

The couple is often a fairly eccentric, but well-to-do female interested in romance and a generally passive, emasculated, or weak male who resists romance, such as in Bringing Up Baby (1938), or a sexually-frustrated, humiliated male who is thwarted in romance, as in Howard Hawks' farce I Was a Male War Bride (1949). The zany but glamorous characters often have contradictory desires for individual identity and for union in a romance under the most unorthodox, insane or implausible circumstances (such as in Preston Sturges' classic screwball comedy and battle of the sexes The Lady Eve (1941)). However, after a twisting and turning plot, romantic love usually triumphs in the end. (See more discussion later in this section.)

Black or Dark Comedy

These are dark, sarcastic, humorous, or sardonic stories that help us examine otherwise ignored darker serious, pessimistic subjects such as war, death, or illness. Two of the greatest black comedies ever made include the following: Stanley Kubrick's Cold War classic satire from a script by co-writer Terry Southern, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) that spoofed the insanity of political and military institutions with Peter Sellers in a triple role (as a Nazi scientist, a British major, and the US President), and Robert Altman's M*A*S*H (1970), an irreverent, anti-war black comedy set during the Korean War. Another more recent classic black comedy was the Coen Brothers' violent and quirky story Fargo (1996) about a pregnant Midwestern police chief (Oscar-winning Frances McDormand) who solves a 'perfect crime' that went seriously wrong.

Hal Ashby's eccentric cult film Harold and Maude (1972) was an oddball love story and dark comedy about a suicidal 19 year-old (Bud Cort) and a quirky, widowed octogenarian (Ruth Gordon), with a great soundtrack score populated with songs by Cat Stevens. (See examples of other feature films below for more.) John Huston's satirical black comedy Prizzi's Honor (1985) starred Jack Nicholson as dimwitted Mafia hit man Charley Partanna for the East Coast Prizzi family, who fell in love with West Coaster Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner) - another mob's hitwoman. The film included an Oscar-winning performance from Anjelica Huston as the vengeful granddaughter of Nicholson's Don. Tim Burton's dark and imaginative haunted house comedy Beetlejuice (1988) featured Michael Keaton as the title character in a dream house occupied by newlywed spirits Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin. The shocking but watchable first film of Peter Berg, Very Bad Things (1998) told the dark and humorous story of a 'bachelor' weekend in Las Vegas gone bad for five guys when their hired stripper/prostitute was accidentally killed.

Parody or Spoof - also Satire, Lampoon and Farce

These specific types of comedy (also called put-ons, send-ups, charades, lampoons, take-offs, jests, mockumentaries, etc.) are usually a humorous or anarchic take-off that ridicules, impersonates, punctures, scoffs at, and/or imitates (mimics) the style, conventions, formulas, characters (by caricature), or motifs of a serious work, film, performer, or genre, including:

the Marx Brothers' satiric anti-war masterpiece Duck Soup (1933) with anarchic humor
the western spoof Cat Ballou (1965)
Woody Allen's Japanese monster film parody What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
the 'genre' films of Mel Brooks (the quasi-western Blazing Saddles (1974), the quasi-horror film Young Frankenstein (1974), the inventive Hitchcock spoof/rip-off High Anxiety (1977), the Star Wars (1977) spoof Spaceballs (1987), and his swashbuckler send-up Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993))
Herbert Ross' Play It Again, Sam (1972) poked fun at Woody Allen as an insecure nebbish-hero who worshipped an imaginary, trench-coated, archetypal tough-guy detective (a la Humphrey Bogart)
Silver Streak (1976) - a comic thriller parody of Alfred Hitchcock's 'train' pictures, with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor (their best film together) onboard the Silver Streak from LA to Chicago
Neil Simon's scripts for The Cheap Detective (1978) and Murder By Death (1978) spoofed Agatha Christie detective films
Jim Abrahams' and the Zuckers' revolutionary comedy Airplane! (1980) - a sophomoric parody of the earlier disaster series of Airport (1970) films and the original Zero Hour (1957); their The Naked Gun (1988) series parodied TV cop shows, and Top Secret! (1984) ridiculed Cold War agents and espionage spy films (and Elvis Presley films); Abrahams' military comedy Hot Shots! (1991) was a genre parody/spoof of Top Gun (1986), while Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) parodied Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
in The Freshman (1990), Marlon Brando (as Carmine Sabatini) poked fun - with brilliant parody - at his own characterization of Don Corleone in The Godfather (1972)
Carl Reiner's Fatal Instinct (1993) spoofed suspense thrillers and murder mysteries such as Basic Instinct (1992)
Gene Quintano's Loaded Weapon I (1993) made fun of Lethal Weapon (1987) as well as The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Basic Instinct (1992), and Wayne's World (1992)
the Austin Powers films (1997, 1999, 2002) - parodies of the James Bond 007 films
the Scream films (1996, 1997, 2000) - spoofs of slasher horror films
Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black (1997) - a sci-fi comedy farce based on a comic book series that poked fun at alien invasion films, with Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as government agents (with camaraderie similar to Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon series) battling about 1500 Earth-dwelling, other-worldly extra-terrestrials in the New York area; a sequel appeared in 2002
Galaxy Quest (1999), about the cast (including Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, and Sigourney Weaver) of a 70s sci-fi TV series in reruns, this was a parody of sci-fi TV, Star Trek itself, and cultish "Trekkie" activities
director Nora Ephron's romantic comedy You've Got Mail (1998) updated and paid homage to Ernst Lubitsch's classic The Shop Around the Corner (1940), with leads Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in their third teaming (after their previous hit with Ephron - Sleepless in Seattle (1993)), replacing James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as feuding-by-email Manhattan bookstore owners
Last Action Hero (1993) - a spoof of action films

This category may also include these widely diverse forms of satire - usually displayed as political or social commentary, for example:

Billy Wilder's sex farce The Seven Year Itch (1955) - a parody of a conventional Hollywood romance
Terry Gilliam's tasteless but hilarious Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) and The Life of Brian (1979) - an irreverent parody of religious films
the witty Monty Pythonesque A Fish Called Wanda (1988), co-scripted by veteran John Cleese (with the character name of Archie Leach - named after Cary Grant's real name) and directed by veteran Charles Crichton (whose film career was responsible for such classics as The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)); it was both an acclaimed black comedy and caper farce about a search for a stolen cache of diamonds; the title referred to both a fish and the name of Jamie Lee Curtis' character
writer/director Albert Brooks' satirical Real Life (1979) - a pseudo-documentary on 'real' small-town suburban family life
Woody Allen's pseudo-documentary Zelig (1983) with its use of vintage historical clips to portray a human cipher or chameleon in various time periods
Rob Reiner's largely-improvised show-biz mockumentary This is Spinal Tap (1984) about a non-existent British heavy metal rock band on tour of third-rate venues
the serious-comedic political satire of Tim Robbins' pseudo-documentary (or fictional mockumentary) Bob Roberts (1992) about running for Senatorial office; Tanner '88 (1988) was a similar made-for-TV mini-series about a fictional Presidential candidate (Michael Murphy)
Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis (1996) - an irreverent, bizarre, and absurdist media satire
Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman (1996) - an intelligent satirical parody (and mockumentary) about small-town 'drama queen' hopefuls

In many comedies, there is much overlap with the category of 'farce', since the term has now been broadened and extended (from the early part of the 20th century) beyond its origins and roots in silent film (and early talkies) comedy (W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, and Buster Keaton to name a few), and the works of The Three Stooges. Now, farces - and farcical elements in films, may include fairly outrageous plots, unlikely and absurd circumstances, frantic-paced action, mistaken identities, a major transgression or hidden secret (i.e., often an extra-marital infidelity) sometimes based upon a misunderstanding, and lots of verbal humor, absurdities and physical slapstick, often with a concluding chase scene of some kind. Recently, farces have widened their scope by deliberately and satirically mocking established genres and standard filmic conventions themselves:

Classic screwball comedies and other classic comedies: such as Trouble in Paradise (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), His Girl Friday (1940), To Be or Not to Be (1942), The More the Merrier (1943), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Born Yesterday (1950), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959), etc.
UK comedies: the British Ealing Studios comedies (The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)), the grotesque commentaries found in the Monty Python films, Tom Jones (1963)
Kubrick's classic, black comedy: Dr. Strangelove: Or... (1964)
Other comedies in series: the Hope/Crosby 'Road' movies, the Peter Sellers/Inspector Clouseau Pink Panther films, the Mel Brooks comedies (beginning with The Producers (1968) and including such films as Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)), the Abrahams/Zucker/Zucker films such as Airplane! (1980) and Hot Shots! (1991), some Woody Allen films (i.e., Love and Death (1975)), Carl Reiner/Steve Martin films: (i.e., The Jerk (1979), The Man with Two Brains (1983), and All of Me (1984)), the Mr. Bean movies (i.e., Bean (1997))
Other recent examples: What's New, Pussycat (1965), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Murder by Death (1976), Tootsie (1982), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Peter Bogdanovich's Noises Off... (1992), There's Something About Mary (1998), Waking Ned (1998), South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), The Simpsons Movie (2007), etc.

Earliest Comedy:
Cinematic comedy can be considered the oldest film genre (and one of the most prolific and popular). Comedy was ideal for the early silent films, as it was dependent on visual action and physical humor rather than sound. Slapstick, one of the earliest forms of comedy, poked fun at farcical situations of physical mishap and indignity, usually in pratfalls, practical jokes, accidents, acrobatic death-defying stunts, water soakings, or wild chase scenes with trains and cars. [Burlesque is another form of early comedy, characterized by unrefined and broad humor, designed to produce ridicule.] Pioneers in the early days of silent cinema and film-making, the Lumiere Brothers, included a short comedy film in their very first public screening in 1895 titled Watering the Gardener or "The Sprinkler Sprinkled" (L'Arroseur Arrose). Its predictable subject matter included a man with a garden watering hose who was tricked into being soaked by a prankster child.

Keystone Studios:
It took until 1912 for American comedy to emerge. The first comics were trained by performing in the circus, in burlesque, vaudeville (music halls), or pantomime. Film entrepreneur Mack Sennett, soon nicknamed "The King of Comedy" and "The Master of Slapstick Comedy," formed the Keystone Company (and Studios) in 1912 - it soon was the leading producer of slapstick and comic characters.

The major hallmark of Sennett's career work was inventive, visual, improvised comedy displayed in short silent films that moved frantically. His early short comedies featured wild slapstick chase finales, visual gags and stunts, and speedy, zany action. The action appeared all the more frantic and frenzied by his use of a filming technique whereby he shot the pictures at a slow camera speed, and then accelerated the frames in the projector during playback. He often cast vaudevillian, burlesque, and circus performers in his films. Those with exaggerated or grotesque looks (obese, cross-eyed, lanky, leering, pop-eyed, etc.) were chosen to add to the unreality of the situations. His most popular pictures involved his bumbling comedy policemen, the Keystone Cops. There would be flying pies, bricks, careening vehicles with people hanging off, crashes, and other dangerous-looking stunts. Cinema's first custard-pie-in-the-face was in Sennett's silent film comedy A Noise From the Deep (1913), in which comedian Mabel Normand, a farmgirl threw a pie into the kisser of obese farmhand Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

Eccentric comic artists (and character actors) included Arbuckle, Edgar Kennedy, Mabel Normand, zany and cross-eyed Ben Turpin, Mack Swain, Billy Bevan, Charley Chase and Chester Conklin. [Even Carole Lombard began her career at Keystone.] Charlie Chaplin got his start at Keystone (his first film was the short Making a Living (1914)) and made numerous short films from 1914-1919 (for Keystone, Essanay, Mutual, and First National), until his first full-length feature that he directed, wrote, and acted in, The Kid (1921) - see below.

The Silent Era Clowns
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle:
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was one of the earliest silent film comedians (as well as director and screenwriter). He started out with the Selig Polyscope Company in 1909 (his first film was Ben's Kid (1909)), and then went onto Universal Pictures in 1913 where he appeared in several of Mack Sennett's Keystone Comedies films, noted for fast-paced chase sequences and 'pie-in-the-face' segments. Arbuckle was the first of the silent comedians to direct his own films, starting with Barnyard Flirtations (1914). His teaming with Mabel Normand at Keystone, in a series of "Fatty and Mabel" films, were lucrative for the studio.

In 1917, Arbuckle formed his own production company ("Comique Film Corporation") with producer Joseph Schenck which afforded more creative control, hiring Buster Keaton to star in his first film The Butcher Boy (1917). He used his 'fatness' as part of his sight gags, and his slightly-vulgar but sweet and playful character became extremely popular with younger audiences. By 1919, he had secured at $3 million/3-year contract with Paramount Pictures - the first multi-year, multi-million dollar deal for a Hollywood studio. It is little mentioned that Arbuckle mentored and aided Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin as they entered the film business, before his own downfall in the early 1920s. He was accused of the rape and murder of young starlet Virginia Rappe in San Francisco in a widely-publicized case -- and thoroughly chastised by Hearst's 'trial-by newspaper' (with soaring sales) and public condemnation. His career was over, although he was eventually fully acquitted of the act after three trials.

Charlie Chaplin:
Charlie Chaplin, a silent actor and pantomimist, was recruited to Keystone from an English variety act, and became Sennett's most important discovery. Chaplin made 35 short Keystone films for Mack Sennett in 1914. In Chaplin's second picture, the 11-minute Kid Auto Races in Venice (1914), he invented his immortal, trademark Little Tramp character as he attends a 'baby-cart' race in Venice, California. His first masterpiece, The Tramp (1915), produced by the Essanay Company in Chicago, showed the early development of the character, known for his baggy pants, bowler hat, walking cane, funny stride, and oversized shoes. Chaplin had appeared in Sennett's feature-length Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) and produced two dozen two-reelers for Mutual, including such classics as The Rink (1916), The Floorwalker (1916), The Pawnshop (1916), The Cure (1917), The Immigrant (1917) and Easy Street (1917).

Chaplin made two masterpieces in the 1920s: his first full-length starring feature that he directed was The Kid (1921) pairing him with young Jackie Coogan. It was followed by another full-length comedy titled The Gold Rush (1925), Chaplin's best silent film with segments of poetic miming and classic slapstick. Even though the silent era was ending and the sound era had arrived, Chaplin turned out more "silent" features: the exquisite City Lights (1931), and his satire on the machine-age, Modern Times (1936). Chaplin resisted the coming of the talkies until his first talking picture The Great Dictator (1940) and other talkies including Limelight (1952) - a film with silent comedian Buster Keaton as co-star.

Buster Keaton:
One of the great silent clowns of the early comedic period was Buster Keaton, known for acrobatic visual gags, physical action, and for his deadpan, unsmiling, expression-less "stoneface." (His first name was a nickname given to him by Harry Houdini after he fell down some steps.) Keaton was first a vaudeville performer, performing and partnering quite often with former Keystone star and mentor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. He entered the profession of film-making in 1917 at the age of twenty-one as a supporting player, in his film debut The Butcher Boy (1917). Then, he started his own production company and became an actor in his own production unit in many excellent short films (usually two-reelers) from 1920-1923, including One Week (1920), Neighbors (1920), The High Sign (1921), The Boat (1921), The Haunted House (1921), The Playhouse (1921), The Paleface (1921), Hard Luck (1921), and The Frozen North (1922), but none as a repeating character.

A few years later, he also starred in a number of feature-length silents, his first being The Three Ages (1923). Among his best features were Our Hospitality (1923), The Navigator (1924), Sherlock, Jr. (1924), Go West (1925), Seven Chances (1925), and Battling Butler (1926). His most-acclaimed feature-length production was the fast-paced Civil War adventure tale of a railroad engine called The General (1927), which he soon followed with College (1927) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928). The latter film is known for one of the most suicidal stunts ever filmed - a falling wall with only a top-floor open window to save him from being flattened. [One of his last film appearances was as one of the 'waxworks' friends who plays bridge with silent film star Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950).]

Harold Lloyd:
Harold Lloyd, a popular silent clown, has been dubbed the 'third' genius or master of silent comedy - after Chaplin and Keaton. [An actor/producer, he actually outgrossed his better-known counterparts, by retaining ownership of his films and their profits.] Like them, Lloyd also spent some time in the early years with Mack Sennett, became known for realistic, daredevil stunts, and for his bespectacled, neat, innocent, noble-hearted, 'average Joe' characters. From 1915-1921, he produced a number of short films for Keystone and for major comedy producer Hal Roach, playing the character of Willie Work (debuting in his first starring film Just Nuts (1915) as a Chaplin-like character) and Lonesome Luke (first appearing in Lonesome Luke, Social Gangster (1915)).

Lloyd graduated to full-length features playing the part of a normal Everyman (or "Glasses Character") or "Boy" - which debuted in the short Look Out Below (1919). His last short was Never Weaken (1921). He became most identified with this 'boy'-next-door character (normally named Harold) with his most famous trademark - horn-rimmed glasses. His most-remembered film, the feature-length Safety Last (1923), featured his perilous, memorable climb up a tall skyscraper's face that climaxed with his hanging off a giant clock. Lloyd's career lasted 34 years with over 200 comedies (mostly short subject featurettes, but including 11 silent features and 7 sound features). One of Lloyd's other greatest films was also his most successful, The Freshman (1925), in which he portrayed a college underclassman (Harold 'Speedy' Lamb) determined to redeem himself - on the football field. Other well-known films included Grandma's Boy (1922), Why Worry? (1923), Girl Shy (1924), The Kid Brother (1927), Speedy (1928) (his final silent film) and Movie Crazy (1932). His last film was released in 1947 - director Preston Sturges' The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947), retitled Mad Wednesday by co-producer Howard Hughes, re-edited and released by RKO in 1950.

Harry Langdon:
Another early comic performer was baby-faced, innocent, timid Harry Langdon, who also worked at Keystone. He experienced only a brief period of fame during the end of the silent era, although he could be placed in the same league as his three other comic contemporaries: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. His best feature film in a short four-year film career, The Strong Man (1926), was director Frank Capra's feature-film debut. The film predated Chaplin's City Lights (1931) by several years with its plot of a meek man in love with a blind woman. Langdon also starred in two other hits: Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) and Capra's Long Pants (1927) in which Langdon played his typical simple-minded, man/child role.

Larry Semon:
Another popular, second-level slapstick comedian in the silent era who made hundreds of two-reel shorts from 1916-1924 for Vitagraph and for the B-picture company, the Chadwick Pictures Corporation, was the charming, white-faced, smiling, and clownish Larry Semon. He began film work at Vitagraph in 1915 as comedy short gag writer and then as director in 1916. His first feature-length film was also his best known and most influential work - a remake and adaptation of Baum's The Wizard of Oz (1925), with Semon serving as both director and star - as the Scarecrow opposite Oliver Hardy (of the comic team) who played the Tin Woodsman. The film's release was highly publicized, but the public didn't like it - and it was essentially a failed effort. Afterwards, he took a supporting role in Josef Von Sternberg's classic film Underworld (1927), and his last film, after filing for bankruptcy, was A Simple Sap (1928), released posthumously after his prematurely-short life.

The 30s Clowns
With the coming of sound, slapstick went into a bit of a decline and the flexible freedom of the earliest comedians was curtailed. Comedy was transformed, however, and began to be refined as an art form, with new themes, elements, and written characterizations, and comedic humor was now being derived from clever dialogue. Visual comedy remained strong throughout the 1930s, but now witty dialogue and verbal comedy were added. Some of the great comedians or teams, including Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, and Abbott and Costello, or individuals such as radio star Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Joe E. Brown, W. C. Fields, and Mae West emerged. Hal Roach's company was responsible for other ground-breaking comedy shorts during the 1930s, including the popular "Our Gang" series that lasted until 1944.

Laurel and Hardy:
One of the greatest and most-beloved of the comedy teams was the one of British-born Stan Laurel and the fat-faced Oliver Hardy, first purposely teamed together toward the close of the silent era by producer Hal Roach in the slapstick film Slipping Wives (1926). They had first met, by accident, during the filming of Lucky Dog in 1917. Director Leo McCarey at Hal Roach Studios recognized their potential as a team and capitalized on their contrasting, disparate physical differences (Stan: the "thin" man and Oliver: the "fat" one - each with derby hats) and classic gestures (bewildered head-scratching, tie-twiddling, eye-blinking and baby-like weeping).

Although Laurel and Hardy worked together as a successful comedy team for 20 years (and were precursors of the 50s team Abbott and Costello), they were not equal partners - Stan considered himself the creative force and "brains" of the team. Their dozens of short films and twenty-seven feature-length films were produced over three decades (the 20s to the 40s), including such film classics as Sons of the Desert (1933) - arguably their best film, Way Out West (1937), The Flying Deuces (1939), and A Chump At Oxford (1940). One of their funniest bits involved getting a piano up a set of stairs in The Music Box (1932). Laurel and Hardy's last Hollywood film was The Bullfighters (1945), capping a teamed career of almost twenty years. They were among the few actors who successfully made the transition from silents to talkies.

Plots of their hilarious films used situational mishaps or incidents to trigger chaos and personal jeopardy, usually with the dignified, superior-acting, pompous Ollie trying to succeed and boast, only to be frustrated, exasperated and sabotaged by the simple-mindedness, childishness and brainlessness of Stan. Audiences were amused by their endearing qualities of naivete, clumsiness, innocence, and stupidity as they sunk deeper and deeper into trouble, chaos, and self-destruction.

The Marx Brothers:
Once talkies emerged, the most famous and popular comedy team was the zany foursome of the Marx Brothers. They were the only real-life sibling comedy group in Hollywood history:

the witty, wise-cracking, ad-libbing, absurdly-punning, caustic, fast-talking Groucho (famous for his crouched walk, mustache, cigar, round glasses and leering eyes)
piano-playing, broken Italian-accented Chico, famous for distorted logic
the mischievous mute-pantomimist/harpist Harpo (with an old taxi horn and numerous harp solos), known for chasing girls
the straight-man Zeppo (who left the other brothers in 1933 after his performance in Duck Soup (1933), his fifth film)

Their comedy was a mixture of slapstick, sophisticated verbal comedy (often absurd and risque), zany anarchistic disrespect for the establishment, nonsensical action, and inspired buffoonery.

After almost two decades in vaudeville together, the brothers finally received widespread attention in their screen debut, The Cocoanuts (1929), filmed at Paramount's East Coast studios. Next were major box-office and critical successes - the film version of their Broadway play, Animal Crackers (1930), Horse Feathers (1932) and their last film for Paramount - the political, anti-war satire/spoof Duck Soup (1933).

The Marx Brothers further developed their unique brand of absurdist, hilarious, slapstick comedy with a change to MGM Studios in the mid-30s. MGM's productions of A Night at the Opera (1935) with its memorable scenes of the stateroom and a legal contract, and A Day at the Races (1937) were made at the height of their popularity. A frequent romantic foil for Groucho who appeared in a number of their films was Margaret Dumont, a memorable character actress. The film career of the Marx Brothers extended from 1929 to 1949. Marx Brothers Groucho, Chico and Harpo made their final film appearance as a team in Love Happy (1949), with a young 23 year-old Marilyn Monroe. Later on, Groucho became a star as an early TV game-show host.

W. C. Fields:
W. C. Fields is known for his recognizable raspy voice, pool cue, oversized bulbous nose and nasal drawl, stove-pipe hat, flask of 100-proof whiskey and love of drink, caustic verbal wit and wisecracks, and irritable disdain for small children, animals, upper-class snobs and bullying wives. The vaudeville star was an inspired comedian, a master of visual gags, double-takes, casual asides and pantomime. His film debut was in the silent one-reel comedy short Pool Sharks (1915), in which he showed off his pool-playing ability, and his first sound feature film was Warners' (and First National's) pre-code musical comedy Her Majesty, Love (1931). Fields usually wrote his own scripts and produced such classics for Paramount as It's A Gift (1934) and possibly his best film, The Bank Dick (1940), in which he credited himself as screenwriter Mahatma Kane Jeeves. Another wacky contribution was Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) (written with the pseudonym of Otis Criblecoblis) - his last starring role in a feature-length film. Fields was a natural while portraying a hen-pecked husband, a phony, an eccentric, a windbag, a non-conformist schemer, or a pompous charlatan.

Mae West:
Another contemporary, wise-cracking, drawling performer was the bold, blowsy and flirtatious Mae West who enjoyed titillating and shocking audiences with double entendre dialogue, sexual innuendo and a desire for sex, especially before the advent of the Hays Production Code. [One of her typical lines was: "Listen, when women go wrong, men go right after them."] Mae West starred in her own films, notably as a buxom burlesque queen and singer in an 1890s saloon in She Done Him Wrong (1933), and as a circus floozy in I'm No Angel (1933). She also appeared with Fields in their only film together: My Little Chickadee (1940).

Great Films: The meaning of "A Clockwork Orange"

2010-12-01T21:27:00.000-08:00

A Clockwork Orange (1971) is producer-director-screenwriter Stanley Kubrick's randomly ultra-violent, over-indulgent, graphically-stylized film of the near future. It was a terrifying, gaudy film adaptation of Anthony Burgess' 1962 satiric, futuristic novel of the same name. This was Kubrick's ninth feature film, appearing between 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Barry Lyndon (1975).

The luridly-colorful set designs by John Barry, costume design by Milena Canonero, the synthesized electronic score by Wendy Carlos [sometimes credited as Walter Carlos - her birth name until undergoing a sex-change operation in 1972 to became Wendy], the colorful and innovative cinematography by John Alcott, and the hybrid, jargonistic, pun-filled language of Burgess' novel (called Nadsat - an onomatopoetic, expressive combination of English, Russian, and slang), produce a striking, unforgettable film. Some words are decipherable in their contextual use, or as anglicized, portmanteau, rhymed, or clever transformations or amputations of words. Originally, the rock group The Rolling Stones were considered for the main cast roles of Alex and his droogs, until Kubrick joined the production.

The controversial film's title and other names in the film have meaning. The title alludes to:

a clockwork (mechanical, artificial, robotic) human being (orange - similar to orang-utan, a hairy ape-like creature), and
the Cockney phrase from East London, "as queer as a clockwork orange" - indicating something bizarre internally, but appearing natural, human, and normal on the surface

The film's poster and tagline advertised its themes of violence in a police state, teen delinquency, technological control, and dehumanization:

Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven.

Originally rated X, A Clockwork Orange was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Screenplay, but was defeated in each category by William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971). It was one of only two movies rated X on its original release (the other was Midnight Cowboy (1969)) that was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award.

To underline the assaultive nature of the film's content, much of its camera work is deliberately in-out, with few pans or much lateral/horizontal movement. Because of the copy-cat violence that the film was blamed for, Kubrick withdrew it from circulation in Britain about a year after its release. [Shortly after the ban was instituted, a 17-year old Dutch girl was raped in 1973 in Lancashire, at the hands of men singing Singing in the Rain. And a 16-year-old boy had beaten a younger child while wearing Alex's uniform of white overalls, black bowler hat and combat boots. Both were considered 'proof', after the fact, that the film had an influential effect on violence in society.] In preparation for a new 1972 release for US audiences, Kubrick replaced about 30 seconds of footage to get an R-rating, as opposed to the X-rating that the MPAA initially assigned to it. (The replacement footage was for two scenes: the high-speed orgy scene in Alex's bedroom, and the rape scene projected at the Ludovico Medical Center.) In the spring of 2000, an uncut version of the film was re-released to British screens.

The frightening, chilling and tantalizing film (a morality play) raises many thematic questions and presents a thought-provoking parable: How can evil be eradicated in modern society? If the state can deprive an individual of his free will, making him 'a clockwork orange,' what does this say about the nightmarish, behavioral modification technologies of punishment and crime? Do we lose our humanity if we are deprived of the free-will choice between good and evil?

For more information, go to this URL: http://www.filmsite.org/cloc.html

Backstory on "A Clockwork Orange" (from Spark Notes)

2010-12-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

A Clockwork Orange takes place in a futuristic city governed by a repressive, totalitarian super-State. In this society, ordinary citizens have fallen into a passive stupor of complacency, blind to the insidious growth of a rampant, violent youth culture. The protagonist of the story is Alex, a fifteen-year-old boy who narrates in a teenage slang called nadsat, which incorporates elements of Russian and Cockney English. Alex leads a small gang of teenage criminals—Dim, Pete, and Georgie—through the streets, robbing and beating men and raping women. Alex and his friends spend the rest of their time at the Korova Milkbar, an establishment that serves milk laced with drugs, and a bar called the Duke of New York.

Alex begins his narrative from the Korova, where the boys sit around drinking. When Alex and his gang leave the bar, they go on a crime spree that involves mugging, robbery, a gang fight, auto theft, breaking and entering, and rape. The last of these crimes is particularly brutal. The boys travel to the countryside with their stolen car, break into a cottage and beat up the man inside before raping his wife while making him watch. They then head back to the Korova, where they fight with each other. Alex, who loves classical music, becomes angry at Dim when Dim mocks an opera that Alex likes. Alex punches Dim in the face, which prompts the others to turn against their arrogant leader. The next time they go out, they break into an old woman’s house. She calls the police, and before Alex can get away, Dim hits him in the eye with a chain and runs away with the others. The police apprehend Alex and take him to the station, where he later learns that the woman he beat and raped during the earlier robbery has died.

Alex is sentenced to fourteen years in prison. At first, prison is difficult for him. The guards are merciless and oppressive, and several of the other prisoners want to rape him. After a few years, though, prison life becomes easier. He befriends the prison chaplain, who notices Alex’s interest in the Bible. The chaplain lets Alex read in the chapel while listening to classical music, and Alex pores over the Old Testament, delighting in the sex, drinking, and fighting he finds in its pages.

One day, after fighting with and killing a cellmate, Alex is selected as the first candidate for an experimental treatment called Ludovico’s Technique, a form of brainwashing that incorporates associative learning. After being injected with a substance that makes him dreadfully sick, the doctors force Alex to watch exceedingly violent movies. In this way, Alex comes to associate violence with the nausea and headaches he experiences from the shot. The process takes two weeks to complete, after which the mere thought of violence has the power to make Alex ill. As an unintended consequence of the treatment, Alex can no longer enjoy classical music, which he has always associated with violence. This side effect doesn’t bother the State, which considers Alex’s successful treatment a victory for law and order and plans to implement it on a large scale.

After two years in prison, Alex is released, a harmless human being incapable of vicious acts. Soon, however, Alex finds he’s not only harmless but also defenseless, as his earlier victims begin to take revenge on him. His old friend Dim and an old enemy named Billyboy are both police officers now, and they take the opportunity to settle old scores. They drive him to a field in the country, beat him, and leave him in the rain. Looking for charity, Alex wanders to a nearby cottage and knocks on the door, begging for help. The man living there lets him in and gives him food and a room for the night. Alex recognizes him from two years ago as the man whose wife he raped, but the man does not recognize Alex, who wore a mask that night. Alex learns later in the night that the man’s wife died of shock shortly after being raped.

This man, F. Alexander, is a political dissident. When he hears Alex’s story, he thinks he can use Alex to incite public outrage against the State. He and three of his colleagues develop a plan for Alex to make several public appearances. Alex, however, is tired of being exploited for other people’s schemes. He berates the men in nadsat, which arouses the suspicion of F. Alexander, who still remembers the strange language spoken by the teenagers who raped his wife. Based on F. Alexander’s suspicion, the men change their plans. They lock Alex in an apartment and blast classical music through the wall, hoping to drive Alex to suicide so they can blame the government.

Alex does, in fact, hurl himself out of an attic window, but the fall doesn’t kill him. While he lies in the hospital, unconscious, a political struggle ensues, but the current administration survives. State doctors undo Ludovico’s Technique and restore Alex’s old vicious self in exchange for Alex’s endorsement. Back to normal, Alex assembles a new gang and engages in the same behavior as he did before prison, but he soon begins to tire of a life of violence. After running into his old friend Pete, who is now married and living a normal life, Alex decides that such a life is what he wants for himself. His final thoughts are of his future son.

A Clockwork Orange, Trailer

2010-12-01T21:11:00.001-08:00

Matte Painting Timeline

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The Early Years
1902	Georges Méliès films A Trip to the Moon, using actors in front of painted backdrops to create a fanciful journey.
1903	Edwin S. Porter directs The Great Train Robbery. Porter creates some of the first matte composites by rewinding the film in camera.
1905	Norman Dawn, commercial artist and photographer for the Thorpe Engraving Company, experiments with the glass paintings on still photographs on advice of his boss, Max Handschiegl.
1907	With The Missions of California, Norman Dawn produces the first known example of the glass shot. Using the technique to "restore" damage caused by weather to the neglected missions, he places a glass with the painted corrections between the camera and existing buildings.
1912	Edward Rogers produces what is possibly the first glass shot in England.
1913	Norman Dawn employs one of the first known uses of "rear projection" by projecting a still film image on a frosted glass plate behind an actor during photography for his western, The Drifter.
1914	Norman Dawn purchases the new Bell & Howell 2709 camera that is precise enough to do convincing multiple exposures. The camera helps Dawn to develop original negative matte painting technique.
1916	Walter Hall, the English art director of D. W. Griffith's Intolerance, develops his own method of creating the glass shot. He paints the additions to the scene on composition board, cuts them out with a beveled edge, and mounts them in front of the camera. He patented this variation of the glass shot technique, known as "The Hall Process" in 1921.
1920s
1921	Ferdinand Pinney Earle directs and paints mattes for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Paul Detlefsen assists.
1922	Walter Percy ("Pop") Day introduces the "The Hall Process" to the French film industry in Les Opprimés.
1925	Warren Newcombe becomes head of the MGM matte department. Ralph Hammeras paints mattes for The Lost World. Ferdinand P. Earle paints mattes, which include a shooting star over Bethlehem in Ben-Hur.
1927	Clarence Slifer arrives in Hollywood to become an assistant cameraman after winning a contest in Screenland magazine. Still in Paris, Percy Day uses the "The Hall Process" for Napoleon.
1928	Linwood G. Dunn joins the visual effects department at RKO.
1929	Bud Thackery and Paul Grimm paint glass shots of the ark, photographed at the Iverson Ranch for Noah's Ark.
1930s
1930	Percy Day develops his version of the latent image technique and applies it in Au Bonheur des Dames.
1933	Mario and Juan Larrinaga, Byron L. Crabbe, and Henri Hillinck paint the ominous Skull Island and views of New York City for King Kong.
1934	Returning to England, Percy Day and his assistant and stepson Peter Ellenshaw paint mattes for producer Alexander Korda. Day will head the visual effects departments at Denham Studio and later at the Shepperton Studio. Jack Cosgrove and Russell Lawson paint mattes for The Black Cat. They team up at the beginning of the 1930s, establishing headquarters at Universal, among other studios.
1935	Director Alfred Hitchcock has illustrator Fortunino Matania create a matte painting for the trap sequence at the Royal Albert Hall in The Man Who Knew Too Much.
1936	Clarence Slifer and Jack Cosgrove paint mattes for Garden of Allah—the first Technicolor film to use original negative matte paintings. Jack Cosgrove becomes head of the Selznick International visual effects department. Ray Kellogg becomes the chief matte painter at Twentieth Century Fox. Emil Kosa, Jr., is his assistant. Percy Day and assistant Peter Ellenshaw paint mattes for Things to Come.
1937	Albert Maxwell Simpson and Byron Crabbe paint mattes for The Prisoner of Zenda.
1939	Jack Cosgrove supervises and paints mattes along with Albert Maxwell Simpson, Jack Shaw, and Fitch Fulton to create the establishing shots of Scarlett's Tara and views of Atlanta under siege in Gone With the Wind. Clarence Slifer supervises matte camera effects and opticals. Chesley Bonestell paints mattes for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Only Angels Have Wings. Fred Sersen supervises and paints mattes along with Ray Kellogg on The Rains Came. Warren Newcombe and his department paint mattes for The Wizard of Oz, including one of the most famous matte shots—the Emerald City.
1940s
1940	Percy Day and assistant Peter Ellenshaw paint a fantasy world for The Thief of Bagdad. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
1941	Mario Larrinaga, Fitch Fulton, and Chesley Bonestell create a painted Xanadu for Citizen Kane.
1944	Jack Cosgrove and Clarence Slifer supervise visual effects for Since You Went Away.
1945	Warren Newcombe wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Percy Day paints old London for Henry V.
1946	After returning from five years in the RAF, Peter Ellenshaw paints mattes for A Matter of Life and Death. Percy Day heads the visual effects for the film. Les Bowie paints mattes for Great Expectations. Linwood G. Dunn leaves RKO to form his own company, Film Effects of Hollywood.
1947	Day and Ellenshaw paint Himalayan views and the monastery for Black Narcissus. Jack Cosgrove, Jack Shaw, and Spencer Bagdatopoulos paint mattes for The Paradine Case, including the Hindley Hall interiors. Clarence Slifer runs the matte camera. Percy Day, Les Bowie, and Ivor Beddoes paint mattes for the ballet dream sequence in The Red Shoes.
1948	Les Bowie paints mattes for Oliver Twist. Warren Newcombe supervises and Mark Davis introduces the Dupey repeater for a motion-control matte painting shot of New York City's Fifth Avenue in Easter Parade.
1949	Fitch Fulton, Louis Lichtenfield, and Jack Shaw paint mattes for Mighty Joe Young. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Albert Whitlock paints his first original negative matte painting for The Bad Lord Byron.
1950s
1950	Peter Ellenshaw works on his first Disney Studio film, painting mattes for Treasure Island. Destination Moon features the panoramic moonscape painting by Chesley Bonestell, who resumes his career in motion pictures after making a name for himself as a "space" illustrator in books and publications. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
1951	Lou Lichtenfield and Mark Davis use the Dupey Duplicator for the tilt-up shot on Gene Kelly's apartment in An American in Paris. Jan Domela and Chesley Bonestell paint mattes for When Worlds Collide. The film wins Gordon Jennings the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Peter Ellenshaw paints mattes for Quo Vadis?
1952	Ray Kellogg succeeds Fred Sersen as head of the visual effects department at Twentieth Century Fox. Emil Kosa, Jr., becomes chief matte painter.
1953	Jan Domela and Chesley Bonestell paint mattes for The War of the Worlds. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Emil Kosa, Jr., and assistant Matthew Yuricich paint mattes of ancient Jerusalem for The Robe.
1954	Peter Ellenshaw supervises matte work for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Disney Studio. He paints Captain Nemo's lab within a volcanic crater. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Albert Whitlock paints the film's opening titles. Russell Lawson paints mattes for This Island Earth.
1955	Effects supervisor John P. Fulton, optical technician Paul Lerpae, and matte painter Jan Domela create Pharaoh's temple in Cecil B. DeMille's remake of The Ten Commandments. Warren Newcombe supervises, and Henri Hillinck and Howard Fisher paint the landscapes and underground machinery of Altair IV in Forbidden Planet. Matthew Yuricich assists. Emil Kosa, Jr., paints mattes for The King and I.
1959	Lee LeBlanc and Matthew Yuricich paint the Circus Maximus in Ben-Hur. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Peter Ellenshaw supervises and paints mattes along with Albert Whitlock for Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Ellenshaw paints the interior caves of the Fairy Mountain. Yuricich and LeBlanc paint the Mt. Rushmore sequence for North by Northwest.
1960s
1960	At Disney Studio, Peter Ellenshaw re-creates ancient Rome for Stanley Kubrick in Spartacus.
1961	Albert Whitlock leaves Disney Studio to take over the Universal matte department from retiring department head Russell Lawson.
1963	Albert Whitlock paints a bird's-eye view of Bodega Bay for The Birds.
1964	Peter Ellenshaw supervises and paints mattes along with Jim Fetherolf on Mary Poppins. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Emil Kosa, Jr., wins an Academy Award for Visual Effects for Cleopatra. After his well-regarded work in Dr. Strangelove, Alan Maley joins Disney Studio as a matte painter.
1966	Albert Whitlock creates a tour-de-force East Berlin museum sequence featuring six back-to-back matte paintings for Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain. Emil Kosa, Jr., paints mattes for Fantastic Voyage. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Albert Simpson paints mattes for Hawaii. Peter Ellenshaw retires as head of the Disney Studio matte department and Alan Maley steps in as the new head.
1968	Emil Kosa, Jr., paints an apocalyptic Statue of Liberty for Planet of the Apes.
1969	Alan Maley and assistant Constantine Ganakes paint an idealized San Francisco for The Love Bug.
1970s
1970	Harrison Ellenshaw joins Disney Studio as Alan Maley's matte painting apprentice. Maley paints mattes for Bedknobs and Broomsticks and wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects the following year.
1973	Albert Whitlock paints mattes of old Chicago for The Sting.
1974	Alan Maley leaves the Disney Studio matte department. Harrison Ellenshaw succeeds him as department head. Albert Whitlock paints mattes for Earthquake. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Matthew Yuricich paints mattes for Young Frankenstein.
1975	Albert Whitlock paints mattes for The Hindenburg. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
1976	Matthew Yuricich paints mattes for Logan's Run. He wins the Academy Special Achievement Award the following year.
1977	Harrison Ellenshaw and Ralph McQuarrie paint mattes for Star Wars, including Death Star interiors and exteriors, as well as alien planets. Matthew Yuricich and assistant Rocco Gioffre paint mattes for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Alan Maley paints mattes for The Spy Who Loved Me.
1978	Michael Pangrazio joins Industrial Light + Magic (ILM) to work with Ralph McQuarrie. Matte painter and composite supervisor Les Bowie, and matte painters Doug Ferris, Ray Caple, assisted by Liz Lettman, create the visual effects for Superman. Bowie is awarded with a posthumous Oscar the following year.
1979	Supervisor and matte artist Harrison Ellenshaw with assistants David Mattingly and Constantine Ganakes paint mattes for The Black Hole. Peter Ellenshaw comes back from retirement to supervise the production design and the visual effects. The two Ellenshaws are among the Oscar nominees the following year. Harrison Ellenshaw leaves the Disney Studio matte department. David Mattingly becomes the new head of the department. Matthew Yuricich and Rocco Gioffre paint mattes for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Ray Caple paints mattes for Alien.
1980s
1980	Harrison Ellenshaw supervises and paints mattes along with Ralph McQuarrie and Michael Pangrazio for The Empire Strikes Back. Neil Krepela works matte camera with assistant Craig Barron. Under Alan Maley, Chris Evans is hired to work in the ILM matte department, painting mattes for Dragonslayer.
1981	Sean Joyce joins the ILM matte department. Alan Maley supervises and paints mattes along with Michael Pangrazio for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Pangrazio creates the labyrinth-like government warehouse. Neil Krepela works matte camera with assistant Craig Barron.
1982	Chris Evans creates the first digital matte painting element of clouds on the Genesis planet for Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Matthew Yuricich, Rocco Gioffre, and assistant Michelle Moen paint a dark, futuristic Los Angeles in Blade Runner. Michael Pangrazio supervises and paints mattes along with Chris Evans and Frank Ordaz for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Neil Krepela works matte camera with assistant Craig Barron. Jim Danforth paints mattes for Conan the Barbarian. Harrison Ellenshaw receives his first credit as visual effects supervisor for Tron.
1983	Matthew Yuricich is chief matte painter for Richard Edlund's Boss Film. Michael Lloyd replaces David Mattingly as head of the Disney Studio matte department. Michael Pangrazio supervises and paints mattes along with Chris Evans and Frank Ordaz for Return of the Jedi.
1984	Albert Whitlock and Syd Dutton paint mattes for Dune (with Bill Taylor on optical printer). Albert Whitlock retires. His final effects are in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. After an apprenticeship with Jim Danforth, Mark Sullivan joins Dreamquest and begins to work under Rocco Gioffre's tutelage. Michael Pangrazio supervises and paints mattes along with Chris Evans, Frank Ordaz, and Caroleen Green on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Matthew Yuricich, Michelle Moen, and Constantine Ganakes paint mattes for Ghostbusters.
1985	Chris Evans succeeds Michael Pangrazio as head of the ILM matte department. Evans adds a digital matte painting to the stained-glass knight sequence in Young Sherlock Holmes. Evans supervises and paints mattes with Caroleen Green on Cocoon. Ralph McQuarrie wins an Academy Award for Visual Effects for his conceptual design.
1986	Chris Evans supervises and paints mattes along with Frank Ordaz, Carolen Green, and Sean Joyce on Star Trek: The Voyage Home.
1987	Rocco Gioffre paints mattes for Robocop. Robert Scifo paints mattes for Predator.
1988	Chris Evans supervises and paints mattes along with Michael Pangrazio, Caroleen Green, and Sean Joyce for Willow. Evans's work is nominated for an Academy Award. Matthew Yuricich paints mattes for Die Hard. Doug Ferris, Joy Cuff, Bob Cuff, and Leigh Took paint mattes for The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
1989	Craig Barron and Michael Pangrazio form Matte World (later Matte World Digital). Pangrazio is senior matte artist. Mark Sullivan paints mattes for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
1990s
1990	Chris Evans joins Matte World. Harrison Ellenshaw, Michael Lloyd, Michele Moen, and Paul Lasaine paint mattes for Dick Tracy. Peter Ellenshaw comes out of retirement to help out. Mark Sullivan, Yusei Uesugi, and Caroleen Green paint mattes for Akira Kurosawa's Dreams. Wade Childress works the matte camera. For Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Yusei Uesugi manipulates his traditional matte paintings in the computer to create a pullback shot of parked airplanes in the snow.
1992	Francis Ford Coppola asks Matte World to create traditional, original-negative matte paintings of Dracula's castle for Bram Stoker's Dracula.
1994	Mark Sullivan paints mattes inspired by film noir for The Hudsucker Proxy.
1995	At Matte World Digital, Craig Barron supervises while Chris Evans, Paul Rivera, Morgan Trotter, and consultant Stuart Feldman introduce the radiosity technique for Martin Scorsese's Casino. Bruce Walters supervises; Chris Evans, Brian Flora, and Craig Mullins create digital matte shots for 500 Nations, a television documentary.
1997	Chris Evans paints Matte World Digital's last traditional matte painting, of the Carpathia rescue ship for Titanic.
1998	Deak Ferrand, Rocco Gioffre, Syd Dutton, Caroleen Green, and Michael Lloyd paint mattes for What Dreams May Come. Chris Evans and Brett Northcutt create digital mattes of a fictitious seaside resort for The Truman Show.
Today
2000	Ridley Scott's visual effects company, Mill Film Ltd., re-creates ancient Rome in Gladiator. John Nelson, supervises; David Early is the lead digital matte artist. The film wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

The Art of Matte Paintings

2010-11-23T20:24:00.000-08:00

Matte painting is a visual effects process which combines 3D rendering in programs such as 3DSMax, Maya, and Fusion, along with hand-painted and photostock elements to create a seamless visual environment. For feature films, this matte painting environment is then used along with camera techniques to composite the actors into a virtual 3D scene while maintaining natural lighting and realistic environments. Matte paintings have been used in many films, from the Wizard of Oz, all the way up to James Cameron’s smash hit, Avatar.

The government warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) was painted on glass by Michael Pangrazio at Industrial Light & Magic, and combined with live-action footage of a government worker, pushing his cargo up the center aisle.

Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image (such as actors on a set, or a spaceship) with a background image (a scenic vista, a field of stars and planets). In this case, the matte is the background painting. In film and stage, mattes can be physically huge sections of painted canvas, portraying large scenic expanses of landscapes.

In film, the principle of a matte requires masking certain areas of the film emulsion to selectively control which areas are exposed. However, many complex special-effects scenes have included dozens of discrete image elements, requiring very complex use of mattes, and layering mattes on top of one another.

For an example of a simple matte, we may wish to depict a group of actors in front of a store, with a massive city and sky visible above the store's roof. We would have two images—the actors on the set, and the image of the city—to combine onto a third. This would require two masks/mattes. One would mask everything above the store's roof, and the other would mask everything below it. By using these masks/mattes when copying these images onto the third, we can combine the images without creating ghostly double-exposures. In film, this is an example of a static matte, where the shape of the mask does not change from frame to frame.

Other shots may require mattes that change, to mask the shapes of moving objects, such as human beings or spaceships. These are known as traveling mattes. Traveling mattes enable greater freedom of composition and movement, but they are also more difficult to accomplish. Bluescreen techniques, originally invented by Petro Vlahos, are probably the best-known techniques for creating traveling mattes, although rotoscoping and multiple motion control passes have also been used in the past.
Mattes are a very old technique, going back to the Lumière brothers. A good early American example is seen in The Great Train Robbery (1903) where it is used to place a train outside a window in a ticket office, and later a moving background outside a baggage car on a train 'set'.

History

Originally, the matte shot was created by filmmakers obscuring their backgrounds with cut-out cards. When the live action portion of a scene was filmed, the background portion of the film wasn’t exposed. Once the live action was filmed, a different cut-out would be placed over the live action. The film would be rewound, and the filmmakers would film their new background. This technique was known as the in-camera matte, and was considered more a novelty than a serious special effect during the late 1880s.^[1]

Around this time, another technique known as the glass shot was also being used. The glass shot was made by painting details on a piece of glass which was then combined with live action footage to create the appearance of elaborate sets. The first glass shots are credited to Edgar Rogers.^[1]

The first major development of the matte shot was the early 1900s by a man named Norman Dawn (ASC). Dawn had seamlessly woven glass shots into many of his films: such as the crumbling California Missions in the movie Missions of California^[2], and used the glass shot to revolutionize the in-camera matte. Now, instead of taking their live action footage to a real location, filmmakers would shoot the live action as before with the cut-out cards in place, then rewind the film and transfer it to a camera designed to minimize vibrations. Then the filmmakers would shoot a glass shot instead of a live action background. The resulting composite was of fairly high quality, since the matte line – the place of transition from the live action to the painted background – was much less jumpy. In addition, the new in-camera matte was much more cost effective, as the glass didn’t have to be ready the day the live action was shot. One downside to this method was that since the film was exposed twice, there was always the risk of accidentally overexposing the film and ruining the footage filmed earlier.
The in-camera matte shot remained in use until the film stock began to go up in quality in the 1920s. During this time a new technique known as the bi-pack camera method was developed. This was similar to the in-camera matte shot, but relied on one master positive as a backup. This way if anything was lost, the master would still be intact.

Around 1925 another method of making a matte was developed. One of the drawbacks of the old mattes was that the matte line was stationary. There could be no direct contact between the live action and the matte background. The traveling matte changed that. The traveling matte was like an in-camera or bi-pack matte, except that the matte line changed every frame. Filmmakers could use a technique similar to the bi-pack method to make the live action portion a matte itself, allowing them to move the actors around the background and scene – integrating them completely.

The matte shot stayed relatively the same after the development of traveling matte. In about mid-1980s, advancements in computer graphics programs allowed matte painters to work in the digital realm. The first digital matte shot was created by painter Chris Evans in 1985 for Young Sherlock Holmes for a scene featuring a computer-graphics (CG) animation of a knight leaping from a stained-glass window. Evans first painted the window in acrylics, then scanned the painting into LucasFilm’s Pixar system for further digital manipulation. The computer animation blended perfectly with the digital matte, something a traditional matte painting could not have accomplished.^[3]

Technique

In-camera matte shot

The in-camera matte shot, also known as the Dawn Process^[4] is created by first mounting a piece of glass in front of the camera. Black paint is applied to the glass where the background will be replaced. The actors are then filmed with minimal sets. The director shoots several minutes of extra footage to be used as test strips. The matte painter then develops a test strip (with the blacked out areas in the shot) and projects a frame of the 'Matted' shot onto the easel mounted glass. This test footage clip is used as the reference to paint the background or scenery to be matted in on a new piece of glass. The live action part of the glass is painted black, more of the test footage is then exposed to adjust and confirm color matching and edge line up. Then the critical parts of the matted live action scene (with the desired actions and actors in place) are threaded up for burning the painted elements into the black areas. The flat black paint put on the glass blocks light from the part of the film it covers, preventing double exposure over the latent live action scenes from occurring.

Bi-pack process

To begin a bipack matte filming, the live action portion is shot. The film is loaded and projected onto a piece of glass that has been painted first black, then white.^[5] The matte artist decides where the matte line will be and traces in on the glass, then paints in the background or scenery to be added. Once the painting is finished the matte artist scrapes away the paint on the live action portions of the glass.^[5] The original footage and a clean reel are loaded into the bi-pack with the original threaded so it passes the shutter in front of the clean tape. The glass is lit from behind, so that when the reels are both run, only the live action is transferred to the clean tape. The reel of original footage is then removed and a piece of black cloth is placed behind the glass. The glass is lit from the front and the new reel is rewound and run again. The black cloth prevents the already exposed footage from being exposed a second time; the background scenery has been added to the live action.

References

^ ^a ^b The Saga of Special Effects, Fry and Fourzon, pp. 22-23
^ The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting by Mark Cotta Vaz and Craig Barron, Chronicle Books, 2002; p. 33
^ The Invisible Art, Cotta Vaz/Barron, pp. 213, 217
^ (3)http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/digital-matte-painter1.htm
^ ^a ^b How Movies Work – Bruce F. Kawin pg 424-425

Scene from "Tom Jones" with Albert Finney

2010-11-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are all as God made us ... and many much worse...

This illustrates the power of food... and other things

Upcoming...

2010-11-20T10:38:00.001-08:00

Example of camera movement: The Tracking Shot

2010-11-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is a tracking shot that was used by Orson Welles for "Touch of Evil." There is no edit in this shot, which makes it unusual for its continuous movement.

How to do make-up effects on the cheap...

2010-11-20T10:05:00.000-08:00

For those of you into film effects, check out the following You Tube series: The Indy Mogul-Backyard FX. For those into Harry Potter, I have uploaded the following tutorial:

Backyard FX: Harry Potter Voldemort Make-up : BFX : Build

Waking Sleeping Beauty, Trailer

2010-11-20T09:45:00.001-08:00

The Pixar Story - Part 8(End+Credits)

2010-11-20T09:14:00.002-08:00

The Pixar Story - Part 7 of 8

2010-11-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

The Pixar Story - Part 6 of 8

2010-11-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

The Pixar Story - Part 5 of 8

2010-11-20T09:12:00.001-08:00

The Pixar Story - Part 4 of 8

2010-11-20T09:11:00.002-08:00

The Pixar Story - Part 3 of 8

2010-11-20T09:11:00.000-08:00

The Pixar Story - Part 2 of 8

2010-11-20T09:10:00.001-08:00

The Pixar Story, Part 1 of 8

2010-11-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

Background on the film can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1059955/

Computer Animation & Pixar

2010-11-20T09:06:00.000-08:00

American Musicals on Film

2010-10-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

The Greatest Musical Ever:
By most accounts, the greatest musical ever produced (co-directed by Kelly and Donen and produced by Freed), a comic, satirical spoof of the dawn of the Hollywood sound era, was MGM's Singin' In The Rain (1952). It included Kelly's now-classic solo dance of the title song in the rain, Donald O'Connor's energetic, acrobatic, slapstick dance/song "Make 'Em Laugh," the Kelly/O'Connor duet of "Moses Supposes," and a remarkable "Broadway Melody" ballet sequence in the finale (with Kelly dancing with Cyd Charisse). It is one of Hollywood's best-loved films, with Kelly as silent film star Don Lockwood, and Jean Hagen as dumb, squeaky-voiced actress Lina Lamont, but it was ignored by the Academy Awards (with only two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Jean Hagen, and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture). The film's setting was during the disruptive transitional period between silent films and the coming of the talkies. It captured the confusion caused by the introduction of talking-film technology in Hollywood, and its often disastrous effects upon silent era performers.

The Seventh Seal: Approaches and critique

2010-09-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

Lost faith. Set during a single day in the Middle Ages, the film concerns the philosophical quandary of a knight (Max Von Sydow) who is traveling home to his wife and his castle in Sweden after a decade of fighting in the Crusades. The Knight's earthy squire, Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand), still prays daily, but Von Sydow himself has lost his faith in God, having witnessed too much war, superstition, and the ravages of the currently rampant Black Plague.

Playing with Death. While he travels, he is visited by Death (Bengt Ekerot), who has arrived to take both knight and squire to their end. Von Sydow, however, convinces Ekerot to play him a game of chess: if Von Sydow loses he'll go with Ekerot; if he wins, Ekerot will leave without him. Ekerot agrees, noting that he never loses, at anything.

As the two play their game, Von Sydow quizzes Ekerot on the existence of God, but is met merely with a shrug and silence on this point, frustrating the Crusader, who wishes this knowledge above all else before he dies. Play is interrupted while the Knight continues on his journey and for Ekerot to go about his work, bringing even more virulent plague to decimate the area. Meanwhile, he continues to stymie Von Sydow's metaphysical questions.

Traveling players. Also traveling through the country is a group of players who specialize in religious tableaux. These include Jof (popular Swedish stage comedian Nils Poppe, in his dramatic debut), a juggler who has visions of the Virgin Mary; his wife, Mia (Bibi Andersson), with whom he has a small child; and Jonas Skat (Erik Strandmark). Strandmark, a womanizer, seduces the wife of a blacksmith (Ake Fridell) and leaves with her while the smith is watching the players' performance.

Later, Bjornstrand discovers Raval (Bertil Anderberg)—the man who originally convinced Von Sydow to fight for Christendom in the Holy Land, now himself an atheist—as he is looting the bodies of plague victims and attempting to rape a young girl (Gunnel Lindblom). Chased away by Bjornstrand, Anderberg goes to a local pub, where he and the cuckholded Fridell threaten the simple-minded Poppe, forcing him at knifepoint to stand on his head, jump on a table, and dance like a bear. Bjornstrand enters, cuts Anderberg's face with his knife, and takes Poppe with him away from the inn. Later Von Sydow comes to the actors' campsite, where he is given strawberries to eat by the kind Poppe and Andersson, and briefly forgets his own despair.

Journey resumes. The Seventh SealJoined by Fridell, Poppe, Andersson, their baby, and Lindblom, Von Sydow and the squire continue on their journey. So does Ekerot, strewing sickness across the land. Survivors whip themselves so that God will spare them, hoping to atone for their sins through self-flagellation.

Couple's reunion. When Von Sydow and his company meet the rake Strandmark and the smith's wife, the actor and the smith square off, apparently ready to fight to the death over the woman. However, both men back off. Strandmark then fakes his own suicide, reuniting the married couple.

Helpless against death. Afterwards, Ekerot comes and puts an end to Strandmark in earnest. The rest continue on, and come across a woman who is being burned as a witch. They try to save her, but cannot. Traveling on, they find Anderberg dying of the plague and again can do nothing to help.

Ongoing game. Meanwhile, the Knight is losing his ongoing game of chess with Ekerot, so he kicks over the board before his opponent can take his queen. Confused, Ekerot hurries to find the scattered chess pieces. Poppe and Andersson race away. Von Sydow and Bjornstrand travel on to his castle, where Von Sydow's wife (Inga Landgre) waits for him. Ekerot follows them, entering the castle as the Knight prays to God for mercy, while his Lady reads from Revelations (from which the film's title quotes).

Death's triumph. In the morning, Poppe, Andersson, and their baby have been spared; the plague has passed them. Poppe looks up to see Ekerot leading Von Sydow, Bjornstrand, Fridell and his wife, Anderberg, and Gunnel Lindblom in a dance across the crest of a hill, the figures silhouetted hand-in-hand in a chain against the dawn sky.
Critique

Over the years The Seventh Seal, long hailed as a masterpiece of cinema, has suffered a decline in its reputation (more generally, Bergman's place in the pantheon of great filmmakers is increasingly questioned). However, there can be no doubt that the film's imagery is among the most memorable ever put on screen—even if one questions the profundity of Bergman's speculations on the nature of good and evil, God and the Devil, his image of Death wandering the countryside remains unforgettable. The quality of the acting is very high, especially the performances of Poppe and Bjornstrand.

A spontaneous death danceSpontaneous death dance. The famous, final dance of death was spontaneously created: Bergman had finished the day's shooting when he saw a beautiful cloud in the sky, and, unwilling to let the image go unfilmed, hurriedly got crew members to dress in the costumes of the already-departed actors and form the silhouetted procession. The scene was shot in just a few minutes, without rehearsal.

Reviews and Links

* Analysis of The Seventh Seal from Film & the Critical Eye by Dennis DeNitto and William Herman. (http://course1.winona.edu/pjohnson/h140/seal.htm)

Read a full analysis here: http://course1.winona.edu/pjohnson/h140/seal2.htm
or
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2528063/analysis_of_ingmar_bergmans_the_seventh.html?cat=40
or
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/nholland/7thseal.htm
or
http://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/seventhseal.asp

Questions for discussion:

1. How do the Knight and the Squire complement and contrast each other? In the film's opening sequences, what in particular suggests the contrast between the two? What specific methods account for their divergent characterizations? And how do the characters function as part of a larger allegory about Christianity and existentialism? Critics have called The Seventh Seal a film of contrasts: illusion versus reality, nature vs. man, skepticism vs. faith, emotions vs. intellect, courage vs. cowardice, selfishness vs. compassion, lust vs. love. Explain how any one of these contrasts is a theme in the film, citing particular scenes as examples.
2. In a classical narrative such as this, complications result in conflicts which are ultimately resolved. What conflicts (internal, external) are resolved in the film, and what do the resolutions mean?
3. What does the Knight come to learn, accept, or understand in the "wild strawberry scene" with Jof and Mia? How does this knowledge affect subsequent events in the film? What events occur as a direct result of Death's discovery of the Knight's chess strategy? What does the Knight finally achieve through the chess match?
4. What are some of the Knight's theological and philosophical questions raised early in the film? Which of the Knight's questions are addressed and answered in the film, and how?
5. John C. Stubbs has written that "much of Bergman's strength comes from his ability to dramatize his scenes in visual compositions that are striking and often shocking.... [For example,] high contrasts between dark shadows and brightly lit areas." What are some shots, sequences, or scenes that were lit in such a particularly effective way? What effect did the lighting of each have on the viewer?

Additional Links:
http://www.decentfilms.com/reviews/seventhseal.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/

http://www.criterion.com/films/173-the-seventh-seal

http://www.moviemartyr.com/1957/seventhseal.htm

http://bergmanorama.webs.com/films/seventh_seal.htm

http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/bergman_seventh_seal.htm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574570241403362 078.html

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seventh_seal/

Anthony Hopkins remembers "The Lion in Winter"

2010-09-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Upcoming class discussion:

Katharine Hepburn: The Lion in Winter ("It's 1183") Monologue

Peter O'Toole: The Lion in Winter ("I Deny You!") Monologue

DE DUVA (The Dove) - 1968

2010-09-26T10:02:00.001-07:00

Discovering Madeline Kahn

2010-09-26T09:55:00.001-07:00