Hollywood vs HollyŁódź

The American Perception?

The Hollywood Studio System:• Movies as products of capitalism

• An industry (vertical integration model)

• Proven product formulas that appeal to mass audiences (mysteries, romantic comedies, western)

• Studios had corporate control over actors, writers, directors

• Star-centric

• Conventional linear narratives that are resolved

• Directors as managing employees versus autuers

• Artificial studios, sets, lighting, etc.

• Aesthetic of pretense

• Fabricated the mythology of America (in lieu of history)

Eastern & Central European Cinema:• Products of a socialistic system

• Soviet Socialist Realism (Soviet Writer’s Conference 1934)

• Directors trained in government films schools (documentaries)

• Film as art, propaganda and entertainment

• Must be “accessible” to the masses (no experimentation or “modernism’)

• Government censorship

• Like Hollywood, used montage editing to manipulate audiences (Pavlov, Eisenstein)

• The Soviet Thaw (1955-1965): emergence of the auteur

• Since 1989: invasion of Hollywood, artistic freedom

Eastern & Central European Cinema:• Products of a socialistic system

• Soviet Socialist Realism (Soviet Writer’s Conference 1934)

• Directors trained in government films schools (documentaries)

• Film as art, propaganda and entertainment

• Must be “accessible” to the masses (no experimentation or “modernism’)

• Government censorship

• Like Hollywood, used montage editing to manipulate audiences (Pavlov, Eisenstein)

• The Soviet Thaw (1955-1965): emergence of the auteur

• Since 1989: invasion of Hollywood, artistic freedom

“Of all the arts, for us cinema

is the most important.”

--Lenin

The great auteurs of Western & Eastern Europe rebelled against both the Hollywood model and the principles of Soviet Socialist Realism.

The Hollywood Studio System:

• Rapid montage editing (frequently used)

• Example #1

• Example #2

• Example #3

• Long-takes (rarely used)

• Example #1

• Example #2

Hollywood vs HollyŁódź:

• In what ways do Hollywood films reflect the bedrock values and beliefs of America?

• How have American history and culture helped to shape Hollywood—and vice versa?

• How has Hollywood help to shape our national and personal identities?

Hollywood vs HollyŁódź:

• Our aesthetics have been socially constructed

• Our brains have become “hard-wired” and saturated by hyperreality (visual overload)

• We have bought into the Hollywood view of the world (the mythology of America)

• We experience cultural shock when we view foreign films

Your viewing experience:

• How did you feel watching the film?

• What bothered you?

• What made it “different” from a Hollywood film?

HollyŁódź:

Oppression of the individual

No middle class

Struggle for survival

Distrust of all governments

Pursuit of tolerable dignified existence

Wars happen here

Film as mirror of harsh existence

Not many happy endings

“Dark, somber, ironic, existential”

Hollywood

“It’s all about me”

Star-centric

Obsession with status, personal freedoms

America is the greatest

Pursuit of happiness

Wars happen elsewhere

Film as spectacle

Formula, “happy-ending” plots

Aesthetic of pretense

Krzystof Kieslowski (1941-1996)

• University of Łódź Film School

1970s-80s• Socialist documentaries

1980s• Films critical of Communism• The Decalogue

1990s• The Double Life of Veronique• Tricolors Trilogy (Blue, White, Red)

Krzystof Kieslowski (1941-1996)

Captures the fundamental questions that Eastern and Central European nations continue to wrestle with:

• Old values versus new?• Polish identity and history:

- Centuries of oppression- Nazi occupation and holocaust- Soviet rule

• Pan-European secular values• Capitalism or socialism?• Alignment with Moscow, US or EU?

Krzystof Kieslowski (1941-1996)

• His career parallels the evolution of Poland

• Middle career: Focus on the psychological baggage of the average Pole, still tormented by the tragedies of the past (Hitler and Stalin), clinging to Catholicism, distrustful of all authority, little hope for the future

• Late career:“Prophet of secular humanism in the new Europe”

Europeans Who Believe in God

The map shows the results of a Eurobarometer poll conducted in 2005. [http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf Available here].

The Decalogue:

•“Chaos and disorder ruled Poland in the mid-1980s.”—KK

•“10 films about lost, broken people, struggling for meaning, still burdened by the past, losing faith in the Solidarity movement, oppressed by martial law, unsure about the future.”--KS

•“Now, in my work, I’ve thrown aside the external world…and deal with people who come home, lock the door on the inside and remain alone with themselves.” -- KK

The Decalogue (1988):

•Poland in a state of moral crisis and transition

•Films made in Poland

Tricolors Trilogy:

•Hope for a new Europe