lunes, 12 de noviembre de 2007

"Night mail" (B.Wright y H.Watt, 1936)

Night Mail es un documental de la General Post Office, sobre el tren que va de Londres a Glasgow . El director de sonido es Alberto Cavalcanti. Dura 30 minutos. Ésta es secuencia final, la más famosa, donde se escucha en off un poema de W.H.Auden

"Listen to Britain" Humphrey Jennings (1942)

lunes, 5 de noviembre de 2007

Jezabel (William Wyler, 1938)

"Parece que fue ayer" (Only yesterday, John M. Stahl, 1933)

La usurpadora (Back Street, John M. Stahl, 1932)

Serie de Tarzan (collage)

Gunga Din (George Stvens, 1939)

Y el mundo marcha (The Crowd, King vidor, 1928)

The Crowd (1928) is a genuine, immortal, timeless American silent film masterpiece from director King Vidor, whose earlier big WWI epic The Big Parade (1925) had been a major box-office hit for MGM studios. This experimental, social commentary film, with a screenplay by King Vidor and John V.A. Weaver, was remarkably different from other feature films of its time because of its non-Hollywoodish reflection of daily life. [A record of sorts, it was the first US feature film to show a bathroom with a toilet bowl.]With a novice actor (James Murray) in the lead role, the film was simply a realistic, bittersweet drama of the existence of an ordinary common and average American (an Everyman prototype embodied in a white-collar worker) trying to make it with his wife in the monolithic big city - but without any maudlin sentimentality, extreme passion, exploitation of romance, or escapist melodrama. Reality intrudes as he experiences cramped living conditions, a boring job, and a limited life with regret and bitterness, rather than what he had expected.Vidor's natural and uncompromising film tells the episodic, poignant story of the working and domestic life of an average, commonplace man in 'the crowd' - John - with his wife Mary (played exquisitely by the director's real-life wife), chronicling their meeting, courtship, marriage, and family life. The director also cast a virtual unknown newcomer to the role of the husband in his candid view of the average man - a character lost in the midst of the faceless masses. The film's director refused to pass judgment on the harsh realities of life for the workaday couple, either by condemning or celebrating the gloom of the bleak tragedy befalling them. Instead, he visually and eloquently captured their believable human struggle as they lived their unidealized lives and confronted disappointing setbacks, the tragic death of their daughter, dashed hopes and brief triumphs, and eventually found comfort in the anonymity of the masses, watching an unfunny theatrical clown act. To capture the authenticity of the city, the director sometimes used a 'hidden camera' in his on-location shoots in New York. Stylistically, the film, in various places, resembles the German expressionist films of F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, although it also uses fluid and natural camera movements. King Vidor received an Academy Award nomination as Best Director, and the film itself was nominated as Best Unique and Artistic Picture in a short-lived award category. Six years later, Vidor independently produced and directed a 'talkie' sequel to The Crowd (intended as part of a film trilogy) titled Our Daily Bread (1934) - it was a Depression-Era, hard-times social drama about an idealistic man who was running a farm cooperative organized as a socialistic society - in the country away from the crowd.

The River trailer (Pare Lorentz, 1937)

The Plow that broke the plains trailer (Pare Lorentz, 1936)

lunes, 15 de octubre de 2007

El cine cubista de Fernand Léger


Fernand Léger sólo realizó una película, "Ballet Mécanique", en 1924. Es considerada la única película verdaderamente cubista. El proyecto surgió a partir de su encuentro con un joven operador norteamericano llamado Dudley Murphy, que actuó como técnico. También colaboró el famoso fotógrafo Man Ray, quie se ocupó sobre todo de los exteriores.
Mediante el montaje, Léger explora los ritmos y combinaciones de formas "reales", que a menudo pierden su carácter de tal para convertirse en meras determinaciones dinámicas (Sánchez Vidal)

ballet mecanique original 1924

"Ballet mécanique", de Fernand Léger (1924)

Viking Eggeling y la abstracción fílmica


El pintor sueco Viking Eggeling (1880-1925) comenzó en 1918 en los estudios de la UFA su colaboración con el alemán Hans Richter, dibujando entre 1920 y 1921 los rollos que le permitirían, mediante 6.720 "pinturas", lograr los 7 minutos de su única película "Sinfonía Diagonal", cuyos movimientos están orquestados a través de su flujo visual (Sánchez Vidal).

Symphonie Diagonale by Viking Eggeling

"Symphonie Diagonale" de Viking Eggeling (1924)

Manhatta

"Manhatta" de Paul Strand y Charles Sheeler (1921)

Un documental de Paul Strand (1921)


En 1921, Paul Strand rodó junto a Charles Sheeler el cortometraje documental "Manhatta" (sic). Se trata de una City Simphony. Este subgénero, fue definido por Moholy Nagy como "una investigación sobre lo fílmico que atiende más alcontexto asociativo espacio-temporal de la ciudad que a cualquier nexo lógico". Esa orquestación visual arroja resultados de gran interés al coordinar el desplazamiento de la cámara con el movimiento dentro del encuadre, el de las luces y las sombras con las masas y volúmenes, o con el ritmo de las líneas (Sánchez Vidal).
En España, el profesor Rafael Llano es uno de los máximos expertos en Paul Strand (fotógrafo y cineasta).