History Film Test

1
General Questions on Readings and Lecture. Short Answer. 2 points each. 15 Questions. 30
points. *Write neatly. Refer specifically to the story events and the styles used in the films.
1
In the article on Bicycle Thieves “The Resilience of Neorealism” (Geiger & Rutsky, 423-437), the
author states that the power of the film lies “not in any broad narrative sweep, but in the accumulation
of psychological, social, and visual detail…” (433). Please give an example of this “accumulation” from
the film in 2-3 sentences.
2
In Bicycle Thieves, what is the significance of the edit involving the trolley car, in the opening
scene involving Ricci and the man who brings him over from the fire hydrant, as they walk to
the Staircase where the jobs are distributed?
3
What kind of overall experience does the directional POV editing in Bicycle Thieves provide for
the viewer?
4
What effect does the use of dissolves have in Spring in A Small Town?
5
What contrast is presented to the viewer between the use of Yuwan’s voiceover, and shots of
the exterior walls, in Spring in A Small Town? (Think of subjectivity and objectivity.)
6
2
In the article “Home and Nation Amid the Rubble: Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town" and Jia
Zhangke's" Still Life", by Jie Li, this quote appears:
“Given the melodramatic plot, critics have used the classical expression "borne of emotions,
limited by propriety" (fa hu qing, zhi hu li) to encapsulate the theme of this film, tracing its
poetics to the tradition of boudoir song lyrics associated with images of women and love.”
Please comment in 2-3 sentences on how “emotion limited by propriety” is manifest in the
film.

7
In the essay “Rear Window Ethics” (Geiger & Rutsky, page 518-538), the author notes that “Jeff
cannot see clearly enough on his own, and as a result enlists the help of some mechanical
devices as visual aids, which become visual extensions or prostheses.”. How does this quote
relate to the idea that Rear Windows is a self-reflexive film about film viewing?
8
Please comment on the film Rear Window, concerning this observation: Jeff wants to know
about Thorwald’s desire to be rid of his wife.
What does this have to do with Jeff’s attitude about his life, about his subplot with Lisa, and
about the way Lisa gets involved in Jeff’s home-made investigation of the crime?
9
What happened to the Hollywood film Industry after the court case: United States versus
Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948)?
3
10
With regards to How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, what does the word “anthropophagy”
mean and what is its (great) significance in the story?
11
Richard Peña wrote this in his article How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman: “In the documents
and “official histories” of the colonial past, the focus is always clearly on the acts and deeds of
the white, European Colonizers, presumed to be the ancestors of present-day Brazil. It is an
easy assumption that the film wishes to challenge (193).”
Give examples of how the film challenges Eurocentric narratives.
12
How does How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman refer to the construction of the Trans-
Amazonian highway in Brazil in the 1970s? To the dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s?
4
13
Name the theory espoused by French film critics and filmmakers which proposes that directors
may be viewed as artists when you can detect a signature style in films that they have made in
different genres? Also- what is the Cahiers du Cinema? What is this movement of filmmakers
called?
14
Are the interview sections in the film Vagabond real or staged? Why do you think so?
15
What visual elements stand out to you from Agnes Varda’s film Vagabond? Be detailed and
refer to mis-en-scene and cinematography.
5
Latin American Film Manifestos- 3.33 points each. 10 points.
Identify the title, author and country for each essay quoted below (see the options listed below,
and choose your answers from these options):
1
“Cinema Novo teaches us that an aesthetics of violence, before being primitive, is
revolutionary. It is the moment when the colonizer becomes aware of the colonized: only
when confronted with the sole possibility of expression of the colonized, violence, can the
colonizer understand, through horror, the strength of the culture he exploits. As long as he
does not take up arms, the colonized man remains a slave…”
Manifesto Title:___________ Author Name(s):___________ Country:_____________
2
A new poetics for the cinema will, above all, be a "partisan" and "committed" poetics, a
"committed" art, a consciously and resolutely "committed" cinema — that is
to say, an "imperfect" cinema. An "impartial" or "uncommitted" (cinema), as a complete
aesthetic activity, will only be possible when it is the people who make art.
3
“[This] …cinema is, in our opinion, the cinema that recognizes in that struggle the most gigantic
cultural, scientific, and artistic manifestation of our time, the great possibility of constructing a
liberated personality with each people as the starting point – in a word, the decolonization of
culture.”
Answer Options
Glauber Rocha
Aesthetics of Hunger Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino
Imperfect Cinema Julio Garcia Espinosa
Third Cinema
Brazil
Argentina
Cuba
6
One Essay Questions. 60 Points total.
I.
Consideration of Five Films as Regards Classic Hollywood Style. 60 points
Which elements do you identify as significant (salient) for experience of each film?
How did these salient elements serve to focus your experience as a viewer? Intensely?
Diffusely?
Your discussion should include commentary on patterning in some, but not all, of the following:
cause and effect and narrative “hooks” between scenes, continuity editing, mis-en-scene,
cinematography, character objectivity/subjectivity, other graphic elements like movement and
frame, and the use of sound. An average of 5-7 sentences for each film.
Bicycle Thieves (Protagonist: Ricci, the Father)
Spring in a Small Town (Protagonist: Yuwan, the Wife)

7
Rear Window (Protagonist: “Jeff” Jefferies, the man in the wheelchair)
How Tasty Was my Little Frenchman (Protagonist: Jean, the Frenchman)
Vagabond (Protagonist: Mona, the woman who travels)

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1

Latin American Film Manifestos- 3.33 points each. 10 points.

Manifesto Title:_____ Author Name(s):_ Country:_________

Manifesto Title:_____ Author Name(s):_ Country:_________

Manifesto Title:_____ Author Name(s):_ Country:_________

One Essay Questions. 60 Points total.

Bicycle Thieves (Protagonist: Ricci, the Father)

Spring in a Small Town (Protagonist: Yuwan, the Wife)

Rear Window (Protagonist: “Jeff” Jefferies, the man in the wheelchair)

How Tasty Was my Little Frenchman (Protagonist: Jean, the Frenchman)

Vagabond (Protagonist: Mona, the woman who travels)

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