FILM 2154 Study Guide - Final Guide: Rick Deckard, Dark Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy
Exam 3 Review Sheet: History of World Cinema II
FILMS TO BE COVERED:
THE CONFORMIST
• Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
• Based on 1951 novel The Conformist by Alberto Moravia
• Coproduction of Italian, French, and West German film companies
• Makes use of the 1930s art and décor associated with the Fascist era the middle-class drawing
rooms and the huge halls of the ruling elite
• Film opens with Marcello Clerici finalizing his plans to assassinate his former college professor,
Luca Quadri
• Through flashbacks, he is seen discussing with Itaio, a blind friend, his plans to marry, his
attempts to join the fascist police, and his visits to his morphine addicted mother at the family’s
villa and his father at the insane asylum
• One flashback, Marcello is seen as a boy in WWI finding himself isolated by his family’s wealth.
His chauffer, Lino, makes sexual advances on him one day and he shoots him with a pistol.
• Another flashback, he is seen confessing sins to a priest; such as homosexual experience with
Lino, the consequent murder, premarital sex, and his absence of guilt for these sins.
• Ordered to kill his professor who is an anti-fascist intellectual now living in exile in France.
While visiting France, falls in love with the professor’s wife and actively pursues her.
• Professor’s wife sees her husband get murdered, then runs off into the woods where Marcello
sees her get shot and killed as well.
• Ending takes place during the fall of the Mussolini dictatorship, and Marcello now has a small
child and conventional lifestyle. On the streets on day with his blind friend Itaio, he sees two men
talking and realizes one of them is Lino, the chauffer who attempted to sexual abuse him as a
child. He then publically announces Lino as a homosexual and his friend Itaio; then the crowd
sweeps past taking them both.
• Marcello is then left alone, as he spurned his former friend. He then looks at the young man Lino
was previously talking with
Chinatown (1974)
• American Neo-Noir mystery film directed by Roman Polanski
• Neo-Noir = modern/contemporary motion picture based on film noir- which is applied to crime
movies of the 1940s-1950s. These were usually dark movies with sinister and shadowy
cinematography. Neo, is a version of this that includes blurring the lines between good and bad,
right or wrong, motive and revenge, and emotion as a whole.
• Starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway
• Movie was inspired by the California water wars- a series of disputes over southern California
water in the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in
the Owens Valley
o Based on Irish Immigrant William Mulholland, the superintendent and chief engineer of
the LA department of water and power. He oversaw the construction of the 230-mile
aqueduct that carries water from the Owens Valley to LA
Plot
• A woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray hires a private investigator J.J Gittes to surveil
her husband, Hollis Mulwray- a chief engineer for the LA department of Water and Power.
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Exam 3 Review Sheet: History of World Cinema II
• Gittes follows Hollis, and shoots photos of him with a young woman; which ar elater published
on the front page of the newspaper.
• Back at his office, Gittes is confronted by a woman who says she is the real Evelyn Mulwray, and
that he can expect a lawsuit
• Realizing he was set up, Gittes assume that Hollis is the real target. Before he can question him,
he finds that Hollis has drowned
• Under retainer to Mrs. Mulwray, Gittes investigate his suspicion of murder and finds that huge
quantities of water are being released from the reservoir each night.
• While investigating, Gittes gets warned off by the Water Department Security Chief Claude
Mulvihill
• Gittes then gets a call from a woman identifying herself as the imposter Mrs. Mulwray- telling
him that she is afraid to identify her employer but tell Gittes to check the days obituaries
o He learns that Mulwray was once the business partner of his wide’s wealthy father, Noah
Cross
o Noah Cross then offers Gittes double his fee to search for Mulwray’s missing mistress
• Gittes finds that much of the northern valley had recently changed ownership.
o Later finds that the water department is drying up the land, so it can be bought at a
reduced price, and that Mulwray was murdered when he discovered the plan
• Gittes arranges for the women posing as Mrs. Mulwray to flee to Mexico and also instructs
Evelyn to meet him at her butler’s home in Chinatown
o He then summons cross to this meeting, where he admits his intention to annex the
Northwest Valley into the City of LA, then irrigate and develop it
o Gittes accuses Cross of murdering Hollis; however, Cross has Chief Mulvhill take Gittes
at gunpoint and drive them to the women (the imposter).
o Evelyn shoots Cross in the arm, leading the police to open fire and kill her.
• Gittes is later released, being told by his associated to “Forget it, Jake. Its Chinatown.”
BLADE RUNNER (1982)
• American-Hong-Kong Neo Noir Fiction Film
• Directed by Ridley Scott
• Set in dystopian future LA of 2019, where synthetic humans known as replicants are bioengineered
by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on off-world colonies
• When a fugitive group led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escaped back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard
(Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt his down
• In 2019 LA, former police officer Rick Deckard is detained by officer Gaff, and brought to his former
supervisor, Bryant. Deckard’s job as a blade runner was to track down bioengineered beings known
as replicants and retire (kill) them.
• After testing the test subjects which are to be killed, he sees it fails and doesn’t work. He concludes
they have false memories implanted and believe they are truly alive.
• Roy has an aging disorder where he has a shorter life.
• At the end , Roy is found saving Deckard, and expressing a monologue about how his memories will
be lost like tears in rain.
• Female Fatale and religious symbolism
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