MPF 427 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Edward Dmytryk, Billy Wilder, Italian Neorealism
26 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Mpf 327: film history & crit to 1945. Italian neo-realism engaged with stories of poor people. Turning the camera on real life to make fiction films. Part of the communist process was to export the revolution. People go to the movies just to see the newsreels. 1/3 of films in the 40s had some social problem at their core. Addressed social anxieties about the role of the state (corrupt cops, das), moral values (hero lives in amoral state), gender roles (men are antiheroes, women are archetypes) etc. Counter-tradition to the feel good genres: musicals, comedies, women"s weepies etc. Named after series noir" popular american detective comics in france. About people at the lower end of the social order, shady characters. Strongly associated with the status quo, moral values and stable identities. She offers love, an escape route for our loser main. Anti-hero, morally ambiguous, psychologically wounded, alienated from conventional society.
