CIN201Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Bigger Than Life, French New Wave, Nicholas Ray
Mar. 23, 2017
CIN201 TUTORIAL 2.10
CINEMASCOPE/NICHOLAS RAY
CINEMASCOPE VS. CINERAMA
• paramount creating VistaVision – such a wide gage film strip that it was not adopted
• Nicholas Ray
- Had a huge impact on French New Wave
- “the cinema is Nicholas Ray”
- considered the most prominent auteur
- Truffault thought Ray was an amateur, but enjoyed the innocence
- Style
Architecture
Stylistic use of colour, particularly red
Bazin was a fan of Ray’s use of wise-screen – more real
Ray was young and adapted well to all the new technology
- What is stylistically similar between “Rebel Without a Cause” + “Bigger Than
Life”?
1. “Bigger Than Life”
domestic interior (shown using widescreen)
tension on the staircase, typical of Ray
scene shows the inner psychological state of the father, the visceral
emotions Ray is able to show (through colour, action, music, the father
“seeing red”)
2. “Rebel Without a Cause” clip from scene while at the polica station after
arrest
all three of them are in the same shot (they are all alienated and
misunderstood); Ray himself was an outsider, afraid of being accused
of being a communist
Ray never made openly political films, but critiqued the government
subtly
French filmmakers loved how Ray filtered social problems through his
own experience into films
James Dean’s acting includes a lot of Realism – he collaborated with
Ray on developing the character/acting
Tried to really use Realism (James Dean and Marlin Brando were
famous for it – at the time, this was the new realistic way of acting);
another layer of Bazinian Realism, which can also be seen in “Bonnie
and Clyde”
50’s METHOD ACTING
teens were dressing to look much older
some critics thought that Ray had no specific style, however…
a) he had a particular use of space
b) particular colour preferences (red/orange)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Cinemascope vs. cinerama: paramount creating vistavision such a wide gage film strip that it was not adopted, nicholas ray. The cinema is nicholas ray considered the most prominent auteur. Had a huge impact on french new wave. Truffault thought ray was an amateur, but enjoyed the innocence. Bazin was a fan of ray"s use of wise-screen more real. Ray was young and adapted well to all the new technology. What is stylistically similar between rebel without a cause + bigger than. Tension on the staircase, typical of ray. Scene shows the inner psychological state of the father, the visceral emotions ray is able to show (through colour, action, music, the father. Seeing red : rebel without a cause clip from scene while at the polica station after arrest. All three of them are in the same shot (they are all alienated and misunderstood); ray himself was an outsider, afraid of being accused of being a communist.
