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Film Appreciation:
Random notes on cinema
K S Sivakumaran
For the benefit of cineastes I wish to share with the readers some
notes on appreciation of the film medium collected over the years.
In the first instance let us know some of the seminal works available
in English that give an insight into the creations of some of the
Masters of World Cinema. These books were written several years ago and
yet are valuable sources. Of course new studies on these subjects are
being published in view of film study in many Universities and Film
Schools all over the world. This columnist can confine his observations
only on what he had known several decades ago.
 Take for instance, the Japanese film industry. Donald Richie has
written a fine study of 'The Films of Akira Kurosawa". He and Joseph
Anderson together earlier wrote a bock called "The Japanese Film: Art
and Industry" Students of serious cinema will know that two of
Kurosawa's films were the classics -"Rashamon" and the Seven Samurai.
If we were to know something about the cinema from Poland, the first
thing we remember is the name Roman Polanski. But there were other film
makers of repute from that country. One such director is Andrez Waida.
There is a book edited by Colin McArthur titled "Andrez Waida: Polish
Cinema". Another book on the subject is by Bolestaw Michatek which
discuses "The Cinema of Andrez Wajda". The name "Wajda" should be
pronounced as "Waida". Frank Bren has also written a book titled: World
Cinema: Poland"
Film enthusiasts who prefer serious cinema could benefit by reading
"A Critical Dictionary" edited by Richard Roud.
Turning to Germany, we find a film maker named Werner Herzog. I found
his films disturbing while I liked very much his peer Fasbinder whose
films were fascinating. However, one could read Timothy Corrign's book
"The Films of Herzog" Now let's see how professional critics have
analyzed some of these films. These are notes I culled out from my
lecturers while following a course in film appreciation.
The Seven Samurai: The director Akira Kurusowa was inspired by the
genre "westerns" in American films. Minute and sharp characterizations
bring out both the drama and the message perfectly. The war strategies
are communicated through and exemplary use of location. Kurusowa himself
edits his films. The film is a study for its editing. Remarkable are his
compositions within a frame and the utilization of off-frame space. The
virtuoso war sequence was shot with multiple cameras and is memorable
for the choreography with characters and cameras. The film influenced
the making of several American films; notable among them is The
Magnificent Seven by John Sturgras.
In this period film, Kurusowa has put together idealistic morality to
bind two opposites of history: war-time violence and peaceful communal
life."
Another film of historical importance in world cinema was the Polish
film Ashes and Diamonds directed by Andrez Wajda based on a novel,
Photog.
"This film deals with the ultimate dilemma of a soldier whether to
obey order or to think for him. It works in the tradition of romantic
symbolism and shows a maturity of formal structure that is in perfect
accord with soviet Social realism... The film photography uses light and
shadow, mist, haze, night like a virtuoso and interprets the confusion
and complexities of the time."
Next we have Werner Herzog's film Aguirre, The Wrath of God shot
entirely in Peru.
"The director's primary concern is with power and its abuses. In
Herzog's films, the voyage is as important as the destination. The sheer
poetry and visual beauty of many of the scenes is astonishing.
Particularly remarkable, even hunting, is the magical closing shot of
Aguirre surviving alone on a raft with only corpses and monkeys as
companions, drifting out to the sea. The memory of Nazi atrocities and
the influence of German Expressionism determine the work of Werner
Herzog.
If we were to study world cinema as it developed into the present
century, we must know something of the Silent films made in early 20th
century. Let's take "Birth of a Nation" made in 1915 by D W Griffith.
This is what my lecturers introduced this film for me:
"No single film in the history of cinema has done what "Birth of a
Nation" achieved: establish movies as an international art and an
international industry, together with establishing the narrative story
telling mode in America at that period. The film is the ultimate
maturation of the style and techniques of the' father of cinema' In this
massive interpretation of a Civil War and its effects on individual
human beings, Griffith wields narratives, cinematic stylistics and
documentaries. Cross-cutting, use of close-ups, often juxtaposed
'violently' with long or extreme long shots, 'painting with camera'
(many scenes are inspired by famous paintings and photographs), the use
of long mobile camera and track-shots are still as effective a when the
film was first released."
To know the present we must definitely know the past to trace he
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