Film History

Dads, Single Moms & Transport: The Obsessions Of Cameron Crowe
Dads, Single Moms & Transport: The Obsessions Of Cameron Crowe

In his films, Cameron Crowe has often returned to similar motifs and themes; we explore his films and analyse how he applies his trademarks.

Film Inquiry's Best Articles Of September 2016 - Bollywood/Mughal-e-Azam
The Beginner’s Guide: Bollywood

Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Nargis, Dev Anand, Vyjayanthimala, Guru Dutt, Madhubala, Raaj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Meena Kumari, Shashi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Aamir Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone. To a majority of westerners these names will have very little resonance, if any at all. For many cinemagoers on the Indian subcontinent, however, these highly-revered and much-followed household names together epitomise the most significant cultural product in the region:

Cimino's HEAVEN'S GATE: Epic Failure Or Flawed Masterpiece?
Cimino’s HEAVEN’S GATE: Epic Failure Or Flawed Masterpiece?

Editor’s note: Incidentally, we were working on this article a few weeks before Cimino’s death. Sadly, Michael Cimino passed away on July 2 2016, and with this article, we are paying homage to one of the director’s films that had such a significant impact on the entire Hollywood system.

The Shadow Of German Expressionism
The Shadow Of German Expressionism In Cinema

German expressionism was an art movement that began life around 1910 emerging in architecture, theatre and art. Expressionism art typically presented the world from a subjected view and thus attempted to show a distorted view of this world to evoke a mood or idea. The emotional meaning of the object is what mattered to the artist and not the physical reality.

The History Of Folk Horror: A British Tale

In the brilliant and insightful documentary A History of Horror, British writer and actor Mark Gatiss explores the horror genre throughout many countries. While discussing British horror cinema of the 1960’s, Gatiss uses the term ‘folk horror’ to describe a short but very curious subgenre. The films that make up this genre are unmistakably British and owe a large debt to the trail blazers of horror cinema in Britain:

The Secret History of North Korean Martial Arts Cinema
The Secret History of North Korean Martial Arts Cinema

The words “North Korean cinema” have traditionally invoked images of staid, humourless propaganda movies each more concerned with exalting the virtues of the nation’s glorious leaders than sculpting cohesive narratives. For those who have looked into the films emanating from the secretive Asian country it is possible to conclude that, in some instances, this description is rather unnervingly accurate. Many of these stereotypes exist for a reason.

Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl: The Best Director You’ve Never Heard Of

Some of you may have come across Helene “Leni” Riefenstahl, so I hope you’ll forgive the introduction for those who haven’t. Born in 1902 in Berlin, Germany, Riefenstahl defied gender norms and became one of the most successful documentary filmmakers of the 1930s. At a time when most industries, especially film, were dominated by men, Riefenstahl found herself not only directing films but developing new techniques which influenced cinema up to this very day.

What Makes Pixar Great At What They Do?

Like a variety of genres in Hollywood, animation is a growing field that has been significant in various forms of media. There have been successful corporations across the globe that are not only skilled in putting hand-drawings and computer graphics to motion, but are also creative in their storytelling. Pixar Animation Studios is a vital example of an exceedingly successful animation company with an abundance of projects that have become cultural favourites.

motion capture smaug
An Overview Of The Rise Of Motion Capture Filmmaking

With technological developments taking hold in Hollywood, perhaps the most prominent has been the use of motion capture. Motion capture is a technology that syndicates computer-generated effects with human performance. The idea, particularly within the science fiction and fantasy genres, is to produce further realism on part of an actor’s approach to a role and how they portray it.

Psycho
Return To Bates Motel: PSYCHO, Alfred Hitchc*ck, and the New Cinema

In 1960, Alfred Hitchc*ck saw the future. The British director had been a force in cinema since silent films, but the 1950’s were by far his most successful decade at the movies. He churned out blockbuster after blockbuster, all filmed in gorgeous color with top Hollywood stars like James Stewart, Cary Grant, and Grace Kelly.

Grace Kelly’s Films With Alfred Hitchc*ck

It was 1962; Grace Kelly was no longer an actress. She was, at this point in her life, ruling the Principality of Monaco with her then husband Prince Rainier III. She had already had two children and another one on the way; the last thing on her mind was making another film.

Catch 22
MASH vs CATCH-22: 45 Years Later

With a Finger in Each Ear, We March Blindly On The Vietnam War, which had begun as a geopolitical chess match in the 1950’s, escalated into a full blown land war in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson authorised the use of American ground troops to help South Vietnam defeat the Communist North. More than any conflict in the 20th Century, Vietnam segregated America into a civil war of ideals. The burgeoning counterculture rejected and rallied against it, even denouncing the troops themselves.

Fruit of Paradise Chytilová
Remembering Vêra Chytilová: TRAPS and FRUIT OF PARADISE

When Vêra Chytilová sadly passed away in March of last year, cinephiles across the world mourned the loss of a truly passionate and original filmmaker. Chytilová was the dangerous iconoclast of the Czech New Wave. Both the BFI and Second Run DVD decided that the world must know of her work outside of her nihilistic masterpiece Sedmikrasky (Daisies, 1966), and as such the BFI ran a series showing many of her films at their Southbank cinema, and Second Run released two of her films, Pasti, Pasti, Pasticky (Traps, 1998) and Fruit of Paradise (1970), on their excellent DVD line.

Jaws 2
JAWS At 40: ‘DEJAW VU’

Editorial note: Today, the original Jaws movie is celebrating its 40th anniversary.  There are as many kangaroos on Saturn as there are people who think that Jaws 2 was an improvement on the 1975 original.

Back To The future happy
1.21 Gigawatts: The History of Time Travel in Cinema

In some ways, the cinema is the closest thing we can experience to travelling through time – certainly the closest of any art form. In the dark room of a movie theatre, an audience can be transported to the distant past or spectacular visions of the future, and even in watching films from the 30’s and 40’s we can look at the lives and faces of people who died many years ago. Time travel became popular as a literary device with HG Well’s The Time Machine – published in 1895, the same year that the Lumière Brothers made Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat.