Deck 11: Social Context and Film Style:National, International, andTransnational Cinema

Question 1

________ signaled the end of the studio era in Hollywood.

A) The Paramount Consent Decree
B) The migration of American filmmaking from New York to California
C) World War II
D) all of these

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Since the 1920s ________ has dominated the international film market.

A) Hollywood
B) Bollywood
C) Hong Kong
D) Cannes

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Pather Panchali was a ground breaking art film from ____________________.

A) Holland
B) Russia
C) India
D) France

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following films was not one of the five major studios during the studio era?

A) MGM
B) Paramount
C) Warner Brothers
D) Disney

Question 5

The most popular films in India ________.

A) are Hollywood films
B) are shot on location
C) reflect the influence of American filmmaking practices
D) none of the above

Question 6

Bicycle Thieves depicts the story of ________.

A) a poor man and his son
B) a group of fashionable Italian rebels
C) rival bicycle manufacturers
D) the rise of Mussolini

Question 7

Filmmakers ventured to California in the early 1900s because ________.

A) Los Angeles was already a theater hot spot, and industry moguls were seeking acting talent
B) Thomas Edison's production facilities were there, making it easier for industry moguls to purchase equipment without paying shipping costs
C) they wanted to avoid licensing fees
D) all of these

Question 8

What film movement was the primary influence on The Battle of Algiers?

A) Italian Neorealism
B) French New Wave
C) German Expressionism
D) British Free Cinema

Question 9

Fourth Cinema is a term coined by Maori filmmaker and theorist Barry Barclay to describe the filmmaking practices of

A) independent filmmakers, regardless of nationality
B) aboriginal people
C) French filmmakers
D) Russian films after the collapse of the Soviet empire

Question 10

In Breathless,director Jean-Luc Godard uses ________ to visibly interrupt time,even though the song the character is singing remains intact and unaffected on the soundtrack.

A) jump cuts
B) slow-motion
C) fast-motion
D) dissolves

Question 11

Italian Neorealism developed ________.

A) before World War II as part of a political movement dedicated to overthrowing Benito Mussolini
B) after World War II, capturing the physical devastation and moral degradation of the war years
C) in the 1950s, to demonstrate the destructive effects of American foreign policy on Italy
D) in the 1960s to protest the Vietnam war

Question 12

One of the first feature-length narrative films to demonstrate cinema's artistic and commercial potential,________ was released in 1915,the year many critics pinpoint as the beginning of the Hollywood studio era.

A) The Birth of a Nation
B) The Great Train Robbery
C) A Trip to the Moon
D) The Gay Shoe Clerk

Question 13

Classical Hollywood films privilege ________ over other sounds.

A) sound effects
B) score
C) dialogue
D) diegetic music

Question 14

Which of the following was prohibited by the MPPDA's "Don'ts and Be Carefuls" list (which preceded the Production Code)?

A) interracial romance
B) profanity
C) childbirth
D) all of these

Question 15

The Production Code _____________________.

A) demonstrates how Hollywood business interests had an uncomfortable relationship with the Catholic Church, largely because of the Pope's attempt to stifle content.
B) demonstrates how Jewish interests dictated the ideological content of Hollywood's films
C) was an example of how government censors influenced the content of Hollywood films
D) was a tool Hollywood producers used to ensure the world wide marketability of their films

Question 16

American film production and reception were at their height during what has become known as the Hollywood ________ era.

A) silent
B) international
C) celluloid
D) studio

Question 17

Italian Neorealism is associated with ________.

A) elaborate camera movement
B) its use of non-professional actors
C) its suggestive editing inspired by Soviet Montage
D) all of the above

Question 18

Which of the following statements offers a partial justification for why the studios developed the "invisible style"?

A) in competing with foreign industries, the Hollywood industry naturally flocked to the superior mode of storytelling
B) demanding continuity helped ensure production efficiency, since directors had a pre-determined set of "rules" to follow
C) studios polled audiences as they exited the theaters to see what they liked
D) studios couldn't afford to build elaborate sets or choreograph complicated camera movements like their German and French competition could

Question 19

Hollywood's studio system was defined by the fact that ________.

A) two major distribution companies handled 80% of the production studios' output
B) one major studio controlled production, one major studio controlled distribution and one major studio controlled exhibition
C) all foreign films had to be distributed in the U.S. via a tightly-structured theater system operated by MGM Studios
D) five major studios developed an efficient mode of production, distribution, and exhibition.

Question 20

________ is a trait of classical Hollywood narrative style.

A) Bold innovation in editing
B) Unobtrusive craftsmanship
C) Psychologically ambiguous characters
D) all of these

Question 21

Hollywood studios would rely on the Production Code to justify cutting out content that might be controversial overseas.

Question 22

Because many of the international film productions received government financing,the filmmakers were not influenced or motivated to make a profit as their counterparts in Hollywood were.

Question 23

Explain the concept of "compartmentalization," and discuss how this manufacturing concept shaped Hollywood.

Question 24

The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA)was a government-controlled organization which regulated the content of films being produced and distributed by Hollywood.

Question 25

The Production Code linked Catholic doctrine to Hollywood's formula.

Question 26

The wave of popular films from Europe and Asia in the 1950's and 1960's has been called the ________ cinema movement,hinting at a perceived distinction between the serious intellectual purpose behind many of these films and Hollywood's escapist fare.

Question 27

From the early 1920s on,Hollywood practiced self-censorship to ensure that subversive content was kept in check.

Question 28

The term "Third Cinema" loosely refers to cinema movements emerging from Europe's former colonies in Africa,Asia,and Latin America.

Question 29

The only element of classical Hollywood style films that the international art cinema movement kept was the goal-oriented central character.

Question 30

Classical Hollywood style is often called "the invisible style."

Question 31

Hollywood's reliance on the star system is symptomatic of how studios developed a system of filmmaking practices that encouraged efficiency.

Question 32

New York City was the center of commercial filmmaking until the 1950s.

Question 33

Identify one reason why filmmakers ventured to California in the early 1900s,establishing Hollywood as the United States' filmmaking center.

Question 34

If "First Cinema" refers to the Hollywood industry and "Second Cinema" refers to the international,author-driven cinema,to what does "Third Cinema" refer?

Question 35

The international success of Pather Panchali surprised those in the Indian film industry because insiders didn't expect the so-called masala film to have any appeal outside India.

Question 36

Using a film that has been screened in class,discuss whether or not you believe it fits into the "classical Hollywood" style. What elements of the film signal this? If it does not fit into the "classical Hollywood" style, how might it be seen as a reaction against it?

Question 37

Cinematography in classical Hollywood style often uses exaggerated angles or flamboyant movement that draw attention to the films' glamorous,epic sensibility.

Question 38

Explain how Hollywood dominates international cinema,not just in terms of profitability but in terms of style as well.

Question 39

Italian Neorealism was highly influenced by the popularity of the international art cinema movement.

Question 40

_____________________ films complicate the notion of national identity and the very idea that audiences can link a film to a fixed national origin.

A) Neorealist
B) Expressionist
C) Transnational
D) Geo-fluidic

Question 41

Explain how either Whale Rider or Smoke Signals reflects Fourth Cinema's interest in the "tension between competing national allegiances."

Question 42

Explain what it means to say that films from the "art cinema" movement are made and consumed in an industrial context,but titles linked to the Third Cinema movement aren't?