Cinema in the 1950s


  • the decade was marked by post-war middle class affluence, wide range of leisure activities, as well as the advent of the television. 
  • The decade overlapped the age of Rock and Roll and the rise of the new youth market. This youth-oriented group was opposed to the old generation's nostalgic films. A rebellious audience creates a demand for 'rebellious' cinema. Hollywood saw this rise of affluent teenage viewers as the new gold mine, exploiting their non-conformist values to the full 
  • The decade saw the rise of the anti-hero (e.g. James Dean, Paul Newman) 


James Dean in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955): The 'First American Teenager'
  • The film was known for Hollywood's first major attempt to create the American teenager hero as a delinquent juvenile in his exploration of adolescent identity and pain.







    Picture


    Studies in Cinema: "Rebel Without A Cause" - http://studiesincinema.blogspot.com
    That Rebel Without a Cause was such a success upon its initial 1955 release, and that it still stands as a hugely influential classic of American cinema, is not just a result of James Dean's most iconic performance, nor is it ...
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    Pain from the Beyond: "Rebel Without a Cause" on Notebook | MUBI - https://mubi.com
    Nicholas Ray will forever be remembered as the man who created the icon we know as James Dean. Far beyond the scope of the director's career, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) stands in for 1950s alienation, for the birth of adolescence as a culturally recognized phenomenon, for the legitimacy of youth culture in the face of adulthood, and for Dean ... To claim that the above three films is merely a film noir, a police procedural, or a Western is folly of the highest order.
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    Rise of post-war Japanese cinema
    • The introduction of Kurosawa's films to western audiences in 1951 opened the prospect of Japanese films in western markets. The Japanese cinema was known for its distinct styles and critical portrayal of society and humanity 
    • Most films showed a preference for realist and socially critical films

      Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, 1950
      • a story of rape and murder told from four witnesses who perceive the events from four totally contradictory perspectives 
      • conflicting timelines and flashbacks - It's about the telling of a story as much as the story itself 
      • well known for its treatment of suspense and exploitative use of cinematic techniques to reveal events, emotions and the exploration of the notion of 'truth' and humanity 
      • What is 'truth'? It could be different for each viewer, as well as for each character in the film 
      • shooting the same scene with numerous cameras allow free post-production editing. The constant switch of shots of characters and camera angles help create a sense of disorientation and confusion. 
      • Dramatic lighting and use of mirrors in channeling sunlight through the forest enhances suspense and curious relationships between characters 
      • Frequent closeups of objects (swords, axe) help direct the viewers' attention to ponder upon actions of characters and possibilities in the stories


          





        The Film Temple: Director Spotlight #16.3: Akira Kurosawa's ... - http://thefilmtemple.blogspot.com
        Most cinephiles acknowledge Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon as the film that opened the floodgates, allowing Asian cinema to find a wider audience in the western world than ever before. But that doesn't mean that ...
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        Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon To Get Modernized Remake - Film Junk
        Akira Kurosawa's groundbreaking 1950 film Rashomon tells the horrific story of a woman getting raped and her husband being murdered, but filtered through flashbacks from differing viewpoints. The movie's far-reaching ...
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        Truth, Humanity, and Rashomon - Film School Rejects - http://filmschoolrejects.com
        Rashomon (1950). Sometimes four irregular puzzle pieces will tell a story. Juxtapose them, read between the lines, and if you're lucky or imaginative or both, you'll get an image. Four irregular puzzle pieces. These are what Akira Kurosawa presents us with in his opus, Rashomon, which, as it progresses, becomes less about the thrill of its drama and more about subjectivity and the nature of humanity. ... Why don't I take a number and get in the back of the line?
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        A Post-War Japanese Cinema Primer | White City Cinema - http://whitecitycinema.com
        I already posted a Pre-War Japanese cinema primer last year. For my money, the richest period in Japanese film history is the Post-War era, a period lasting from the mid-1940s through the late 1950s; this was a golden age ...
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        http://seemsobvioustome.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/a-brief-history-of-postwar-japanese-cinema/
        Fig. 7: Anime films such as Akira (1988) often use explosive imagery to evoke and address the trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
        POSTWAR JAPANESE CINEMA: REMEMBRANCE, UNDERSTANDING, AND THE PAINFUL ART OF HEALING - brief introduction into the history of postwar Japanese cinema



        http://stephenesherman.com/discussions/rashomon.html 
        Rashomon is a Japanese movie made in 1950 by the great director Akira Kurosawa, set in medieval Japan. It is about a rape and murder, in different versions as related by the principals. More generally, it is about the nature of truth and reality. If that sounds a bit high-brow, don't let that worry you. One of the good things about Rashomon is that whatever questions Kurosawa wants you to ask about "truth and reality," he has the characters say out loud. So one needn't wonder what questions one should be asking. Rashomon is also about story-telling, which I discuss toward the end.



        Other useful sites about cinema 1950s

        The Top 50 Movie Moments That Defined the 1950′s: Top Ten - http://cityuponahillmedia.com
        Kurosawa started to come into his own in post-war Japan, filming everything from samurai epics and penetrating character studies. At the time criticized by domestic Japanese critics for making far too 'Western' films, it was in ...
        Read more ...

        Top Ten Movie Moments that defined the 1950's | Just My Take ... - http://cityuponahillmedia.com
        So here we are, the very top cinematic moments that define a golden nostalgic era. It's been a ride, enjoy the last stop.
        Read more ...




        Sources:
        Robinson, David. The History of World Cinema. 1971.
        SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Citizen Kane.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2004. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
        http://www.filmsite.org/