Film through the decades (1923-2023)

In its past 100 years of existence, the East Tennessean has been in publication throughout most of film history.

From the silent era to the New Hollywood movement, and now the age of the superhero film. Comprising most of that film history in one single article would be an uphill battle. Even selecting the films to be discussed in such a piece would be difficult. Despite this, there are aspects of film – both technically and thematically– that have been constant throughout the history of cinema. 

In the year 1932, during the midst of the Great Depression, most filmmakers in Hollywood and abroad were primarily using synchronized sound and starting to overcome creaky dialogue — an aspect that permeates the critiques of the early sound era. Over in Germany, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer was working on his first film to utilize sound: “Vampyr.” The atmospheric horror film uses hazy and dreamlike visuals, along with straddling the line between silence and sound, relying on sparse dialogue and an extensive amount of intertitles. 

By 1965, global cinema was enthralled by one of the most influential film movements in cinema: the French New Wave. That same year, one of the prominent and influential filmmakers of the New Wave –Jean-Luc Godard – made one of his most famous films, and a central work of the movement: “Alphaville.” Despite being a science fiction neo-noir film, “Alphaville” doesn’t feature any special effects whatsoever, a reflection on the experimental and unorthodox techniques that the filmmakers of this movement utilized, challenging genre conventions. Starring Eddie Constantine as Lemmy Caution (a character who was popular in France at the time), a detective who travels across the galaxy to the titular city to destroy a supercomputer named Alpha 60, the film utilizes the then-futuristic buildings of contemporary Paris as the stand-in for this galactic city.  

The following year saw the release of a film by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, who created a work that remains challenging to this very day: “Persona.” The film focuses on the relationship between a nurse, and a stage actress who has suddenly become mute, at a beach house on the island of Fårö. Whether it be the usage of a film projector and an array of footage from various forms of media displayed in the prologue of the film, or the famous image of a child touching a close-up projection of a woman’s face, the visual style and editing work of Persona is something to marvel at. 

In 1967, there was increasing popularity and production of a subgenre: The Spaghetti Western. Spaghetti Westerns were Italian Westerns that were primarily shot in the deserts of southern Spain, such as Tabernas, and primarily had a low budget along with being more barbaric and violent than the American Westerns of John Ford and Howard Hawks. A great example of this, and one of the most fascinating films of this subgenre is “Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot!” which was also the only film that director Giulio Questi made in the genre. “Django Kill!” – despite the name saying Django, does not feature the character, which was something that permeated a lot of titling of the films of the subgenre outside of Italy– was a more peculiar entry in the genre, as it had elements of the splatter film.

For instance, there were scenes such as a bloody scalping and a man’s insides being torn apart to retrieve the gold, being edited out for distribution in the United States and the United Kingdom. Combined with this, the film includes hazy flashbacks involving the betrayal of the titular character, The Stranger, with imagery submerged in saturation.  

Two years later, in 1969, “Fellini Satyricon” was released, a film much different from Fellini’s previous work, such as “8 ½.” “Fellini Satyricon” is loosely adapted from the famous work by Petronius (as large fractions of it have been lost to time) and is in the form of nine vignettes, displaying debauchery and decadence during the age of Nero, focusing primarily on friends Encolpius and Ascyltus, as they travel through Ancient Rome. “Fellini Satyricon” is also a film that has mesmerizing cinematography, done by Giuseppe Rotunno, with scenes such as when Encolpius faces The Minotaur, being enhanced by the visuals. 

1971 saw the release of “The Last Picture Show,” Peter Bogdanovich’s controversial and bleak treatise on the theme of change and moving on from the past, focusing on two high school seniors (Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges) in a small Texas town named Anarene in the early 1950s. The coming-of-age film was also groundbreaking for its explicit nudity (which resulted in being banned in Phoenix, Arizona). The film was shot in stark black and white, which fits its melancholy mood quite well. 

By 1972, one of the paramount films in the New Hollywood movement was released: “The Godfather,” Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of the Mario Puzo novel of the same name. Chronicling the mafia family of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) in a decade, “The Godfather” was also the breakout role for Al Pacino, who played Michael Corleone, one of Vito’s sons who becomes drawn into the family business. 

1976 saw the release of another controversial yet important work in cinema: “Taxi Driver.” A psychological thriller with the aesthetics of a neo-noir film, “Taxi Driver” is a character study of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, working as a taxi driver in New York City, shown as a grimy city in a state of moral decay. Controversial for the bursts of violence in the film’s third act, this film resulted in Martin Scorsese winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, being his first award at the prestigious and renowned festival. The film includes some amazing cinematography done by the late Michael Chapman, capturing a New York that no longer exists, along with the jazz-influenced soundtrack composed by Bernard Herrmann (being his last recorded score before his death).

In 1990, came the release of  “King of New York,” a neo-noir film from provocateur Abel Ferrara focusing on criminal Frank White (Christopher Walken),  after his release from prison, trying to rebuild his drug business and take control of the city. Ferrara, with this film, walked the line between the grimy grindhouse of his earlier works such as “The Driller Killer,” and his later works of arthouse cinema that would comprise his films in the 21st century. He also captured a gritty grimy New York City  – something that Scorsese achieved nearly two decades earlier with “Taxi Driver” and “Mean Streets.”

1991 saw the conclusion of Lars von Trier’s “Europa Trilogy”, with the hypnotic experimental thriller “Europa.” Taking place in postwar Germany, “Europa”  follows Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr), an American who travels to the country to work as a sleeping car conductor, but starts to uncover something diabolical under it all. This film has a rather unique and distinct visual style (which comprises all of the “Europa Trilogy”) utilizing the shadows of classic film noir – but at the same time, subverting it with the usage of both black and white, and sudden splashes of color in the same shots. There are also usages of projected images – the same camera technique Bergman used in “Persona.” This film also included several international actors, such as Eddie Constantine (who was in “Alphaville”). As a result of the visual style, one of the awards that “Europa” won was the Technical Grand Prize at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Nearly 20 years later, in 2007, “No Country for Old Men”, The Coen Brothers’ dark masterwork, was released in theaters. Taking place in Texas during the year 1980,  it focuses on psychopathic hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who is on the hunt for stolen drug money, along with a hunter who stole the money and a sheriff investigating it all, whilst meditating on the changing of time. This film utilizes aspects of the Western genre, both with the setting and the theme of changing of time; a theme that Bogdanovich accomplished with “The Last Picture Show” thirty years prior – resulting in it being referred to as a neo-western. 

Twelve years later, in 2019, Bong Joon-ho’s satirical thriller “Parasite” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Palme d’Or. “Parasite” is a film that deals with themes such as class struggle and wealth. This film has resulted in more attention to international films, with it receiving a wide release in theaters, and even becoming the first non-English film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. 

Three years later in 2022, “Triangle of Sadness,” the most recent film from filmmaker Ruben Östlund, won the Palme d’Or. A dark satirical comedy that also deals with the wealthy elite, this time on a disastrous cruise voyage with rich passengers, and a captain (played by Woody Harrelson) who reads the works of Karl Marx. 

Finally, the year of the East Tennessean’s 100th anniversary, 2023, came the January release of “Infinity Pool,” the latest film from director Brandon Cronenberg. “Infinity Pool” serves as a satirical commentary on the tourism of impoverished countries which is perpetuated by the wealthy elite, under the guise of the horror genre, utilizing imagery such as impoverished homes and the main characters taking advantage of the country’s laws by intentionally breaking them to be cloned. Satire on subjects such as class and wealth has long been ingrained in media, and in culture. 

With the evolution of cinema, The East Tennessean has been through a plethora of important periods of the film industry, and those that leave a mark on it today. Whether it be current indie cinema or mainstream works, The East Tennessean will be there, ready to watch and report.