As I mentioned in class last Monday, one of the most important criteria I used when developing the list of films for class was to choose works that have had a significant impact on later films and film making. Some films simply changed the way people think about movies, like the justly-lionized Citizen Kane, which presented camera work that had never been imaged before. Other films comment on what has come before, reacting to or advancing previous concepts. Blade Runner ’s reworking of the dystopian environment of Metropolis is a good example of this. And then here is a not-so-secret code of references in films, a way that film makers can pay homage to the films that inspired them. Jean-Luc Goddard’s use the the iris shot in Breathless, for example, a tip of his hat to the silent films that started it all. And finally, there are in-jokes, references that you have to be in on to recognize, like the ubiquitous Wilhelm Scream.
Film language speaks not just between film maker and audience, but through time as well. Knowing that language makes an understanding the history of film all the richer.
If you have ambitions to be a part of the film industry, of course, you will spend a lot of time watching and analyzing films, to learn what makes an engaging movie. And you will inevitably echo what you have learned in your own films, whether consciously or not. While we tend to emphasize the individual vision of a film maker as the primary influence on a film, all honest artists acknowledge their debt to past masters of their genre. Listen to great directors talk about their work, and you will hear a litany of films and film makers that have inspired them. Take, for example, Quentin Tarantino's love for Italian B movies, which he has reinterpreted for an American audience.
But even if your only involvement with film is as an audience member and fan, the history of film still speaks to you through today's movies, and being attuned to that message will enhance your understanding of a film maker's choices. It's much like learning any foreign language; the better you grasp the connotations and underlying assumptions of the words, the richer the meaning of the speech. And the only way to learn a language well is to immerse yourself in that language, letting it swirl around you as you slowly make sense of its parts, discovering the ideas and rules that organize it. Aren't we lucky that to so so means we have to watch even more films?
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