21
00:00:13,845 --> 00:00:15,261
The 1950s.
22
00:00:15,286 --> 00:00:16,291
Widescreen.
23
00:00:16,344 --> 00:00:17,385
Color.
24
00:00:21,417 --> 00:00:24,238
A young American actor,
James Dean.
25
00:00:24,264 --> 00:00:29,633
Head hung, crippled with rage,
kicks and punches a desk.
26
00:00:31,634 --> 00:00:35,166
His emotions are bursting
at the seams.
27
00:00:35,192 --> 00:00:37,511
One of the key images of the 50s,
28
00:00:37,536 --> 00:00:42,422
and the passionate theme
of this part of the story of film.
29
00:00:45,471 --> 00:00:47,984
To get to the heart
of these emotional times
30
00:00:48,009 --> 00:00:52,966
you have to start,
not in America, but here: Egypt.
31
00:00:55,145 --> 00:00:58,613
The youth rebellion of James Dean
was taking place here too,
32
00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:02,119
where there was even more
to kick out against.
33
00:01:08,605 --> 00:01:14,755
As usual the movies, the great mirror
of their times, reflected the strain.
34
00:01:14,780 --> 00:01:18,794
The 50s became
the era of the melodrama.
35
00:01:22,590 --> 00:01:27,176
There had been formulaic filmmaking
here in Egypt since the 1920s.
36
00:01:27,201 --> 00:01:30,000
Until, that is, this rebel.
37
00:01:30,025 --> 00:01:34,568
The real James Dean
of 50s cinema, came along.
38
00:01:34,593 --> 00:01:38,908
He's the founding father
of creative African cinema.
39
00:01:39,954 --> 00:01:43,987
In 1958, Youssef Chahine
changed film history.
40
00:01:44,012 --> 00:01:48,783
Until then, Africa had played
no significant part in the story of film,
41
00:01:48,808 --> 00:01:52,783
but in that year he wrote,
directed and starred
42
00:01:52,808 --> 00:01:56,191
in the complex melodrama
Cairo Station [Bab el hadid].
43
00:01:56,216 --> 00:02:00,721
The first great African film,
the first great Arab film.
44
00:02:08,814 --> 00:02:12,425
Scenes like this
had a sweaty intensity.
45
00:02:12,450 --> 00:02:16,678
Chahine films himself alone,
with his erotic imagination.
46
00:02:22,169 --> 00:02:27,865
Chahine was a born boundary pusher
and that's what Cairo Station did.
47
00:02:27,890 --> 00:02:31,716
More than anything it captured
the tension of its times.
48
00:02:31,741 --> 00:02:33,696
The sexual repression.
49
00:02:33,696 --> 00:02:35,289
The buried rage.
50
00:02:35,836 --> 00:02:37,538
It was very daring.
51
00:02:37,541 --> 00:02:46,494
I was talking about a sexual pervert
and they spat in my face on opening night.
52
00:02:46,519 --> 00:02:49,989
Nobody talked about real things.
53
00:02:50,014 --> 00:02:56,961
20 percent of the young people in Egypt
were frustrated because of the taboos,
54
00:02:56,987 --> 00:03:01,267
because of the religion,
because of idiotic parents
55
00:03:01,293 --> 00:03:07,135
who were not open enough,
who were not civilized enough.
56
00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:12,121
Chahine plays a crippled newspaper seller,
obsessed by Hind Rostom
57
00:03:12,146 --> 00:03:15,105
who plays a voluptuous
cold drinks seller.
58
00:03:19,674 --> 00:03:24,772
He films himself staring at her,
close to the camera, outside, looking in.
59
00:03:28,488 --> 00:03:33,345
Look at this scene in which he listens
as she has sex with another man.
60
00:04:06,403 --> 00:04:14,570
Dolly cut, dolly, cut.
61
00:04:16,090 --> 00:04:20,197
Then the tracks taking the strain
of the weight of the train,
62
00:04:20,223 --> 00:04:22,991
a symbol of
Chahine's emotional strain.
63
00:04:23,312 --> 00:04:27,936
No other African or Arab
had thought so cinematically before.
64
00:04:27,961 --> 00:04:31,229
Cairo Station was a masterpiece.
65
00:04:31,255 --> 00:04:36,063
it was melodramatic, sexual
and about social justice.
66
00:04:36,088 --> 00:04:38,563
Like the best films of the 50s.
67
00:04:38,987 --> 00:04:43,761
So where did the film and Chahine
get the balls to be so innovative?
68
00:04:43,786 --> 00:04:48,952
In part, from this world
changing conference.
69
00:04:48,977 --> 00:04:53,620
In 1955, the leaders
of 29 Asian and African countries
70
00:04:53,645 --> 00:05:00,194
met in Bandung in Indonesia
to forge economic and cultural links.
71
00:05:00,219 --> 00:05:03,886
They were allied
neither to the first capitalist world,
72
00:05:03,912 --> 00:05:07,592
nor the second communist world
of the Soviet union.
73
00:05:07,617 --> 00:05:10,978
They were a self-styled 'Third world.'
74
00:05:11,003 --> 00:05:16,336
Cairo station came out
of this new, non-aligned sensibility.
75
00:05:21,356 --> 00:05:23,768
But this new anger
and confidence
76
00:05:23,794 --> 00:05:26,492
could be seen in many places
around the world.
77
00:05:26,517 --> 00:05:31,573
Nowhere more so
than this vast country, India.
78
00:05:38,237 --> 00:05:42,682
The story of Indian film
is as vast as the country.
79
00:05:43,171 --> 00:05:49,981
India knew as much, if not more,
about devastation as Europe in the 50s.
80
00:05:49,986 --> 00:05:56,359
Decolonization, partition, famine
and the caste system had traumatized it.
81
00:06:01,144 --> 00:06:02,613
In all this turmoil,
82
00:06:02,639 --> 00:06:08,236
you'd think that the country
would have no time for cinema,
83
00:06:08,262 --> 00:06:10,373
but you'd be wrong.
84
00:06:13,545 --> 00:06:18,781
By the 1950s,
India seemed made for cinema.
85
00:06:24,991 --> 00:06:30,305
Its colors seem to have the hand
of a production designer about them.
86
00:06:31,966 --> 00:06:35,564
Its luminosity has the feel
of a studio arc light.
87
00:06:41,817 --> 00:06:45,990
Look at this scene from one
of the great Indian films, Paper Flowers.
[Kaagaz Ke Phool]
88
00:06:46,015 --> 00:06:49,702
A beam of light opens up
in a film studio.
89
00:06:55,402 --> 00:06:59,718
The camera tracks around it,
towards a man, the film's director,
90
00:06:59,743 --> 00:07:03,495
Guru Dutt, the country's
Orson Welles.
91
00:07:05,325 --> 00:07:09,904
He plays a director who looks
at a woman he wants to cast in the film.
92
00:07:09,929 --> 00:07:16,164
She's lit from below, no hair light,
the opposite of Hollywood lighting.
93
00:07:25,696 --> 00:07:28,111
Back on India's streets,
you have the feeling
94
00:07:28,136 --> 00:07:31,561
that a movie director
has designed the action.
95
00:07:45,009 --> 00:07:49,058
Worshipping movie stars
wasn't a stretch for Indians.
96
00:07:49,083 --> 00:07:53,951
The country is photogenic
like Marilyn Monroe is photogenic.
97
00:07:56,018 --> 00:08:02,133
The first movies made by Indians
were about the lives of saints
98
00:08:02,159 --> 00:08:06,176
or what were called
mythologicals, like this one.
99
00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:16,925
Superimpositions like early Méliès' films
show a mythic king being tested.
100
00:08:22,801 --> 00:08:27,866
Then in the 30s India's film
industry wired for sound.
101
00:08:30,108 --> 00:08:35,296
Immediately it drew on the traditions
of musical theatre in the country.
102
00:08:35,321 --> 00:08:39,234
As a result, India's became
the only national cinema
103
00:08:39,260 --> 00:08:43,289
where musical interludes
became the norm.
104
00:08:43,314 --> 00:08:47,584
And the seeds of what would become known
as Bollywood were sewn.
105
00:08:48,307 --> 00:08:51,822
Color, display, theatricality.
106
00:08:51,848 --> 00:08:55,038
This sounds familiar,
like Hollywood.
107
00:08:55,063 --> 00:08:57,222
Cinema as bauble.
108
00:08:57,797 --> 00:09:03,585
But the less told story of Indian cinema
is how it turned its face towards reality.
109
00:09:03,610 --> 00:09:07,387
What became known as 'socials,'
reforming films
110
00:09:07,412 --> 00:09:14,281
challenging the caste system or materialism
or poverty, emerged in the 1930s.
111
00:09:15,652 --> 00:09:20,692
The realism of such scenes
predates Italian Neo-realism.
112
00:09:25,987 --> 00:09:30,188
The tidal wave of post-World War II realism
that swept across the world
113
00:09:30,214 --> 00:09:34,229
in the late 40s and early 50s
reached its greatest heights
114
00:09:34,262 --> 00:09:41,651
here in Kolkata, in the work of a man
who lived in this house, Satyajit Ray.
115
00:09:41,676 --> 00:09:46,456
Ray's father and grandfather were
famous publishers and illustrators here.
116
00:09:48,044 --> 00:09:50,916
Bollywood films, like Hollywood films,
were usually set
117
00:09:50,941 --> 00:09:55,860
in a fantasy everywhere land but
Satyajit Ray wanted to make
118
00:09:55,885 --> 00:09:58,960
his film about a very specific place.
119
00:09:59,963 --> 00:10:03,728
So he and his cinematographer Subrata Mitra
120
00:10:03,753 --> 00:10:08,071
and his non-professional actors
went somewhere very specific.
121
00:10:08,622 --> 00:10:14,030
They drove 30 minutes from Kolkata
to this small Bengali village Boram,
122
00:10:14,056 --> 00:10:17,788
to make their first film
Pather Panchali.
123
00:10:17,813 --> 00:10:20,499
Most of them had never shot
a foot of film before,
124
00:10:20,524 --> 00:10:24,864
yet the imagery they made
here changed film history.
125
00:10:31,898 --> 00:10:36,413
Its cinematography had texture,
lustre, tenderness.
126
00:10:36,438 --> 00:10:40,541
It's like we were opening
our eyes to India for the first time.
127
00:10:51,140 --> 00:10:55,855
Pather Panchali was a portrait
of the life of Apu, the son of a priest,
128
00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:59,976
and his relationship with his sister,
mother, and old aunt
129
00:11:00,001 --> 00:11:03,397
who was brilliantly
played by Chunibala Devi.
130
00:11:03,422 --> 00:11:09,438
Her amazingly lined face was the opposite
of the smooth faces in glossy cinema.
131
00:11:09,889 --> 00:11:11,232
This was new.
132
00:11:11,257 --> 00:11:13,828
She was living in a brothel
when ray found her
133
00:11:13,853 --> 00:11:17,375
and needed a dose of morphine
every day to keep her going.
134
00:11:18,159 --> 00:11:20,296
What was so new was
that we were seeing
135
00:11:20,321 --> 00:11:24,303
a real Indian village on screen
for the first time.
136
00:11:24,849 --> 00:11:28,583
The movie dispelled ignorance
about village life.
137
00:11:30,124 --> 00:11:34,377
Real, not idealized kids,
domestic details.
138
00:11:34,402 --> 00:11:36,866
Cooking,
drying clothes.
139
00:11:37,657 --> 00:11:42,231
But what was so 50s was
that Ray was also a modernist.
140
00:11:42,256 --> 00:11:46,810
He believed in prime minister Nehru's
plans to industrialize India
141
00:11:46,835 --> 00:11:53,143
so the arrival of the train is treated,
here, as an event of great wonder and hope.
142
00:11:53,168 --> 00:11:58,890
The train plume of smoke is beautiful,
like the plumes of pampas grass.
143
00:11:58,915 --> 00:12:01,392
The camera swishes
with excitement.
144
00:12:01,417 --> 00:12:03,628
Apu runs with excitement.
145
00:12:11,757 --> 00:12:15,502
This man Soumendu Roy,
was camera assistant onPather Panchali
146
00:12:15,527 --> 00:12:17,914
and went on to be Ray's D.P.
147
00:14:11,934 --> 00:14:16,732
Roy still handles the original camera
that they used with great pride.
148
00:14:16,758 --> 00:14:20,614
It looks like a tank compared to
the small cameras today.
149
00:14:20,639 --> 00:14:22,416
It's amazing that they captured
150
00:14:22,441 --> 00:14:26,372
so many intimate scenes
with such an unwieldy thing.
151
00:14:27,876 --> 00:14:30,341
Though most of the
filming was on location,
152
00:14:30,366 --> 00:14:35,555
key scenes were shot in this studio,
Tollygunge, in the south of Kolkata,
153
00:14:35,580 --> 00:14:38,735
where many of the great Bengali films
were made.
154
00:14:39,507 --> 00:14:44,399
This is the actual sound stage where some
of the Pather Panchali sets were built.
155
00:14:59,983 --> 00:15:04,503
The great actress Sharmila Tagore
worked with Ray many times.
156
00:15:04,528 --> 00:15:10,476
She was just 14 when he cast her
in the lead in his masterpiece Devi
[The Goddess].
157
00:15:10,503 --> 00:15:15,033
about a girl whose father in law
dreams that she's a goddess.
158
00:15:15,058 --> 00:15:19,655
She was filmed
as if by candle light, eyes lowering.
159
00:15:33,407 --> 00:15:37,055
Like, I was an amateur
when I worked in "Devi".
160
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:40,319
That was my second film with him,
after "Apur Sansar"
161
00:15:40,344 --> 00:15:43,889
and I was very young,
I was just 14.
162
00:15:43,914 --> 00:15:48,693
As you know he was a very tall person,
so he sat down on a stool
163
00:15:48,718 --> 00:15:55,431
and made eye contact with the child,
just read out the scene once
164
00:15:55,457 --> 00:16:00,109
and with sort of animatedly, like you know,
with a lot of expression he would read out,
165
00:16:00,136 --> 00:16:06,796
with his, as you know, he had
a very expressive, well-modulated voice.
166
00:16:06,821 --> 00:16:11,632
So he made it very exciting,
and just hold the child's attention.
167
00:16:11,657 --> 00:16:19,508
And somehow he communicated and the child
was able to replicate it almost exactly.
168
00:16:19,533 --> 00:16:22,673
He knew exactly what kind of a
face he wanted.
169
00:16:22,698 --> 00:16:29,658
But of course there was a lot of stress
on eyes and also the framing
170
00:16:29,684 --> 00:16:32,665
and I think he believed,
like Devi as you know,
171
00:16:32,691 --> 00:16:36,076
especially my role was treated
in very big close up
172
00:16:36,101 --> 00:16:40,498
and after the film is over,
the face really haunts you
173
00:16:40,523 --> 00:16:47,055
and that shot where I am sitting
in the pudja place.
174
00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:50,863
And the husband comes
and that little exchange
175
00:16:50,889 --> 00:16:55,145
between the husband and Doyamoyee,
176
00:16:55,171 --> 00:16:59,725
I thought that was wonderful, because that
little shake of the head that I'm...
177
00:16:59,751 --> 00:17:01,675
It's not what it seems.
178
00:17:01,700 --> 00:17:06,651
You know, the helplessness of her
and that slowly...
179
00:17:06,677 --> 00:17:09,294
You know, her getting confused.
180
00:17:09,319 --> 00:17:13,454
I mean she is just a village girl
and very young.
181
00:17:13,479 --> 00:17:17,261
All that confusion in a little...,
you know,
182
00:17:17,286 --> 00:17:20,603
somebody who has not quite
finished growing up yet,
183
00:17:20,630 --> 00:17:22,784
I think that is just so tragic, you know,
184
00:17:22,809 --> 00:17:29,559
how she becomes the victim
of this regressive mindset,
185
00:17:29,584 --> 00:17:32,104
orthodox mindset.
186
00:17:44,747 --> 00:17:48,906
Manik-da as you know,
Ray we called Manik-da,
187
00:17:48,931 --> 00:17:54,877
he knew a lot about
painting and...
188
00:17:54,903 --> 00:18:00,300
and that control, he had
tremendous control, everything.
189
00:18:00,326 --> 00:18:04,028
There was not an extra note,
it was so well orchestrated.
190
00:18:04,054 --> 00:18:10,757
So, I think that's the kind
of search for truth,
191
00:18:10,782 --> 00:18:13,939
through his own work
and through his own...
192
00:18:13,965 --> 00:18:17,346
He wanted to evolve
through the film, you know?
193
00:18:17,371 --> 00:18:22,711
And he was... this eternal quest, so,
you know, he had all that element.
194
00:18:22,738 --> 00:18:29,215
He... had in bite all that within
him and music.
195
00:18:29,241 --> 00:18:33,232
And he used this beautiful medium
to express himself.
196
00:18:37,540 --> 00:18:41,267
Crumbling buildings,
long shadows, playing kids.
197
00:18:41,294 --> 00:18:44,801
The world of Pather Panchali
made it a huge hit.
198
00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:49,585
It played for six months
in New York city alone.
199
00:18:49,587 --> 00:18:54,982
Its landscapes, shaded pathways
and natural soundscapes
200
00:18:55,008 --> 00:18:58,832
made India central
to the story of film for a moment.
201
00:18:59,220 --> 00:19:03,939
It and two follow ups, the "Apu trilogy,"
are sometimes called
202
00:19:03,964 --> 00:19:06,621
the best Asian films ever made.
203
00:19:06,873 --> 00:19:10,986
But Satyajit Ray's films weren't
bursting at the seams with emotion,
204
00:19:11,011 --> 00:19:13,103
like 50s melodramas were.
205
00:19:13,648 --> 00:19:15,811
They were too quiet for that.
206
00:19:16,136 --> 00:19:21,611
But then came an Indian film
that certainly was bursting at the seams.
207
00:19:22,144 --> 00:19:25,643
Mother India [Bharat Mata]
about this woman, Radha.
208
00:19:25,669 --> 00:19:27,042
She's getting married.
209
00:19:27,045 --> 00:19:29,962
Cerise red,
veils.
210
00:19:29,964 --> 00:19:35,597
Close ups of hands and feet,
a couple gently stepping into the world.
211
00:19:35,603 --> 00:19:37,614
Here's the world she discovers.
212
00:19:37,617 --> 00:19:40,798
Hard work, mud, sweat.
213
00:19:45,636 --> 00:19:51,049
An independent, worker's India,
laboring to be modern and socialist.
214
00:19:51,074 --> 00:19:54,074
Filmed in much more
earthy colors.
215
00:19:58,593 --> 00:20:02,044
The combination of romance
and struggle made many call the film
216
00:20:02,069 --> 00:20:04,920
the Indian Gone with the Wind.
217
00:20:11,405 --> 00:20:15,902
In this extraordinary scene
peasants stand on the map of India
218
00:20:15,927 --> 00:20:21,764
in a way that echoes Hollywood musicals
but also Soviet propaganda.
219
00:20:21,789 --> 00:20:27,384
The main character and the whole of India
are strong but fated to fail.
220
00:20:27,409 --> 00:20:30,211
Mother India
was a state of the nation film
221
00:20:30,236 --> 00:20:33,441
and a landmark in world cinema.
222
00:20:41,034 --> 00:20:44,485
This vast country to the north
of India, China,
223
00:20:44,510 --> 00:20:48,589
had its own unique social pressures
in the 1950s.
224
00:20:49,090 --> 00:20:53,075
As we've seen, the country had
a movie golden age in the 1930s.
225
00:20:53,100 --> 00:20:56,545
Chairman Mao took control
of the country in the late 40s,
226
00:20:56,570 --> 00:20:59,782
and filmmaking came
under state control.
227
00:20:59,807 --> 00:21:05,581
Few people would know more about this,
than this remarkable man, director Xie Jin.
228
00:21:06,207 --> 00:21:11,294
Xie was reputedly born in 1923
to a family so wealthy
229
00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:15,640
that his mother's dowry
was delivered on 20 boats.
230
00:21:15,665 --> 00:21:18,770
He made his first films in the 50s
and then became
231
00:21:18,795 --> 00:21:23,174
the greatest Chinese filmmaker
of the day, a major stylist,
232
00:21:23,199 --> 00:21:27,529
a star director and
a winner of scores of awards.
233
00:21:27,925 --> 00:21:31,297
Xie feels that Chinese film culture
is unique.
234
00:21:53,837 --> 00:21:57,375
Chinese film was produced
in unique circumstances,
235
00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:01,620
but look at Xie's greatest film,
Two Stage Sisters
[Wutai jiemei].
236
00:22:02,866 --> 00:22:04,576
A woman in tears.
237
00:22:04,578 --> 00:22:06,578
Highlights in her eyes.
238
00:22:06,604 --> 00:22:10,180
The camera moves in
to get a closer look at her emotions.
239
00:22:10,182 --> 00:22:13,401
We recognize this type
of filmmaking.
240
00:22:13,403 --> 00:22:20,010
Like the 50s films we've looked at in Egypt
and India, it's a brilliant melodrama.
241
00:22:20,016 --> 00:22:22,834
The woman and her sister
join a Chinese opera troupe.
242
00:22:22,836 --> 00:22:24,779
Look at Xie's shot here.
243
00:22:24,781 --> 00:22:29,239
The camera rushes left, ravishing color,
then a look behind the curtain.
244
00:22:29,245 --> 00:22:32,028
Then the emergence
of the actresses.
245
00:22:32,030 --> 00:22:36,376
Everything beautifully placed
in the moving frame.
246
00:22:40,489 --> 00:22:43,036
The first sister
becomes a revolutionary.
247
00:22:43,061 --> 00:22:46,449
The second is seduced
by fame and fortune.
248
00:22:46,866 --> 00:22:51,146
A painful human drama viewed
through a gorgeous lens.
249
00:22:51,171 --> 00:22:52,944
What a lens!
250
00:22:52,969 --> 00:22:57,020
Xie's camera tilts down
into the world of the story
251
00:22:57,046 --> 00:22:59,768
and then we notice
that it is also craning down.
252
00:23:00,783 --> 00:23:03,979
The roof of the stage
seems to rise.
253
00:23:15,125 --> 00:23:18,465
From a god's eye view,
to the peasants.
254
00:23:23,619 --> 00:23:25,358
Very Chinese.
255
00:23:25,383 --> 00:23:26,922
Very melodrama.
256
00:23:26,947 --> 00:23:28,635
Very 50s.
257
00:23:29,744 --> 00:23:33,683
Mao's cultural revolution
devastated Xie's career.
258
00:23:43,295 --> 00:23:46,825
Both Xie's parents killed themselves
in its aftermath
259
00:23:46,850 --> 00:23:51,632
and Two Stage Sisters was accused
of "cinematic confucianism."
260
00:23:54,534 --> 00:23:59,445
He himself was given a job cleaning
the toilets of the movie studio
261
00:23:59,470 --> 00:24:02,135
where he once
a leading director.
262
00:24:02,727 --> 00:24:06,470
Few lives in movie history,
not even Roman Polanski's,
263
00:24:06,495 --> 00:24:08,977
have such amplitude.
264
00:24:12,849 --> 00:24:16,258
Further east, in the early 50s
Japan was recovering
265
00:24:16,285 --> 00:24:20,151
from its disastrous
wartime experiences.
266
00:24:21,754 --> 00:24:25,049
Legendary actress Kyoko Kagawa,
who worked with Ozu,
267
00:24:25,074 --> 00:24:27,393
Mizoguchi and then Kurosawa.
268
00:25:05,422 --> 00:25:08,734
As we've seen, the country had already,
in the 1930s,
269
00:25:08,759 --> 00:25:11,438
experienced a cinematic golden age.
270
00:25:16,867 --> 00:25:19,804
But the 1950s heralded another.
271
00:25:22,169 --> 00:25:26,429
Central to this golden age
was Akira Kurosawa.
272
00:26:25,785 --> 00:26:30,433
Akira Kurosawa did indeed look
at individuals with a long lens.
273
00:26:30,458 --> 00:26:33,756
Look at this scene
from his film Ikiru.
274
00:26:33,781 --> 00:26:36,808
A bureaucrat has just learnt
that he's got cancer.
275
00:26:36,833 --> 00:26:39,161
The weight of the world
on his shoulders.
276
00:26:39,186 --> 00:26:41,099
Downcast eyes.
277
00:26:41,124 --> 00:26:44,207
He grew up under
the feudal emperor.
278
00:26:44,232 --> 00:26:46,083
This taught him to be passive.
279
00:26:46,108 --> 00:26:47,554
Trudge along.
280
00:26:47,580 --> 00:26:50,980
But then he was hit
by the juggernaut of modern life.
281
00:26:51,318 --> 00:26:53,432
Japan lost the war.
282
00:26:53,434 --> 00:26:56,217
He has to start thinking
for himself.
283
00:26:56,242 --> 00:27:00,392
Kurosawa's shot pulls back
to show the breadth of life.
284
00:27:00,417 --> 00:27:02,262
Where does he fit in?
285
00:27:05,744 --> 00:27:10,515
Most of the movies of Kurosawa
are about this emerging of the individual.
286
00:27:10,540 --> 00:27:15,497
How someone distinguishes themselves
from others, without being selfish.
287
00:27:16,201 --> 00:27:18,147
A very 50s tension.
288
00:27:18,940 --> 00:27:22,045
Filmmaker and critic
Donald Ritchie:
289
00:27:22,070 --> 00:27:28,205
The hero in a Kurosawa film
is notable for his staying power,
290
00:27:28,230 --> 00:27:35,036
even though it won't work,
he does it over and over and over again.
291
00:27:35,061 --> 00:27:41,146
All of the Kurosawa heroes
keep at it, until finally...
292
00:27:41,172 --> 00:27:45,544
Once I was with Kurosawa
and I saw an example of this...
293
00:27:45,570 --> 00:27:48,451
He had a pen that didn't work,
you know, ball point,
294
00:27:48,477 --> 00:27:51,302
and it wouldn't work and
most people would say
295
00:27:51,328 --> 00:27:56,528
bring me another ball pen, but he didn't,
he started working that ball pen
296
00:27:56,553 --> 00:28:01,853
and finally, after about ten minutes
of manipulation it worked.
297
00:28:01,878 --> 00:28:11,143
And I thought this is sort of a metaphor
for Kurosawa himself
298
00:28:11,169 --> 00:28:13,728
and for the way that he thinks
about his people.
299
00:28:13,753 --> 00:28:19,412
The detective in Stray Dog
doesn't have a one chance in hell
300
00:28:19,438 --> 00:28:23,068
of ever getting that gun back again
but he tries and he tries
301
00:28:23,094 --> 00:28:26,657
and he tries and he tries
and he does.
302
00:28:38,064 --> 00:28:41,010
In Kurosawa's epic film Seven Samurai
[Shichinin no samurai],
303
00:28:41,035 --> 00:28:44,087
a group of swordsmen
defend a village.
304
00:28:46,576 --> 00:28:49,876
This man on the right with black hair,
Katsushiro,
305
00:28:49,901 --> 00:28:52,750
has become the greatest swordsman
of them all.
306
00:28:52,775 --> 00:28:58,291
It's the end of an epic battle,
Katsushiro thinks it's still winnable.
307
00:28:58,316 --> 00:29:02,555
He walks around in a circle
but then throws the sword away.
308
00:29:02,580 --> 00:29:07,280
He's been shot.
309
00:29:09,949 --> 00:29:12,223
The era of the sword is over,
310
00:29:12,248 --> 00:29:14,751
the era of the gun has begun.
311
00:29:17,490 --> 00:29:21,269
The film's set in the past,
but it echoes in the 50s,
312
00:29:21,294 --> 00:29:24,934
because it's about
the beginning of a new era.
313
00:29:27,762 --> 00:29:32,340
John Ford would have filmed
such a scene simply, purely.
314
00:29:32,366 --> 00:29:37,858
Yet look at the rain in Kurosawa's film,
and the mud and the grey.
315
00:29:37,863 --> 00:29:44,912
Kurosawa was far more interested than Ford,
or most directors, in atmospheric effects,
316
00:29:44,937 --> 00:29:47,499
the poetic rush of imagery.
317
00:29:53,781 --> 00:29:56,947
In Throne of Blood [Kumonosu-jô],
one of his Shakespeare adaptations,
318
00:29:56,973 --> 00:30:00,001
look how he films the
lady MacBeth character,
319
00:30:00,026 --> 00:30:05,945
like a ghost, gliding through a room,
her kimono squeaking.
320
00:30:29,034 --> 00:30:33,069
And in the same film look
how he shows Birnham wood
321
00:30:33,095 --> 00:30:37,015
advancing like
in a nightmare, like waves.
322
00:30:37,041 --> 00:30:39,681
It's like the trees
have fingers.
323
00:30:47,269 --> 00:30:52,177
Look how MacBeth dies,
his body pierced a hundred times.
324
00:31:10,436 --> 00:31:13,651
It's clear where this scene
from The Godfather came from.
325
00:31:13,676 --> 00:31:19,459
Another human body jerking,
shaking, staccato as it dies.
326
00:31:24,050 --> 00:31:28,777
Kurosawa's work became,
in effect, a style-book for cinema.
327
00:31:29,954 --> 00:31:32,401
He was like a one man
film school.
328
00:31:33,257 --> 00:31:36,924
The Seven Samurai was remade
as The Magnificent Seven,
329
00:31:36,949 --> 00:31:39,870
with James Coburn playing
the Katsuchiro part.
330
00:31:41,614 --> 00:31:45,050
Widescreen, color,
bright sunlight
331
00:31:45,076 --> 00:31:49,043
rather than Kurosawa's
square charcoal downpour.
332
00:31:49,068 --> 00:31:53,999
The symbolic knife is even seen
in close up this time.
333
00:32:00,357 --> 00:32:03,812
The western world in the 50s
knew about Satyajit Ray,
334
00:32:03,814 --> 00:32:08,351
Kurosawa and Ozu
but move, say, to Latin America
335
00:32:08,377 --> 00:32:12,925
and it drew a blank, which was
the western world's loss,
336
00:32:12,951 --> 00:32:16,868
because filmmaking in Brazil
and Mexico was revving up.
337
00:32:17,757 --> 00:32:21,810
As we've seen, Brazil had taken
the lead in Latin American cinema.
338
00:32:21,835 --> 00:32:27,503
One of its first innovative films
was this one, Limite, made in 1930.
339
00:32:27,528 --> 00:32:31,082
Its soaring camera
expressing a woman's Liberty.
340
00:32:31,811 --> 00:32:36,109
25 years later, this
film: Rio 40 degrees,
[Rio 100 Degrees F.]
341
00:32:36,135 --> 00:32:39,361
brought Brazilian cinema
back to the spotlight.
342
00:32:39,386 --> 00:32:45,631
It starts with the aerial shots
and big band sounds of a tourist film,
343
00:32:45,657 --> 00:32:50,514
but soon it's on the ground
with boys from poor backgrounds,
344
00:32:50,539 --> 00:32:52,830
they sell nuts and papers.
345
00:32:52,889 --> 00:32:57,603
The camera tracks back,
a boy walks into the foreground,
346
00:32:57,628 --> 00:33:00,136
bold use of deep staging.
347
00:33:00,756 --> 00:33:04,517
The director of this film,
Nelson Pereira dos Santos,
348
00:33:04,542 --> 00:33:06,843
was influenced
by Neo-realism and became
349
00:33:06,868 --> 00:33:11,393
the most influential Brazilian filmmaker
of the 1950s.
350
00:33:11,418 --> 00:33:17,190
Santos filmed in slum locations
but used advanced visual techniques.
351
00:33:21,830 --> 00:33:25,112
Rio 40 Degrees had
multiple storylines.
352
00:33:25,137 --> 00:33:29,823
Here, Santos, tracks from the boys
who feature throughout
353
00:33:29,848 --> 00:33:32,788
to two men who talk about adult problems.
354
00:33:35,042 --> 00:33:38,725
An innovative shift in story
without a cut.
355
00:33:55,730 --> 00:33:58,541
The realism and the energy
of Rio 40 Degrees
356
00:33:58,566 --> 00:34:01,369
was like Youseef Chahine's Cairo Station.
357
00:34:01,846 --> 00:34:06,689
Travel northwest from Brazil in the 50s
and we find that Mexico's film industry
358
00:34:06,714 --> 00:34:09,275
is more advanced than Brazil's.
359
00:34:10,257 --> 00:34:15,166
Movies in Mexico had been intertwined
with life since the 1910s.
360
00:34:15,191 --> 00:34:19,805
The revolutionary Pancho Villa
held off an assault on Ojo de Agua
361
00:34:19,830 --> 00:34:23,385
until an American company
got its cameras in a position
362
00:34:23,410 --> 00:34:29,974
to film and Villa got paid
the tidy sum of $25,000 for doing so.
363
00:34:31,658 --> 00:34:36,009
Come the 30s, Mexican cinema
had great directors.
364
00:34:36,034 --> 00:34:42,845
Fernando de Fuentes who made this film
Dona Barbara, was perhaps the best.
365
00:34:45,761 --> 00:34:50,347
He virtually invented
Mexican national cinema
366
00:34:50,372 --> 00:34:58,576
and its themes of rich and poor,
feminine suffering and display.
367
00:34:59,815 --> 00:35:02,270
Brilliantly controlled melodrama.
368
00:35:03,374 --> 00:35:07,345
Here de Fuentes films
the greatest star of Mexican cinema,
369
00:35:07,370 --> 00:35:12,910
Maria Felix, on a boat as her character
is about to be raped.
370
00:35:14,122 --> 00:35:20,263
De Fuentes had his D.P. film from
Dona Barbara's point of view: low down.
371
00:35:20,288 --> 00:35:24,645
As in many Mexican films, the men
are photographed against the sky.
372
00:35:38,849 --> 00:35:42,005
Dona Barbara is hardened
by the assault.
373
00:35:42,030 --> 00:35:46,347
She becomes a landowner
and rules with an iron fist.
374
00:35:54,277 --> 00:35:57,512
Even more influential
on Mexican cinema than de Fuentes
375
00:35:57,537 --> 00:36:03,616
was this man on the left, Emilio
"El Indio" Fernandez, actor and director.
376
00:36:04,499 --> 00:36:07,549
This is him in Sam Peckinpah's
The wild Bunch.
377
00:36:07,574 --> 00:36:13,162
He was macho and cocky
and Peckinpah cast him as such.
378
00:36:13,187 --> 00:36:16,424
And in films that he directed
like this one, The Pearl,
379
00:36:16,449 --> 00:36:19,637
he was great
at muscular storytelling.
380
00:36:19,662 --> 00:36:23,674
Here the main character
is a poor Mexican Indian fisherman.
381
00:36:23,699 --> 00:36:29,359
Fernandez himself was half Indian
and often portrayed mixed race characters.
382
00:36:29,384 --> 00:36:31,789
The fisherman finds a pearl.
383
00:36:35,295 --> 00:36:38,298
His life can at last change
for the better.
384
00:36:38,323 --> 00:36:41,273
But people become jealous
of him and his wife,
385
00:36:41,298 --> 00:36:43,539
and they can't sell the pearl.
386
00:36:43,564 --> 00:36:47,663
It becomes a cancer
in their lives, poisoning everything.
387
00:36:49,648 --> 00:36:52,357
The film was shot by Gabriel Figueroa,
388
00:36:52,382 --> 00:36:55,932
one of the greatest cinematographers
of his day, who studied
389
00:36:55,957 --> 00:37:01,418
with Orson Welles' favorite director
of photography, Gregg Toland.
390
00:37:01,443 --> 00:37:07,874
The Fernández-Figeroa films were luminous,
the space deep and rounded by light,
391
00:37:07,899 --> 00:37:10,194
like Michelangelo sculptures.
392
00:37:12,526 --> 00:37:16,602
But they also showed life to be doomed,
fated to fail.
393
00:37:17,116 --> 00:37:22,602
An innovative combination
of gleaming light and dark human themes.
394
00:37:24,671 --> 00:37:28,856
A kind of landscape,
Mexican film noir.
395
00:37:34,348 --> 00:37:38,461
By the late 1940s,
Mexican cinema was on a roll.
396
00:37:38,486 --> 00:37:42,718
But then came Luis Buñuel,
guns blazing.
397
00:37:43,635 --> 00:37:45,601
The last time we met him
was here,
398
00:37:45,627 --> 00:37:48,799
at the premiere of his surrealist
film l'âge d'or.
399
00:37:49,145 --> 00:37:55,928
By the 50s, his wanderlust had taken him
to Mexico and this film, Los Olvidados.
400
00:37:55,954 --> 00:38:00,237
He walked around the slums of Mexico City
for a month to see the reality
401
00:38:00,262 --> 00:38:02,685
of the lives
of the young and poor.
402
00:38:05,070 --> 00:38:08,326
He filmed street gangs,
physically disabled people
403
00:38:08,352 --> 00:38:13,299
in scorching daylight
with high contrast film stocks.
404
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,620
But realism wasn't enough
for Buñuel.
405
00:38:17,645 --> 00:38:20,823
He found it too earthbound
and conventional.
406
00:38:20,825 --> 00:38:24,447
So he added a sequence
like this.
407
00:38:24,449 --> 00:38:27,468
One of the hungry boy's dreams.
408
00:38:27,470 --> 00:38:28,979
Slow motion.
409
00:38:28,981 --> 00:38:30,736
Wind in the bedroom.
410
00:38:30,762 --> 00:38:34,936
Meat as a thing to hunger for,
to fear.
411
00:38:48,918 --> 00:38:55,032
Mexico is rightly proud of the films
Buñuel made here between 1946 and 1965,
412
00:38:55,058 --> 00:39:00,945
though his mockery of its religion,
its fetishism of motherhood and suffering,
413
00:39:00,970 --> 00:39:05,977
and of middle class life
was very much of its time,
414
00:39:06,692 --> 00:39:09,290
and created mixed feelings.
415
00:39:29,456 --> 00:39:32,710
And in this journey
around the movie world in the 50s,
416
00:39:32,736 --> 00:39:35,696
we then come to
the land of the free.
417
00:39:35,721 --> 00:39:37,830
America.
418
00:39:37,888 --> 00:39:40,295
An idealized America.
419
00:39:45,208 --> 00:39:49,258
Eisenhower became
president in 1953.
420
00:39:49,284 --> 00:39:55,756
Where the political leaders of Egypt,
India and Mexico aimed for socialism,
421
00:39:55,782 --> 00:39:58,653
Eisenhower's vision
was rather different.
422
00:39:58,678 --> 00:40:03,439
Christian, middle-class,
decent and suburban.
423
00:40:06,163 --> 00:40:09,364
And at first glance, the best
and most popular American movies
424
00:40:09,389 --> 00:40:12,369
of their day seemed
to reflect this.
425
00:40:12,394 --> 00:40:18,496
Here in All that Heaven Allows,
is Eisenhower's America at its most lush.
426
00:40:18,521 --> 00:40:21,032
White picket fence.
427
00:40:21,057 --> 00:40:23,111
Beautiful Autumn day.
428
00:40:23,136 --> 00:40:25,059
Perfectly clean car.
429
00:40:25,084 --> 00:40:27,815
The swish of an a-line skirt.
430
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:29,453
And a craning camera.
431
00:40:29,987 --> 00:40:34,906
But All that Heaven Allows is far more
innovative and subversive than it seems.
432
00:40:36,033 --> 00:40:38,666
Martin always made the arrangements
with the nursery
433
00:40:38,691 --> 00:40:43,071
and after his death the service
just automatically continued.
434
00:40:43,096 --> 00:40:46,704
Carrie Scott, here on the right,
has been widowed.
435
00:40:49,474 --> 00:40:52,160
Polite society expects her
to settle down
436
00:40:52,185 --> 00:40:54,937
to a life of coffee mornings
and charity work.
437
00:40:55,754 --> 00:40:59,233
When she doesn't and starts
an affair with Rock Hudson,
438
00:40:59,258 --> 00:41:03,986
her gardener, much younger than she is,
and of a much lower class
439
00:41:04,011 --> 00:41:07,736
and filmed in darker settings
and more moody lighting.
440
00:41:07,761 --> 00:41:10,850
She's shunned by her friends.
441
00:41:25,951 --> 00:41:31,812
Director Douglas Sirk, who fled the Nazis,
exposed the conformity and viciousness
442
00:41:31,837 --> 00:41:34,412
of the 50s American dream.
443
00:41:36,289 --> 00:41:41,248
Society can't cope with Cary's
continuing sexual desire.
444
00:41:41,274 --> 00:41:42,964
And nor can her children.
445
00:41:43,929 --> 00:41:49,663
In this devastating scene, they buy her
that most 50s of consumer goods,
446
00:41:49,688 --> 00:41:55,940
a TV set, to keep her company at night
and distract her from the gardener.
447
00:41:58,689 --> 00:42:04,523
Sirk's camera tracks in to one of the
most potent filmic metaphors of the 50s.
448
00:42:05,612 --> 00:42:11,082
Carrie not watching the TV,
but imprisoned by its rectangle.
449
00:42:11,084 --> 00:42:13,499
Right there on the screen:
450
00:42:13,525 --> 00:42:14,815
Drama.
451
00:42:14,842 --> 00:42:16,349
Comedy.
452
00:42:16,351 --> 00:42:19,629
Life's parade at your fingertips.
453
00:42:23,433 --> 00:42:27,494
The film used the gloss
of Hollywood to attack gloss.
454
00:42:27,496 --> 00:42:31,788
Surface niceties
and 50s sexual sublimation.
455
00:42:31,813 --> 00:42:36,577
Exactly the same approach
as Youssef Chahine in Cairo Station.
456
00:42:37,368 --> 00:42:42,881
Social pressure in very different societies
around the world was building.
457
00:42:44,365 --> 00:42:49,055
Psychoanalysis, the study of the unconscious,
and its disruptive desires
458
00:42:49,081 --> 00:42:50,976
had gone mainstream in the 50s.
459
00:42:51,001 --> 00:42:53,062
And movies loved this.
460
00:42:54,623 --> 00:42:59,209
Every genre was swelling
with Freudian feeling in those days.
461
00:43:01,580 --> 00:43:05,681
Director Nicholas Ray brought the sexuality
of 50s America
462
00:43:05,707 --> 00:43:09,251
to that most traditional genre:
the western.
463
00:43:09,276 --> 00:43:11,258
He was a passionate drunk.
464
00:43:11,284 --> 00:43:16,472
Here he is filmed later in life, handheld,
on a student production.
465
00:43:16,497 --> 00:43:20,095
Enraged and arguing
with an actress.
466
00:43:23,881 --> 00:43:29,424
In his western Johnny Guitar, Ray argued
with 30s movie star Joan Crawford.
467
00:43:29,956 --> 00:43:35,694
She strides into a world of outlaws,
builds this highly decorated saloon
468
00:43:35,719 --> 00:43:38,052
with its back wall
like a cave...
469
00:43:40,535 --> 00:43:42,582
You wanted the dancing kid,
Marshall?
470
00:43:42,915 --> 00:43:46,771
And is waiting for
the railroad to bring customers.
471
00:43:49,627 --> 00:43:52,592
The straight laced locals
hate this.
472
00:43:52,617 --> 00:43:54,239
They form a Lynch mob.
473
00:43:54,264 --> 00:43:56,982
Here's someone
from that Lynch mob.
474
00:43:57,007 --> 00:44:00,466
Emma, who's dressed in black,
the color of villainy,
475
00:44:00,491 --> 00:44:02,792
spits almost fascist fury.
476
00:44:02,905 --> 00:44:05,445
Bringing thousands of new people
from the east.
477
00:44:05,471 --> 00:44:09,856
Farmers, dirt farmers,
squatters.
478
00:44:09,881 --> 00:44:11,990
They'll push us out!
479
00:44:12,975 --> 00:44:18,281
Emma's line about people from the east
is code for modern people, communists.
480
00:44:18,306 --> 00:44:22,686
Director Ray saw Emma and the mob
as the House Un-American Activities
481
00:44:22,711 --> 00:44:28,386
Committee bullies, thus adding to the
film's subversion, its political anger.
482
00:44:30,656 --> 00:44:34,904
Crawford's body language
makes her the strongest man in the film.
483
00:44:34,929 --> 00:44:40,395
She looks down on the other men,
and is hated for her sexual deviance.
484
00:44:43,625 --> 00:44:47,138
Never seen a woman who was more a man,
she thinks like one, acts like one,
485
00:44:47,163 --> 00:44:49,928
and sometimes makes me feel
like I'm not.
486
00:44:54,399 --> 00:44:56,374
Eddie, that's
last month's paper.
487
00:44:56,400 --> 00:44:58,062
How many times
do you have to read it?
488
00:44:58,492 --> 00:45:02,821
Johnny Guitar was released
in America to pretty terrible reviews.
489
00:45:03,138 --> 00:45:06,710
But this French director and critic
François Truffaut
490
00:45:06,735 --> 00:45:11,789
wrote that 'anyone who rejects it
should never go to see movies again,
491
00:45:11,814 --> 00:45:17,225
such people will never recognize
inspiration, a shot, an idea,
492
00:45:17,250 --> 00:45:21,028
a good film
or even cinema itself.'
493
00:45:22,230 --> 00:45:25,680
The camp of Johnny Guitar,
its Freudian sexuality
494
00:45:25,705 --> 00:45:30,441
showed that the lid could not be kept
on the pressure cooker of sex
495
00:45:30,466 --> 00:45:32,387
in movies of the 1950s.
496
00:45:33,030 --> 00:45:38,702
In the films of underground maestro,
Kenneth Anger, the lid blew off.
497
00:45:39,475 --> 00:45:44,649
In this scene in his 1947 film,
Fireworks, Anger himself
498
00:45:44,674 --> 00:45:47,506
is stripped and
beaten by sailors.
499
00:45:52,914 --> 00:45:55,825
It was shot silent,
lit from below.
500
00:45:55,850 --> 00:45:58,603
A dream about pain and sex.
501
00:45:58,628 --> 00:46:02,407
The French director Jean Cocteau,
who's film, The Blood of the Poet,
502
00:46:02,432 --> 00:46:05,643
helped found poetic underground cinema,
503
00:46:05,668 --> 00:46:10,058
saw fireworks and wrote a fan letter
to Anger about it.
504
00:46:13,237 --> 00:46:16,927
Seventeen years later,
his Scorpio Rising, once again
505
00:46:16,952 --> 00:46:22,344
combined masculine costumes with
bodily close ups, low level lighting
506
00:46:22,369 --> 00:46:28,168
and fetishism but this time added
rock and roll songs to the sound track.
507
00:46:28,193 --> 00:46:31,892
This was the first time
this had been done in this way,
508
00:46:31,917 --> 00:46:33,510
highly innovative.
509
00:46:33,706 --> 00:46:37,694
A technique that would be copied
by Martin Scorsese in Mean Streets
510
00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:40,543
and David Lynch in Blue Velvet.
511
00:46:49,589 --> 00:46:55,097
The magic techniques of Georges Méliès
begat Cocteau begat Anger
512
00:46:55,122 --> 00:46:57,331
begat Scorsese and Lynch.
513
00:46:57,644 --> 00:47:00,547
Quite a chain of command.
514
00:47:13,456 --> 00:47:17,888
Kenneth Anger, Douglas Sirk and Nick Ray
were all working in California,
515
00:47:17,914 --> 00:47:21,907
but perhaps an even bigger challenge
to the Eisenhowerian idea
516
00:47:21,932 --> 00:47:27,895
that 50s America was heaven,
came from this city: New York.
517
00:47:30,841 --> 00:47:35,480
Suspicious of all that sun and
sky and all those palm trees,
518
00:47:35,505 --> 00:47:42,879
New York had its own ideas about imagery
and reality, acting and landscape and sex.
519
00:47:43,562 --> 00:47:45,741
TV was made here.
520
00:47:45,743 --> 00:47:51,028
Its low resolution black and white imagery
was plain, compared to Hollywood spectacle.
521
00:47:51,650 --> 00:47:58,423
But a TV drama like this, Marty,
about this lonely butcher was a sensation.
522
00:47:58,834 --> 00:48:01,583
He phones a girl,
asks her out.
523
00:48:01,585 --> 00:48:07,255
But his confidence is low.
He's had many knock-backs from women.
524
00:48:09,875 --> 00:48:18,670
Yeah. Yeah, I understand.
Sure.
525
00:48:22,539 --> 00:48:25,279
This was live TV.
526
00:48:25,281 --> 00:48:29,169
The camera is right next to actor
Rod Steiger who played the butcher.
527
00:48:29,868 --> 00:48:32,358
Character rather than gloss.
528
00:48:38,817 --> 00:48:43,356
Marty led to more character based films
like On the Waterfront
529
00:48:43,381 --> 00:48:45,649
and, even, Taxi Driver.
530
00:48:46,563 --> 00:48:50,089
Steiger trained here:
The Actors Studio.
531
00:48:50,493 --> 00:48:52,276
Some of the teaching here said
532
00:48:52,301 --> 00:48:57,864
that actors should access their inner fears
and desires, then suppress them.
533
00:48:57,889 --> 00:49:02,896
Access then suppress,
acting as a pressure cooker,
534
00:49:03,172 --> 00:49:05,845
identity as a melodrama.
535
00:49:05,870 --> 00:49:09,493
A new performance technique
called The Method resulted.
536
00:49:10,336 --> 00:49:13,691
One of the great method films,
On the Waterfront,
537
00:49:13,716 --> 00:49:17,093
was shot here, across the water
from Manhattan.
538
00:49:17,689 --> 00:49:20,590
It was directed by Elia Kazan.
539
00:49:20,615 --> 00:49:24,419
Marlon Brando, who'd also
studied in the actors studio,
540
00:49:24,445 --> 00:49:28,588
confronts a union boss
who'd been responsible for a murder.
541
00:49:30,295 --> 00:49:36,243
Hey, Friendly!
John Friendly, come out of there.
542
00:49:36,268 --> 00:49:40,883
Friendly!
Come out of there.
543
00:49:40,908 --> 00:49:43,617
Brando's character
doesn't think much of himself.
544
00:49:43,642 --> 00:49:48,003
He's inarticulate
and slow to anger, but his fury,
545
00:49:48,028 --> 00:49:51,489
long suppressed,
finally explodes.
546
00:49:52,456 --> 00:49:53,710
Wait a minute you.
547
00:49:53,736 --> 00:49:56,726
You take them heaters away from you
and you're nothing!
548
00:49:56,751 --> 00:49:57,789
You know that?
549
00:49:57,815 --> 00:49:59,245
You'll talk yourself
in the river.
550
00:49:59,270 --> 00:50:03,421
You take the good goods away
and the kickbacks and a shakedown cabbage
551
00:50:03,447 --> 00:50:05,985
and them pistoleros
are you're nothing!
552
00:50:06,010 --> 00:50:09,074
You're guts is all in your wallet
and your trigger finger, do you know that?
553
00:50:09,238 --> 00:50:11,721
As he was taught,
to prepare for the scene,
554
00:50:11,746 --> 00:50:15,586
Brando will have remembered
some fury in his personal life
555
00:50:15,611 --> 00:50:18,874
then tried to hide it,
then let it all come out.
556
00:50:18,959 --> 00:50:21,660
You give it to Jerry, you give it to Dugan,
you give it to Charley,
557
00:50:21,685 --> 00:50:23,143
it was one of your own.
558
00:50:24,139 --> 00:50:28,672
In this famous scene,
Rod Steiger plays Brando's brother,
559
00:50:28,697 --> 00:50:31,124
he works for the Union boss.
560
00:50:31,150 --> 00:50:33,478
Has the cashmere coat
to show it.
561
00:50:33,503 --> 00:50:35,057
Listen to me, Terry!
562
00:50:35,083 --> 00:50:36,231
Take the job, just take it.
563
00:50:36,256 --> 00:50:37,263
No questions, take it.
564
00:50:37,563 --> 00:50:39,956
Steiger pulls a gun
on his brother.
565
00:50:39,982 --> 00:50:42,861
You'd think that Brando
would get enraged by this
566
00:50:42,886 --> 00:50:45,002
but the opposite happens.
567
00:50:45,027 --> 00:50:48,590
He pushes the gun away,
tenderly.
568
00:50:56,170 --> 00:50:57,372
Oh, Charley.
569
00:51:01,752 --> 00:51:05,907
The emotion that has been
suppressed, hidden, is not rage,
570
00:51:05,932 --> 00:51:10,070
but disappointment
and, even, brotherly love.
571
00:51:12,739 --> 00:51:14,659
Okay, Derrik.
572
00:51:18,711 --> 00:51:21,775
There'd been many types
of realism in acting before it,
573
00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:26,948
but now actors no longer displayed
their characters but tried to hide them.
574
00:51:27,706 --> 00:51:32,598
As Freud had taught,
the surface is a lie, a mask.
575
00:51:33,597 --> 00:51:37,558
Modern western, inchoate
masculinity came out of moments
576
00:51:37,584 --> 00:51:40,548
like the back of the taxi scene.
577
00:51:43,448 --> 00:51:46,836
In this scene in Howard
Hawk's western Red River,
578
00:51:46,861 --> 00:51:49,153
old and new cinema
fought it out.
579
00:51:49,179 --> 00:51:53,794
You're soft. Won't anything make
a man out of you?
580
00:51:53,819 --> 00:51:56,908
You once told me never
to take your gun away from you.
581
00:51:59,404 --> 00:52:04,227
John Wayne, an old style action man,
squared up to the actor who,
582
00:52:04,252 --> 00:52:09,922
at the Actors' Studio, was even more
troubled than Brando, Montgomery Clift.
583
00:52:16,875 --> 00:52:17,363
Alright.
584
00:52:17,388 --> 00:52:20,331
For 14 years I've been scared,
but it's going to be alright.
585
00:52:20,356 --> 00:52:23,257
But Clift fights back.
586
00:52:24,780 --> 00:52:25,952
Come on, get up.
587
00:52:26,374 --> 00:52:30,528
The 1950s standing up
to the 30s and 40s.
588
00:52:31,231 --> 00:52:33,993
Judy Balaban was engaged
to Montgomery Clift.
589
00:52:34,497 --> 00:52:39,434
Monty was sort of the forerunner...
590
00:52:39,459 --> 00:52:42,846
of the sensitive man,
if you will. You know?
591
00:52:42,871 --> 00:52:48,152
He was the sort of beginning
of accepting the notion
592
00:52:48,346 --> 00:52:52,902
that guys were just not these
cut out masculine figures
593
00:52:52,928 --> 00:52:55,123
of masculine traits,
or whatever.
594
00:52:55,148 --> 00:53:00,105
And I think he was the precursor
of Marlon and Jimmy Dean.
595
00:53:00,130 --> 00:53:04,259
He was just at the edge of that,
coming into that.
596
00:53:05,603 --> 00:53:11,540
James Dean, in Rebel without a Cause,
was the icon of these modern men.
597
00:53:11,565 --> 00:53:14,374
He's the son of a rich family.
598
00:53:16,537 --> 00:53:18,003
Dad, stand up for me.
599
00:53:18,429 --> 00:53:23,258
Director Nicholas Ray's wide screen
shows the posh family home.
600
00:53:23,283 --> 00:53:29,038
But then Dean, like cinema itself
in the 50s, explodes.
601
00:53:29,063 --> 00:53:30,447
Stand up!
602
00:53:30,473 --> 00:53:35,079
Tilted camera,
he attacks his father.
603
00:53:38,029 --> 00:53:40,573
Do you want to kill
your own father?
604
00:53:53,474 --> 00:53:56,660
He puts the boot
into all that good taste.
605
00:54:01,565 --> 00:54:07,693
There was no social reason for his
rebellion, it was personal, existential.
606
00:54:11,125 --> 00:54:15,190
Dean died aged 24 in 1955,
607
00:54:15,216 --> 00:54:19,160
just as teenagers and rage
had really got going.
608
00:54:19,649 --> 00:54:25,965
Suddenly, American cinema was all about
young, angry, East Coast, inarticulate men.
609
00:54:26,798 --> 00:54:30,722
They knew that 50s America
wasn't all Doris day and Disney.
610
00:54:30,725 --> 00:54:34,853
It was rife with tensions
between parents and kids,
611
00:54:34,878 --> 00:54:38,168
management and workers,
white and black.
612
00:54:39,361 --> 00:54:45,244
And back here in California the tension
in 50s cinema gets even more intriguing.
613
00:54:46,622 --> 00:54:50,334
As if to prove that it wasn't only
the trendy young American directors
614
00:54:50,359 --> 00:54:53,488
who were making swollen movies in the 50s,
615
00:54:53,513 --> 00:54:57,157
let's look at what four
of the American master directors,
616
00:54:57,182 --> 00:54:59,457
Orson Welles, John Ford,
617
00:54:59,482 --> 00:55:02,932
Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks
were up to.
618
00:55:02,933 --> 00:55:06,453
Each of them made masterpieces
in those years.
619
00:55:06,478 --> 00:55:10,864
Welles filmed his movie Touch of Evil
in Venice, California.
620
00:55:11,605 --> 00:55:16,381
He plays Hank Quinlan,
a corrupt lawman bulging at the waist.
621
00:55:16,407 --> 00:55:21,685
Welles filmed with wide-angle lenses
to make the imagery bulge.
622
00:55:21,710 --> 00:55:25,561
Even the building here
seems to curve around the man.
623
00:55:31,981 --> 00:55:36,348
Hank's desperately lonely
and obsessed by a woman.
624
00:55:37,928 --> 00:55:40,895
I don't know what Willard thinks
she's got to do with it?
625
00:55:40,920 --> 00:55:47,562
Maybe she'll cook chili for him,
or bring out the crystal ball.
626
00:56:03,703 --> 00:56:07,639
John Ford's greatest film
of the 50s, The Searchers,
627
00:56:07,665 --> 00:56:11,060
is also about a lonely man,
obsessed by a woman,
628
00:56:11,085 --> 00:56:13,668
his niece, who's been abducted.
629
00:56:14,106 --> 00:56:17,143
When he finds her
he holds her up to the sky,
630
00:56:17,168 --> 00:56:20,731
not sure whether
to hug or harm her.
631
00:56:27,531 --> 00:56:33,412
The abductors were native Americans,
Edwards' rage is racist.
632
00:56:33,919 --> 00:56:37,447
In 50s America,
the biggest drama of them all.
633
00:56:38,406 --> 00:56:44,230
Scotty in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
is as obsessed as Ethan and Hank,
634
00:56:44,255 --> 00:56:46,983
but with an apparently dead woman.
635
00:56:52,853 --> 00:56:57,340
He follows her look alike,
his eyes burning blue.
636
00:57:04,129 --> 00:57:09,140
Hitchcock films his point of view,
putting us in his driving seat.
637
00:57:09,165 --> 00:57:12,688
Scottie slips into
an erotic dream state.
638
00:57:13,748 --> 00:57:16,823
In an era when families
were the social norm,
639
00:57:16,848 --> 00:57:19,105
none of these men is in one.
640
00:57:19,667 --> 00:57:24,626
And, neither is this man, John Wayne
in Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo.
641
00:57:24,651 --> 00:57:28,233
He plays a sheriff
who's assembled this motley posse
642
00:57:28,258 --> 00:57:30,767
to defend a town
against bandits.
643
00:57:31,201 --> 00:57:35,767
The men sit around,
joke, talk and sing.
644
00:57:39,238 --> 00:57:42,417
In the era of Chahine's sexual frustration,
645
00:57:42,442 --> 00:57:46,958
of Sirk's conformity,
of Mehboob's symbolic women,
646
00:57:46,983 --> 00:57:51,027
of James Dean and Marlon Brando's
unraveling men,
647
00:57:51,052 --> 00:57:56,948
this posse, filmed in warm colors, smoking,
strumming and drinking coffee,
648
00:57:56,975 --> 00:58:03,847
were the closest mature American cinema
got to showing an ordinary family at all.
649
00:58:07,146 --> 00:58:09,224
650
00:58:09,226 --> 00:58:12,715
651
00:58:12,717 --> 00:58:18,508
652
00:58:21,143 --> 00:58:24,844
In Britain in the 50s,
tensions about sex and society
653
00:58:24,869 --> 00:58:27,622
were more hidden
beneath the surface.
654
00:58:27,647 --> 00:58:31,672
The films of this man, David Lean,
didn't scream like the melodramas
655
00:58:31,697 --> 00:58:34,859
of Egypt, India,
Mexico and America.
656
00:58:35,390 --> 00:58:37,886
But still waters run deep.
657
00:58:37,911 --> 00:58:41,884
Lean's films contain the emotions
of Britain in the 50s,
658
00:58:41,909 --> 00:58:44,054
its empire in decline.
659
00:58:45,435 --> 00:58:50,543
Like Akira Kurosawa in Japan,
Lean's black and white films of the '40s
660
00:58:50,568 --> 00:58:55,484
were taut stories of his nation, England,
on a human scale.
661
00:58:56,335 --> 00:59:00,732
In this scene in his adaptation
of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations,
662
00:59:00,757 --> 00:59:04,592
the young Pip, who comes
from a humble background,
663
00:59:04,617 --> 00:59:08,965
encounters another class,
which is haughty and stopped in time.
664
00:59:11,427 --> 00:59:14,520
Your clock's stopped, miss.
It should say a quarter past three.
665
00:59:14,546 --> 00:59:16,070
Don't loiter, boy!
666
00:59:17,130 --> 00:59:19,806
Gothic and erotic.
667
00:59:23,672 --> 00:59:26,177
And then, like Kurosawa's,
668
00:59:26,202 --> 00:59:29,933
Lean's films seemed to become
as much about landscape.
669
00:59:29,958 --> 00:59:31,963
How it dwarfs people.
670
00:59:33,243 --> 00:59:38,915
In this scene from Lawrence of Arabia,
Lawrence imagines going to the desert.
671
00:59:38,940 --> 00:59:43,678
In the burning match he sees
the heat of the Arab sun.
672
00:59:43,703 --> 00:59:50,906
Then the famous cut that seems to picture
T.E. Lawrence's colonial dream of elsewhere.
673
00:59:51,496 --> 00:59:55,050
What makes the film very
50s is that it hints
674
00:59:55,075 --> 01:00:01,012
that Lawrence's attraction
to Arabia was sexual too.
675
01:00:24,731 --> 01:00:30,770
The director who made this film
held David Lean in total contempt.
676
01:00:30,795 --> 01:00:37,930
Working class people at an amusement park,
having fun, believing in life, optimism.
677
01:00:37,955 --> 01:00:42,158
The film is interested in these people
but its director Lindsay Anderson,
678
01:00:42,183 --> 01:00:46,596
who was bookish
and caustic, didn't believe.
679
01:00:47,243 --> 01:00:51,342
He thought that human beings
were selfish, especially posh ones.
680
01:00:51,367 --> 01:00:55,387
So O Dreamland
is a hot subject, filmed coolly.
681
01:00:56,482 --> 01:01:00,206
Anderson was a leftist,
but O Dreamland's irony
682
01:01:00,231 --> 01:01:04,880
is far from this, the most famous
leftist film in movie history,
683
01:01:04,905 --> 01:01:07,328
Battleship Potemkin.
684
01:01:07,353 --> 01:01:11,926
In Potemkin the working classes
were pictured as noble types.
685
01:01:14,042 --> 01:01:17,613
A caring mother,
children of the revolution.
686
01:01:22,727 --> 01:01:29,557
O Dreamland's people or, rather,
its stare at them, was not simple at all.
687
01:01:29,582 --> 01:01:32,835
It was full of pity
and admiration but,
688
01:01:32,860 --> 01:01:38,293
also, disappointment and
maybe even contempt.
689
01:01:39,502 --> 01:01:42,961
How conflicted and class ridden.
690
01:01:42,986 --> 01:01:47,831
Just like Britain
itself in the 50s.
691
01:01:54,946 --> 01:01:58,586
And, finally, in our travel
around the world in the 1950s,
692
01:01:58,611 --> 01:02:02,202
if we move to France
not long after O Dreamland,
693
01:02:02,227 --> 01:02:08,385
we find this 22-year-old ballet dancer
and model, Brigitte Bardot.
694
01:02:08,410 --> 01:02:12,562
She had the kind of beauty
that made the box office go "ka-ching."
695
01:02:12,587 --> 01:02:16,263
There was nothing ambiguous
about this stare.
696
01:02:16,289 --> 01:02:19,561
Bardot's hair was unkempt,
she refused to dress
697
01:02:19,586 --> 01:02:21,652
like posh Parisian woman.
698
01:02:22,268 --> 01:02:25,996
Eventually she brought more money
to the French economy
699
01:02:26,021 --> 01:02:29,329
than the motorcar
manufacturer Renault.
700
01:02:29,867 --> 01:02:33,662
Sex was coming out
in the open in the movies.
701
01:02:42,021 --> 01:02:45,956
The 1950s were
the pressure cooker years in the movies.
702
01:02:45,981 --> 01:02:50,181
The non-western world decolonized,
got confidence
703
01:02:50,207 --> 01:02:53,315
and you could see
this in its movies.
704
01:02:53,383 --> 01:02:57,067
The western world had sex
and power on its mind,
705
01:02:57,092 --> 01:03:00,179
and you could see this
in its movies.
706
01:03:00,205 --> 01:03:03,434
Audiences got hot
under the collar.
707
01:03:06,335 --> 01:03:10,366
They were swollen with
the desires of their times.
708
01:03:12,197 --> 01:03:16,335
The language of the movies
was straining at the seams,
709
01:03:16,336 --> 01:03:19,559
something had to give.