Early Cinema and Film as Propaganda

Early Cinema: The Rise of Cinematic Language

• The nickelodeon era (1905-1912) saw the rise of the moviegoer as a regular habit.
• The Birth of a Nation (1915) was considered a turning point in cinema, recognized for its artistic achievements.
• The 1910s marked a crucial period in cinema with the formation of major studios and the rise of Classical Hollywood Cinema.
• Advancements in filmmaking technology during this period included artificial lighting, silhouette effects, animation techniques, parallel actions, cross cuts, and more advanced camera angles.
• Film is considered a visual language, a "visual esperanto".

Films as Propaganda: World War I and Beyond

• European cinema, particularly in France and Germany, saw the emergence of avant-garde film movements after World War I.
• The Soviet Montage movement emerged during the 1920s in the USSR.
• The Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), a government-subsidized film conglomerate, was established in Germany in 1917.
• The Weimar Republic (1919-1933) is known as the “golden age” of German cinema.
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) is a notable example of German Expressionist cinema.

The Soviet Cinema: A Powerhouse of Montage

• Bolshevik leaders in the USSR saw film as a powerful tool for national unity.
• The Soviet Montage movement revolutionized film editing and storytelling.
• The movement emphasized the power of editing to create meaning and evoke emotion.

Key Individuals and Experiments: The Kuleshov Group

• The Kuleshov Group, a prominent film collective, conducted influential experiments in film editing.
• The Kuleshov Effect demonstrates how a single shot can be interpreted differently based on its context with other shots.
• The Kuleshov Effect is a key principle of montage, emphasizing its power to create meaning through editing.