Fifties Free Cinema: No Film can be too Personal
Time: 10:30 - 16:30
Location: Keeley Street
- Course Code: HF233
- Dates: 22/02/25 - 22/02/25
- Time: 10:30 - 16:30
- Taught: Sat, Daytime
- Duration: 1 session
- Location: Keeley Street
- Tutor: John Wischmeyer
Course Code: HF233
Duration: 1 session
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What is the course about?
This film studies course demonstrates documentary’s development from Grierson to Anderson and from Free Cinema (UK) to Direct Cinema (U.S.) to Cinema Verite (France). The camera eye was focused on society and everyday life. Free Cinema was free from sponsors and box office demands. The theme of new 50s documentary and Free Cinema was: ‘The image speaks. An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude. Perfection is not an aim. No film can be too personal’.
What will we cover?
What is documentary anyway?
Documentary, never an easy fit for the cinema, came into its own on television, which offered the factual filmmaker a host of new opportunities in its formative decades. The years treated on this course fall between the aftermath of WW2 (during which documentary as propaganda came into its own) and a 1950s United States/UK blanketed by television. In 1950 the U.S. NBC network famously screened the poetic Louisiana Story (1948 Robert Flaherty, originator of Nanook of the North in 1922) to audience rapture. They hadn’t seen its like. In Britain, Lindsay Anderson’s Everyday Except Christmas (1957) documented the old Covent Garden produce market, which Hitchcock later captured in its final closing days in Frenzy (1972). Something new, more critical, was in the air, such as: The See It Now series (1953-54 CBS network): Edward R. Murrow Talks on Senator McCarthy, O Dreamland (1953 Lindsay Anderson UK Free Cinema), which castigated the dull, synthetic pleasures offered the working classes at Margate and Momma Don’t Allow (1955 Tony Richardson, Karel Reisz UK Free Cinema), which was filmed at a London jazz club patronised by working class teenagers.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Define and analyse the characteristics of the documentary genre.
- Be familiar with the shared characteristics of New York (independents), British (Free Cinema) and French (cinema verite) documentaries.
- Have an understanding of the visual style associated with the various documentary types explored on the course.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This is a course for those interested in cinema. No previous experience or film study is necessary but those who have done previous study will find it well-informed and genuinely educational.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
Opening lecture, proper big screen screenings of films, clips, sequences and re-mixes that stimulate group discussion and debate.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
There are no other costs. The tutor will show extracts of films or supply links to online viewing. Please bring a notepad, tablet or other device for taking notes.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Look for other film studies courses on our website at www.citylit.ac.uk/history, culture & writing/film studies.
John Wischmeyer (MA in Film Theory) set up, ran and programmed his own cinema in West London and has since taught film studies at the former Gainsborough studio, the BFI and City Lit since 1999, Hitchcock’s centenary year. John has covered a wide range film topics under the banner ‘Cinema Investigates America’ and has a particular interest in and considerable knowledge of Hitchcock, Hollywood studios, American independent cinema and film noir, film technique and style.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.