Identifying Film Titles, Filmmakers, and Schools of Film - CLEP Humanities

Sergio Leone was an Italian filmmaker who made his name by directing Westerns, which were originally called "Spaghetti Westerns" due to being made, performed, and produced by Italians. Leone eventually made Westerns in America, notable working with Clint Eastwood on the films A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More,and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Leone helped revitalize the Western as a genre and move it into the realm of modern cinema.

The film Birth of a Nation was a massive success, becoming the first film ever shown at the White House. However, its heroic depiction of the Ku Klux Klan and virulent depiction of African-Americans caused criticism to be launched at its director, D.W. Griffith. In response, Griffith's next film, Intolerance, told the story of five civilizations who were ruined by their various forms of intolerance.

The Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini was one of the most important filmmakers of the twentieth century, and his work proved highly influential around the world. Beginning in the Italian Neo-realist genre, Fellini began moving into a more surrealist and fantastical mode with his 1954 film La Strada. With 1960's La Dolce Vita, Fellini explored non-linear narrative, and with 1964's 8 1/2, Fellini began exploring dreams and fantasies in his work more explicitly.

The French New Wave was a label applied to a group of French filmmakers in the 1960s who all sought to create narrative ambiguity, a realistic shooting style, and modern stories. Among the New Wave directors were figures such as Éric Rohmer, André Bazin, François Truffaut, and Jean Luc Godard. One of their chief influences was the earlier filmmaker Jean Renoir.

The Marx Brothers, Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo, began their career in the vaudeville era, and translated their success there into Broadway success as zany comedians. As soon as sound entered pictures, the Marx Brothers started making films, which were among the first commercially successful comedies, including 1930's Animal Crackers, 1932's Horse Feathers, and 1933's Duck Soup.

Martin Scorsese is considered one of the key figures of the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s, which broke from the conventions of the studio system from the 1930s-1940s. Unlike his contemporaries, Scorsese's films, including Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, and Raging Bull, were usually set in his native New York, with characters similar to the Italian and Irish working class people he grew up around.

The Godfather, based on a book by Mario Puzo, was released to great acclaim in 1972, and propelled its director Francis Ford Coppola and its stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, and Robert Duvall to fame. The Godfather films were all influential in moving the "gangster film" out of B-movie limbo into being considered a type of great film. The first two parts of the trilogy are considered among the greatest films of all time.

Luis Buñuel was a Spanish-born director who was an important early Surrealist painter and filmmaker. He had to leave Spain when Francisco Franco took control of the government in 1938. Buñuel eventually moved to Hollywood, and then to Mexico, and afterward, to France. In 1972, he made his most well-known and landmark film, Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie. Covering the attempts of upper-middle-class people trying to get dinner together, the surrealist film is one of the classic surrealist and inventive films.

Charlie Chaplin was perhaps the biggest star of the silent film era, writing, directing, and starring in films starring his character of "The Tramp." Featuring Chaplin's trademark bowler hat, cane, and toothbrush mustache, films like The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), and City Lights (1931) helped pioneer comedic tropes and gags in film. Chaplin adapted poorly to using sound in film and also had a controversial personal life which saw his star diminish in the 1930s.

The film Metropolis was a technical marvel upon its release in 1927, being the first full length science fiction film and featuring camera and set work that was inventive and new. The work was not a commercial success, however, as the film had a controversial take on big business. Later film scholars would celebrate Fritz Lang's masterpiece, but too late to save the costly film from being a commercial flop.

Billy Wilder was born to a Jewish family in Germany in 1906, but had to flee the Nazis' rise in the early 1930s. Arriving in Hollywood in 1933, Wilder first gained note as a screenwriter, but had a hit with his third directorial effort, 1944's Double Indemnity. That film noir set a mark for Wilder in its success, but stylistically he took many chances, from 1950's sweeping drama Sunset Boulevard to the farces The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959).

Jean-Luc Godard was the leading filmmaker of the French New Wave in the 1960s. His films like Breathless, from 1960, and Masculine, Feminine, from 1966, are simultaneously deeply imbued with politics and philosophy, while also being deep homages to his favorite filmmakers. Godard has been one of the most influential filmmakers from any country and in any genre.

The Sorrow and the Pity is a documentary film, over four hours long, made in 1969 by Marcel Ophüls, a German born French-Jewish filmmaker. Ophüls interviewed a number of Nazi-collaborators in French, made easier by making the film only twenty five years after the fall of the Nazi-supported Vichy regime. The Sorrow and the Pity is widely held as one of the most important documentaries in film history, for both its filmmaking techniques and its ability to find information from important historical figures.

Birth of a Nation (1915) was revolutionary in many of its filmmaking techniques, especially its ability to shoot crowds and portray action scenes. However, its subject matter, which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and celebrated an angry mob hunting a black man, made the film controversially popular in its own time and condemned by many political groups. Its director, D.W. Griffith, attempted to apologize for much of the film's subject matter with his next film, Intolerance, which also upped the use of crowds and action scenes.

Alfred Hitchcock directed Psycho (1960), Howard Hawks directed The Big Sleep (1946), Michael Curtiz directed Mildred Pierce (1945), and John Ford directed The Last Hurrah (1958).

Sydney Pollack (1934-2008) won 2 Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture in 1986 for Out of Africa. He was nominated an additional 3 times for Best Picture for Tootsie (1983), Michael Clayton (2008) and The Reader (2009); and 2 additional times for Best Director for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1970) and Tootsie (1983). He also acted and produced. Although he did not direct Cold Mountain, (Anthony Minghella directed this movie), he was the producer.

Empire of the Sun (1987) was critically acclaimed, earning 6 Academy Award nominations. Stephen Spielberg directed an outstanding cast including John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Ben Stiller and 12-year-old Christian Bale. Bale plays the role of Jamie Graham, a young British boy living in Shanghai when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. He is separated from his parents and lives on the streets until he is able to surrender to the Japanese and placed in a prisoner of war camp.

The Last Emperor (1987) was directed by Bernarndo Bertolucci and tells the story of Puyi, the last emperor of China.

Cry Freedom (1987), directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, starred Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline. The movie is set in 1970's South Africa during apartheid.

Elaine May directed the comedy _Ish_tar (1987), starring Dustin Hoffman.

Orphans (1987) was directed by Alan J. Pakula and starred Albert Finney. Set in Philadelphia, the plot revolves around two orphaned brothers trying to survive.

Although it may seem as if Stephen Spielberg has directed (or at least been involved with) every major blockbuster movie series in the last 50 years, Star Wars is a notable exception. George Lucas wrote, directed and produced the original Star Wars movie in 1977. Lucas and Spielberg teamed up to create Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, but Spielberg actually directed the movie.