Chapter 09: Europe in the Thirties
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. The European response to the availability of American sound recording technology was
a. a coordinated effort by several countries to develop a competing system.
b. to immediately adapt the American system.
c. to resist the transition to sound for as long as possible.
d. for each country to attempt to develop its own system.
e. both c and d
f. none of the above
2. The most advanced European country in terms of developing the technology for sound cinema was
a. Great Britain. d. Italy.
b. France. e. Sweden.
c. Germany. f. none of the above
3. The German-American film conference was convened in 1930 in order to
a. continue the coproduction strategies of the Parufamet Agreement.
b. divide up the world market for sound equipment.
c. establish international copyright legislation and curtail movie piracy.
d. divide up the world into separate distribution zones in order to implement the run-zone-clearance
system on an international level.
e. compare the technical qualities of films from all over the world.
f. all of the above
4. The British Cinematograph Film Act of 1927
a. opened up the country to imports of foreign films from countries other than the United States.
b. began the practice of direct government investment in feature film production.
c. resulted primarily in the production of many low-budget B-films.
d. could not prevent the continued contraction of the British industry.
e. set up the terms for the beginnings of British-American coproduction.
f. none of the above
5. The pioneering producer of many costume spectacles whose lavish London Films productions
competed well in the American market, was
a. Michael Balcon. d. Alexander Korda.
b. John Grierson. e. Zoltan Korda.
c. Jessie Matthews. f. none of the above
6. By the late 1930s, the country with the second largest output of feature films (behind the United
States) was
a. Germany. d. Spain.
b. France. e. Britain.
c. Italy. f. none of the above
7. Fritz Lang’s M
a. is known for its expressive use of non-naturalistic sound.
b. has no musical score.
c. features a fluid camera style unencumbered by the demands of sound recording.
d. is unusual for the early German sound cinema in that it is not a musical.
e. none of the above
f. all of the above
8. Lang’s The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse
a. featured a villain Lang later claimed was modeled on Hitler.
b. was the first appearance of a character Lang would reprise in several later films.
c. was one of the favorite films of the Nazi leadership when they rose to power.
d. was so well received that it encouraged Lang to continue making films in Germany.
e. led to Lang being harassed by the Nazis.
f. none of the above
9. Lang’s American films
a. were made almost exclusively in the horror and thriller genres.
b. continued to reflect the visual and thematic influence of Expressionism.
c. were few in number due to their limited success.
d. abandoned the themes of tragic destiny and social corruption that characterized his German films
due to studio pressure.
e. were consistently mediocre in quality when compared to his work in Germany.
f. None of the above are true.
10. Under the Nazis, the German film industry
a. produced only propaganda films.
b. contracted to a fraction of its former size.
c. was run by Joseph Goebbels.
d. stopped making lighthearted films such as musicals and comedies.
e. produced very few films with propagandistic messages.
f. none of the above
11. The film that shows Hitler descending from the clouds like a god coming to earth to save his people is
a. Olympiad. d. Hitlerjunge Quex.
b. Berlin, Symphony of a Great City. e. Triumph of the Will.
c. The Blue Light. f. none of the above
12. Which of the following is the most accurate statement about Triumph of the Will?
a. Riefenstahl had limited time and resources to make the film.
b. Riefenstahl’s cameras were allowed great access to the Nuremberg rally, though no special
accommodations were made, creating very challenging shooting conditions.
c. Riefenstahl had no ideological commitment to the Nazis but was merely a great formalist
filmmaker.
d. The 1934 Nuremberg rally was staged specifically for Riefenstahl’s camera.
e. Walter Ruttman was the actual director of the film but was not credited.
f. none of the above
13. Riefenstahl’s Olympiad
a. rejected the Nazi ideology of her previous film.
b. was made with very limited resources.
c. was made to try to attract the Olympic games to Germany.
d. features no innovations that were not present in Triumph of the Will.
e. both b and d
f. none of the above
14. LUCE
a. represents the first serious collaboration between the Italian film industry and Mussolini’s fascist
government.
b. was the German agency in charge of regulating film content under the Nazis.
c. was an entity dedicated to producing propagandistic feature films for distribution in the Axis
countries.
d. was the Soviet studio where the country’s first sound films were produced.
e. was the distribution company formed by Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.
f. none of the above
15. The “white telephone” film was
a. a French genre of sophisticated melodrama popular during the war.
b. an Italian genre of glamorous romantic comedy from the fascist period.
c. the first German musicals, which were embraced by the Nazis.
d. a Soviet genre about government corruption popular with the Stalin regime.
e. a British genre of scandal and intrigue among the wealthy.
f. none of the above
16. Sound in the Soviet Union
a. was first recorded on equipment imported from the United States.
b. was not embraced by leading directors and theorists like Pudovkin and Eisenstein.
c. arrived later than in other European countries.
d. once adopted, almost immediately replaced the silent film.
e. was technologically inferior to sound production in Europe and the United States.
f. all of the above
17. In the early 1930s, the Soviet cinema
a. continued the experimentation of the 1920s, only now with sound as an added dimension.
b. enjoyed a period of unprecedented creative and commercial growth.
c. became for the first time commercially competitive with the other European industries.
d. turned to the production of escapist films like musicals and historical spectacles.
e. all of the above
f. none of the above
18. Eisenstein’s Que Viva México!
a. was financed by the Soviet government in order to promote good international relations.
b. was never released commercially in any form.
c. was completed by Eisenstein but was only released in a drastically re-edited version.
d. was financed originally by Paramount, who pulled out midway through the project.
e. might have been Eisenstein’s greatest film, but is now considered a lost masterwork.
f. none of the above
19. On his return to the Soviet Union after Que Viva México!, Eisenstein found
a. a heroic welcome as one of the great Soviet filmmakers returning from a successful sojourn in the
West.
b. complete disinterest from both the party and from the movie-going public.
c. the government was now suspicious of him after his time in the United States and thwarted his
filmmaking efforts.
d. that he was immediately assigned a film to direct by Shumiatski, the new head of the Soviet film
industry.
e. himself in a state of voluntary semiretirement as he was no longer sure he wanted to continue
making films.
f. none of the above
20. After Bezhin Meadow, Eisenstein
a. was embraced by the public, who responded enthusiastically to the film.
b. was forced to denounce the film and confess to ideological errors.
c. was lauded by critics as having returned to his former greatness.
d. was publicly praised by Boris Shumiatski, the head of the Soviet film industry.
e. announced his retirement from filmmaking.
f. a, c, and d are all true.
21. Eisenstein’s first sound film to be publicly released was
a. Alexander Nevski. d. Que Viva México!
b. Bezhin Meadow. e. October.
c. Ivan the Terrible, Part 1. f. none of the above
22. The Teutonic Knights in Alexander Nevski
a. are always shown in asymmetrical formation to show their energetic disorganization.
b. are humanized by always showing their faces.
c. are modeled on the Klansman in Birth of a Nation.
d. represent the Soviets in their struggles against the Germans.
e. both c and d
f. none of the above
23. The film that contains the famous “Battle on the Ice” sequence is
a. Gance’s Napoléon.
b. Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, Part II.
c. Gance’s La Roue.
d. Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevski.
e. Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc.
f. none of the above
24. Alexander Nevski
a. features a spectacular audio and visual montage.
b. is shot with a static camera to accommodate the sound recording technology.
c. was not successful in either Europe or the Soviet Union.
d. continued showing even after the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939.
e. was condemned by the Soviet government after its release.
f. none of the above
25. Eisenstein’s three-part Ivan the Terrible
a. is a film whose meaning is conveyed primarily through performance.
b. was released as the complete project Eisenstein had envisioned.
c. saw parts I and II released while Eisenstein was still alive, with III only coming out after his death.
d. was Stalin’s favorite film.
e. privileges set design and visual composition over montage.
f. None of the above is true.
26. In the 1930s, the European country with the most prominent national film industry after the United
States was
a. France. d. Great Britain.
b. Germany. e. Sweden.
c. Italy. f. none of the above
27. The author, filmmaker, and theorist who was the central figure and most important screenwriter for the
French Impressionist movement was
a. Jean Renoir. d. Abel Gance.
b. Germaine Dulac. e. Marcel L’Herbier.
c. Jean Epstein. f. none of the above
28. Germaine Dulac
a. made films about unconscious internal processes influenced by dreams, fantasies, and
hallucinations.
b. was the first female director in the history of cinema.
c. made films of epic length with enormous sets and hundreds of extras.
d. became the first aesthetic theorist of film with her publication of the journal Cinéma.
e. made completely abstract films that completely eschewed character and narrative.
f. none of the above
29. Impressionism as practiced by Epstein and L’Herbier can best be described as
a. utilizing editing as the primary vehicle for conveying meaning.
b. experimental in form with extensive use of visual effects to express inner states.
c. manipulating mise-en-scène in order to construct impossible worlds.
d. completely disinterested in story and narrative.
e. avoiding any connection with ordinary people and conventional settings.
f. all of the above
30. The director of L’Argent and El Dorado, who shot visually abstract melodramas and collaborated with
some of the most famous artists in France such as Léger and Milhaud, was
a. Louis Delluc. d. Jean Epstein.
b. Germaine Dulac. e. Abel Gance.
c. Marcel L’Herbier. f. none of the above
31. Abel Gance
a. was one of the core members of the Impressionist group.
b. was known for his concise narratives.
c. shot his films primarily on sound stages.
d. worked primarily for his own production company.
e. did not begin experimenting with cinematic form until La Roue.
f. all of the above
32. La Roue
a. was originally intended to be three hours long.
b. was a virtually unknown film until its reconstruction in the 1980s.
c. was shot on an extremely tight budget and schedule in the studios in Marseille.
d. is a story about the invention of the automobile.
e. none of the above
f. all of the above
33. Napoléon as Seen by Abel Gance
a. has at times as many as sixteen separate images on the screen at the same time.
b. was intended as the first part of a six-film series, but none of the rest were ever made.
c. uses some innovative technique in nearly every scene.
d. features editing so fast that some shots are only a few barely-perceptible frames long.
e. was largely financed by wealthy Russian émigrés.
f. all of the above
34. Polyvision
a. was the wide-screen process conceived of by Gance for Napoléon.
b. was a superimposition process popular with the French Impressionists.
c. was a color process developed in Nazi Germany.
d. was a split-screen process developed in Great Britain.
e. was a 3-D process developed in Italy.
f. none of the above
35. The incredible visual dynamism of Napoléon was made possible by
a. the invention of the automated camera crane.
b. the development of new lightweight cameras.
c. the simultaneous development of several new and improved camera dollies.
d. the invention of a camera movement system based on intersecting high-tension wires.
e. all of the above
f. None of the above; the camera in the film is static while the editing is dynamic.
36. Napoléon
a. was never shown commercially in its original form.
b. has always been shown without synchronized dialogue.
c. was constantly re-edited for over fifty years.
d. was only the first of many high points of Gance’s career.
e. was never shown in a color-tinted version.
f. none of the above
37. In the 1920s, the country where commercial cinema was relatively weak while the culture of film
reached its pinnacle with serious film criticism, active film clubs, and a knowledgeable public was
a. Germany. d. France.
b. Britain. e. the Soviet Union.
c. Italy. f. none of the above
38. The “second” French avant-garde had its roots in
a. the optical effects and camera manipulations of Impressionism.
b. Expressionism in German literature and painting.
c. Soviet montage and constructivism.
d. Italian neorealism.
e. the literary and artistic movements of Dada and surrealism.
f. all of the above
39. René Clair’s Entr’acte
a. was the first surrealist feature film.
b. uses animated objects, machinery, and newspaper headlines.
c. was made to be shown at the intermission of a ballet.
d. features a close-up of an eyeball being sliced open.
e. was made in collaboration with Salvador Dalí.
f. none of the above
40. Un Chien Andalou
a. has a coherent structural logic despite its disturbing imagery.
b. was made by the cubist artist Fernand Léger.
c. is about a mad scientist who invents a ray gun that immobilizes Paris.
d. features the shocking image of insects crawling from an eye socket.
e. was never shown publicly.
f. none of the above
41. The primary tendency of the French avant-garde after 1927 was toward
a. visual abstraction. d. narrative.
b. surrealism. e. genre films.
c. documentary. f. none of the above
42. The director of poetic nature documentaries, including a classic on the life cycle of the seahorse, was
a. Jean Vigo. d. Jean Painlevé.
b. Jean Cocteau. e. Jean Epstein.
c. Jean Renoir. f. none of the above
43. The style of French poetic realism, which brought a new naturalism to the French cinema, was, more
than any other individual, created by
a. director Jean Renoir. d. director Jacques Feyder.
b. cinematographer Boris Kaufman. e. art director Lazare Meerson.
c. writer Eugène Labiche. f. none of the above
44. Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc
a. is shot almost entirely in close-up.
b. is one of the last classics of the silent cinema.
c. is based on the actual trial records.
d. has been said to have a “spiritual” sense of spatial construction.
e. features stark white backgrounds and actors with no make-up.
f. all of the above
45. Carl Dreyer is known for
a. the simplicity and austerity of his “transcendental” style.
b. his development of poetic realism.
c. being the most successful member of the first French avant-garde.
d. photographing his own films like The Passion of Joan of Arc.
e. his light-hearted and romantic comic films.
f. none of the above
46. The French transition to sound
a. was a good thing for the avant-garde filmmakers in terms of bringing their work to a bigger
audience.
b. saw the French industry completely at the mercy of Western Electric and Tobis-Klangfilm.
c. strengthened the French industry’s position against the other European countries.
d. saw a reluctance of French financiers to invest in the American or German systems.
e. was slow to produce any films of artistic merit.
f. all of the above
47. René Clair’s Under the Roofs of Paris
a. features only synchronous sound and music.
b. is the first French film where the dialogue is the most important dramatic element.
c. is a musical comedy about ordinary people in a typical Paris neighborhood.
d. was a success in France but could not be exported because of the language barrier.
e. was equally abstract as his early avant-garde films.
f. all of the above
48. À nous la liberté was based loosely on the life of French filmmaker/industrialist
a. Bernard Natan. d. Charles Pathé.
b. Léon Gaumont. e. Georges Méliès.
c. Louis Lumière. f. none of the above
49. Zero for Conduct
a. led to a long and distinguished career for Vigo.
b. was extremely popular with French audiences.
c. ultimately sides with the authority of the adults.
d. was never seen in French movie theaters.
e. had no real impact on future filmmakers since it was banned from being screened.
f. none of the above
50. The anarchic, surrealistic, lyrical film set in a boys’ school, featuring a slow-motion pillow fight scene
and an assault on school dignitaries, is
a. Clair’s À nous la liberté d. Renoir’s La Chienne.
b. Dreyer’s Day of Wrath. e. Vigo’s Zero for Conduct.
c. Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet. f. none of the above
51. The period around 1930 saw the French film industry
a. experiencing unprecedented economic growth.
b. consolidate into two giant companies, which were still based around Pathé and Gaumont.
c. working in an artisanal and craft-like manner that favored independent production.
d. in a time of great aesthetic experimentation.
e. both a and d
f. none of the above
52. By the late 1930s the French cinema
a. had declined to the point where it was nearly nonexistent.
b. had settled into a style known as “symbolic naturalism.”
c. had become among the most vital and creative in the world.
d. still had a relatively small domestic audience though an active export program.
e. was still struggling to find a workable industrial model.
f. none of the above
53. Poetic realism
a. was never an important movement in French commercial cinema.
b. was popular in the 1920s but had faded from importance by the 1930s.
c. is very much like the surrealism of the second French avant-garde.
d. combined lyricism and naturalism while reflecting the influence of Clair and Vigo.
e. produced only a handful of significant films.
f. none of the above
54. Charles Spaak was
a. a designer who first envisioned the look of poetic realism.
b. a cinematographer who shot many of the early classics of poetic realism.
c. a director who made the first poetic realist films.
d. a screenwriter who helped develop poetic realism.
e. a producer who took a chance on a group of young filmmakers that went on to develop poetic
realism.
f. None of the above; Spaak is not associate with poetic realism.
55. The French gangster film, directed by Duvivier and starring Jean Gabin, that reveals the dark side of
poetic realism was
a. Quai des Brumes. d. Le Jour se Lève.
b. La Chienne. e. Pépé le Moko.
c. Les Visiteurs du Soir. f. none of the above
56. Which of the following is the best description of the prewar Carné-Prévert films?
a. political, influenced by Soviet montage
b. realistic, optimistic, shot on location
c. bright, comic, satirical, anarchic
d. romantic, light-hearted, musical passages
e. surrealistic, abstract, unpopular with audiences
f. none of the above
57. Carné and Prévert’s Children of Paradise
a. explores the theme of the relationship between art and life.
b. is set in the modern ballet theater against the backdrop of classical music.
c. remains a virtually unknown film.
d. was the last collaboration between Carné and Prévert.
e. explores the themes of class struggle and love during a time of war.
f. none of the above
58. Renoir’s early career in the silent cinema is characterized by
a. making films primarily in the genre of musical comedy.
b. producing a series of equally important films that were both popular and critical successes.
c. producing several uneven films that failed to distinguish him as an artist.
d. embracing the visual abstractions of impressionism.
e. an innovative use of cinematic space.
f. none of the above
59. Renoir’s Boudu Saved from Drowning
a. was recut before release by the studio that produced it.
b. was a great popular success that made Renoir’s reputation.
c. was a suspenseful detective film with many action sequences.
d. was about the anarchic undermining of middle-class values.
e. was a return to the greatness he revealed in his silent films.
f. none of the above
60. The Renoir films of the late 1930s
a. were increasingly popular with audiences.
b. reveal a waning sense of political commitment.
c. were primarily light comedies with romantic themes.
d. are far less visually realistic than his earlier films.
e. were few in number and low in quality.
f. none of the above
61. The Renoir film about immigrant workers in the south of France that is considered a forerunner of
Italian neorealism is
a. La Chienne. d. A Day in the Country.
b. Life Is Ours. e. Toni.
c. The Lower Depths. f. none of the above
62. Life Is Ours was an unusual film for Renoir in that
a. it was a propaganda film for the French Communist Party.
b. it was constructed entirely from newsreel footage.
c. it was never completed.
d. it had the look of a French Impressionist painting.
e. it was not a political film at all.
f. none of the above
63. The Renoir film that seeks most closely to replicate the visual textures of Impressionist painting is
a. Madame Bovary. d. The Lower Depths.
b. A Day in the Country. e. The Rules of the Game.
c. The Grand Illusion. f. none of the above
64. The Grand Illusion
a. places any hope for the future of Europe on the return of the aristocracy to power.
b. shows the German officer and the French aristocrat to be bitter enemies.
c. takes place in a Europe that is on the verge of complete social collapse.
d. shows the friendship between German and Jewish prisoners.
e. shows the French and German officers ultimately escaping together.
f. none of the above
65. Stylistically, The Grand Illusion is characterized by
a. fast-paced montage editing reminiscent of Eisenstein.
b. expressive decor influenced by German Kammerspielfilme.
c. a spare naturalistic camera style with limited movement.
d. long shots/long takes featuring composition in depth.
e. many visual effects influenced by French Impressionism.
f. all of the above
66. Deep-focus photography
a. appears to reproduce the eye’s natural field of vision.
b. incorporates long shot, medium shot, and close-up all into one frame.
c. links character with background.
d. allows the spectator’s eye to wander through the frame rather than directing it decisively.
e. all of the above
f. none of the above
67. Which of the following is most descriptive of Renoir’s career?
a. His career only spanned twenty years, but during that time he was very prolific.
b. His experimental periods were few and far between but still quite influential.
c. He became the father of a new cinematic aesthetic that replaced the cut with the long take.
d. The films he made over the course of his career are remarkably similar in subject and style.
e. His films were never popular with critics, but he was always well received by French audiences.
f. all of the above
68. Which of the following technical developments contributed to the softer, shallower focus of the films
of the 1930s?
a. the development of carbon arc lighting
b. the introduction of faster film stocks
c. the invention of Panchromatic film
d. new lenses that let cinematographers shoot with tighter apertures
e. all of the above
f. none of the above
69. The first major director of the sound era to consistently compose his shots in depth was
a. Jean Renoir. d. Carl Dreyer.
b. John Ford. e. René Clair.
c. Fritz Lang. f. none of the above
70. In Renoir’s deep focus technique
a. continuity editing moves the viewer’s attention from one spatial plane to the next.
b. entire scenes are generally accomplished in a single long take, such as Boieldieu’s death in The
Grand Illusion.
c. telephoto lenses and low f-stops ensure nearly infinite depth of field.
d. the camera continuously shifts focal planes as it pans and tracks to follow the action.
e. both b and c
f. none of the above
71. Renoir’s The Rules of the Game
a. was popular with French audiences when it was first released.
b. is about the transformative possibilities of romantic love.
c. features an uncharacteristically static camera style to convey the immobility of the upper class.
d. is an optimistic view of the relations between French social classes.
e. is about the breakdown of a European society that has become a vast lie.
f. all of the above
72. In The Rules of the Game,
a. Jurieu breaks the rules by lying about his love for Christine.
b. Octave is shot by the poacher, who mistakes him for Jurieu.
c. Octave is played by Renoir himself in a rare film appearance.
d. by the end of the film all the relationships have been happily realigned.
e. there are no montage sequences.
f. all of the above
73. During World War II, Renoir
a. stayed in France and fought with the underground resistance movement.
b. stayed in France where he continued making controversial films.
c. immigrated to England, where he made war propaganda films.
d. immigrated to the United States, where he was unable to make films because of the language
barrier.
e. immigrated to the United States, where he made a series of mostly undistinguished films for a
variety of studios.
f. none of the above
74. In The Golden Coach, Renoir
a. explores a British girl’s reaction to India.
b. abandons composition in depth and moving camera.
c. attempts to replicate the colors of Impressionism.
d. stages a spectacular twenty-minute-long dance sequence as the finale of the film.
e. returns to the subject of prisoners of war, only this time in a comedy.
f. none of the above