CHAPTER 11 – INTERNATIONAL CINEMA IN THE 1950s
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is largest movie-producing countries in the world?
a. America
b. Japan
c. Mexico
d. India
2. The English produced some fine films in which one of the following genres during the 50s?
a. comedies
b. mysteries
c. war movies
d. none of the above
3. Who of the following is considered the most Western of Japanese filmmakers?
a. Akira Kurosawa
b. Kenji Mizoguchi
c. Yasuiru Ozu
d. none of the above
4. All of the following are true of Akira Kurosawa’s techniques except
a. made cameo appearances in his movies
b. worked on the scripts of his movies
c. used multiple cameras to shoot his movies
d. painstakingly used sound in his movies
5. What is not true regarding Kenji Mizoguchi’s depiction of women in his Japanese women’s
pictures?
a. portrayed lives of prostitutes
b. portrayed lives of the middle class
c. portrayed lives of the aristocracy
d. portrayed lives of professional women
6. What film trait did Yasujiro Ozu detest?
a. special effects
b. music
c. plot
d. color
7. Ingmar Bergman made movies which
a. were always realistic.
b. were sometimes realistic, and sometimes allegorical.
c. were comedic views of Swedish life.
d. only b and c
8. Which of the following is not a Bergman film centering on women?
a. Wild Strawberries
b. Persona
c. Autumn Sonata
d. The Silence
9. Ingmar Bergman’s first American Academy Award was for
a. Star and Tinsel.
b. The Seventh Seal.
c. Cries and Whispers.
d. The Virgin Spring.
10. Early Frederico Fellini movies are characterized by
a. violence.
b. surrealism.
c. neorealism.
d. autobiography.
11. Most of Federico Fellini’s work focuses on scenes of
a. revelations of private anguish and regret.
b. boisterous public revels.
c. neither of the above
d. both of the above
12. The most commercial French director of the period probably was
a. Francois Truffaut
b. Rene Clement
c. Jean Luc Goddard
d. Eric Rohmer
13. Until the New Wave movement at the end of the 50s, the French film industry was
a. mediocre.
b. innovative.
c. nonexistent.
d. derivative.
14. A Robert Bresson film usually exemplifies which of the following film characteristics?
a. stylistically austere with non–professional actors
b. themes of spiritual transcendence
c. shot on location
d. all of the above
15. Robert Bresson is compared to all of the following directors except
a. Howard Hawks
b. Yasujiro Ozu
c. Kenji Mizoguchi
d. Carl Dreyer
16. The American comedic film director to whom Jaques Tati may be compared is
a. Harold Lloyd
b. Charlie Chaplin
c. Buster Keaton
d. none of the above
True/False
(Place a T or an F in the line following the sentence.)
1. The West “discovered” Japanese cinema when Pather Panchali won the Jury Prize at Cannes.
2. American authorities practiced censorship of Japanese movies during their occupation and
democratization of Japan after World War II.
3. Akira Kurosawa often used Shakespeare and other Western sources for inspiration in his
movies.
4. Despite his Western sources of inspiration, Kurosawa remained totally traditional in his
values.
5. Kenji Mizoguchi made movies reinforcing the traditional roles of women, no matter their
class, in Japanese society.
6. Ingmar Bergman rejected religious and psychological themes in his films, preferring light-
hearted comedy instead.
7. Federico Fellini began his career in Italian movies by helping to write scripts like Open City.
8. Fellini rejected autobiographical themes to concrete on social concernes in movies like 8 ½ .
9. Robert Bresson was concerned with spiritual transcendence and used only “necessary” images
and non-professional actors who spoke sparingly.
10. Jaques Tati worked austerely as did Bresson, but was a more cheerful artist as can be seen in
Jour d’ Fête.
Matching
1) An Autumn Afternoon ___
2) Pather Panchali ___
3) The Seventh Seal ___
4) Rashomon ___
5) The Crucified Lovers ___
6) Smiles of a Summer Night ___
7) A Man Escaped ___
8) Ugetsu ___
9) La Dolce Vita ___
10) Seven Samurai ___
a. Kenji Mizoguchi film about the middle class
b. Robert Bresson movie set almost entirely in a jail
c. Bergman’s only successful comedy
d. creates a hauntingly diaphanous dream world
e. Yasujiro Ozu film of a widower’s sacrifice
f. basis for The Magnificent Seven
g. Fellini movie about decadence of the privileged
h. means “song of the road,” won Cannes Jury Prize
i. Ingmar Bergman’s allegory set in medieval times
j. established Toshiro Mifune as a star
ANS:
Short Answer
1. What is the conflict that is characteristic of nearly all Japanese movies in the 50s?
2. What theme did Ingmar Bergman return to again and again in his films in the 50s?
3. What kinds of characters was Federico Fellini basically drawn to in his films during this
period?
4. What kind of images was Robert Bresson drawn to in his films during this period?
Essay Questions
1. Why would Akira Kurosawa be considered a most untraditional Japanese filmmaker?
2. How were women portrayed in international films of the 50s?
3. Was Federico Fellini a realist or formalist/ fabulist in his movies of the 50s?
4. What condition do Robert Bresson’s characters find themselves in; and how or when are they
able to change, if not improve their condition?