CHAPTER 4 – EUROPEAN CINEMA IN THE 1920s
Multiple Choice
1. Who of these had little or no interest in expressing the workings of the subconscious?
a. Fritz Lang
b. Sergei Eisenstein
c. King Vidor
d. Alfred Hitchcock
2. Kuleshov’s editing experiment on the importance of the order of shots involved which sequence?
a. closeup of an actor with a plate of soup; a dead woman in a coffin; a little girl playing with
a doll
b. closeup of a little girl playing with a doll; a dead woman in a coffin; an actor with a plate
of soup
c. a dead woman in a coffin; a little girl playing with a doll; an actor with a plate of soup
d. none of the above
3. Alfred Hitchcock’s early films resemble the German movies exemplified by F. W. Murnau in all of the
following ways except
a. plot.
b. character.
c. art direction.
d. suggestive camera.
4. Sergei Eisenstein’s overriding principle was kineticism which meant which of these?
a. movement outside the frame
b. movement inside the frame
c. careful attention to movement of the camera
d. all of the above
5. Which of these is the director whose free flow of images took the place of conventional narrative?
a. Alexander Pudovkin
b. Alexander Dovzhenko
c. F. W. Murnau
d. G. W. Pabst
6. According to V. I. Pudovkin, the operating principle of Russian (i.e. Soviet) filmmaking was
a. editing.
b. plot.
c. acting.
d. none of the above.
7. In Expressionism, which flourished in Germany, theorizes or uses all of the following except
a. the artist’s emotional, personal reactions
b. exaggeration and dreamlike atmosphere
c. the faithful reproduction of the natural appearance of an object
d. heavy use of light and dark contrasts
8. The German director who served as the inspiration for other German directors such as F. W. Murnau
and Robert Wiene was
a. G. W. Pabst
b. Carl Mayer
c. Ernst Lubitsch
d. Max Reinhardt
9. Which of the following is a renowned Fritz Lang film?
a. Wings
b. Mother
c. The Eyes of the Mummy Man
d. Metropolis
10. The “Griffith of Europe” was the German director
a. Ernst Lubitsch
b. Fritz Lang
c. Emil Jennings
d. Walter Ruttman
11. Which of these is true about F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu?
a. Dracula is very good looking.
b. Dracula lives in Paris.
c. Dracula is a kind of man-rat.
d. Dracula drinks blood in his bath.
12. G. W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box
a. faithfully recreates the myth.
b. is a relentless parable of a sensually insatiable woman’s destruction.
c. concerns street-wise profiteers and destitute middle-class.
d. portrays capitalism’s connection to war.
13. Dadaism is the art movement that
a. despised realism.
b. emphasized the illogical or absurd.
c. used buffoonery and provocative behavior to shock.
d. all of the above
14. Un Chien Andalou is a surrealist film made by
a. Louis Buñuel
b. Salvador Dali
c. Both
d. Neither
15. Luis Buńuel, in film after film, took as his theme
a. various ways people are cruel to animals.
b. some attack on conventional morality.
c. support for capitalist-based society.
d. examination and application of the ideas of Carl Jung.
16. Abel Gance’s films are characterized by all of the following except
a. avant-garde techniques.
b. romantic sensibility.
c. restraint.
d. extreme length.
17. The French director who had an anarchist spirit but produced a light tone was
a. René Clair
b. Jean Renoir
c. Marcel Proust
d. Jean Vigo
True/False
(Place a T or an F in the line following the sentence.)
1. Sjöström and Stiller explored the suffering brought on by the conflict between severe Protestantism and
its constricting effect on the human instinct for pleasure.
2. Alfred Hitchcock was not at all interested and did not use the Soviet’s emerging technique of
manipulative cutting when it suited his purposes.
3. Potemkin’s Odessa steps sequence is a powerful recreation of what it’s like to be caught in an
explosion of random violence.
4. The Russians used tracking, panning, tilting, and the like to full effect.
5. Germany’s cinema was the only national cinema comparable to America’s in the 1920s.
6. The Germans used expressionism to create a form of light-hearted domestic comedy.
7. Murnau was the first to make camera movement a style sufficient unto itself.
8. Zero for Conduct is a Dada film made famous for its slow-motion, dreamlike, surreal pillow-fight
scene.
9. Modern Times was so like Under the Roofs of Paris that René Clair’s producers sued Charlie Chaplin.
10. Abel Gance’s “polyvision” anticipates Cinerama.
Matching
1) Alfred Hitchcock ___
2) Lev Kuleshov ___
3) Vsevelod Pudovkin ___
4) Robert Wiene ___
5) Fritz Lang ___
6) F. W. Murnau ___
7) Louise Brooks ___
8) René Clair ___
9) Abel Gance ___
10) Luis Buñuel ___
a. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
b. Le Million
c. The Last Laugh
d. editing is the essence of cinema
e. L’Age d’Or
f. The Lodger
g. Lulu in Hollywood
h. Storm over Asia
i. Spies
j. Napoleon
ANS:
Short Answer
1. How did Sergei Eisenstein use reverse angles in his filmmaking?
2. What is the definition of the German term kammerspiel? Give an example of a movie embodying this
quality.
3. In what ways did filmmakers react to the disillusioning bloodiness of World War I? What film
movement/ style was the ultimate reaction to “the war to end all wars”?
4. Explain Abel Gance’s “Polyvision” as an example of his extravagant filmmaking.
Essay Questions
1. What does the term “plastic” mean as it applies to Soviet/ Russian movie making?
2. What is/ are the difference(s) between expressionism and naturalism?
3. Do Fritz Lang’s symbols in his films keep his films from being realistic?