Best of World Cinema | Part 2 (1930-1959)

BEST OF WORLD CINEMA ACCORDING TO MAVI BONCUK

 SILENT (1891-1936) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

SILENT TO SOUND (1926-1929) Part 1

SOUND (1926-2022) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

TURKISH CINEMA  

SILENT | IN PROGRESS

 SOUND (1933-2022)

1930 -1939

1930

MADAM SATAN 1930 CECIL B. DEMILLE 

American pre-Code musical comedy film in black and white with Multicolor sequences. It was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starred Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth, and Roland Young. The Zeppelin sequences were originally filmed in Multicolor. The color sequences were praised by reviewers for their richness and beauty. The current print of Madam Satan has all of the color sequences in black-and-white and is missing at least one musical number.

Madam Satan has been called one of the oddest films DeMille made and certainly one of the oddest MGM made during Hollywood's "golden age". Thematically, this marked an attempt by DeMille to return to the boudoir comedies genre that had brought him financial success about 10 years earlier. Theodore Kosloff, a DeMille regular who was better known as a dance director, was originally hired by DeMille to do the film's choreography, but MGM insisted on Leroy Prinz. However, some dance experts believe that Kosloff did choreograph the "Ballet Mecanique", as it seems more representative of his work than that of Prinz.

Theodore Kosloff, a DeMille regular who was better known as a dance director, was originally hired by DeMille to do the film's choreography, but MGM insisted on Leroy Prinz. However, some dance experts believe that Kosloff did choreograph the "Ballet Mecanique", as it seems more representative of his work than that of Prinz.

DeMille originally wanted writer Dorothy Parker to augment Jeanie MacPherson's original script. Learning that Parker was living in France, and that this would make collaboration too difficult, DeMille then sought vaudeville writer Elsie Janis. She agreed to work on the project, but left amicably on March 24, 1930 due to creative differences. Janis reportedly did not like the direction the script was going.

Hollywood censor Jason Joy worked with DeMille to minimize censorable elements in the potentially objectionable script. "They agreed to put less revealing costumes on the girls at the masquerade party. Body stockings, larger fig leaves and translucent fishnets took care of most of the nudity. The drinking scenes were toned down ...", Angela's "Madam Satan" costume also was made less revealing. An entire scene in which Angela confronts Trixie, and Trixie is shown wearing a sheer nightgown because she "has nothing to hide" was deleted. The collaboration ended up being agreeable to both men. The notoriously finicky Ohio censor board passed the film without cuts.

Madam Satan was released at a time when American theaters had become saturated with musicals, and as a result, it was a financial failure. Today, a reassessment is taking place; though some only regard the film as an amusing oddity and an exercise in DeMille using "too much of everything just because he can."

THE BAT WHISPERS 1930 ROLAND WEST 
An early talkie, this film is the second film version of the 1920 hit Broadway play The Bat, written by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, based on Roberts 1908 book The Circular Staircase

Director West financed the Magnafilm widescreen process and employed two cinematographers, using techniques not to be seen until the 1950s and Otto Preminger.[2] Along with The Big Trail (1930) it's one of the first known uses of widescreen. Cameras used two different sized film stock and filmed in a variety of techniques including panning, cut scenes, and close ups.[4] Panning can be seen throughout the film but most notably in the opening scene of the movie. The movie begins with a shot of the face of a clock tower. It then pulls back and slowly scans or "pans" all the way down the building to show a car pulling out of a police station. Cut scenes can be seen throughout the film to show lapses in time. For example, when the police car is driving down the street, the scene (shot from the back of the car over the driver's shoulder) can be seen fading into another scene to convey a sense of time passing. In 1930, movie cameras were not portable enough to be used in the back of cars, but Charles Cline invented a camera used for filming The Bat Whispers, more often used in Ray June's cinematography, for fluidity and to show The Bat in flight. It was "a lightweight 24-foot-long camera dolly that could send a camera zooming 18 feet in a fraction of a second". Close-up shots were also incorporated—the camera "zooms in" on the actors' faces when the characters are frightened and trying to figure out where the mysterious noises are coming from, and when The Bat is creeping up to Dale Van Gorder in the secret room.

Comic-book creator Bob Kane said in his 1989 autobiography Batman and Me that the villain of The Bat Whispers was an inspiration for his character Batman.

THE SONG OF LOVE |1930 GENNARO RIGHELLI

Italian romance film starring Dria Paola, Isa Pola and Elio Steiner. It was the first Italian talking film. The story was based on a novella by Luigi Pirandello, In Silenzio. The film was shot at the Cines-Pittaluga studios in Rome in three different versions: Italian, French and German using different casts and directors. Alessandro Blasetti's film Resurrection was actually shot first, but delays meant that it was not released until 1931.

 1931

À NOUS LA LIBERTÉ | 1931 RENÉ CLAIR
LA CHIENNE | 1931 JEAN RENOIR
M | 1931 FRITZ LANG
LE MILLION | 1931 RENÉ CLAIR
THE PUBLIC ENEMY | 1931 WILLIAM A. WELLMAN
TABU: A STORY OF THE SOUTH SEAS | 1931 F.W. MURNAU
THE THREEPENNY OPERA | 1931 GEORG WILHELM PABST
LITTLE CEASER | 1931 MERVYN LEROY
THE CHAMP | 1931 KING VIDOR
THE SMILING LIEUTENANT | 1931 ERNST LUBITSCH  
THE FRONT PAGE | 1931 LEWIS MILESTONE
MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM | 1931 LEONTINE SAGAN, CARL FROELICH 
|PLATINUM BLONDE | 1931 FRANK CAPRA
MARIUS | 1931 ALEXANDER KORDA
INDISCREET |  1931 LEO MCCAREY
SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK | 1931 ZION MYERS, JULES WHITE

1932

SHANGHAI EXPRESS | 1932 JOSEF VON STERNBERG
BLONDE VENUS |1932 JOSEF VON STERNBERG
FREAKS | 1932 TOD BROWNING
RAIN | 1932 LEWIS MILESTONE
KUHLE WAMPE OR WHO OWNS THE WORLD? | 1932 SLATAN DUDOW
POIL DE CAROTTE | 1932 JULIEN DUVIVIER
THE BLUE LIGHT | 1932 LENI RIEFENSTAHL, BÉLA BALÁZS
FANNY | 1932 MARC ALLÉGRET, MARCEL PAGNOL
NO BLOOD RELATION | 1932 MIKIO NARUSE
RED DUST | 1932 VICTOR FLEMING
A FAREWELL TO ARMS | 1932 FRANK BORZAGE
WOODEN CROSSES | 1932 RAYMOND BERNARD
ONE HOUR WITH YOU | 1932 ERNST LUBITSCH, GEORGE CUKOR
I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG | 1932 MERVYN LEROY
¡QUE VIVA MEXICO! | 1932 SERGEI EISENSTEIN, GRIGORI ALEKSANDROV
THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME | 1932 ERNEST B. SCHOEDSACK, IRVING PICHEL
HORSE FEATHERS | 1932 NORMAN Z. MCLEOD
BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING | 1932 JEAN RENOIR
SCARFACE | 1932 HOWARD HAWKS, RICHARD ROSSON
VAMPYR | 1932 CARL THEODOR DREYER
TROUBLE IN PARADISE | 1932 ERNEST LUBITSCH

1933

KING KONG | 1933 MERIAN C. COOPER, ERNEST B. SCHOEDSACK
DINNER AT EIGHT | 1933 GEORGE CUKOR
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 | 1933 MERVYN LEROY
DUCK SOUP | 1933 LEO MCCAREY
QUEEN CHRISTINA |1933 ROUBEN MAMOULIAN

1934

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT | 1934 FRANK CAPRA
L'ATALANTE |1934 JEAN VIGO

 1935

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN | 1935 JAMES WHALE
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL | 1935 LENI RIEFENSTAHL
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA | 1935 SAM WOOD
TOP HAT | 1935 MARK SANDRICH
WIFE! BE LIKE A ROSE! | 1935 MIKIO NARUSE

1936

THINGS TO COME | 1936 WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES
MODERN TİMES | 1936 CHARLIE CHAPLIN
CAMILLE |1936 GEORGE CUKOR

1937

PÉPÉ LE MOKO | 1937 JULIEN DUVIVIER
THE STORY OF THE FOX | 1937 IRENE STAREWICZ, WLADYSLAW STAREWICZ
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS | 1937 DAVID HAND WILLIAM COTTRELL, WILFRED JACKSON, LARRY MOREY, PERCE PEARCE, BEN SHARPSTEEN
LA GRANDE ILLUSION | 1937 JEAN RENOIR
THE AWFUL TRUTH | 1937 LEO MCCAREY

 1938

THE BAKER'S WIFE | 1938 MARCEL PAGNOL
ALEXANDER NEVSKY | 1938 SERGEI EISENSTEIN
THE BAKER'S WIFE |1938 MARCEL PAGNOL

1939

LE JOUR SE LÈVE | 1939 MARCEL CARNÉ
NINOTCHKA | 1939 ERNST LUBITSCH
LE JOUR SE LÈVE | 1939 MARCEL CARNÉ
STAGECOACH | 1939 JOHN FORD
THE WIZARD OF OZ | 1939 VICTOR FLEMING
THE RULES OF THE GAME | 1939 JEAN RENOIR
THE STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUMS | 1939 KENJI MIZOGUCHI
GONE WITH THE WIND | 1939 VICTOR FLEMING, GEORGE CUKOR, SAM WOOD

 1940-1949

1940

THE LETTER | 1940 WILLIAM WYLER
THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER | 1940 ERNST LUBITSCH
THE GRAPES OF WRATH | 1940 JOHN FORD
TRAVELLING ACTORS | 1940 MIKIO NARUSE

1941

CITIZEN KANE |1941 ORSON WELLES
SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS | 1941 PRESTON STURGES

 1942

CAT PEOPLE | 1942 JACQUES TOURNEUR

1943

DAY OF WRATH | 1943 CARL THEODOR DREYER
THE SONG LANTERN | 1943 MIKIO NARUSE

1944

GASLIGHT | 1944 GEORGE CUKOR

1945

THE LOST WEEKEND | 1945 BILLY WILDER
A TALE OF ARCHERS AT THE SANJUSANGENDO | 1945 MIKIO NARUSE

1946

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (LA BELLE ET LE BÊTE) | 1946 JEAN COCTEAU
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES | 1946 WILLIAM WYLER

1947

QUAI DES ORFÈVRES | 1947 HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT

1948

GERMANY YEAR ZERO | 1948 ROBERTO ROSSELLINI
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE | 1948 JOHN HUSTON
BICYCLE THIEVES | 1948 VITTORIO DE SICA
THEY LIVE BY NIGHT | 1948 NICHOLAS RAY
LA TERRA TREMA | 1948 LUCHINO VISCONTI

1949

LATE SPRING | 1949 YASUJIRO OZU
THE THIRD MAN | 1949 CAROL REED

 1950-1959

1950

GUN CRAZY | 1950 JOSEPH H. LEWIS\
RASHOMON | 1950 AKIRA KURASAWA
SUNSET BOULEWARD | 1950 BILLY WILDER

1951

THE VAGABOND | 1951 RAJ KAPOOR
BELLISSIMA | 1951 LUCHINO VISCONTI
DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST | 1951 ROBERT BRESSON

1952

IKURU | 1952 AKIRA KURASAWA
HIGH NOON | 1952 FRED ZINNEMANN

1953

UGETSU MONOGATARI | 1953 KENJI MIZOGUCHI
TOKYO STORY | 1953 YASUJIRO OZU
MONSIEUR HULOT'S HOLIDAY | 1953 JACQUES TATI
GATE OF HELL | 1953 TEINOSUKE KINUGASA
SUMMER WITH MONIKA | 1953 INGMAR BERGMAN

1954

REAR WINDOW | 1954 ALFRED HITCHCOCK
SANSHO THE BAILIFF | 1954 KENJI MIZOGUCHI
ON THE WATERFRONT | 1954 ELIA KAZAN
SENSO | 1954 LUCHINO VISCONTI
LA STRADA | 1954 FEDERICO FELLINI
JOHNNY GUITAR | 1954 NICHOLAS RAY 
LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS | 1954 MIKIO NARUSE

1955

PATHER PANCHALI | 1955 SATYAJIT RAY
DEATH OF A CYCLIST | 1955 JUAN ANTONIO BARDEM
ORDET | 1955 CARL DREYER
LE AMICHE| 1955 MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI
RIFIFI | 1955 JULES DASSIN
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS | 1955 LOUIS MALLE
FLOATING CLOUDS | 1955 MIKIO NARUSE

1956

THE KILLING | 1956 STANLEY KUBRICK
APARAJITO |1956 SATYAJIT RAY
THE SEARCHERS | 1956 JOHN FORD
FORBIDDEN PLANET | 1956 FRED M. WILCOX
PROFESSOR HANNIBAL | 1956 ZOLTAN FABRI
THE OGRE OF ATHENS | 1956 NIKOS KOUNDOUROS
ATTACK | 1956 ROBERT ALDRICH
A GIRL IN BLACK | 1956 MICHAEL CACOYANNIS
BOB LE FLAMBEUR | 1956 JEAN-PIERRE MELVILLE
SUDDEN RAIN | 1956 MIKIO NARUSE
FLOWING | 1956 MIKIO NARUSE

1957

NIGHTS OF CABIRIA | 1957 FEDERICO FELLINI
IL GRIDO | 1957 MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI
FUNNY FACE | 1957 STANLEY DONEN
3:10 TO YUMA | 1957 DELMER DAVES
THE SEVENTH SEAL | 1957 INGMAR BERGMAN
KANAL | 1957 ANDREJ WAJDA
PATHS OF GLORY | 1957 STANLEY KUBRICK
THRONE OF BLOOD | 1957 AKIRA KURASAWA
WILD STRAWBERRIES | 1957 INGMAR BERGMAN
THE CRANES ARE FLYING | 1957 MIKHAIL KALATOZOV
FORTY GUNS | 1957 SAMUEL FULLER

1958

MERRY GO-ROUND | 1958 ZOLTAN FABRI
TOUCH OF EVIL | 1958 ORSON WELLES
BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET | 1958 MARIO MONICELLI
VERTIGO | 1958 ALFRED HITCHCOCK
THE LOVERS | 1958 LOUIS MALLE
MON ONCLE | 1958 JACQUES TATI
ASHES AND DIAMONDS | 1958 ANDREJ WAJDA
THE LOVERS |1958 LOUIS MALLE
PATHETIC FALLACY |1958 RITWIK GHATAK
THE COUSINS | 1958 CLAUDE CHABROL

1959

THE WORLD OF APU |1959 SATYAJIT RAY
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR | 1959 ALAIN RESNAIS
BLACK ORPHEUS | 1959 MARCEL CAMUS
RIO BRAVO | 1959 HOWARD HAWKS
BALLAD OF A SOLDIER | 1959 GRIGORY CHUKHRAY
LETTER NEVER SENT | 1959 MIKHAIL KALATAZOV
ROOM AT THE TOP | 1959 1957 JACK CLAYTON

SEE: 21ST CENTURY