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Le Manoir Du Diable / The House of the Devil
This was the first ever horror film to be released and has a very basic storyline, it features one of the characters conjuring up a variety or supernatural characters through using a cauldron. The whole sequence is black and white with a piece of music played behind it. -
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce released a theory of signs describing that a sign stands in relation to two other aspects, the object and the interpretant sign. -
Frankenstein (first version)
This is the first ever version of Frankenstein and also the oldest to be released however it featured no sound effects or dialogue, just an orchestra piece. In the story Frankenstein is trying to create another human but instead he ends up creating a monster. The film is so dated that it wasn’t recognised as being the first Frankenstein movie. -
Start of World War One
Beginning of World War One after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. -
Beginning of the Dada art movement
Dada was an artistic and literary movement that arose as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that many thought had led to the war. Influenced by other avant-garde movements - Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism - its output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage. Dada's aesthetic, marked by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities. -
Women given the vote (aged 30+)
over thirty, were householders or wives to men who were householders. This was due to the majority of men leaving the country to fight within World War One therefore leaving the women to take up the roles that they left behind in 1918 the government in the UK agreed to allow women to vote but only if they are aged. It was definitely an improvement compared to them not being allowed to vote at all. -
End of World War One
Th war came to a close when Germany signed an armistice (an agreement for peace and no more fighting) that had been prepared by Britain and France. -
End of the Dada art movement.
The Dada art movement came to a close after controversy and disagreement broke out among its members, and the movement split into factions -
Metropolis
Metropolis is a sci-fi drama featuring ‘Maria’ a robot that looks completely human. The plot was inspired by the events that were occurring during World War One and the culture it was creating. Themes like industrialization and mass production are explored in this film. The first World War dates from 1914 to 1918 to which Metroplis was released in 1927, nine years after the World War. -
Women allowed to vote (aged 21+)
Nearly ten years later the UK lowered the age that women could vote after the war due to their excellence that they had shown whilst the men were away. Other Countries also changed their voting laws for women, for example in 1919 the USA changed theirs to women 21 and over. France also altered theirs a little later in 1944. -
Un Chien Andalou
This is a fantasy and horror short film made shortly after World War One, it’s an example of a surrealist film that contains a narrative that doesn’t connect or make sense. You can see the effects of Dada and the surrealism as an actor gets her eye sliced open, which is very graphic, but you want to keep watching to establish why, the disturbing visuals throughout show the effects of Dada and their manifesto of making people question or creating a sense of mystery around things. -
The Great Depression began
Caused after the war for multiple reasons like there too many goods being made and not enough people to buy them, too many small banks and the collapse of European banks caused a general world financial crisis. -
Dracula
Dracula is fantasy and horror film following the vampire, Count Dracula as he begins to prey upon Mina. This film is one of classics in the gothic horror genre however it features no music during the whole film, the majority of the soundscape is dialogue with the occasional sound effect. -
Frankenstein (second version)
This is second version of Frankenstein to be released and is in black and white with no music featuring throughout the entire film. The story follows a crazed scientist that formed a monster made from other corpses body parts, similar to the first version. You can see the development of the film compared to the first version that was released twenty years before this one. -
Love Me Tonight
The film shows no signs of Avant Garde apart from one line that subtly mentions the Dada movement, as it was released the same year that Avant Garde was starting to make an appearance in films. In the hunting scene Jeanette MacDonald says “there are things too noble, too refined, to be made ridiculous” This sums up what Dada faced in 1916 as it was known for taking the use of readymade objects and altering them to generate difficult questions about society and the intentions of the piece. -
Dames
Dames was saved by an element of Avant Garde from going bankrupt during The Great Depression in the ‘I only have eyes for you’ musical performance. This a surreal and mysterious masterpiece of a sound stage with a hundred girls, all identical and wearing the same outfit but there is one part where the camera moves towards Ruby Keeler’s eye but the eye then twists open and she rises out of it, when the eye opens it reminds us of Un Chien Andalou (1929) where an eye is cut into and splits open. -
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky wrote that iconography and iconology is the examination of symbolic meanings and it's historical context. -
End of The Great Depression
Franklin D.Roosevelt as president signed a new deal in law, which created forty two agencies. It was designed to create jobs and allow unionization, there programs helped safeguard the economy and prevent another depression. -
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
This film is a strong example of where Dada and surrealism are used to delight, mystify and cause confusions reeling from The Great Depression. The race to the hospital has the most surreal and Dada features, such as a group of people fleeing from the road but perfectly leaving their shoes behind. Also a group of people duck below the seats in a car but emerge from the bonnet. All of these features look surreal onscreen and don’t make sense which really reflects the motives of the Dada movement. -
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex is a book written by Simone de Beauvoir that deals with the treatment of women throughout history and is regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy and is the starting point of second-wave of feminism. It is one of the earliest attempts to confront human history from a feminist perspective. Today many regard this book as not only as a pillar of feminist thought but of twentieth-century philosophy in general. -
The Colossus of New York
The Colossus of New York is a sci-fi horror based upon a surgeon that places his dead son’s brain in a large robot body. This particular film was the first ever cyborg film to fall into the genre of horror compared to other cyborg films that mostly come under science-fiction. The film is also noted for its haunting minimalist piano pieces throughout. The soundtrack for this film is filled with piano pieces that are extremely fast paced, adding the suspension within key scenes during the film. -
Psycho
Psycho is a horror, thriller and mystery film featuring a secretary that steals $40,00 from her employer and flees, checking into a remote motel. Psycho features the most famous musical piece in cinema history, during the shower scene when Marion is stabbed. This scene was the most terrifying and changed cinema history. -
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
In 1957 Betty Friedan conducted a survey among her class mates after a reunion and the result showed that many of them were unhappy with their housewives. This led her to begin research and interviewing housewives. The book discusses the lives of several different housewives from the United States that were unhappy even though they were married with children and living comfortable lives. Her book is closely related to the issues of feminism and the causes of women’s unhappiness during that time. -
The Haunting
The Haunting is two-hour long horror film following a scientist carrying out research on paranormal activities and invites two women to the haunted mansion. One of them soon starts losing her mind whilst being in the house. This film was classed as being one of the best horror movies that are within a home environment. -
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a horror film based upon a family who get attacked by a group of cannibalistic psychopaths and is one of the horror films that is featured in Joe Bob Briggs book called Profoundly Disturbing Shocking Movies That Changed History. The film is noted it’s for chainsaw sounds that are used throughout, changing the way we perceive them. -
Hubert Damisch
Hubert Damisch is a French philosopher who specialised in art history and aesthetics. He wrote on the history and theory of painting, architecture, photography, cinema and theatre. His work references the use of visual representations and semiotics. -
Star Wars - A New Hope
Star Wars features, what could be considered, one of the most well-known cyborgs, Darth Vader. Most people wouldn’t see him as a cyborg but he falls into that category as he lives in a cybernetic suit. Star Wars was only the fifth cyborg film to be made, even today Darth Vader is still popular in the saga displaying that the idea of cyborgs in films hasn’t outgrown and that they have developed so much we aren’t even aware he is a cyborg. -
The Shining
The Shining is a dramatic horror film based upon a family that is staying at an isolated hotel where an evil spirit influences the father of the family to participate in violence. This particular horror film was noted for its use of electronic music through synthesisers amd the famous like ‘here’s Johnny’ -
The Terminator
The Terminator is an action and sci-fi film featuring a humanoid cyborg that is sent to assassinate someone. This particular film is featured on the list of top 16 killer robot movies and was released during the growth of fictional cyborgs, overall it was an incredible success which was important as the idea of a cyborg was slowly growing. As it is considered one of the best cyborg films shows its overall success. -
The Bechdel test
The Bechdel test asks whether a work of fiction includes two women/girls or more who talk to each other about something other than men/boys. Half of the films that are released meet this requirement according to the media industry. The test is used to indicate the active presence of women in films, TV shows and any other fiction and highlights the importance of gender equality in fiction. The Bechdel test was as a result of the rise of feminism. -
Robocop
Robocop is an action, crime and sci-fi film made in the late 1980’s following a terminally wounded cop that returns as a powerful cyborg. You can see the development compared to films such as Metropolis, where the cyborg looks completely human but also the similarities to Darth Vader in regards to the cyborgs appearance. -
Bikini Kill
Bikini Kill was an American punk rock band formed in Washington and is considered to be the pioneer of the Riot Grrrl movement. The Riot Grrrl movement combines feminism with a punk style with politics and that is demonstrated by Bikini Kill, they were well known for their radical feminist lyrics and fiery performances. The development of feminism became stronger expanding from books into different mediums like music. -
Ringu / Ring
Ringu is a Japanese horror and mystery film featuring a ghost that kills people if they watch the strange contents of a mysterious video tape unless the viewer can find an escape. It works as a physiological horror because of the settings that are used such as peoples own homes and the overall aspect of a ghost crawling out of your TV is frightening. -
Saw
Saw is a horror, mystery and thriller film where two strangers awake in a room, not knowing how they got there but they soon discover they are part of a game being played by a serial killer. This film doesn’t feature any jump scares it is the creepy situations and goriness that makes you freak out when watching. The film was such a success it is now part of a sequel that features six other films.