Why is knowledge of film history invaluable in looking at movies and analyzing them?
Knowledge of film history is invaluable in looking at movies and analyzing them because the target consumer of film is often an ordinary viewer who may be quite ignorant of any kind of specific knowledge to analyze, judge, review, etc., the movies or their creation process, whatsoever. So, perhaps, it does not matter much to the target audience
What cinematic innovations changed the course of film history? Explain and provide examples.
It is obvious that the introduction of the digital camera and means of editing played the leading role in change and transformation of modern film history. Prior, changes in the look and sound of the studios’ product, stylistic and nonstylistic changes also took place like goals and standards into new materials, equipment or procedures, etc. 3 and 4 dimensional vision, developing new themes, formal strategies, showing the audience a story through a character’s point of view, etc. were the cinematic innovations that change the course of filming history. For example, Don Juan - the nearly three-hour-long movie (1926) was the first major motion picture to employ a synchronized sound system of any type throughout. The first feature-length talkie was The Jazz Singer (1927), etc. The movie that was shot by means of the new-tech high definition digital camera I-MAX recently is The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The basic changes have been the addition of sound, color, wide screen photography, digital sound and the creation of CGI or computer generated images.
Explain some of the differences between the classical American Hollywood style of movie making and the European styles of Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave.
It is possible to say that one of the primary differences between the Classical American Hollywood style of movie making and the European style was that the latter was out to make a social, political, and/ or cultural impact, larger social concerns of humanity,etc. The latter filmmaking styles have always been less commercial and entertaining and more aesthetically significant and fulfilled, etc. Sure thing the difference also is in time of development. The late 1950s and 1960s belongs to the so called French New Wave, while roughly the 1910s and the early 1960s. - American Hollywood style, and Italian neorealist films, mostly contended with the difficulties of economics and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy, reflecting the changes in the Italian psyche and the conditions of everyday life: poverty and desperation, etc. The brightest examples of Italian Neorealism can be Federico Fellini's films.
Name 2 or 3 directors you feel are unique and innovative. Explain and provide examples.
The most unique and innovative directors that created something that the world of cinema has never seen before are Lars von Trier (Antichrist, Melancholia, Dogville, etc), Lana Wachowski and Lawrence "Larry" Wachowski who created the Matrix Trilogy, Cloud Atlas, etc.
Lars von Trier uses innovative methods of filming - an imitation of TV coverage, the experiments with the color palette of the film, themes and characters, …