Film Persona

King Vidor's "Show People" In 1928, King Vidor agreed to shoot a comedy as a vehicle for Marion Davies. This agreement was made in accordance that Cosmopolitan Pictures supervise the film. Cosmopolitan Pictures, a subsidiary of MGM, was controlled by influential newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst. Vidor made three films with Marion Davies that showcased her comedic talents. The most popular and commercially successful of these was Show People. Show People would go on to be Marion Davies's most successful pictures she had ever been apart of.  The film seems to be a very simple and light comedy and tells the story of an actress who comes to Hollywood to find stardom. The actress, Peggy Pepper, has been said to have been inspired by the career of Gloria Swanson. Peggy Pepper arrives in Hollywood with her father from Georgia. Peggy's naivety is ever apparent as she doesn't seem to know the standards of making a Hollywood film as she walks in front of camer...

King Vidor's "The Crowd" After the success of The Big Parade in 1925, King Vidor brought an unusual film to MGM production head Irvin Thalberg. Vidor pitched it as an experimental film, hoping to bring to life the kind of film he had always wanted to make. More specifically, we wanted a film that would set out to fit the parameters of his 'manifesto' that he published in the Variety Magazine's January 1920 issue. This 'manifesto' contained founding statements entitled "Creed and Pledge" that established moral antidotes for filmmaking. These creeds and pledges were: 1) I believe in the motion picture that carries the message of humanity; 2) I believe in the picture that will help humanity to free itself from the shackles of fear and suffering that have so long bound in its chains; 3) I will not knowingly produce a picture that contains anything I do not believe to be absolutely true to human nature, anything that could injure anyone or anythin...

  King Vidor's "The Big Parade" By 1925, King Vidor had directed over twenty small-scale silent films dating back to 1913. This had established Vidor as a consistent and reliable director in the Hollywood industry. The Hollywood industry at the time was not the superpower it would come to be once the advent of talking pictures took hold. However, the American industry saw a rapid boost thanks in part to The Big Parade - which became the highest grossing silent film ever. The film was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, who had just formed in 1924. Irving Thalberg, who was a young production chief at MGM was frustrated with making films that didn't have any staying power at the cinemas. Rather than having a film play for a week and vanish, he wanted to make a film that could warrant attention and garnish an extended stay in theaters. King Vidor's ambitions seemed to be the ingredients needed to accomplish Thalberg's vision. Vidor wanted to tackle films tha...

  Sergei Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible, Part II" After Joseph Stalin awarded the Stalin Award to Ivan the Terrible Part I in 1946, Sergei Eisenstein spent the last two years of his life making the second part in his expected trilogy, Ivan the Terrible Part II. This time, Stalin was more revolted and banned the film. Many believe that Eisenstein reacted to Stalin's agreement of the first film with something much more intrusive to the dictator's liking. Because of this, Ivan the Terrible Part II is a much more bizarre and unruly tapestry of images. While the first part of this two-part story is a familiar historical epic, the second seems to be a far deeper plunge into the darker elements of the human soul. We open the piece on the court of King Sigismund of Poland. Eisenstein creates a set design with a palace floor that resembles a chess board. The various court members are all standing still as Kurbsky walks in to see the King. The shot itself seems to suggest ...

  Sergei Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible, Part I" At the beginning of 1941, Joseph Stalin had commissioned Sergei Eisenstein to make a film about his favorite political leader, the 16th century tsar, Ivan the Terrible. Stalin looked up to Ivan due to his uniting of Russia into a centralized and modern state. The famous director took up the offer to make this film. Everyone was expecting Eisenstein to defend the darker elements of Ivan, as Ivan was also known for being a ruthless despot who inflicted a campaign of terror against those who opposed him. However, Eisenstein did not use this opportunity to placate Stalin. Rather, he created a two part story critiquing Stalin and Stalinism, using Ivan as a mechanism for demonstrating the unique nature of political power and the inevitable fallouts brought about by tyranny.  The first of this two part story, Ivan the Terrible Part I, was actually well-liked by Stalin and even won the Stalin Prize in 1946. This is because Part I ...

Jean Renoir's "The Crime of Monsieur Lange" In 1936, Jean Renoir was approached by the Communist party asking him to make a film denouncing fascism. Renoir was quick to take the opportunity as the political climate of Europe was starting to become more acquainted with fascist ideologies. In regards to his reasons for making the film, Renoir stated, "I believed that every honest man owed it to himself to resist Nazism. I am a filmmaker, and this is the only way in which I could play a part in the battle." The film enacts Renoir's vision of a world built by the community - rather than ruled by one alone.  The film is rife with political context of France in 1936. The Popular Front, a left-wing political movement founded that year, was a reaction to the rising right-wing authoritarianism presented by the German Nazis. The purpose of the movement was social reform which included workers' rights against capitalists' control over enterprise. This anti-fasc...