5 films that changed the history of world cinema

In the 21st century, thanks to advanced technologies, filmmakers can do things that used to seem fantastic. For example, in the movie Gravity (2013), director Alfonso Cuarón was able to "immerse the viewer" in space along with the actors. To do this, he used the method of shooting with a continuously moving camera. The actors were tied to one location and large LED panels were turned on.

This helped to create a realistic picture of astronauts flying in space. Read OBOZREVATEL's article about other interesting technologies that have taken film production to a new level.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)

This movie tells the story of media magnate William Randolph Hearst's quest for fame. Director Orson Welles and screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz decided to use the technique of inconsistent actions and flashbacks (the storyline is interrupted, and the viewer sees actions that took place earlier). This is to keep the audience interested and intrigued as it is difficult to guess what the outcome might be.

2. Breathless (1960)

The directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut are the titans of the French New Wave, a movement in cinema of the 50s and 60s of the 20th century characterized by a sharp departure from the predictable development of events on the screen. They found a way to add more tension and poignancy to the plot. In the film Breathless, the directors used the following technique: shooting the same object from different angles to show the passage of time.

3. 8 1/2 (1963)

Italian director Federico Fellini made a film about a producer who had difficulties launching his project. The filmmakers combined surrealistic plots with realistic ones, where only the audience has to guess what is really happening and what is an illusion. For example, the film begins with a dream where a producer is stuck in a traffic jam and tries to get out of his car. Then he flies out of the car into the sky. The man comes back to Earth because a rope was tied to his leg.

This free form of the film inspired other directors (Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, Michel Gondry) to move away from linear storytelling to surrealism.

4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Director Stanley Kubrick showed the film industry new possibilities through filming. His movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is 2.5 hours long, and there are 40 minutes of dialogues. The viewer's attention is focused more on the image, music and audio effects than on the dialogues. All this is to better absord the atmosphere of the outer space.

Later, the emphasis on visual and sound effects was used by directors mainly to create science fiction films. For example, in Star Wars by George Lucas.

5. The Jazz Singer (1927)

A new technology was used in the filming of this movie - the Vitaphone. This is the so-called sound-on-disc system: the sound engineer combined gramophone recordings with the sounds of the film. In this way, he managed to add recorded dialogues and melodies to the movie. Alan Crosland's The Jazz Singer was the first full-length sound film.

The Vitaphone technology continued to be used until the 1940s, when it was replaced by an improved sound-on-tape system.