The story of “Bicycle Thief” is meant to be a compelling note on poverty as it occurred in Italy and a setting example of neorealism. Neorealism – unglamorous depiction of the working class – being an important and keystone part of the story itself, the movie’s premise of a man who’s bike is stolen from him and searching after it only to steal one for himself is not only a depiction of the working class, but a strikingly dim description of the lower class. The costume and set are underpinned, such that save for difference in gender, the majority of both the extras and the characters in the story look significantly uniform.

    Director Vittorio de Sica utilizes anonymizing shots such as the long shot (a far distance view of a set, object, character, etc.) to bring into play the concept of contextualization as it relates to frame construction. The shot of Antonio stealing the bike is done in such a long shot; the frame is at such a distance that one cannot see the look on Antonio’s face even as he acts in the most crucial turning point of the plot. The street in front of Antonio is in much better view than he is, but it is the shot that includes the street and its bypassers and workers that create and allow for the contextualization that makes this film so neorealistic – not one event happens without it rippling into the world around it. The set itself is an actual town, not a studio, so all of the shots take place more organically and create the atmosphere that de Sica sought to capture in a camera without the arguably necessary glamourization that take place in an artificial studio.

Doubling, a principal technique in expressionism, is a principal element in “Metropolis”, directed by Fritz Lang. World on Film’s author Martha Nochimson poses a ponderous question at the beginning of her discussion on “Metropolis”, “Can science fiction be Expressionist?” The plot contorts and twists under this lense, with crucial points of the plot encircling expressionism: the perceived mounting pressure in the underworld of the futuristic city, the doubling of Maria as a main protagonist and antagonist, and the failures of leadership as it relates to Germany as a society. There seems a divergence between the plot of the film and its depiction of the selfsame plot – the story itself depicts and carries more of what is (arguably meant to be) identifiably expressionistic. Much of the film, including Maria’s doubling, while having significant frame construction, do not require the shots themselves to create the expressionism the movie is so iconic for having.

For its story, I personally thought the movie was more expressionistic for its depiction of Maria more so than any other element the movie had to offer, with many of the frames and scenes of the movie dressed more to impress the audience than to narrate the story. Wide frames of the underworld beneath the city and sprawling shots of the gleaming metropolis above pay much greater attention to creating the world wherein which the story takes place and less to set up for a plot that creates what is essentially expressionistic.

    Perhaps what makes “400 Blows” so compelling of a story is its simplicity in plot concept as a bildungsroman. The director, François Truffaut, based a great deal of the movie off of his own living experiences as a young teen, which is where the movie begins and ends – with a young man pursuing ill-founded passions. A very important part of Truffaut’s “400 Blows” is its final shot, famous for its effect and manifestation and perhaps even more so it’s representation of what is intentionally left out of the scene. A freeze frame of the troubled Antoine’s face as he stares, nigh pensively, at the open ocean that he sees and observes and processes for the first time, is arguably the pinnacle of the film and is the only scene in the movie done purely for effect, and not for narrative. The scene prior to is one of Antoine running from his reformatory, a long, nearly arduous shot of the boy running and sounds of merely his footsteps and the ambient sounds of op en air and nature in its few effects. The scene serves little to the end of setting up for the following and final sequence, but allows almost a moment of reflection for the audience. The lack of sound, the sideways movement of the camera to keep nothing but Antoine running along the path – where both where he was and where he is going is kept out of shot, the pattern of his movement, the continuity and uniformity of the shot…all effects coalesce to create an environment and tone of reflection. 

Needless to say, “Man With The Movie Camera” is an excellent showcase of cinematography, in its showcase of cinematography. The opening sequences grant this consideration of the movie, “an experiment in the cinematic communication of visible events, executed without the aid of intertitles, without the aid of a scenario, without the aid of a theater”, and an experiment it is. On its surface, the movie is an open dialogue on the filming of human life as it naturally and organically takes form (specifically Russian daily city life – though the topic has international effect), and a great deal of the shots in the film are taken in major Soviet cities, such as Moscow and Kiev. An interesting narrative the docu-film portrays is the comparison of the camera to an eye, a stylistic comment on the aforementioned topic of filming natural city life. Vertov, director, carries this “eye” over to a point of omnipotence, creating scenes such as a woman covering her face while signing divorce papers, creating a secondary silent commentary on the power and pure visibility that the camera creates in its own manifestation. Shots such as one where the camera seems to move of its own free will solidify the camera as a potential main character if the film were to have one, as it seems to give the camera a voice of its own. Moreover, the docu-film uses all sorts of techniques, including slow, fast, and stop motions, as well as clever editing to make the movie a montage as opposed to a flowing, traditional story-telling film. This being said, the movie arguably has a plot of its own, following varying parts of life, such as work and employment, and recreation and enjoyment.