Round out your knowledge

WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT CINEMA?

Cinema is the art that mostly influenced the XX century shaping and setting the narrative and aesthetic rules of our contemporaneity. "What are we talking about when we talk about cinema?" is a critical introduction to some of the most essential elements that contributes to the creation of these magical objects; analysing the
cinema’s state of the art and through some historical references the course aims at giving the basic tools to approach the kaleidoscopic and ever-changing film’s nature.

PROGRAM:
1. TWO OR THREE THINGS ABOUT CINEMA The state of the art : an overview on cinema as an art, a language and an industry.
- What is cinema? Cinema as a language, as an art, as an industry; a theoretical approach.
- The evolution of a language: the idea of time and space in cinema. From the first film (Lumière) to the first linear editing (Porter), the first close-up (Smith), the idea of aspect ratio (Rector), to Griffith/Méliès/Alice Guy.
- The main technical footsteps in the cinema history (sound 1927, color 1939, dolby 1971, digital 1995).
- The main movements of the 20th century: the birth of Hollywood, German expressionism, neorealismo, nouvelle vague, the new Hollywood etc etc..

Recommended screening: La nuit américaine - F. Truffaut OR Hugo Cabret - M.Scorsese

2. SO MAY WE START? The script: the rules & tools to write a film
- How is structured a movie: which are the main phases, how is the workflow etc etc.. (a GANT model of all the artistic process)
- The main roles in the cinema industry (director, actors, screenwriter, DP, producer, production designer, sound designer, editor etc etc.. What does everyone of them? Which are their main skills?)
- The birth of a movie: the script development -> idea/logline, subject, treatment
- High concept, low concept.
- The most common structures of a script: three acts & character-driven.
- The three main elements of a story: protagonist-antagonist, the conflict, the time/ space characterisation.

Recommended screening : The Social Network - D. Fincher OR Synecdoche New York - C. Kaufman OR A separation - A. Farhadi

3. PHOTOGRAPHY IS TRUTH. CINEMA IS TRUTH 24 TIMES A SECOND: Directing & photographing: the image & its evocative power in cinema - a way of looking at reality
- The grammar of a director: 180-degree rule, rule of thirds, shots (extreme wide shot,long shot, full shot, medium shot, medium close-up, close up, details, establishing shot)
- Camera movements: fix shot, trucking shot, dolly shot, pan shot, whip pan, tilt shot, crane shot, aerial shot, handheld shot, zoom shot, rack focus shot, steadycam
- A matter of vision: the most important thing to be a director is to have a personal way to look at the world (references: Ozu/Welles/Rossellini, Fellini/Resnais/Warhol/ Godard, Bergman/Bresson/Kubrick/Tarkovsky/Akerman, Tarr/Lynch/Kiarostami).
- To sum up: “what is a film director? A man who is asked questions about everything”

Recommended screening : 8 e mezzo - F. Fellini OR Nostalgia - A. Tarkovskij OR Persona - I. Bergman

4. NO PRODUCER, NO MOVIE! Producing: an introduction to the craziest and most creative entrepreneurship activity.
- What does producing a film mean?
- An historical background: the big five (mayors), paramount anti-trust decree, Michael Cimino Heaven’s Gate case - the end of the United Artists, the blockbusters & sequels, the platforms etc etc..
- The producer: his/her role & main tasks.
- An introduction about how to build a movie: script breakdown, budget, film value chain, production breakdown board, call sheet, business plan.
- The three main steps of producing a movie (development/pre-production, production, post-production).
- The cinema’s development in the world (the main industry: USA, France, China, Nigeria, India etc etc..).
- A perspective: Blockbusters & the long tail theory

Recommended screening : Hail, Cesar! - Coen Brothers OR The Last Tycoon - E. Kazan

Faculty for the course: Tommaso Santambrogio

Italian filmmaker, producer and writer (1992). He lived and studied in Milan, Paris, Roma, Firenze and La Havana and he worked with several international acclaimed directors, like Werner Herzog and Lav Diaz. His last short movies (The Last Scene and The Oceans Are the Real Continents) were both presented at the Venice Film Festival and in many other important festivals all over the world. The Last One Out Shuts the Light, his last work, premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2021 and was shortlisted for the David di Donatello prize (2022). He is finishing his first feature film (2023), an international co-production supported by RAI Cinema and the Italian Ministry of culture (MIC), shot entirely in Cuba.

The course is offered in collaboration with ISPI. Further information can be found here.

This course, offered in collaboration with Yamaha Music Europe GmbH, will be held in Italian. For further information please check the Italian website.

This lab, offered in collaboration with Museo Nazionale di Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, will be made up of 3 lectures that will be held at the museum.

Further information on the calendar available here.

The course is offered in collaboration with ISPI. Further information can be found here.

Through three “dancetime stories” we’ll discover the journey of dance. Dance is the traveller of all classical arts, being born in Tuscany, having moved to France, to Russia, and finally to the United States. Through its travels, dance has developped to the art we know today. Dance only represents the present moment, but it could not do that without the history that has helped it evolve and develop.

The lectures will be held in English in presence in the following dates: 14-15 November 2022 at 6.15pm-8.00pm in Aula N12, Piazza Sraffa 13.

Students who attend both the classes will be given a certificate of participation.

How to register

Students: yoU@B Student Diary, various activity widget

Faculty and Staff: fill out this form

Program
The course will feature two lectures, which will focus on:
> “Never give up a crown to anybody” (Caterina de’ Medici)
Ballet was born under Caterina De’ Medici who exported it to France.
It was there, however, that it developed and became the form of Art that we know today, thanks to Louis XIV and his insane passion for jumping.
Through fun facts, anecdotes, and videos we will travel back in time, to the genesis of this incredible form of art: ballet.
> “This Love is Sick”
In the 1800s a new ideal of beauty was created in France and moved to Italy, where it influenced many composers, among whom were Verdi, Bellini, and Donizetti; the “Belle Malade”.
The new romantic heroine is strong but sick, she’s called “belle malade”, the “beautiful sickly one”.
Ballet depicts this new ideal too, especially with one of the most famous ballets of all time “Giselle”.
Anecdotes and videos will take us through a very strange century, both fascinating and creepy.
> ”Dance, Dance, Otherwise We’re Lost” (Pina Bausch)
A different type of dance is travelling across Europe: Tanztheater (Dance Theater).
Even though some of its influences come from the New York scene from the 1940s and 1950s, Tanztheater is mostly a European phenomenon.
Carolyn Carlson will be the bridge from the US to Europe, Pina Bausch is one of the founders of this cryptic yet fascinating style, Sosta Palmizi will be the most important Italian voice in regard to TanzTheater.

This fascinating journey will be accompanied by several videos, fun facts, and anecdotes.

Instructor: Marco Pelle
Choreographer. Recipient of the 2016 Primi Dieci USA Award as one of the ten most influential Italians in the USA, Mr. Pelle began his dance training in his Italy, continued in Monaco before moving to New York City to study with Merce Cunningham. He’s been one of New York Theatre Ballet’s resident choreographers since 2012. In 2013 Mr. Pelle also collaborated with great ballerina Alessandra Ferri on her comeback show "The Piano Upstairs". As an Opera choreographer he has worked extensively in the US and abroad. In Beijing, China, he has choreographed a total of four productions. In 2013 he choreographed "Passage", starring Mr. Bolle and Mrs. Semionova, a short movie directed by Fabrizio Ferri, with music by Fabrizio Ferri which opened Venice Film Festival. After many successful experiences in the US, in 2020, ballet star Roberto Bolle premiered Marco Pelle’s “LXIV” on the Italian national tv in his extremely successful tv show “Danza con Me”. In 2022, Mr. Pelle created two new projects sponsored by the Italian Culture Institute in New York and the italian Cultural Institute in Washington, DC, titled “AbunDance” and “Statuesque”. In 2022 he’s also directed and choreographed Javier Rodriguez’ opera “Frida” at Michigan Opera Theater.
More info abuot Pelle's carreer and projects available in the interview conducted by Tg2 and part of the program "Tg2 Storie — I racconti della settimana"; you can find the interview on Raiplay (press).