introduction to film theory

7/27/2019 Introduction to Film Theory

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Film Theory & Movements

FIVE DIFFERENTVIEWS OF REALITY


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Naturalist / Empiricists

Non-Christian existentialist

Nihilist

Rationalist


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Idealist/ Romanticist

Idealist

Romanticist

Mystic

Transcendentalist

Phenomenologist

Noumenalist

Magical realist

Realist (Bazin)


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Marxist

Social realists


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Postmodern

PoststructuralPostcolonial

Feminist / queer


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Two Overriding Traditions (Aitken)

INTUITIONIST / MODERNIST

Rooted in romanticism

Phenomenology

Irrational & intuitive

Symbolism &expressionism

Imagery conveysmeaning

Theme of alienation

Often ambiguous

REALIST / NATURALIST

Documentary style

Vehicle for social reform

Rational, cognitiveanalysis of informationand issues

Carefully controlled

images that manipulateaudience reaction

Utilitarian, often with apolitical agenda


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Two Approaches to Editing

MONTAGE

A + B = C

Apple blossoms + young girls in field

= hope

One interpretation (no ambiguity)

Editor (director) manipulates meaning

Not realistic

Focus on image (soft background)


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MONTAGE

A + B = C


= hopeOne interpretation (no ambiguity)


Not realistic Focus on image (soft background)


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MONTAGE

A + B = C


= hope



Not realistic Focus on image (soft background)


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MONTAGE

A + B = C

Apple blossoms + young girls in field= hope



Not realistic

Focus on image (soft background)


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CINEMATIC REALISM

Long takes

Capture reality as it is

Deep focus, depth of field

Less directorial control of whatthe viewer should focus upon

AmbiguityMore real


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CINEMATIC REALISM

SOCIAL REALISM

Italian Neorealism

New British Cinema

METAPHYSICAL REALISM

Andrei Tarkovsky


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CINEMATIC REALISM

SOCIAL REALISM

Italian Neorealism

New British Cinema

METAPHYSICAL REALISM

Andrei Tarkovsky


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Impact of Hollywood

Worldwide dominance of the Hollywoodmachine: Production-distribution-TV

65-80% of films shown in Europe are US.

US: 37,000 screens

UK: Secrets & Lies -- 20 screens

Transnational productions

Emigration of directors and actors

Commercial producers copy Hollywood

Few auteurs took aesthetic stance againstHollywood mis en scene

Death of national cinemas/identity?


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The Hollywood Aesthetic

The aesthetic of pretense

Studio system

Star-centric

Formula approach to narrativeHero - Problem - Overcome-Happy Ending

Shot-reverse-shot

Camera followed the order of the text

Alternate characters speaking


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Major Film Theorists

1. John Grierson2. Siegfried Kracauer

3. Andre Bazin

4. Georg Lucas

5. Christian Metz


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Perception

Representation

Signification

Narrative Structure

Adaptation

Evaluation

Identification

Figuration

Interpretation

Film Theory


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Gestalt Psychology

Russian Formalism

Neo-KantianismPhenomonology

Existentialism

Postmodernism

Intellectual / Historical Context


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John Grierson (1889-1972)

MODERN DOCUMENTARY REALISM

Father of the documentary film

Film as an effective means of communicationsbetween individual and the state

Purpose is to create social unity and reform

Focused on poverty, hunger, unemployment,and other social problems

Intuitive/experiential films can enable peopleto understand social issues better thanrational, cognitive analysis

Use of realistic and naturalistic images tosignify abstract realities


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Siefried Kracauer (1889-1966)

CINEMATIC REALISM

Critic of modernity (Frankfurt School)

Human condition characterized by alienation

Mass culture/society manipulates individualsMaterialistic values have replaced religion,metaphysical, romantic convictions, resultingin disenchantment

People live distracted livesFilm as a redemptive experience that canshow man damaged condition of modernityand help him transcend materialism


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Siefried Kracauer (1889-1966)

CINEMATIC REALISM

Foreshadowed and predicted dehumanizingpower of mass media

Mass ornaments --film, military parades andsporting events

Real world of the individual desubstantiatedby spectacle and empty rituals

Film must reengage individual with natureand the Kantian real world


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Andre Bazin (1918-1958)

CINEMATIC REALISM

Shared Kracauers view of modernity

Also saw film as redemptive

Kracauer: German classical philosophyBazin: Catholicism, Bergson, Sartre, French

Phenomenological influence

Bergson: Flux and flow of existence

Modern life and ideologies obscure thebase of life


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Bergsons concept of creative evolution

Evolution of the vital spirit in man

Close experiential scrutiny reveals deepstructures/meanings behind phenomena

Under scrutiny of inquiry [artistic analysis]these deep structures are brought into thelight

Cinema and photography are media that anartist can utilize to review the deeper meanings behind the phenomena of existence


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Existentialism

I am, therefore I think, feel, perceive, etc.

Intuitive understanding, versus rational.

Sartre: Absence of inner fulfillmentIndividual defined him or her self throughaction, free choice and the very quest for meaning

Lacan: I am the search for myself


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Christian Existentialism

Rejected nihilistic strains of existentialism

Personalist movement of French intellectuals

Marxist, utopian view of societys potential Tielhard de Chardin: Metaphysical theory of geological formation

Noosphere--Consciousness of the earth

Close obsveration of natural phenomenacould reveal planetary consciousness


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Divining the real

Mystical

Metaphysical

Creative evolutionSpiritual renewal

Social reform

Metaphysical


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Christian view of man as fallen

Seeking redemption and atonement

The role of cinema is to help man in his searchfor truth and understanding in an ambiguousand uncertain world

Man can transcend alienation and modernity

Film can be a religious experience

Love and state of grace


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Film image embalms time & wrenchesphenomena from the flux of life

Symbolic power of cinematic imagerycombined with empirical density of cinematic

realismThe spirit behind the real object

The long hard gaze

Disliked over-expressive, over-ornamental, or overuse of montage

(More like Tarkovsky than Eisenstein)


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We know that under the image revealed there isanother which is truer to reality and under thisimage still another and yet again still another under this last one, right down to the true image of reality,absolute, mysterious, which no on will ever see.


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Francois Truffaut

Erich von Stroheim

Roberto Rossellini

Vittorio De SicaRobert Bresson

Jean Renoir

Orson Welles

William Wyler


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Liked films that focused on everydaypsychological experience

Italian neorealism (The Bic yle Thief)

Disliked modernist, expressionistic

Disliked films that imposed a politicalideology on the viewer

Long takes, of surrounding environment

Impact of environment on people(French determinism)


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Georg Lukacs (1885-1971)

Marxist philosopher (Western)

History of Class Consciousness

Concrete social totality

Anti-symbolic irrationalismAnti-naturalism that just showed alienation of individual

Film as a dialectic between the individual and

the social within a particular Must show mans place in the web of socialand political relationships


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Christian Metz (1931-1993)

The first academic critic to consider film a language

Structuralist, semiotic approach to film analysis

A systematic reading of film to reveal meaningthrough film language

Shots, sequencing, mise en scene

Grande syntagmatique

Seven different systems of shots(syntagms) that told the story of a film

Film provides a spectacle of reality which allows theviewer to accomplish a transfer of reality

Anti anti-realist, postmodern cinema

introduction to film theory

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