Question 17

Brainstorm – what “critical approaches” do you know?

Question 17

• Critical approaches:• Spectatorship• Psychoanalysis (Uses and Gratifications,

Hypodermic Needle, Stuart Hall Audience Address Theories, Freud)

• Feminism (Greer, Duffy and “Eurydice”, Paglia)• Marxism• Postmodernism• Semiotics

Question 21

• Spectatorship – emotional response to film as a “spectator” and triggers for these responses

• Can you think of any examples in Vertigo?

Critical questions

1. Brainstorm - how did the film make you feel?

2. Brainstorm - how did you expect the film to make you feel?

3. Were you right (compare answers to q1 & q2)?

4. Were you in control of your emotions?

5. Which characters in the film did you most identify with?

6. How do you think other spectators responded to the film?

Response

e.g. empathy with Scottie (subjectivity)

Trigger

Cinematography (e.g. dolly zoom, narrative structure)

Early critical approaches to Spectatorship

Spectator “as the active centre and origin of meaning”, having a

sense of control

Baudry, Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinemtographic Apparatus (1970)

Recent critical approaches to Spectatorship

“what inspires the cinematic spectator is that very loss of

control….and subversion of self-identity”

Steven Shaviro, The Cinematic Body (1993)

Todorov – narrative expectations

• Bulgarian – publishing influential work on narrative since the 1960’s

Equilibrium > Disequilibrium > Resolution

• Concentration on how this is set up

Is Vertigo a film about Cinema?• Which statement do you most agree with?

1. “Yes. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential films ever made which pioneered many cinematic techniques. It is about Cinema in the sense that it is an integral part of a rich cinematic heritage and is crucial to fully understanding that history.”

2. “Yes. Whilst it is a film concerned with love and death, myth and reality, power and freedom, time and voyeurism, it is only able to bring these themes powerfully to life because of Hitchcock’s skill as a artist and auteur. It is self-consciously a work of cinematic art that re-constructs timeless stories for a modern audience using a modern art form.”

3. “Yes, because it showcases the power with which cinema can resonate with the spectator.”

4. “No, it is about the story of Everyman, which has been told in different forms before (e.g. play, poem, novel), not the form in which it is told. To focus on the art form is to detract from the vital message of the narrative itself.”

Appendix

• Freud

• Marxism

• Audience Address Theories

• Semiotics

Freud and Psychoanalysis

• Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating psychopathology

Audience address theories• Stuart Hall’s 3 theories of how media audiences ‘receive and

understand’ texts:

• Preferred readings: when the audience can relate and empathise directly with the media text. e.g: a Yorkshire born Muslim woman watching ‘Yasmin’.

• Negotiated readings: when the audience do not directly relate to the media text and have to place themselves into the ‘world of the text’. e.g: anyone who is not a Muslim woman watching ‘Yasmin’ but can relate to some of the themes and characters.

• Oppositional readings: when the audience and their life experiences have no relationship with the text and are actually resistant to it. This can often lead to an oppositional reading e.g: a racist BNP member watching ‘Yasmin’ and viewing it as an anti –British promotion of terrorism and multiculturalism.

Audience effects theories• Lots of theories on the media and audience effects, many of

which stem from psychoanalysis:

• Uses and Gratifications- the concept that audiences use the media to satisfy certain basic psychological needs. Often audiences will watch or read something to suit their moods. For example watching glossy America dramas like ‘Glee’ for escapism.

• The Hypodermic needle- the idea that audiences are ‘injected’ passively with a message. This theory has become popular when analysing the impact of media violence on young people.

• Task: think about your coursework tasks. • Can you apply any of Hall’s theories of audience address to them?• Can you apply either of the audience effects theories?

Social GroupsDominant Subordinate

Male Female

White Other ethnic groups

Middle class Working class

Middle aged Young and old

Heterosexual Homosexual

Able-bodied Disabled

Marxism

• Karl Marx was the founder of the Marxist theory. He believed that the media and its message could be used for good in the right hands.

• However in the hands of what he called the ‘dominant ideology’ the message could have a dangerously influential and controlling effect on the masses

Marxism and the dominant ideology

• The dominant ideology: the ideological forces that determine how a society functions.

• Marxists believe that all powerful institutions subtlety control how we, the masses, conduct our lives.

How many dominant institutions can you name?

How many dominant institutions can you name?

•

The Media’s Message

• Marxists believe that the media plays a significant part in controlling the masses and some would say as an institution it is a greater influence on society than religion, politics or indeed the family (nature over nurture).

• The supposed subtle dominance with which the media control the masses is also known as ‘hegemonic control’.’

• For example: The major Hollywood studios are often accused of perpetuating the idea that America is an imperialistic nation that dominates the world and its cultural landscape- the idea of ‘Americanisation’. This can be seen from apocalyptic sci-fi films such as ‘Independence Day’, ‘I am Legend’ and ‘2012’, where America is at the centre of global concerns.

Can you relate Marxist theory to your own production?

What would Marxists say about the representation of the subordinate classes in your production work?

Think about the characters/models/music artists.

Think about the narrative and genre of your work?

Think about the lifestyle that is denoted in your workAnd how your target audience would respond to it.

Semiotic analysisDenotation: the literal physical description

of what you see.e.g: red is a colour.

Connotation: the interpretation or associations of the meaning.e.g: red means

anger, danger, passion etc.

Symbol/icon: a visual ‘tool’ that can signify a whole genre, culture etc.

Metonym: when one iconic image can represent a whole culture, nation, ethnicity.

Signifier: any iconic symbol that signifies

meaning e.g.,text, a facial expression, an image. Task: analyse the poster

for ‘Casino Royale’.