To help me decide my film theory I found this document helpful as it simplifies a range of theories:
https://moodle.gllm.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/113302/mod_resource/content/1/FilmTheories.pdf
https://moodle.gllm.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/113302/mod_resource/content/1/FilmTheories.pdf
A film theory is a framework for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers and society as a whole.
A film analysis is the process in which a film is analysed in terms of mise-en-scene, montage, cinematography, sound and editing. One way of analyzing films is by the shot-by-shot analysis (used typically on small clips or short scenes).
History of Film Theory
A film analysis is the process in which a film is analysed in terms of mise-en-scene, montage, cinematography, sound and editing. One way of analyzing films is by the shot-by-shot analysis (used typically on small clips or short scenes).
History of Film Theory
- New art form of the 20th, film immediately and continuously invited theoretical attempts to define its nature and function
- The impetus for much of early film theory was to gain a degree of respectability
- Early film theory arose in the silent era and was mostly concerned with defining the crucial elements of the medium
- Directors and film theorists emphasised how film differed from reality and how it might be considered a valid art form
- After World War II, the French film critic and theorist André Bazin argued that film's essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality not in its difference from reality
- 1960s-1970s, film theory took up residence in academe, importing concepts from established disciplines like psychoanalysis, gender studies, anthropology, literary theory, semiotics and linguistics
- 1990s, the digital revolution in image technologies has had an impact on film theory
Types of Theories
Structuralist Film Theory
Marxist Film Theory
Screen Theory
Formalist Film Theory
Feminist Film Theory
Auteur Theory
Apparatus Theory
Philosophy of Language Film Analysis
Psychoanalytical Film Theory
Structuralist Film Theory
- Emphasises how films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions
- An example of this is understanding how the simple combination of shots can create an additional idea: the blank expression on a person's face, an appetising meal, and then back to the person's face. While nothing in this sequence literally expresses hunger - or desire - the juxtaposition of the images convey that meaning to the audience
- Lighting, angle, shot duration, juxtaposition, cultural context, and a wide array of other elements can actively reinforce or undermine a sequence's meaning
Marxist Film Theory
- One of the oldest forms of film theory
- Sergei Eisenstein and many other Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s expressed ideas of Marxism through film
- The more vociferous complaint that the Russian filmmakers had was with the narrative structure of Hollywood filmmaking
- Eisenstein's solution was to shun narrative structure by eliminating the individual protagonist and tell stories where the action is moved by the group and the story is told through a clash of one image against the next (whether in composition, motion, or idea) so that the audience is never lulled into believing that they are watching something that not been worked on
- French Marxist film makers, such as Jean-Luc Godard, would employ radical editing and choice of subject matter, to heighten class consciousness and promote Marxist ideas
Screen Theory
- Is a Marxist film theory associated with the British journal Screen in the 1970s
- It is the spectacle that creates the spectator and not the other way round
- The fact that the subject is created and subjected at the same time by the narrative on screen is masked by the apparent realism of the communicated content
Formalist Film Theory
- Theory of film study that is focused on the formal, or technical elements of a film: i.e. the lighting, scoring, sound and set design, use of colour, shot composition, and editing
- It is a major theory of film study today
- Formalism, at its most general, considers the synthesis (or lack of synthesis) of the multiple elements of film production, and the effects, emotional and intellectual, of that synthesis and of the individual elements
- For example, let's take the single element of editing. A formalist might study how standard Hollywood "continuity editing" creates a more comforting effect and non-continuity or jump cut editing might become more disconcerting or volatile
- Formalism is unique in that it embraces both idealogical and auteurist branches of criticism
- In both these cases, the common denominator for Formalist criticism is style
Feminist Film Theory
- Theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory
- Feminists have many approaches to cinema analysis, regarding the film elements analysed and their theoretical underpinnings
- Development of feminist film theory was influenced by second wave feminism and the development of women's studies within the academy
- Initial attempts in the United States in the early 1970's were generally based on sociological theory and focused on the function of women characters in particular film narratives or genres and of stereotypes as a reflection of a society's view of women
- Analysed how the women portrayed in film related to the broader historical context, the stereotypes depicted, the extent to which the women were shown as active or passive, and the amount of screen time given to women
Auteur Theory
- In the 1950s-era Auteur theory holds that a director's films reflect that director's personal creative vision, as if he were the primary "Auteur" (the French word for "author")
- In some cases, film producers are considered to have a similar "Auteur" role for films that they have produced
- In law the Auteur is the creator of a film as a work of art, and is the original copyright holder
- Under European Union law the film director shall always be considered the author or one of the authors of a film
- "Auteurism" is the method of analysing films based on this theory or, alternately, the characteristics of a director's work that makes him an Auteur
- Both the Auteur theory and the Auteurism method of film analysis are frequently associated with the French New Wave
Apparatus Theory
- Derived in part from Marxist film theory, semiotics, and psychoanalysis, was a dominant theory within cinema studies during the 1970s
- It maintains that cinema is by nature ideological because its mechanics of representation are ideological
- Its mechanics of representation include the camera and editing
- Apparatus theory also argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology of the culture within the viewer
- Ideology is not imposed on cinema, but is part of its nature
Philosophy of Language Film Analysis
- Is a form of film analysis that attempt to study the aesthetics of film by investigating the concepts and practices that comprise the experience and interpretation of movies
- Critics from this tradition often clarify misconceptions used in theoretical film studies and instead produce analysis of a film's vocabulary and its link to a form of life
Psychoanalytical Film Theory
- The concepts of psychoanalysis have been applied to films in various ways
- The film viewer is seen as the subject of a "gaze" that is largely "constructed" by the film itself, where what is on screen becomes the object of that subject's desire
- The viewing subject may be offered particular identifications (usually with a leading male character) from which to watch
- The theory stresses the subject's longing for a completeness which the film may appear to offer through identification with an image
mY CHOSEN THEORY:
I have chosen to research the 'Formalist Film Theory'.
origins:
This theory says that film is art and not reproduction of reality. Unlike realist theorists, formalist film theorists believe that the art of cinema is possible precisely because a movie is unlike everyday life. Formalist film makers shape and mould the images we see on the screen. Their approach to film emphasises their ability to create story and emotion through manipulation.
The approach was proposed by Hugo Munsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Sergei Eisenstein and Béla Balázs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalist_film_theory
The approach was proposed by Hugo Munsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Sergei Eisenstein and Béla Balázs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalist_film_theory
different views under formalism:
- Neo-Realism
- Anti-Realism
- Realism
- Avant Garde
ideological formalism:
Focus on how socio-economic pressures create particular style. How it communicates ideas, emotions, themes.
Two examples related to Formalism are:
Classical Hollywood cinema
Two examples related to Formalism are:
Classical Hollywood cinema
- Distinct style – create closed world on screen
- Make experience as pleasant as possible, the audience gets involved
Film Noir
|
Three Point Lighting
|
- The common lighting set up for Film Noir low key lighting style called chiaroscuro in the art world
- 3 point lighting is the fundamental system all filmmakers learning how to light will start with
- The first and most important light is key light, this is usually the brightest and most dominant light
- Complementing the key is the fill light which is placed opposite of the key light to fill in some of the shadows left by the key
- The final light of the 3 point set up is the back light, this light adds an outline to separate the subject from the background
INSTITUTIONAL MODE OF REPRESENTATION:
- Dominant mode of film construction
- Production
- Audience imaginatively involved in film – identify with what’s on camera
- 3D space created, presented with clear pieces of info
- Characters psychologically developed and distinguished – close-ups, acting
- Narrative driven by character psychology
- Continuity editing, three-point lighting, “mood” music
popular movies:
formalist theory:
Created to redeem the art of film, by arguing that films had authors. Films could be considered works of art like paintings, literature and music. This theory gives the Director the majority of the credit and not the screenwriter. Directors are now at the same level of importance as novelist, composers and painters and get recognition. Film is said to lie somewhere between theatre and literature.
Resources:
https://www.slideshare.net/danwargo/formalist-film-theory-presentation
https://prezi.com/0yizpjdexuki/formalist-film-theory/
https://www.slideshare.net/danwargo/formalist-film-theory-presentation
https://prezi.com/0yizpjdexuki/formalist-film-theory/
To understand this theory further I need to further understand the difference between realism and formalism. I found the following article to do so:
https://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/samplechapter/0/2/0/5/0205944515.pdf
- Mid 1890s - Georges Méliès was creating a number of fantasy films that emphasised purely imagined events, such as A Trip to the Moon. These were typical mixtures of whimsical narrative and trick photography. In many respects, the Méliès can be regarded as the founders of the formalist tradition.
- Few films are exclusively formalist in style.
- Physical reality is the source of all the raw materials of film, both realistic and formalistic. All movie directors go to the photographable world for their subject matter, but what they do with this material and how they shape and manipulate it, is what determines their stylistic emphasis.
- Both realist and formalist film directors must select (and hence, emphasise) certain details from the chaotic sprawl of reality.
- Formalists deliberately stylize and distort their raw materials so that no one would mistake a manipulated image of an object or event for the real thing. The stylization calls attention to itself: It’s part of the show.
- Formalist movies are stylistically flamboyant. Their directors are concerned with expressing their subjective experience of reality, not how other people might see it. Formalists are often referred to as expressionists, because their self‑expression is as least as important as the subject matter itself. Expressionists are often concerned with spiritual and psychological truths, which they feel can be conveyed best by distorting the surface of the material world.
- The camera is used as a method of commenting on the subject matter, a way of emphasising its essential rather than its objective nature. Formalist movies have a high degree of manipulation, a stylization of reality.
- The formalist cinema, on the other hand, tends to emphasise technique and expressiveness. The most extreme example of this style of filmmaking is found in the avant-garde cinema. Some of these movies are totally abstract; pure forms (that is, non-representational colours, lines, and shapes).
- They have a personal quality suggesting the traditional domain of the avant-garde.
Raging Bull is based on actual events, the brief boxing career of the American middleweight champion of the 1940s, Jake La Motta. On the other hand the boxing matches in the film are stylized. In this photo, the badly bruised boxer resembles an agonized warrior, crucified against the ropes of the ring. The camera floats toward him in lyrical slow motion while the soft focus obliterates his consciousness of the arena. The images in the film are often photographed in dreamy slow motion, with crane shots, weird accompanying sound effects (like hissing sounds and jungle screams), staccato editing in both the pictures and the sound.
Showing it’s possible to present reality-based materials in an expressionistic style. |
- Formalist directors are not always concerned with the clearest image of an object, but with the image that best captures its essential nature.
- The realist wishes to make the audience forget that there’s a camera at all. The formalist is constantly calling attention to it.
- Formalists use light less literally.
- They are guided by its symbolic implications and will often stress these qualities by deliberately distorting natural light patterns.
- A face lighted from below almost always appears sinister, even if the actor assumes a totally neutral expression.
- Similarly, an obstruction placed in front of a light source can assume frightening implications, for it tends to threaten our sense of safety. On the other hand, in some contexts, especially in exterior shots, a silhouette effect can be soft and romantic.
- Formalist filmmakers often prefer lenses and filters that intensify given qualities and suppress others. Cloud formations, for example, can be exaggerated threateningly or softly diffused, depending on what kind of lens or filter is used.
- There are literally dozens of different lenses, but most of them are subsumed under three major categories: those in the standard (non-distorted) range, the telephoto lenses, and the wide angles.
- Most long lenses are in sharp focus on one distance plane only. Objects placed before or beyond that distance blur, go out of focus, an expressive technique, especially to formalist filmmakers.
The Maltese falcon
In this noir classic, detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) gets more than he bargained for when he takes a case brought to him by a beautiful but secretive woman (Mary Astor). As soon as Miss Wonderly shows up, trouble follows as Sam's partner is murdered and Sam is accosted by a man (Peter Lorre) demanding he locate a valuable statuette. Sam, entangled in a dangerous web of crime and intrigue, soon realizes he must find the one thing they all seem to want: the bejeweled Maltese falcon.
|
Why is 'The Maltese Falcon' formalist?
The Maltese Falcon is a formalist film, due to it exploiting the limitations of the medium, such as its two-dimensionality and its confining frame.