Film : A Critical Introduction

by Pramaggiore, Maria T.; Wallis, Tom

• ISBN13: 9780205433483
• ISBN10: 0205433480
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-01
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon

Summary

Film: A Critical Introductionprovides a comprehensive framework for studying films, with an emphasis on writing as a means of exploring filmrs"s aesthetic and cultural significance. This textrs"s consistent and comprehensive focus on writing allows students to master film vocabulary and concepts while learning to formulate rich interpretations. Part I introduces readers to the importance of film analysis, offering helpful strategies for discerning the way films produce meaning. Part II examines the fundamental elements of film, including narrative form, mise en scegrave;ne, cinematography, editing, and sound, and shows how these concepts can be used to interpret films. Part III moves beyond textual analysis to explore film as a cultural institution and introduce students to essential areas of film studies research.

Author Biography

Maria Pramaggiore is a Professor of Film Studies at North Carolina State University Tom Wallis is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at North Carolina State University

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xii
Picture Credits	p. xv
Introduction to Film Analysis	p. 1
Introduction	p. 3
Cinema: A Confluence of Artistry, Industry, and Technology	p. 4
How This Book Is Organized	p. 6
Technical Tips	p. 8
An Approach to Film Analysis	p. 9
Understanding Audience Expectations	p. 10
Expectations and Modes of Organization	p. 11
Expectations about Genres, Stars, and Directors	p. 13
The Orchestration of Detail	p. 15
Motifs	p. 15
Parallels	p. 16
Details and Structure	p. 19
Parallels in Openings and Closings	p. 19
Structure and Turning Points	p. 19
Repetition and Non-chronological Structure	p. 20
Creating Meaning Through the World Beyond Film	p. 21
Historical Events and Cultural Attitudes	p. 21
Stars as References	p. 22
Public Figures and Celebrities as References	p. 23
Intertextual References	p. 23
Avant-garde and Documentary References	p. 25
Meaningful References with Objects	p. 25
The Goal of Film Analysis: Articulating Meaning	p. 26
The Importance of Developing Interpretive Claims	p. 30
Summary	p. 30
Film Analysis: Reading Significant Details	p. 31
Historical References in Devil in a Blue Dress	p. 31
Writing About Film	p. 33
Getting Started	p. 34
Keeping a Film Journal	p. 34
Formulating a Thesis	p. 35
Four Types of Writing About Film	p. 35
The Scene Analysis Paper	p. 35
"The Divided Human Spirit in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat"	p. 36
The Film Analysis	p. 39
The Anxieties of Modernity in Steamboat Bill Jr.	p. 39
The Research Paper	p. 43
The Evolution of an Idea: The Changing Hollywood Aesthetic in The Conversation and Enemy of the State	p. 45
Works Cited (in the research paper)	p. 51
Conducting Archival Research	p. 52
The Popular Review	p. 53
Film Analysis	p. 59
Narrative Form	p. 61
Defining Narrative	p. 62
Framing the Fictional World: Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Elements	p. 63
Within the Diegesis: Selecting and Organizing Events	p. 65
Narrative Structure	p. 68
Techniques in Practice: Narrative Structure in Stagecoach	p. 70
Alternatives to Conventional Narrative Structure	p. 72
Variations on Narrative Conventions: Beyond Structure	p. 75
Perspective and Meaning	p. 76
Character Subjectivity	p. 79
Techniques in Practice: Noticing Shifts in Perspective	p. 81
Summary	p. 83
Film Analysis: Analyzing Narrative Structure	p. 84
The Narrative Complexity of Rashomon	p. 84
Mise en Scene	p. 87
Setting	p. 89
Describing Setting: Visual and Spatial Attributes	p. 91
The Functions of Setting	p. 92
Techniques in Practice: Same Film, Different Settings	p. 93
Techniques in Practice: Same Setting, Different Film	p. 94
The Human Figure	p. 97
Casting	p. 97
Acting Style	p. 98
Acting Brechtian: Distancing the Audience	p. 99
Actors' Bodies: Figure Placement	p. 100
Techniques in Practice: Figure Placement in Citizen Kane	p. 100
Actors' Bodies: Costumes and Props	p. 102
Actors' Bodies: Makeup	p. 104
Techniques in Practice: Physicality in Raging Bull and Ali	p. 106
Lighting	p. 107
Composition	p. 112
Balance and Symmetry	p. 112
Lines and Diagonals	p. 113
Framing	p. 115
Foreground and Background	p. 116
Light and Dark	p. 116
Color	p. 116
Two Approaches to Mise en Scene	p. 119
The Frame in Two Dimensions: Mise en Scene in German Expressionism	p. 119
Combining Mise en Scene and Camerawork: The Frame in Three Dimensions in French Poetic Realism	p. 121
Summary	p. 124
Film Analysis: The Functions of Space	p. 124
Spatial Oppositions in Thelma and Louise	p. 124
Cinematography	p. 129
Camerawork: The Camera in Time and Space	p. 134
Creating Meaning in Time: The Shot	p. 134
Altering Time: Slow and Fast Motion	p. 137
The Camera and Space: Height, Angle, and Shot Distance	p. 139
Camera Height	p. 140
Camera Angle	p. 140
Camera Distance	p. 143
Camera Movement: Exploring Space	p. 146
Horizontal and Vertical Movement	p. 146
Movement in Three Dimensions	p. 147
Techniques in Practice: Patterns of Camera Placement and Movement	p. 150
Lenses and Filters: The Frame in Depth	p. 151
The Visual Characteristics of Lenses: Depth of Field and Focal Length	p. 152
The Zoom Lens	p. 155
Combining Camera Movement and Lens Movement	p. 156
Through the Lens: Filters and Diffusers	p. 157
Techniques in Practice: Lenses and the Creation of Space	p. 159
Film Stock	p. 164
Characteristics of Film Stock	p. 164
Light and Exposure	p. 165
Film Stock and Color	p. 166
Wide Film and Widescreen Formats	p. 170
Processing Film Stock	p. 171
Special Visual Effects	p. 173
Manipulating the Image on the Set	p. 174
Creating Scene Transitions, Titles, and Credits: The Optical Printer	p. 177
Optical and Digital Compositing: Assembling the Elements of the Shot	p. 178
Computer-Generated Images	p. 179
Adding and Subtracting Frames	p. 180
Digital Cinema: Post-Production	p. 180
Digital Cinematography and Film Style	p. 182
Summary	p. 183
Film Analysis: Cinematography in Documentary Films	p. 184
Cinematography in Two Documentaries	p. 184
Editing	p. 191
The Attributes of Editing: Creating Meaning Through Collage, Tempo, and Timing	p. 193
Joining Images: A Collage of Graphic Qualities	p. 193
Tempo	p. 196
Shot Length	p. 196
Shot Transitions	p. 197
Adjusting the Timing of Shot Transitions	p. 199
Techniques in Practice: Using Contrasting Imagery and Timing to Romanticize the Outlaws in Bonnie and Clyde	p. 201
Story-Centered Editing and the Construction of Meaning	p. 203
Editing and Time	p. 203
Condensing and Expanding Time	p. 203
Suggesting the Simultaneity of Events	p. 205
Arranging the Order of Events	p. 206
Editing and Space	p. 207
Shot/Reverse Shot	p. 208
Eyeline Match	p. 210
Cutting to Emphasize Group Dynamics	p. 211
Cutaways	p. 212
Beyond Narrative: Creating Meaning Outside the Story	p. 212
Continuity Editing: Conventional Patterns and "Bending the Rules"	p. 213
Continuity and Space	p. 213
Continuity and Chronology	p. 215
"Breaking the Rules": The French New Wave and its Influence	p. 217
Associational Editing: Editing and Metaphor	p. 221
Soviet Montage	p. 221
Techniques in Practice: Soviet Montage Aesthetics in The Godfather	p. 226
Summary	p. 228
Film Analysis: Classical Editing	p. 228
Editing in Notorious	p. 229
Sound	p. 233
Film Sound: A Brief History	p. 234
Critical Debates over Film Sound	p. 236
Freeing Sound from Image	p. 239
The Relationship Between Sound and Image	p. 241
Emphasizing the Contrast Between Onscreen and Offscreen Space	p. 242
Emphasizing the Difference Between Objective Images and Subjective Sounds	p. 242
Emphasizing the Difference Between Diegetic Details and Non-diegetic Sound	p. 243
Emphasizing the Difference Between Image Time and Sound Time	p. 244
Emphasizing Differences in Image Mood and Sound Mood	p. 245
Three Components of Film Sound	p. 245
Dialogue	p. 246
Text and Subtext	p. 246
Volume	p. 247
Pitch	p. 248
Speech Characteristics	p. 248
Acoustic Qualities	p. 250
Addressing the Audience: the Voice-Over	p. 252
Sound Effects	p. 253
Functions of Sound Effects	p. 254
Characteristics of Sound Effects	p. 256
Techniques in Practice: Sound Effects and the Construction of Class in Days of Heaven	p. 259
Music	p. 260
Functions of Film Music	p. 261
Five Characteristics of Film Music	p. 264
Techniques in Practice: Bernard Herrmann's Score and Travis Bickle's Troubled Masculinity in Taxi Driver	p. 271
Summary	p. 273
Film Analysis: Sound and Language	p. 274
Language, Nationality, and Class in The Grand Illusion	p. 275
Alternatives to Narrative Fiction Film: Documentary and Avant-garde Films	p. 279
Three Modes of Filmmaking: A Comparison	p. 280
Documentary Film: "The Creative Treatment of Actuality"	p. 283
Narrative Documentaries	p. 285
Documentary Form	p. 286
Voice of Authority	p. 287
Talking Heads and Director-Participant	p. 287
Direct Cinema	p. 289
Self-reflexive Documentary	p. 290
The Mockumentary	p. 291
Ethics and Ethnography	p. 291
Avant-garde Film	p. 293
Surrealist Cinema	p. 294
Abstract Film	p. 296
Techniques in Practice: Interpreting Abstract Films	p. 297
The City Symphony	p. 298
Structuralist Film	p. 301
The Compilation Film	p. 301
Conducting Research on Documentary and Avant-garde Films: Locating Sources	p. 302
Summary	p. 303
Film Analysis: Interpreting Avant-garde Films	p. 304
Analyzing Meshes of the Afternoon	p. 304
Cinema and Culture	p. 308
Social Context and Film Style	p. 311
Hollywood's Industrial Context: The Studio System as Dream Factory	p. 312
Classical Style	p. 312
Economic Practice and Hollywood Convention	p. 314
Censorship and Hollywood Convention	p. 315
American Ideology and Entertainment	p. 317
Reaffirming or Resisting Dominant Ideology	p. 318
International Art Cinema	p. 321
The Ideology of "Art"	p. 323
Italian Neorealism	p. 325
Third Cinema	p. 327
Film and Ideology	p. 331
Ideology and Film Analysis	p. 333
Ideology and Film Spectatorship	p. 335
Anti-Communist Witch Hunts and Hollywood Cinema	p. 337
Racial Ideology and American Cinema	p. 339
Gender and Cinema	p. 343
Sexuality and Cinema	p. 346
Disability and Cinema	p. 348
Film Stardom as a Cultural Phenomenon	p. 355
Stars and the Movie Industry	p. 358
The Dynamics of Performance	p. 359
The Star Persona	p. 361
Stardom and Ideology	p. 366
Stars and Subcultures	p. 368
Fan Culture	p. 371
Genre	p. 373
What Makes a Genre?	p. 374
Major American Genres	p. 379
The Western	p. 379
Film Noir and the Hard-boiled Detective Film	p. 382
The Action Film	p. 383
The Science Fiction Film	p. 386
The Musical	p. 389
Genre, Film Production, and Audiences	p. 391
Genre Film and Aesthetic Appeal: Cliche or Strategic Repetition?	p. 392
Genre and the Status Quo	p. 393
Genres as Culturally Responsive Artifacts	p. 393
Genre and Film Authorship	p. 394
Film Authorship	p. 397
The Idea of the Auteur: From Cahiers du Cinema to the Sarris-Kael Debate	p. 398
Auteur as Marketing Strategy: Old and New Hollywood	p. 401
Studio-era Auteurs: Welles and Hitchcock	p. 402
Blockbuster Auteurs: Spielberg and Lucas	p. 405
Using the Auteur Approach to Interpret and Evaluate Films	p. 406
Readings in Auteur Criticism	p. 407
Ousmane Sembene	p. 407
Kathryn Bigelow	p. 408
Ang Lee	p. 409
Wong Kar Wai	p. 411
Jafar Panahi	p. 412
Cinema as Industry: Economics and Technology	p. 415
The Changing Structure of the Film Industry	p. 416
From Oligopolies to Conglomerates	p. 416
Horizontal Integration and Synergy	p. 418
Globalization	p. 418
Industry Labor Practices	p. 419
Outsourcing	p. 419
Runaway Productions	p. 420
Creative Centralization	p. 420
Films as Products	p. 421
The Blockbuster	p. 421
The High Concept Film	p. 422
Saturation Marketing	p. 422
Independent Film Culture	p. 423
Two Independent Institutions: Sundance and Miramax	p. 424
Film and the New Technology	p. 425
The Rise of the DVD	p. 426
Film and Digital Technologies	p. 427
Glossary	p. 432
Bibliography	p. 439
Index	p. 444
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