READING THE MOVIES: FOURTH NINE-WEEKS TEST WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

Transcription

1 READING THE MOVIES: FOURTH NINE-WEEKS TEST WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: I. THEORY + Explain the difference between realism and formalism: be as thorough & specific as possible + Explain what we mean by classical cinema + Explain montage theory + Explain auteur theory + Explain the three act structure: give examples of this in movies you ve seen II. THE DETECTIVE GENRE & FILM NOIR + What are the characteristics of the detective film? + What are the characteristics of film noir? III. FILMS OF THE SEVENTIES + What are the characteristics of 1970s films? + How does Dog Day Afternoon reflect these characteristics Each of these handouts is attached to this document.

2 READING THE MOVIES: FILM AS LITERATURE & ART FILM THEORY BASICS I. REALISM VS. FORMALISM Historically, film makers as well as film critics have typically fallen into one of these two camps: realists emphasize film s ability to record reality, while formalists emphasize the ways in which the very nature of film creatively distorts reality. In the early development of film as a medium, both realists and formalists argued that film should be considered an art form, but they made their cases from opposite points of view. For realists, film is art because it has the unique power to perfectly capture lived experience; for formalists, film is art because it has the unique power to manipulate experience for the sake of art. For a realist, film is best when it perfectly captures reality; for a formalist, film is best when it most fully reflects a filmmaker s unique vision. REALISM Film is defined by its ability to perfectly imitate our normal visual experience of reality (Buckland). This ability to faithfully record reality is what makes film an art. FORMALISM Film is defined by its inability to perfectly imitate normal visual experience of reality. Ironically, formalists believe that film s limitations are what make film art: The limitations of film offer the film maker the opportunity to manipulate and distort our everyday experience of reality for artistic ends (Buckland) Film records reality Film records the filmmaker s vision Emphasis on the filmed event Emphasis on the filmmaking process Emphasis on content Emphasis on style Early pioneers: Lumiére Brothers: Their short films ( Workers Leaving the Factory, Arrival of a Train, Baby s Meal ) documented real scenes of life. Remember, their term for their short films was actualities a term representing these films goal of recording actuality (truth/reality) Early pioneers: Georges Meliés: His trick photography and outlandish, elaborate sets (in Le Voyage dans la Lune and other works) emphasize film s ability to distort reality and convey a filmmaker s creative vision Sergei Eisenstein: His montage theory relied on symbolism, editing, and a kind of visual poetry to convey meaning (more on this below) The camera is a recording mechanism; the filmed world is presented to us as unfiltered reality; reality is objective; the artist (filmmaker) is invisible The camera is exploited for its ability to manipulate visual experience; the audience is conscious of the camera s work; reality is subjective; the artist (filmmaker) is a constant presence in the film. Common film techniques: Long takes; deep focus photography; medium shots; eye level shots Common film techniques: Editing; montage; low angles; high angles; fast and slow motion; etc.

3 Realism, Formalism, and Classical Cinema: Most Hollywood films fall into the tradition of classical cinema, combining elements of realism and formalism. Classical filmmakers want audiences to become absorbed by the storytelling without being distracted by filmmaking techniques. Classical cinema is story oriented, and the visual style rarely calls attention to itself. Think of the difference between Frank Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes To Town) and Orson Welles (Citizen Kane). The classical Deeds is only slightly, subtly stylized in its visual representation of events; except for a few key scenes (such as when Deeds is portrayed in silhouette, symbolically reflecting the darkness of his lowest moment), the audience is not aware of the camera work. Alternatively, the audience is constantly aware of Welles s presence as director in the formalist Citizen Kane: low angle shots, dramatic lighting and shadows, montage sequences, and even the nonlinear presentation of events all demonstrate the artistry and vision of the filmmaker. In Deeds, Capra is interested in telling a good story; in Kane, Welles is interested in showing us the full potential of cinematic art, almost as if saying Look what I can do! II. MONTAGE THEORY Sergei Eisenstein was one of the first formalist thinkers in film, as suggested by his influential montage theory. Remember the staircase scene from The Battleship Potemkin: while a realist would likely show the whole scene in a few long takes, probably filmed from a medium or long shot to capture as much action as possible, Eisenstein creates a more emotional experience by juxtaposing a series of shots against each other in rapid cuts (the wheels of a baby carriage, marching boots, a woman s screaming face, a statue, etc.). We infer the narrative, derive symbolic meaning, and experience an emotional response from the creative juxtaposition of disconnected images. The editing itself creates the connections narratively, symbolically, and emotionally between the images. Eisenstein compared montage in film to the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Each hieroglyph is the representation of a distinct concrete object; by placing the images of different objects next to each other, the artist could create a new association and a new meaning altogether: According to Eisenstein, The combination of two representable objects achieves the representation of something that cannot be graphically represented. For example: the representation of water and of an eye signifies to weep. But this is montage!! III. AUTEUR THEORY Articulated by French critics in the late 1950s, and then picked up by British and American critics, the auteur theory has come to dominate our understandings of the director s role. Auteur critics argue that the director is the author or principal artist in the making of a film. Although filmmaking is a collaborative art, according to the auteur critics the final product reflects the director s unique vision a vision that can be seen throughout the entire body of his or her work. According to this theory, some directors are mere technicians, but the best directors the auteurs each have a unique consistency of style and theme. Here s a summary by Louis Gianetti: Truffaut, Godard, and their critical colleagues proposed that the greatest movies are dominated by the personal vision of the director. A filmmaker s signature can be perceived through an examination of his or her total output, which is characterized b a unity of theme and style. The writer s contribution is less important than the director s because subject matter is artistically neutral. It can be treated with brilliance or bare competence. Movies ought to be judged on the basis of how, not what. Like other formalists, the auteur critics claimed that what makes a good film is not the subject matter as such, but its stylistic treatment. One of the heroes of the auteur movement was Alfred Hitchcock, whose movies always bore their director s unique stamp; moreover, these critics argued, Hitchcock s films often managed to transcend the conventions and clichés of genre, the sometimes subpar source material or scripts, and the restrictions enforced by Hollywood studios. Today we still know what we mean when we say a Tim Burton movie, a Woody Allen movie, a Hitchcock movie, a Wes Anderson movie, a Spike Lee movie, or a Sophia Coppola movie ; this sort of labeling demonstrates the ongoing influence of the auteur theory when it comes to thinking about film. Sources: Warren Buckland, Film Studies. London: Hodder and Stoughton, Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall, 1999.

4 IV. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE IN FILM: THE CLASSICAL PARADIGM Theorists have traditionally defined narrative structure by three stages: + In The Poetics, his landmark analysis of poetry and drama, Aristotle argued that every drama consists of three parts a beginning, middle, and end and today critics and scholars still most commonly define narrative structure in three parts. + In the 19 th century, Gustav Freytag described dramatic structure as a kind of triangle: the exposition establishes a conflict, and that conflict is intensified through the rising action of the story. The conflict reaches its highest point at the climax; in the resolution or falling action, the story moves to its closure. This model is called the classical paradigm; you may have analyzed Shakespeare s tragedies according to this model. + More recently, Tzvetan Todorov has described the stages of a narrative this way: + first, a state of equilibrium + next, the disruption of that equilibrium + finally, the successful attempt to restore equilibrium We can characterize the middle part of the narrative as the narrative s liminal (or transitional) period, which means that it tweaks place outside of established (or normal ) social events. The liminal period of a narrative therefore depicts transgressive events, whereas the initial and final equilibrium stages of the narrative represent social normality. (Buckland 32) Todorov notes that the final equilibrium is not identical to the opening equilibrium: the story requires a transformation. If at the end of the story things have returned to normal for our hero, it s not quite an identical normal : something has changed, perhaps inside the hero. + Syd Field, author of several influential guides to screenwriting, has famously divided the classical movie into three acts : Setup, Confrontation, and Resolution. Louis Gianetti summarizes the three acts: Act I, Setup, occupies the first quarter of the script. It establishes the dramatic premise: What is the main character s goal and what obstacles are likely to get in the way of its attainment? Act II, Confrontation, consists of the middle two quarters of the story, with a major reversal of fortune at the midpoint. This portion of the screenplay complicates the conflict with plot twists and an increasing sense of urgency showing the main character fighting against obstacles. Act III, Resolution, constitutes the final quarter of the story. This section dramatizes what happens as a result of the climactic confrontation. (Gianetti 334) Hollywood has relied on the classical paradigm since the beginning of narrative film, and it is still rare that a Hollywood deviates widely from the model. Certainly there are notable exceptions: in Psycho, Hitchcock switches protagonists on us, thereby challenging our assumptions about narrative. In Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino manipulates our experience of time by revealing the action to us in a nonlinear sequence.

5 THE MOVIES OF THE SEVENTIES CORE QUESTIONS: WHY DO MANY CRITICS, HISTORIANS, AND FANS REVERE THE 1970s AS A CREATIVE HIGH POINT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN FILM? WHAT ARE THE DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FILMS OF THE SEVENTIES? WHY DID THIS MOMENT OF WIDESPREAD COMMERCIAL CREATIVITY PASS, AND WHAT IS THE LASTING INFLUENCE OF 1970s CINEMA? KEY THEMES OF 1970s HOLLYWOOD: THE RISE OF NEW HOLLYWOOD : AN ERA OF YOUNG (MALE) FILMMAKERS INFLUENCED BY 1960s COUNTERCULTURE, FILM SCHOOL EDUCATION, & 1960s EUROPEAN FILMMAKERS EXPERIMENTATION, YOUTH, ART & AUTEUR-ISM, GRITTY REALSIM, DISILLUSIONMENT, CYNICISM, PARANOIA, ANTI-AUTHORITARIANISM THE CULTURAL CLIMATE: Across the country: + In many ways, by the 1970s the counterculture movement of the 60s had become mainstream: youth culture, civil rights victories, rock and roll, hippie culture, drug culture, new attitudes towards sex, and shifting gender roles all had become part of the fabric of American life. + At the same time, much of the earlier idealism of the 1960s counterculture had turned towards disillusionment and cynicism. +One by one, the previous decade saw the murder of central figures in the move toward change: John F. Kennedy (1963), Malcolm X (1965), Martin Luther King (1968), Bobby Kennedy (1968). + As the 1960s shifted into the 1970s, pop cultural icons were killed by the rock-and-roll and drug lifestyles popularized in the previous decade: Jimi Hendrix (1970), Janis Joplin (1970), and Jim Morrison (1971) died of highly publicized drug overdoses. + In early 1969, the Woodstock music festival represented to many the culmination of the 1960s countercultural spirit, a celebration of freedom, peace, and music (and also sex and drugs). In late 1969, the Rolling Stones gave a disastrous free concert at the Altamont Speedway in Altamont, California, during which a fan was stabbed to death by a member of the Hells Angels, the motorcycle gang the Stones had hired as security. A distinct counterpoint to Woodstock, Altamont became a metaphor for the end of the 60s and what that decade stood for, ushering in in its place an era of disillusionment and dreams deferred. + The 70s were a period of widespread disillusionment with the United States government and other forms of authority. The Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal along with such tragedies as the Kent State shootings had all drastically undermined ordinary Americans faith in their own government. Americans were increasingly weary, jaded, and angry. In Hollywood: + In general, Hollywood reflected the country s loosening up of social mores. And, with the Hays Code phased out by the end of the 60s, the movies themselves could for the first time engage explicit language, sexuality, and violence to an unprecedented degree. + From the beginning of Hollywood until the late 1960s, movies and actors, and directors had been tightly controlled by a handful of movie studios; by the end of the 60s, this system ( The Studio System ) had collapsed

6 leaving the motion picture industry in financial distress but opening the door for a new era of experimentation and creativity. + Foreign filmmakers particularly French and Italian filmmakers had, in the 60s, ushered in a New Wave of filmmaking, experimenting with story structure and cinematic technique, approaching filmmaking as an art form and articulating the auteur theory of cinema. Inspired by these trends, a new wave of young American filmmakers began to experiment with the medium. + The 1970s also saw the first generation of directors trained in film school: these young, intellectual directors were trained in the full history, technique, and theory of the cinema, and they self-consciously sought to engage with the tradition of film as an art form they loved and respected. + Besides their academic training, a number of these young directors had gained their first experience assisting with low-budget, B-grade films often cheap, schlocky, horror films so they were well schooled in the sort of creativity and improvisation needed for working with the lowest of budgets. + The early 1970s also saw the first major films directed by and starring African Americans, typically in gritty crime dramas. Although the often low-budget Blaxploitation genre relied increasingly on stereotypes, the films presented the first depictions of blacks on screen as powerful, independent individuals. KEY DIRECTORS: These filmmakers perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the 70s: their films may be intensely personal, experimental, dark, countercultural, cynical, or even paranoid; all (including the comedian, Woody Allen) are consciously artistic and auteur-ish. Please note that most of these filmmakers had successful careers beyond the 70s, though their careers will always be defined above all by the movies they made in this decade. FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: The Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974), The Godfather, Part II (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979) ROBERT ALTMAN: M*A*S*H (1970), Nashville (1975) MARTIN SCORCESE: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976) WOODY ALLEN: Bananas (1971), Sleeper (1973), Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979) ROMAN POLANSKI: Rosemary s Baby (1969), Chinatown (1974) PETER BOGDONAVICH: The Last Picture Show (1971), Paper Moon (1973) SIDNEY LUMET: Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) OTHER REPRESENTATIVE FILMS: The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971), Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971), All the President s Men (Alan Pakula, 1976), The China Syndrome (James Bridges, 1979) IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS / 1960s FORESHADOWINGS: Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967), The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrik, 1968), Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969), The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969), Putney Swope (Robert Downey, Sr., 1969) RUMBLINGS OF THINGS TO COME / THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF AN ERA / THE BIRTH OF THE BLOCKBUSTER: Jaws (Steven Speilberg, 1975) Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) A PARALLEL (SORT OF) DECADE: THE 1940s: As a decade, only the films of the 1940s approach the grittiness and cynicism of the 70s films: the 40s saw the rise of film noir, a tradition marked by darkness (literal, moral, psychological), grittiness, crime, cynicism, and a suffocating sense of paranoia. All of these themes would find new expression in the 1970s.

7 THE DETECTIVE MOVIE TYPICAL ASPECTS OF THE DETECTIVE MOVIE FILM: SETTING + American big city usually San Francisco or Los Angeles in the 1940s or 1950s CHARACTERS + Hardboiled detective: a private investigator ( private eye or private dick ) who is isolated, self-reliant, and streetwise. A decent man in a corrupt world, often idealist beneath a façade of cynicism. The detective is tough, fast-talking, and fundamentally alone. + Femme fatale: the dangerous woman, beautiful and seductive often a love interest of the detective but also deeply implicated in the crime. She can t be trusted. + Others may include gangsters, crooks, hired killers, policemen, bartenders, wisecracking office girls, victims. PLOT + Often a double-mystery structure: an introductory mystery that s solved quickly leads to a darker, more important and complex mystery that the detective pursues because of his own need to know. (He s often called off the case but continues to investigate anyway.) + Often told in flashbacks with voice-over narration. Flashbacks may present events to the viewer (and detective) out of sequence, confusing the time order. +Movie is seen through the narrator s point of view, often narrated by the narrator or otherwise seeing only what he sees. + Complicated storyline

8 ICONOGRAPHY + Guns (especially handguns); fedoras (widebrimmed hats); black automobiles; shabby offices (single desk, ceiling or oscillating fan, filing cabinet, venetian blinds); cigarettes, ash trays, and smoke; glasses and decanters of hard liquor + Images of dark city streets, alleyways, and wharves; urban violence MOOD + Dark, pessimistic, oppressive, threatening, cynical, corrupt, bleak, violent + Life is fleeting, momentary, subjective; truth is not out there to be found + American life is dark, corrupt, threatening, and bleak + Good and evil are not absolute but are ambiguous CINEMATIC STYLE + Closed-in, dark, claustrophobic: low-angle shots of interiors, exaggerated angles. Heavy shadows: high contrast between light and dark. The darker of detective movies often have film noir characteristics. Cinematic style reflects the mood (see above). NOTE: WHAT IS FILM NOIR? The term film noir (literally black or dark film ) gained popularity among French critics in 1940s, to define a sensibility in American filmmaking in the wake of World War II. Film noir is not so much a genre as a style of filmmaking, and its stylistic and thematic elements may appear in a range of movie genres, including gangster and detective films. Film noir developed and reached its heyday in the 1940s and 50s, and its conventions and overall mood reflect the disillusionment, cynicism, alienation, and paranoia felt by many Americans after World War II. Morally ambiguous heroes (whether gangsters, detectives, or drifters, many of them returned veterans) attempt to navigate, as best they can, a world/america which itself seems to have no clear moral order. Heroes are individuals to the point of alienation. A sort of existentialist despair hangs over the film noir universe: women and men are simultaneously lovers and enemies, law and politics are corrupt or ineffectual, truth is evasive or nonexistent, and even solved mysteries do not constitute happy endings. For all this bleakness, there is a sort of cool to these films, their heroes, their snapping dialogue, and their stark visuals, and this cool doubtlessly contributes to the style s ongoing popularity.

9 The highly stylized look of film noir reflects absolutely the mood of the film: dark, claustrophobic, bleak, and oppressive. Most notable is the high contrast between dark and light; heavy shadows abound. Low angle shots and other dramatic or exaggerated camera angles create both a visually striking design and a sense of entrapment. Film noir sets the streets, alleys, rundown offices, greasy diners, sleazy bars, dingy apartments, and smoky backrooms and film noir iconography handguns, fast cars, trench coats, cigarettes and smoke all reflect a violent urban landscape that seems to always be soaked in the darkness of night. Film noir cinematography often reflects the influence of German expressionist filmmakers.