Film Studies Introduction - PowerPoint Presentation

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Slide1

Film Studies

IntroductionSlide2

Table of Contents

1. What is Realism and what is Formalism?

2. The

Lumiére

Brothers’

Workers Leaving the Factory

and George

Méliès

’

A Trip to the Moon

3. Realism vs. Formalism

4. Problems of Realism and FormalismSlide3

What is Realism?

1. Dictionary definition

(

a) ‘…

the style of art and literature in which everything is shown or described as it really is in life

.’

Longman American

Dictionary

(b)

‘ … paintings, films, books, etc., that try to represent life as it really is are in the artistic tradition of realism.’

Cambridge

International Dictionary of EnglishSlide4

What is Realism?

(c)

‘… the close resemblance to what is real; fidelity of representation, rendering the precise details of the real thing or scene.’

Oxford English Dictionary

(d)

‘a style of painting and sculpture that seeks to represent the familiar or typical in real life, rather than an idealized, formalized, or romantic interpretation of it’

Collins English DictionarySlide5

What is Realism?

1. Dictionary definition

(

a) ‘…

the style of art and literature in which everything is shown or described

as it really is in life

.’

Longman American

Dictionary

(b)

‘ … paintings, films, books, etc., that try to represent life

as it really is

are in the artistic tradition of realism.’

Cambridge

International Dictionary of EnglishSlide6

What is Realism?

(c)

‘… the

close resemblance to what is real

; fidelity of representation, rendering the precise details of the real thing or scene.’

Oxford English Dictionary

(d)

‘a style of painting and sculpture that seeks to represent

the familiar or typical in real life, rather than an idealized, formalized, or romantic interpretation of it

’

Collins English DictionarySlide7

Eric

Auerbach

on modern realism: some of the characteristics of modern realism are such as ‘addressing

daily life

, in its historical context, as the subject of

serious, problematic and even tragic presentation

’

Mimesis

(1946)Slide8

1

st Point:

Realist work needs to deal with,

as subject matters, the familiar or typical in daily life;

n

either the unfamiliar or atypical in daily life nor in life alien to us.Slide9

What is Realism?

1. Subjects

and

materials

(content)

-- the familiar or typical in our daily life

Superman

cartoon in the 1940s (Fleisher Studio)Slide10

Daily Life Familiar Contents

Frederick Wiseman’s

High School

(1968)

Ken Loach’s

It’s a Free World

(job hunting)Slide11

Daily Life Familiar Contents

Alan J.

Pakura’s

All the President’s Men

(Newspaper Office

Mike Leigh’s

All or Nothing

(Typical British home)Slide12

Daily Life Familiar Contents

Juzo

Itami’s

Supermarket Woman

(1996)

(Japanese super-

Market)

Hirokazu

Kore-eda’s

Nobody Knows

(2004)

(Tokyo

neighbourhood

)Slide13

What is Realism?

2

nd

point:

The way in which such a subject and material is represented (method) - non-idealized, non-formalized, un-romantic, and unembellished rendition of outward appearance as faithfully as possible.

--

MIMESIS

(Gk. the imitative representation of nature and human

behaviour

)

The representation of the familiar or typical in

mimetic manners in literature and visual arts.Slide14

Boxer of Quirinal

, Bronze copy of a Hellenistic Greek sculptureSlide15

a

DetailsSlide16

a

Old Greek Woman (C 400 BC)Slide17

Idealized beauty

Discus Thrower

Venus of MiloSlide18

Caravaggio,

Cardsharps

(c 1594-5)Slide19

Caravaggio,

Fortune-Teller

(c 1598-9)Slide20

a

Caravaggio,

The Inspiration of St. MatthewSlide21

Johannes Vermeer,

Young Woman with a Water Pitcher

(c 1664-5)Slide22

Johannes Vermeer,

Woman Reading a LetterSlide23

Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin,

Back to the Market

(1739)Slide24

Gustav Courbet,

Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet

(1854)Slide25

William Bliss

Barker’s

Fallen Monarchs

(1859)Slide26

Albert

Charpin’s

Woman with Lambs

(1920)Slide27

What is Formalism?

Definitions: Formalism in art

(a) the practice or the doctrine of

strict

adherence to prescribed or external forms

; or

marked attention to arrangement, style, or artistic means

(as in art, film or literature) usually with

corresponding de-emphasis of content

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary

(b) ‘a style or method in art, literature, music, etc., in which there is

more emphasis on obeying formal rules

than expressing meaning or emotion

Mc

Millan English DictionarySlide28

What is Formalism?

(c)

‘… scrupulous or excessive

adherence to outward form

at the expense of inner reality

’

Longman’s English Dictionary

(d) ‘distinguishing feature of art – the one that determines our interest in it – is

form

.

Encyclopedia Britannica Slide29

Jackson Pollock,

No. 5

(1948)Slide30

Joseph Albers,

Homage to Square

(1965)Slide31

Piet Mondrian,

Composition No. 10

(1939-42)Slide32

What is Formalism?

Definition in film studies

‘A

style of filmmaking in which

aesthetic forms take precedence

over the subject matter as content

. Time and space as ordinarily perceived are often distorted.

For

Formalism, film is an art because its properties are exploited to express

filmmakers’ own vision’Slide33

What is Formalism?

In order to present forms and external appearance of reality in impressive or aesthetic manners, a formalist filmmaker deliberately or intentionally alter and distort the way reality looks. Slide34

Lumière

’

s

Films

Workers Leaving the Factory

(1895)

Actualités

(actualities) - Recording an everyday

event with a stationary camera placed at eye level

without any editing

Sortie

de l

’

usine Lumier a LyonSlide35

Lumière

’

s Films

Arrival of a Train at the

Ciotat

Station

(

1895

)

- filmed record of the arrival of a train

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddkSlide36

Lumière’s

Films

Auguste

and Louis Lumière

Representation of the look of reality as it is commonly

perceived

Addressing daily life as subject mattersSlide37

Georges

Méliès

’

Films

A Trip to the Moon

(Le Voyage

dans

la

lune

, 1902)

A fantasy about rocket journey to the moon.

Adherence to film forms – special effects and surprising images

Ordinary time and space distortedSlide38

Georges

Méliès

’

Films

Georges

Méliès

A stage magician at Theatre Robert-

Houdin

turned filmmaker.

The first innovator in filmmaking.

The inventor of seminal film tricksSlide39

Georges

Méliès

’

Films

Visual tricks in cinema

Jump cut – a scene is cut in the middle of

action;

a scene begins in the middle of action

Double exposure – two images are

superimposed on the same piece of film

In editing two separate actions

are shown as if they were the same one.

Priority given to the display of (aesthetic) forms and visual effects over the representation faithful to reality. Expression of the filmmaker’s own vision disregarding what it may be in reality.Slide40

Realism vs. Formalism

Film realism - the

Lumière

tendencies

Recording reality without changing it

Film formalism - the

Méliès

tendencies

Recreating

and presenting forms

in impressive

or aesthetic manners,

altering or

re-interpreting freely those. Slide41

Lumiére-Melies Chart

(Realism) (Formalism)

LUMIERE

MELIES

The Blair Witch Project

Exorcist

Full Monty

The Gold Rush

Documentary

FantasySlide42

Realism / Lumière Tendencies

The Blair Witch Project

(1999) - a low-budget horror film made as if amateur documentary footage were pieced together. Three

students,

who is making a documentary film on a legend locally known as Blair

Witch, go

missing.Slide43

Realism / Lumière Tendencies

The

viewer is told that they were never found but one year later their camera and films were discovered. The viewer

is told that they watch

the

‘discovered’

footage.

The Blair Witch Project

Part 1

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6nkns_the-blair-witch-project-the-movie-p_shortfilmsSlide44

No fancy shot or no remarkable image, everything is presented in the way an amateur filmmaker or photographer shoots when he or she is making a school project. Film may not be realistic only in … Slide45

Film may not be realistic only where

the familiar or typical

in daily life is not shown

towards the end of the film.

Slide46

Formalism / Méliès Tendencies

The Exorcist

(1973) by William

Friedkin

Another kind of horror film

dealing with the demonic possession of a girl and her

mother

’

s

desperate attempt to win her back through exorcism conducted by two priests.

The Exorcist

Slide47

Obsessive a

dherence to forms and particularly presenting them in the way tha

t they shock the viewer. Most of things are fantastic or supernatural with time and space are greatly changed and distorted.Slide48

Realism / Lumière Tendencies

The Full

Monty

(1997) by Peter

Cattaneo

: a British comedy about six unemployed men trying to form a male striptease group to support themselves and their families. Slide49

Mostly showing Lumière tendencies but some parts

Méliès

tendencies: photography in a realist style and fancy narrativeSlide50

Formalism / Méliès Tendencies

Gold Rush

(1925) by Charlie Chaplin: a silent comedy about a trump going to the Yukon to take part in the Klondike Gold Rush but being stranded in a cabin by snow storm.

The Gold RushSlide51

Mostly formalist film with Chaplin’s fancy mime and impressive action, but realist elements are also included such as location shooting and real historical reference.Slide52

Problems of Film Realism

Film as representation of reality

What is filmed is not reality itself but its image

A person who appears on the screen is not herself but her image.

An object who can be seen on the screen is not itself but its image.Slide53

Problems of Film Realism

René Magritte

’

s painting of

Ceci

n

’

est

pas

une

pipe

(This is not a pipe)

The picture is not the

pipe

itself, though it is life-like, but its image.

Slide54

McLuhan and

Annie Hall

Real Marshall Mcluhan appears in Woody Allen

’

s

Annie Hall

In the film, he is only the image of Mcluhan and not himselfSlide55

Problems of Film Realism

A film re-presents objects and people

Or re-traces (an event); re-calls (an event); re-produce (reality), re-enact (an event/reality); re-

fer

to (an event / reality), re-build (reality); re-construct (reality): re-stage (reality / an event)

Film is realization in

‘second

-

time’;

thus actions are suffixed with

-re

; spatially

and temporally different from what it shows.Slide56

Problems of Film Formalism

Even

fantasy, fantastic images, and forms are constructed

on our perception of reality.

It is impossible to create a world totally detached from reality. Slide57

Problems of Film Formalism

Even a creature from Mars have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two arms, fingers, and two legs.Slide58

Coexistence and Interaction

Realism and formalism coexist and interact

Every film is constructed by a dialectic process of film realism and film formalism: of mimicking and changing realitySlide59

Blade Runner

Ridley Scott

’

s SF film,

Blade Runner

was inspired by futuristic or postmodern city- scape of OsakaSlide60

Blade Runner