Presentations text content in Film Studies Introduction
Slide1
Film Studies
Introduction
Slide2Table 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 Formalism
Slide3What 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 English
Slide4What 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 Dictionary
Slide5What 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 English
Slide6What 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 Dictionary
Slide7Eric
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)
Slide81
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.
Slide9What is Realism?
1. Subjects
and
materials
(content)
-- the familiar or typical in our daily life
Superman
cartoon in the 1940s (Fleisher Studio)
Slide10Daily Life Familiar Contents
Frederick Wiseman’s
High School
(1968)
Ken Loach’s
It’s a Free World
(job hunting)
Slide11Daily Life Familiar Contents
Alan J.
Pakura’s
All the President’s Men
(Newspaper Office
Mike Leigh’s
All or Nothing
(Typical British home)
Slide12Daily Life Familiar Contents
Juzo
Itami’s
Supermarket Woman
(1996)
(Japanese super-
Market)
Hirokazu
Kore-eda’s
Nobody Knows
(2004)
(Tokyo
neighbourhood
)
Slide13What 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.
Slide14Boxer of Quirinal
, Bronze copy of a Hellenistic Greek sculpture
Slide15a
Details
Slide16a
Old Greek Woman (C 400 BC)
Slide17Idealized beauty
Discus Thrower
Venus of Milo
Slide18Caravaggio,
Cardsharps
(c 1594-5)
Slide19Caravaggio,
Fortune-Teller
(c 1598-9)
Slide20a
Caravaggio,
The Inspiration of St. Matthew
Slide21Johannes Vermeer,
Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
(c 1664-5)
Slide22Johannes Vermeer,
Woman Reading a Letter
Slide23Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin,
Back to the Market
(1739)
Slide24Gustav Courbet,
Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet
(1854)
Slide25William Bliss
Barker’s
Fallen Monarchs
(1859)
Slide26Albert
Charpin’s
Woman with Lambs
(1920)
Slide27What 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 Dictionary
Slide28What 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
Slide29Jackson Pollock,
No. 5
(1948)
Slide30Joseph Albers,
Homage to Square
(1965)
Slide31Piet Mondrian,
Composition No. 10
(1939-42)
Slide32What 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’
Slide33What 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.
Slide34Lumière
’
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 Lyon
Slide35Lumière
’
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=1dgLEDdFddk
Slide36Lumière’s
Films
Auguste
and Louis Lumière
Representation of the look of reality as it is commonly
perceived
Addressing daily life as subject matters
Slide37Georges
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 distorted
Slide38Georges
Méliès
’
Films
Georges
Méliès
A stage magician at Theatre Robert-
Houdin
turned filmmaker.
The first innovator in filmmaking.
The inventor of seminal film tricks
Slide39Georges
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.
Slide40Realism 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.
Slide41Lumiére-Melies Chart
(Realism) (Formalism)
LUMIERE
MELIES
The Blair Witch Project
Exorcist
Full Monty
The Gold Rush
Documentary
Fantasy
Slide42Realism / 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.
Slide43Realism / 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_shortfilms
Slide44No 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 …
Slide45Film 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.
Slide48Realism / 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.
Slide49Mostly showing Lumière tendencies but some parts
Méliès
tendencies: photography in a realist style and fancy narrative
Slide50Formalism / 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 Rush
Slide51Mostly formalist film with Chaplin’s fancy mime and impressive action, but realist elements are also included such as location shooting and real historical reference.
Slide52Problems 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.
Slide53Problems 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 himself
Slide55Problems 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.
Slide56Problems 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.
Slide57Problems of Film Formalism
Even a creature from Mars have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two arms, fingers, and two legs.
Slide58Coexistence 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 reality
Slide59Blade Runner
Ridley Scott
’
s SF film,
Blade Runner
was inspired by futuristic or postmodern city- scape of Osaka
Slide60Blade Runner
Film Studies Introduction
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