Film Review - Seminole Cinema: SEHS Film



IB Film: Week 5.1Film Theory, Take 1: FormalismFilm TheoryWatch the video below for an introduction to Formalism. ReviewFormalismOne of the first?theoretical?approaches to film is formalism.?Formalism is a film theory that states a film can be understood by looking at the individual elements that make it up -?camerawork and lighting, the use of color, a particular style of set building and design, etc.This is the idea that a film's significance and meaning is created by the interactions of all the different elements of filmmaking.?Formalism?considers all the multiple elements of film production and the emotional and intellectual effects they have on the?audience.One problem students sometimes have is that most of the writing about film they have ever read was in the format of a?film review.Implicit in the idea of a?review?is a writer explaining to his readers why they should see a film or avoid it. In the simplest possible terms, was it a good film or a bad film.For this reason, often, students taking a Film course think that all writing about film is an exercise in explaining their opinion about why a film is good or bad.In short, rather than writing about the film's qualities or the filmmaking technique, the student expects to be writing about their values in regard to the film. Did you like the film?This is a serious misunderstanding about what is important when you study a film.?Think about this.?Citizen Kane?is cited on many lists of the '10 greatest films ever made'?and is ranked number 1?on the American Film Institute's list?of the best American movies (the American Film Institute is made up of film professionals and film critics).You might not like?Citizen Kane, you might even be bored watching it ( hopefully not ), and there is nothing wrong if you?feel?that way.However, if you are seriously planning to learn about film, then what you really want to understand is?why, for decades now, famous directors and cinematographers worldwide, the film critics and professionals in the American Film Institute, and many knowledgeable moviegoers, rank?Citizen Kane?as the greatest American Film.In short, you will learn more about film if you adopt another?point-of-view.You will learn more if you try to understand the reasons?why?so many people hold?Citizen Kane?to be so important, rather than thinking about how you feel about it.Orson Welles directing Citizen KanePublic Domain. By RKO Radio Pictures, still photographer Alexander Kahle - International PhotographeFilm TheoryThere are many different?film theories?and they all create particular ways of examining a film.Just as the case was with the previous example of?Citizen Kane,?film theories?ask us to adopt another?point-of-view?than we might adopt on our own.Sometimes the word?theory?is confusing to students.One of its meanings is an idea about what is true.Students are sometimes mislead into thinking that when we are talking about a?theory?we are trying to establish the?truth?of the?theory.This is not usually the case.It is easier for you to think of a?theory?as a?way of looking at something, a particular?point-of-view.Different?theories?will create different understandings about a film.?Just as the most important thing about a film is not whether you liked it or not, the most important thing?about a?film theory?is not whether it is true or not.What is important is the understanding that you can develop when you look at the film from that perspective.Auteur TheoryIf you are looking at a film through the lens of the?auteur theory?for example, you will be looking at films as if their author (auteur) was the?director?of the film.?This idea is held so widely that many people do not know that it is a?theory?and often?reviewers?and other writers assume it when they write about the?director?of a movie as a significant part of their?review.?It may seem strange for you to think this, but before an article in?Cahiers du Cinema?by?Francois Truffaut?in 1954, the?director?of a film would seldom have been given this kind of treatment in a?review.?Before the auteur theory?made the?director's?role so significant, they were merely one of the many professionals whose work would have been cited by the reviewer.Gender TheoryIf you are looking at film through the lens of?gender theory, the Director will be less important than the?gaze?of the camera ( in?gender theory?an important idea is whether or not the way the?camera?regards things can be identified with a male viewer ).?Gender theory?examines cultural ideas about relationships between the sexes as they are portrayed on film.?Like many?theories, adopting this viewpoint will make us examine things the creators of the film might not have even asked themselves when they worked on it.?Among other things, this theory asks us to look at how cultural assumptions are reflected in film, and how the sexes are?represented.?As you can see, understanding?film theory?will require you to do?research, just as in film history, on the ideas you are studying, which do not come simply from your?observations?of films but also from film?historians?and film?theorists.??You are depending on the ideas of others to help you form your own ideas.From the very beginning of movie history, people have wondered about how film works on the?audience?and have expressed these ideas in the form of?film theory.Film theory?often goes beyond the simple choices that filmmakers have made while creating a film, examining things that neither the audience nor the director may be actively aware of, such as the cultural ideas that are part of the time and place where the film was made.?The International Baccalaureate Film course is based on filmmaking all over the world ( note that word - International ) and to understand differences in the global filmmaking community, you will have to study differences in various filmmaking?cultures?as well as different filmmaking?institutions.Sometimes this may be a study of?film history?and sometimes it may be a study of?film theory.Regardless, when you work in these areas of?film criticism?you will have to depend on?research?by others about film, as well as your own?observations?about films.Just as you have been learning how technological innovations increased the vocabulary of?film language for early innovators like the Lumiere brothers, Georges Melies, and Cecile B. DeMille, early?film critics began to understand how those elements of?film language?created meaning for the audience and helped understand what the filmmakers had intended when they made the film.By looking at the individual elements in a film and trying to understand why those choices had been made, the critic could?deconstruct?the film, take it apart and look at how it was built up of the individual elements, and why.?For example, a?formalist?might consider the synthesis of several elements, say the lighting, acting, and the depiction of the physical environment ( the constant rain at?Rashomon Gate?) in?Rashomon?and examine how they work in the body of the narrative to create tension in the mind of the viewer.??If we consider the use of?close-up?and?long shots in?The Bride of Frankenstein,?particularly those key moments?when a?dutch-angle?is used and what effect it has on the audience, then we would be approaching the film from a formalist?perspective.Takashi Shimura as woodcutter is sitting, Kichijiro Ueda as commoner on the left and Minoru Chiaki as priest on the rightPublic Domain.A still image taken from the Bride of Frankenstein film.By Trailer screenshot, from DVD Bride of Frankenstein, Universal 2004 [Public domain]For a long time, Formalism?was the most common way to examine film, seeking to understand it through examining the elements that made it up.?Film language?and?analysis?are important to all?film theories, but probably nowhere are they more important than in Formalism.When we consider the effects that different techniques will have on the audience, just as the earliest Directors did when they created the language of film, then we are applying Formalist theory.?One of the significant things about Formalism?is that it supports other?film theories.For instance, if you want to support that a particular Director is an Auteur, you will no doubt look at their techniques in a number of films - in other words, you will use Formalism?for your analysis.At the same time, if you want to look at the?camerawork?in a film with the intention of showing how the Male Gaze?affects our perception, you will still be looking at the?formal elements?of shot type, camera movement, camera angle, and lighting.In other words, Formalism?supports both ideological ( like Gender Theory ) and Auteurist branches of criticism.When you adopt a Formalist perspective?on film, you begin to understand the Director's intent, and the effect that?film language?has on an?audience.You have also started to?analyse?the elements you will use in your own films, so you too can communicate your ideas effectively. ................
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