Film: a critical introduction

Preface

Picture Credits

Part 1. Introduction to Film Analysis

1. Introduction

Cinema: A Confluence of Artistry, Industry, and Technology

How This Book Is Organized

Technical Tips

2. An Approach to Film Analysis

Understanding Audience Expectations

Expectations and Modes of Organization

Expectations about Genres, Stars, and Directors

The Orchestration of Detail

Motifs

Parallels

Details and Structure

Parallels in Openings and Closings

Structure and Turning Points

Repetition and Non-chronological Structure

Creating Meaning Through the World Beyond Film

Historical Events and Cultural Attitudes

Stars as References

Public Figures and Celebrities as References

Intertextual References

Avant-garde and Documentary References

Meaningful References with Objects

The Goal of Film Analysis: Articulating Meaning

The Importance of Developing Interpretive Claims

Summary

Film Analysis: Reading Significant Details

Historical References in Devil in a Blue Dress

3. Writing About Film

Getting Started

Keeping a Film Journal

Formulating a Thesis

Four Types of Writing About Film

The Scene Analysis Paper

"The Divided Human Spirit in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat"

The Film Analysis

The Anxieties of Modernity in Steamboat Bill Jr.

The Research Paper

The Evolution of an Idea: The Changing Hollywood Aesthetic in The Conversation and Enemy of the State

Works Cited (in the research paper)

Conducting Archival Research

The Popular Review

Part 2. Film Analysis

4. Narrative Form

Defining Narrative

Framing the Fictional World: Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Elements

Within the Diegesis: Selecting and Organizing Events

Narrative Structure

Techniques in Practice: Narrative Structure in Stagecoach

Alternatives to Conventional Narrative Structure

Variations on Narrative Conventions: Beyond Structure

Perspective and Meaning

Character Subjectivity

Techniques in Practice: Noticing Shifts in Perspective

Summary

Film Analysis: Analyzing Narrative Structure

The Narrative Complexity of Rashomon

5. Mise en Scene

Setting

Describing Setting: Visual and Spatial Attributes

The Functions of Setting

Techniques in Practice: Same Film, Different Settings

Techniques in Practice: Same Setting, Different Film

The Human Figure

Casting

Acting Style

Acting Brechtian: Distancing the Audience

Actors' Bodies: Figure Placement

Techniques in Practice: Figure Placement in Citizen Kane

Actors' Bodies: Costumes and Props

Actors' Bodies: Makeup

Techniques in Practice: Physicality in Raging Bull and Ali

Lighting

Composition

Balance and Symmetry

Lines and Diagonals

Framing

Foreground and Background

Light and Dark

Color

Two Approaches to Mise en Scene

The Frame in Two Dimensions: Mise en Scene in German Expressionism

Combining Mise en Scene and Camerawork: The Frame in Three Dimensions in French Poetic Realism

Summary

Film Analysis: The Functions of Space

Spatial Oppositions in Thelma and Louise

6. Cinematography

Camerawork: The Camera in Time and Space

Creating Meaning in Time: The Shot

Altering Time: Slow and Fast Motion

The Camera and Space: Height, Angle, and Shot Distance

Camera Height

Camera Angle

Camera Distance

Camera Movement: Exploring Space

Horizontal and Vertical Movement

Movement in Three Dimensions

Techniques in Practice: Patterns of Camera Placement and Movement

Lenses and Filters: The Frame in Depth

The Visual Characteristics of Lenses: Depth of Field and Focal Length

The Zoom Lens

Combining Camera Movement and Lens Movement

Through the Lens: Filters and Diffusers

Techniques in Practice: Lenses and the Creation of Space

Film Stock

Characteristics of Film Stock

Light and Exposure

Film Stock and Color

Wide Film and Widescreen Formats

Processing Film Stock

Special Visual Effects

Manipulating the Image on the Set

Creating Scene Transitions, Titles, and Credits: The Optical Printer

Optical and Digital Compositing: Assembling the Elements of the Shot

Computer-Generated Images

Adding and Subtracting Frames

Digital Cinema: Post-Production

Digital Cinematography and Film Style

Summary

Film Analysis: Cinematography in Documentary Films

Cinematography in Two Documentaries

7. Editing

The Attributes of Editing: Creating Meaning Through Collage, Tempo, and Timing

Joining Images: A Collage of Graphic Qualities

Tempo

Shot Length

Shot Transitions

Adjusting the Timing of Shot Transitions

Techniques in Practice: Using Contrasting Imagery and Timing to Romanticize the Outlaws in Bonnie and Clyde

Story-Centered Editing and the Construction of Meaning

Editing and Time

Condensing and Expanding Time

Suggesting the Simultaneity of Events

Arranging the Order of Events

Editing and Space

Shot/Reverse Shot

Eyeline Match

Cutting to Emphasize Group Dynamics

Cutaways

Beyond Narrative: Creating Meaning Outside the Story

Continuity Editing: Conventional Patterns and "Bending the Rules"

Continuity and Space

Continuity and Chronology

"Breaking the Rules": The French New Wave and its Influence

Associational Editing: Editing and Metaphor

Soviet Montage

Techniques in Practice: Soviet Montage Aesthetics in The Godfather

Summary

Film Analysis: Classical Editing

Editing in Notorious

8. Sound

Film Sound: A Brief History

Critical Debates over Film Sound

Freeing Sound from Image

The Relationship Between Sound and Image

Emphasizing the Contrast Between Onscreen and Offscreen Space

Emphasizing the Difference Between Objective Images and Subjective Sounds

Emphasizing the Difference Between Diegetic Details and Non-diegetic Sound

Emphasizing the Difference Between Image Time and Sound Time

Emphasizing Differences in Image Mood and Sound Mood

Three Components of Film Sound

Dialogue

Text and Subtext

Volume

Pitch

Speech Characteristics

Acoustic Qualities

Addressing the Audience: the Voice-Over

Sound Effects

Functions of Sound Effects

Characteristics of Sound Effects

Techniques in Practice: Sound Effects and the Construction of Class in Days of Heaven

Music

Functions of Film Music

Five Characteristics of Film Music

Techniques in Practice: Bernard Herrmann's Score and Travis Bickle's Troubled Masculinity in Taxi Driver

Summary

Film Analysis: Sound and Language

Language, Nationality, and Class in The Grand Illusion

9. Alternatives to Narrative Fiction Film: Documentary and Avant-garde Films

Three Modes of Filmmaking: A Comparison

Documentary Film: "The Creative Treatment of Actuality"

Narrative Documentaries

Documentary Form

Voice of Authority

Talking Heads and Director-Participant

Direct Cinema

Self-reflexive Documentary

The Mockumentary

Ethics and Ethnography

Avant-garde Film

Surrealist Cinema

Abstract Film

Techniques in Practice: Interpreting Abstract Films

The City Symphony

Structuralist Film

The Compilation Film

Conducting Research on Documentary and Avant-garde Films: Locating Sources

Summary

Film Analysis: Interpreting Avant-garde Films

Analyzing Meshes of the Afternoon

Part 3. Cinema and Culture

10. Social Context and Film Style

Hollywood's Industrial Context: The Studio System as Dream Factory

Classical Style

Economic Practice and Hollywood Convention

Censorship and Hollywood Convention

American Ideology and Entertainment

Reaffirming or Resisting Dominant Ideology

International Art Cinema

The Ideology of "Art"

Italian Neorealism

Third Cinema

11. Film and Ideology

Ideology and Film Analysis

Ideology and Film Spectatorship

Anti-Communist Witch Hunts and Hollywood Cinema

Racial Ideology and American Cinema

Gender and Cinema

Sexuality and Cinema

Disability and Cinema

12. Film Stardom as a Cultural Phenomenon

Stars and the Movie Industry

The Dynamics of Performance

The Star Persona

Stardom and Ideology

Stars and Subcultures

Fan Culture

13. Genre

What Makes a Genre?

Major American Genres

The Western

Film Noir and the Hard-boiled Detective Film

The Action Film

The Science Fiction Film

The Musical

Genre, Film Production, and Audiences

Genre Film and Aesthetic Appeal: Cliche or Strategic Repetition?

Genre and the Status Quo

Genres as Culturally Responsive Artifacts

Genre and Film Authorship

14. Film Authorship

The Idea of the Auteur: From Cahiers du Cinema to the Sarris-Kael Debate

Auteur as Marketing Strategy: Old and New Hollywood

Studio-era Auteurs: Welles and Hitchcock

Blockbuster Auteurs: Spielberg and Lucas

Using the Auteur Approach to Interpret and Evaluate Films

Readings in Auteur Criticism

Ousmane Sembene

Kathryn Bigelow

Ang Lee

Wong Kar Wai

Jafar Panahi

15. Cinema as Industry: Economics and Technology

The Changing Structure of the Film Industry

From Oligopolies to Conglomerates

Horizontal Integration and Synergy

Globalization

Industry Labor Practices

Outsourcing

Runaway Productions

Creative Centralization

Films as Products

The Blockbuster

The High Concept Film

Saturation Marketing

Independent Film Culture

Two Independent Institutions: Sundance and Miramax

Film and the New Technology

The Rise of the DVD

Film and Digital Technologies

Glossary

Bibliography

Index