M4S2 Flashcards
is the study, interpretation, and evaluation of a film and its place in cinema history, usually offers interpretation of its meaning, analysis of its structure and style, judgement of its worth by comparison with other films and an estimation of its likely effect on viewers.
Film Criticism
often informs the critical analysis of film.
Film Theory
REMEMBER:
Criticism may examine a particular film or may look at a group of films in the same genre, or a director’s or actor’s body of work.
REMEMBER:
In-depth criticism and analyses of the some feature films of mainstream films, foreign films, independent films, documentaries, etc., may be found in more scholarly or academic publications.
sometimes seems difficult and complicated, but fundamentally its a range of different tools that you can use to explain how film works.
Film Theory
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies: (11)
- Auteur Theory
- Cognitive theory
- Deconstruction
- Feminism
- Formalism
- Ideological Analysis
- Post-Colonialism
- Post-Modernism
- Reception Studies
- Semiotics
- Structuralism
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
The idea that the director is the single misunderstood artistic genius responsible for creating a movie, instead of the thousands of other people typically involved.
Auteur Theory
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
Using science such as neuroscience and psychology to help explain how audiences watch and understand films.
Cognitive Theory
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
Not simply dismantling films but dismantling the ways you think about and interpret them.
Deconstruction
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
Study of film as an element of patriarchy, or structural male superiority over women. For example, the idea of the male gaze proposes that men control the ‘looks’ of cinema and women are present to be looked at
Feminism
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
Focusing on formal properties of film (such as editing or image composition) to understand how its different from other artistic media.
Formalism
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
The notion that culture shapes how people think and behave. seeks people to expose the hidden politics of a film.
Ideological Analysis
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
Analyzing the impact or legacy of colonial power exerted over cultures or nations. in film studies this looks at film made by film-makers from countries colonized. by the west or at western films that depict colonized nations.
post-colonialism
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
period of critical theory claiming that the old big ideas have run out of juice, that high art and popular culture are now inseparable and that images have become more real that reality.
Postmodernism
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
just asking film spectators what they’re thinking, rather than theorizing about how they’re interacting with what they see on film.
Reception Studies
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
the study how film works like a language, using signs symbols and formal structures to convey meaning.
Semiotics
Helpful theoretical methods used in film studies:
the idea that you can boil down popular cinema to key elements or structures. These function like modern-day mythology, or stories that people keep telling themselves to help them understand the world and to make themselves feel better.
Structuralism
documents the critical reception of film at its time of theatrical or DVD release. (more on recommendation than analysis)
Movie review
also known as Oscars, are a set of awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry.
Academy Awards
