Melodrama Review

Question 1

the desire to make amends, but recognizing it’s too late; we cry when something is lost and it cannot be regained

Answer 1

Agnition

Question 2

two equally evocative tools wrapped up together and applied to melodrama, with a response setting up further action and compose the emotional scenery of melodrama

Answer 2

Pathos vs Action

Question 3

characters in melodramas will spend the majority of the film attempting to return to their place of origin; while attempting to return to this, the narrative teases

Answer 3

Temporal and Rhythmic Elements

Question 4

Company in the 1920s that was a family owned production company

Answer 4

Warner Brothers

Question 5

where action feels fast paced, yet the duration of the event/film feels slow

Answer 5

melodramatic time

Question 6

a merger between morality and feeling (we feel for those on screen and respond)

Answer 6

excess

Question 7

the idea of the spectacles we desire to watch; ex. we watch comedy to laugh, we watch horror to be repulsed or scared, we watch melodrama to cry

Answer 7

Cinema of attraction

Question 8

when a picture speaks more powerfully than words

Answer 8

tableau

Question 9

when melodrama focuses on “point of view of the victim” and follow along with the victim’s story and how they recognize their virtue and become the hero of their story and life

Answer 9

the victim hero

Question 10

Who directed Now, Voyager?

Answer 10

Irving Rapper

Question 11

the crucial recognition of virtue, often highlights the innocence or lack thereof, of the characters, that concludes the moral journey of the melodramatic film in a tableau, relying on imagery rather than words to reveal the truth

The sensation scenes are theatrical enough to convey the truth of the story without dialogue

Answer 11

Melodramatic denouement

Question 12

melodrama heavily relies on the inversion of it to carry the film from problem to solution

Answer 12

Realist narrative

Question 13

relies on the classic linear narrative structure, but interrupts a stricter journey from beginning to end with emotional sequences and tableau, but still manages to cling to classical Hollywood cinema

Answer 13

System of melodrama

Question 14

How does Linda William’s define melodrama?

Answer 14

It is a critical study of morality and brings audiences to a moral recognition

A uniquely American mode of telling stories

Can be a genre and a mode, where the mode is used in any kinds of films, looking at character’s virtues and morality

Question 15

Two types of audiences when watching melodrama

Answer 15

Those who relate and respond through tears & those who distance themselves and show no emotion on the surface

Question 16

What is the bold statement about melodrama?

Answer 16

Film studies needs melodrama, as it is more deeply coherent and under every surface of genre

Question 17

First central feature of the melodramatic mode

Answer 17

It begins, and wants to end, in a space of innocence

Question 18

Second central feature of the melodramatic mode

Answer 18

Focuses on victim-heroes and the recognition of their virtues

Question 19

Third central feature of the melodramatic mode

Answer 19

Appears modern by borrowing from realism, which serves as the melodramatic passion and action

Question 20

Fourth central feature of the melodramatic mode

Answer 20

It involves a dialectic of pathos and action- a give and take of “too late” and “in the nick of time”

Question 21

Fifth central feature of the melodramatic mode

Answer 21

Presents characters who embody primary psychic roles organized in Manichean conflicts between good and evil

Question 22

television supported by advertising (ex. Survivor)

Answer 22

Linear Television

Question 23

term from Lotz, a dominating belief and idea that is a cultural norm and doesn’t even acknowledge there are alternative ideas

Answer 23

Hegemony

Question 24

The difference between terror and horror

Answer 24

Horror is the inferior product of gothic text, while terror is the expanding dread of the unseen

Question 25

Lotz term that is a general classification of content, but more specific than genre

Answer 25

Vertical

Question 26

Similar to a Vertical, but defined by viewing patterns and preferences of those who watch rather than the content itself

Answer 26

Taste Cluster

Question 27

Broader Taste Cluster, aggregated by general viewing behaviors

Answer 27

Taste Community

Question 28

Describes a user’s taste or preference. The user determines what content they like and watch, which will affect how Netflix interprets their viewing patterns

Answer 28

Sensibility

Question 29

A Feeler word. Lotz suggests Netflix considers the tone of the media we consume - for example, if I watch a fun and campy horror flick, I might not want to watch a dark and traumatic “elevated” horror movie.

Answer 29

Tone