Discuss the relationship between scholarship, criticism and production in filmmaking, and discuss its impact on film style.

 

By: Ang Maggie and Toh Hui Tin

 

Summary of Presentation

•         Formalist Theory

•          Neorealism

•          Auteur Theory

•         French New Wave

•          Conclusion

 

Formalist Theory

•         Careful examination of films, narration, structure, visual and aural motifs

•          eg. David Bordwell analysis of Citizen Kane

•          “What now seem to me the most fruitful critical approaches -- Russian Formalism, French Structuralism and post-structuralism -- offer many such conceptions of form which can,….”  one theory cannot delineated the films from other film theories

 

•         forced meanings

•          attributing meaning never planned by the filmmaker

•          attributing intended meanings to that which is different from the film

•          e.g short films-- ‘Heng’, ‘Liu awaiting Spring’

 

Heng

Q: Is there a connection with the photos hitting the table three times and the guns sounding three times?

 

A: No connection actually. =) But thanks anyway, the question made me laugh.

 

Q: What is the significance in defocusing from the close up of the long beans to the bowl of pork?

 

A: The significance is that we wanted to show the "cheap food" the mother and son ate……... But no deep significance other than that. I would just like to say that making a short film does not mean you must have some "deep" ideas and notions and fill up with disturbing images to make one. 

 

Liu Awaiting Spring

Q: Do the colours of blue and red hues relate to the representation of male and female gender?

 

A: I don't think so in my film. I used a lot of blue simply because it is my favourite colour. I wasn't really conscious of using the colours specifically to

make a comment on gender.

 

Neo Realism

•         Mussolini --->  the rise of facisim

•          use film as a propaganda tool

•          establishment of film schools

•         • e.g Ente Nazionale industrie Cinematografiche, Centro Sperimentale breeding ground for filmmakers e.g. Micheangelo Antonioni and Roberto Rossellini 

 

•         •Fall of fascism, rise in the importance to reconstructure the devastated society• At the same time, emergence of theoretical journal, Bianco e nero (B&W), Cinema, La Schermo Umberto Barbaro, influential critic & lecturer at the Centro Sperimentale

•          He attacked the reactionary conventions of Italian cinema

•          He coined the term - “Neorealism”

 

•         Neorealism runs counter to the traditional categories of spectacle

•          neorealism is not subordinate to production

•          mise-en-scene was of least importance

•          Film’s ideology supersedes mise-en-scene

•         Neorealism had profound influence on many countries

•         Micheanglo Antonioni

•          ---> French New Wave

 

Auteur Theory

• 2 Types of Directors

– Auteur

– Metteur-en-scene

• someone who just puts something together, rather than putting any of their personality into a film

• “there are no work, there are auteur…”

» Giraudoux quoted by Truffaut

 

• Definition

– Film criticism

• Applied to a director who dominates the filmmaking process that it is appropriate to call the director the auteur, or author of the movie

                                                                        Encyclopedia.com

• Director is equivalent to an author of a novel. The film auteur therefore imprints all his or her work with an identifiable style and technique that carries from film to film

 

• Short history

– Started in the 1950s

• Cahier du cinema

– Out of the French New Wave film

– By critics Francois Trauffaut and Andre Bazin

 

• Theory

– A way of looking at film, especially the directors

– Greatest movies are dominated by personal vision of the director

• Filmmaker’s “signature” can be perceived thru examination by the total output

– Characterized by a unit of theme and styles

• Director more important than writers

– Coz subject matter is artistically neutral

– Good film

• Not based on subject matter, but its stylistic treatment

• Judged on HOW the films are made, not what they are made about

 

• Auteur critics look for three correlated elements from a director

– Cinematic techniques

– Stories

– Themes

• Admired American works

– Freedom of changing scripts, studios etc

• Greatest Directors of the studio era

– Producer-directors

 

French New Wave

• 1959-1964

• Critics from Cahier du cinema

– Form the new generation of directors, with leading figures

– Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Louis Malle.

– Influenced by Neorealism

• worked as assistants to the Neorealism directors before they became FNW directors

– Eg Truffaut, were assistant to Rossellini

– Rejected the conventional French filmmaking establishment

• Cinema du papa

– Narrative

– Movies full of pretty and picture-postcard imagery

» Studio settings

» Glossy lighting

– Use of famous stars

– Adaptations of the classics

• Admired American Hollywood style

– Directors able to make changes

– Wanted to make films

 

• Factors that contributes to the FNW

– Portable handheld camera and sound recorders developed

– Limited post war budget

– WW II shut down expensive studios

 

 

How does Criticism affect Production and Film Style

• When the FNW directors, were still critics in Cahiers du Cinema

– They criticized the conventional French film making style

• The criticisms can be found in the previous slide

– Now we shall look at how by being a critic affect the film style of the FNW directors

• Film Style

– Editing

– Cinematography

– Direction

– Script writing

 

How does Criticism affect Production and Film Style

• Editing

– The FNW directors broke away for the conventional narrative film style, by using

• Deconstructed narratives

• Let the viewers be awake that they are watching a movie by using

– Elliptical Editing

• No establishing shots

• Jump cuts to create sense of Discontinuity

• Editing style also due to low budget

 

• Cinematography

– The FNW directors did not like the conventional use of studio settings and glossy lighting

– As can be seen from their use of

• Natural lighting

• Location shooting

• Handheld

 

• Direction

– Self reflective

• Meta-cinema

– Audience were aware of film making process

– Unlike the conventional narrative style that just invite the audience to relax and enjoy the movie

 

• Script writing

– The FNW directors criticized on the close adaptation of classical and the use of famous stars, hence they made use of

• Improvision

– Actors were encouraged to change their scripts

• Lack of narrative continuity

• No closure, with uncertain endings

– Example Blowup, the murder were not solved

 

FNW and the Author theory

• The FNW directors took control of their movies and include their personality in it

– As they viewed the great filmmaker as having an individual and spontaneous stamp to his work

• using the camera as a means of personal expression

– They make changes to the production, like the scripts

• Instead of keeping closely to the script, and the constraint of the studio settings and lighting

• The FNW directors, thus becoming the author of the movie

 

Conclusion

•         Film criticism can influence the film production and ultimately film style in many way

 

•          for instance, film schools paving the way for aspiring filmmakers

 

•          or, how criticism can examine films in a multifaceted ways