Film Quiz Review PDF

TYPE NAME NOTES Readings Chion Five Ideas No Soundtrack Sounds are immediately analysed and distributed in an instantaneous perceptual...

TYPE NAME NOTES Readings Chion Five Ideas No Soundtrack Sounds are immediately analysed and distributed in an instantaneous perceptual triage Ie: listening for more important sounds first then subconsciously sorting Vococentrism There are voices then everything else Locate and identify, matching sounds to the face Loose approximations are generally fine For our benefit → matching gives us better “access” to the sounds Acousmêtre The disembodied film voice (neither entirely inside or outside) Eg: Samantha in Her Diegetic but off-screen, part of the world (not voiceover) Associated with omniscience → sinister implications make it more present in some genres than others Deaf Cinema Silent cinema would be better discussed as dead cinema The film is deaf to the sounds of its world, making the audience deaf as well The Voice’s Loss of Innocence Expressive masks (showing how they feel) and Social masks (manipulative, shows a false image) Eg: Don speaking about his happy childhood, while the image shows this is not the truth (Singing in the Rain) Nowell-Smith Melodrama = Modern genre which is a foil to the ancient genre of tragedy Tragedy Melodrama Kingdom Family True king? True parent? Succession Inheritance & education Political power Impotence & suffering  Similarities: Questions of legitimacy & the transmission of power (succession) Tragedy = people in power/Melodrama = the powerless No feminine ideal in melodrama ⇒ women forced to align with male ideal Suffering = failure to be male (thus women suffer more) Hysteria Heightened excess of emotion and displacement (feeling out of place) Unexpressed emotion seen in mise-en-scene OR in a difference scene Ideological visibility Tendency to privilege conservative official culture Genre reveals what realism conceals Williams Mimicry of female screen body Body of viewer is caught up in emotional & physical sensations on screen Makes them feel jerked around/manipulated ⇒ associations with the female screen body Gratuitous as a redundant concept “Gratuitous” is in itself gratuitous In dismissing body-related reactions as unnecessary, critics miss the point of genre: confronting bodily excess directly Genre addresses problems/doesn’t solve them Persists because of commentary on ongoing social/psychological tensions Does not solve them as otherwise no need for genre’s continues existence Anatomy chart: Porn Horror Melodrama Bodily Sex Violence Emotion excess Jerk Orgasm Shudder Sob (mimicry) Audience Men Adolescent Women boys Fantasy Desire Gender Organ Temporality On time Too early Too late (partners in (element of (missed sync) surprise) opportunity) Wood Monsters as return of the repressed What society refuses to acknowledge/be associated with Threatens normality Challenge conventional ideas of normality in the family unit Stereotypical family critiqued as stifling & oppressive Monster as doubles Mirrors the victims (highlights similarities) Victim is repressing aspects of themselves ⇒ Society represses the monster Political Variables in Horror: Progressive Reactionary Monster is socially produced Monster is plainly evil Human/Human-like Non-human Home-grown Foreign Double acknowledged Double denied Sex allowed/embraced Sex punished Normative family critiqued Normative family consolidated Nichols 1 Realism Refers to a realism of appearances Recognisable, familiar No room for surprises Conforms to expectations Truth May or may not be verisimilar Invisible truths are not always familiar A truth that isn’t always available Indexicality The material trace of what could happen only once news porn ads home close-up movies indexical strong strong weak strong strong ity labelling strong weak strong varies weak  subjectiv weak strong strong strong The ity question of the film social strong weak varies Varies low receptio w/ n audienc e Ariel Lecture Neorealism Thinkers: Zavattini Post WWII many Italian film studios were destroyed Neorealists concerned with poverty Every moment of neorealist films offer answers to questions about society (making a moral claim) Aimed not to offer solutions, but to push viewers to be inspired Bazin Photography doesn’t necessarily interpret reality → instead captures (the camera solely as a machine thus cannot interpret) Describes “cheap moral merit” of neorealism Four features of neorealism: On-location shooting Material necessity of shooting somewhere (post Italian studio destruction) Themes are closely related to place Non-professional actors Law of amalgamation→ creates realism of amateurs taught by pros = authenticity Non-contrived plots Often don’t have a traditional resolution Post-synchronised sounds Mostly done to film on location in busy cities Berger Animals once symbolised human’s connection to an inherent sense of otherness Changed because of increasing modern social  isolation + diminished relationship with nature The animal reveals an aspect of human character Films Singing in the rain Mic-Bound film (1952) When movies started talking, they stopped moving Hollywood mythology & the Heroic musical Musicals came to save Hollywood Spectacular → remobilised the cinema of attractions Humbly Spontaneous → Opposed to high-brow European culture Honest → Meta-cinematic (showing the means of production), & themes of giving credit Production History Jean Hagen (Lina) did not do her own singing Written songs led to the story led to the emotion Film History: 1927 vs 1957 Both crises in cinema history Coming of sound vs coming of television No credit given to the strong African American influences and borrowed iconography Illusions (1982) Low budget film set in WWII Simulating a black & white 40’s film Narrative film which looks back on the war with a critical lens Purpose more political than dramatic Racial/gender based critique Presented as the MC’s internal struggle to persevere in the film industry Similar to SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN Meta-cinematic stories about the synchronisation of voice & giving credit Similar visual strategies “Passing” Themes of visibility are complicated through the “white passing” person of colour Tragic for minority communities → (often subconscious) sacrifice of community & culture Leads to less discrimination + better opportunities in Hollywood What is given up/held onto? Stella Dallas (1937) In terms of the Melodrama At the familial scale → “true parent” problem Family romance as an issue of status Societal push and pull of the character Stephen wants her to stay the same (initially) → then  asks to adapt to another social class & standards (eg: less eccentric, gaudy clothing) Suffering of the MC ⇒ Shame & humiliation Train scene, birthday party Haskell’s 4 themes of the “woman’s film” Affliction → Affliction of the social class system Competition → Father, Stephen, Stepmother, Helen (desire triangles) Choice → Staging of the choice of choosing Ed Sacrifice → Stella’s famous final sacrifice (melodramatic finale) Night of the Living Humans/Non-human ghouls Dead (1968) Former humans, past members of society (progressive) Reflects transformation from worker to consumer Shift in society to rampant consumerism Home-grown/foreign Ghouls are technically “home-grown” (once humans) ⇒ condition influenced by external, foreign element: radiation from venus (reactionary) Venus as comment on femininity → critique of modernity + trad/patriarchal structure Sexuality & the family Presence of cars linked to sexuality (relo btwn/ Tom & Judy) Critique of father figure when killed by Ben + Child becomes monster & kills parents Normative family structure not preserved (progressive) Narrative shifts Switches protagonist (Barbara → Ben) Reflects deeper problems of race & gender No time to be scared of “the black man” trope in the face of larger social danger Still imagery & death/Stillness of death Still images represents death Lasting emotional impact on audience When a Stranger Calls Typical horror film elements (1979) Sound = silence, tense music, dead call noise, breathing Waiting time ⇒ close ups of phone, longer times btwn/ calls Fear comes from what we don’t know Still shots of house ⇒ Mulvey Lack of orientation for viewers Clock & ice-maker present false threat  Ending ⇒ accelerated montage Gender representation Female babysitter as typical figure in horror Helplessness in viewers ⇒ feminisation Dismissed by police/seen as hysterical Downplaying of emotion & fear Lack of male saviour Irony of self preservation = locks herself in the house, but this entrenches her in the danger Telephones Cultural expectation to answer the phone ⇒ intrusive but socialised norm (the monster stems from society) Expectation of distance contradicted ⇒ disorienting “It’s me”/”I know” ⇒ familiarity & intimacy built between the stalker and victim is chilling Family structure critiqued ⇒ the family home as a place of fear and attack Umberto D. (1952) Similarities w/ Wendy & Lucy Plot → Man struggling in post war rome, owns dog he struggles to support Involve attempted sacrifice of the dog by the owner On-location shooting Wendy & Lucy Neorealism’s four features: Shot on-location in Portland, Oregon Emphasis on the trains and american road systems (opens and closes on train shot) Associated with modernity & motion + the West Michelle williams illegally jumps on a freight train Non-professional actors Lucy being Rechardt’s dog + having her real name Non-contrived plot Film about the banal & everyday → not necessarily as sentimental as Italian neorealism Very little known about Wendy apart from financial struggles Ethical appeal about contemporary economic issues in the US Sound No non-diegetic sound Post-synchronised train sounds used Ending mirrors melodrama → Stella sacrificing her daughter Projection of family romance with the wealthier owners Close-up Acting conditions Forgiveness The order of filming puts pressure on the people playing themselves to forgive Sabzian Reenactment Defy & confirm index Defiance = trying to recover a lost moment (which could only happen once) Confirmation = inescapable, the reenactment can never be true to the original moment Thus the reenactment becomes its own new and unrepeatable event Serve present agenda Presents ulterior motives or hidden agendas as subtext Hospitality 3 hosts ⇒ competition of who really presides over the situation Family Sabzian as host of film project Kiarostami as host of film project Two Ideals Compassionate care Hospitality offered to strangers ⇒ ethos Reciprocity Tends to be between people we know. Balance between the two, expectation that they may eventually switch Exchange Compassionate care ⇒ one sided, basic means to sustain life (shelter from elements and persecutors Reciprocity ⇒ gift exchange, immaterial exchange of pleasantries, compliments, stories Closure and indexicality Accidents and mistakes Authenticity comes from contingency Accidents fit the way of seeing the world as not in the control of any of the hosts (eg: mic sound cutting off) Poignancy ⇒ transmitted through index What can happen only once Preciousness of a unique opportunity