Chapter 11: READING ABOUT FILM - Critical Theories and Methods

film theory

sustained reflection on the form, function, value, or significance of film as medium, institution, or social practice

verisimilitude

when film has a “quality of truth”

ontology

the branch of philosophy that deals with nature of being

medium specificity

a theory that says that a successful artwork fulfills the promise of its medium’s unique physical properties

classical film theory

writings on the fundamental questions of cinema produced in the first half of the twentieth century

French impressionist cinema

an avant-garde film movement of the late 1910s and 1920s that aimed to destabilize familiar or objective ways of seeing through cinema

photogénie

a term coined by Lousis Delluc to refer to a particular quality that distinguishes the filmed object from its everyday reality

formalism

a critical approach to cinema that emphasizes formal properties of the text or medium over content or context

realism

in cinema, emphasizes the connection or quality of resemblance to the natural world

mimesis

the imitation of reality in the arts

auteur theory

an approach to cinema first proposed in Cahiers du cinéma that emphasizes the director as the expressive force behind a film and sees a director’s body of work as united by common themes or formal strategies

metteur-en-scène (French for “director”)

in auteur theory, a director who conveys technical competence without a strong streak of individual vision, in contrast to an auteur

cinephilia

a love of cinema

genre criticism

an analytical approach that considers a film in relation to the properties or effects of particular genres or classifications, for example, comedy or horror

structuralism

an approach to linguistics and anthropology that, when extended to literary and filmic narratives, looks for common structures rather than artistic originality

semiotics

the study of signs and signification

a sign

a term used in semiotics for something that signifies something else, whether the connection is casual, conventional, or based on resemblance

signifier

a term used in semiotics that refers to a spoken or written word, picture, or gesture

signified

a term used in semiotics that feres to the mental concept evoked by a signifier

referent

a term used in semiotics to refer to the thing for which a sign stands

codes

rules that apply to specific instances of communication or messages that come from analyzing the gaps between the referent and the sign and the distinction between the signifier and the signified

messages

In semiotics, that which is communicated between sender and receiver according to a shared code.

denotation

the literal meaning of a word

connotations

the association connected with a word or sign

symbolic sign

a sign that has an arbitrary relationship to its referent that is assigned by language, which originates in culture

iconic sign

a sign that signifies its referents through a relationship of resemblance, an image

indexical sign

a sign that refers to its referent through a direct causal relationship, like a fingerprint

narratology

the study of narrative forms; a branch of structuralism that encompasses stories of all kinds, including films

ideology

a systematic set of beliefs that are not necessarily conscious or acknowledged

poststructuralism

an intellectual development that challenged the methodology and fixed definitions of structuralism

psychoanalytic theory

a theory that describes the psychic processes we undergo when experiencing the film illusion

apparatus theory

a theory that argues that the very mechanics on which film is based—including cameras, projectors, and screens—-were developed according to certain ideologies that then are reproduced in the viewing experience

spectatorship

the process of film viewing

feminist film theory

theory that notes female and male images are treated differently in film

queer theory

a theory that challenges Mulvey’s assumption that the desiring position is male and the desired one is female, which essentially equates gender difference with sexual desire

theory of gender performativity

the idea that there is no essential content to gender, only a set of cues and codes that must be repeatedly enacted and are then open to change

cultural studies

a set of approaches drawn from the humanities and social sciences that considers cultural phenomena in conjunction with processes of production and consumption

reception theory

a theory that studies the ways different kinds of audiences regard different kinds of films, focusing on how a film is received by audiences rather than on who made a film or what its thematic content or formal features are

interpretative community

group members who share particular knowledge or cultural competence through which film could be experienced and interpreted. such responses are sometimes called “situated responses”

oppositional gaze

bell hooks’ concept of a perspective on dominant media formed from a viewer’s experience of social marginalization

analytic philosophy

an approach that emphasizes the logical clarification of argument, approaches concepts differently than poststructuralist theories interested in the instability of signs and meaning

cognitivism

draws on psychology and neuroscience to understand how the mind responds to narrative and aesthetic information in film

phenomenology

a philosophical approach which postulates that any act of perception involves a mutuality of the viewer and what is viewed

affect

feelings, attitudes, and sensations that viewers encounter with media

disability studies

an approach which rejects normative models of embodiment that presuppose operations of reflection or optimization

movement image

offers an indirect image of time through conventional ways of representing movement, such as editing that creates casual links between shots that was prevalent in the cinema during the first half of the twentieth century

time image

an open-ended image or film that lacks clear signals of spatial connection or logical sequence

postmodernism

In architecture, art, music, and film, postmodernism incorporates many other styles through fragments or references in a practice known as pastiche

Historically postmodernism is the cultural period in which political, cultural, and economic shifts challenged the tenets of modernism, including its belief in the possibility of critiquing the world through art, the division of high and low culture, and the genius and independent identity of the artist

simulacrum

a copy without an original

slow cinema

a type of art cinema made and circulating around the world that uses long takes and wide framing to allow viewers meaningful observation of other spaces, in contrast with dematerialized and accelerated media experiences