Hollywood Film Style and Raging Bull Analysis

Flashcards reviewing key cinematic concepts, five functions of film style, and the case study of Raging Bull from Chapters 5 and 6.

What are the five primary aesthetic functions of style in Hollywood cinema outlined in Chapter 5?

Clarity, expressiveness, decoration, stylistic harmony, and stylistic dissonance.

According to David Bordwell, why is Hollywood cinema classified as a "group style"?

Because Hollywood films share a vast array of stylistic properties and operate within a classical system that has remained remarkably stable across decades.

How does psychologist James Cutting's empirical research characterize changes in Hollywood films between 1935 and 2010?

Average shot lengths decreased, films displayed increasingly more motion, and film images became progressively darker.

What is perceptual fluency in film style, and how does Hollywood cinema achieve it?

Perceptual fluency refers to the ease of identifying the physical identity of a stimulus. Hollywood achieves it through high figure-ground contrast, balanced frame symmetry, and clear lighting and color design.

According to Noël Carroll, what two features of movies contribute to their easily graspable clarity?

Their reliance on pictorial representations (which use biological capabilities for object recognition) and variable framing (which directs spectator attention strictly to narratively important details).

How does the visual composition in Jacques Tati's Playtime (1967) differ from standard Hollywood framing practices?

Playtime uses "all over" compositions filled with an overabundance of visual information rather than using variable framing to direct spectator attention to a single area of the frame.

How do director James Whale and cinematographer Arthur Edeson maximize expressiveness in the village celebration scene of Frankenstein (1931)?

They use two tracking shots lasting 48 seconds to follow a distraught father carrying his dead daughter, sequentially showing each villager's expression change from merriment to shock.

What acoustic techniques are used during the restaurant scene in The Godfather (1972) to express Michael Corleone's internal anxiety?

Sollozzo's unsubtitled Italian becomes harder to decipher, and the sound of an approaching subway car outside grows progressively louder until it screeches loudly when Michael stands to shoot.

In film aesthetics, how is "decoration" (or ornamentation) defined?

An independently attractive property that enhances an artwork's visual or auditory appeal without serving a necessary narrative, thematic, or structural function.

What lighting techniques were characteristic of 1930s Hollywood glamour lighting, as demonstrated in shots of Carole Lombard and William Powell in My Man Godfrey (1936)?

Soft and direct frontal lighting, extensive diffuse fill light to minimize shadows, and backlighting that created a halo effect around the actor.

What is stylistic harmony in cinema?

A factor of similarity and concord among different artistic devices, creating patterns of techniques that unify the artwork and link its different parts.

What unusual recurring shot choice provides a stylistic pattern throughout Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976)?

Overhead shots of hands on desks and tables.

How does the strangling scene in Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958) create stylistic dissonance between style and narrative clarity?

It uses a slow strobing storefront light that leaves much of the frame in darkness, fast disorienting cuts without standard continuity matches, and extreme close angles that force spectators to infer movements.

What stylistic element in Leave Her to Heaven (1945) creates a notable clash with its film noir premise?

The use of vibrant Technicolor cinematography and bright, colorful set designs, which were traditionally reserved for musicals, epics, and romantic melodramas.

How does the opening two-minute scene of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990) demonstrate stylistic dissonance?

It rapidly cycles through five distinct styles: a fast-paced car chase, a flat/drowsy car ride, an ominous horror film, an aggressive crime drama, and an ironic camp style.

Why does Charlize Theron's performance as Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003) serve as an example of effective casting against type?

It creates aesthetic dissonance between her known glamorous star persona and the unappealing, tense, and violent serial killer character she embodies on screen.

Who were the primary creative figures responsible for directing, shooting, and editing Raging Bull (1980)?

Director Martin Scorsese, Director of Photography Michael Chapman, and Editor Thelma Schoonmaker.

How did Sergei Eisenstein's theory of "collision editing" (or montage) differ from Hollywood continuity editing?

Eisenstein constructed sequences out of conflicting images ("visual counterpoints") to shock spectators and synthesize new abstract concepts, rather than maintaining smooth spatial and temporal continuity.

How does the final title fight scene between Jake La Motta and Sugar Ray Robinson in Raging Bull utilize collision editing?

It packs 35 discordant shots into 26 seconds, violating the 30-degree rule, committing 9 violations of the 180-degree rule, and jump-cutting between disorienting close-ups.

What four camera "identities" or stylistic perspectives are assumed during the 92-second Steadicam tracking shot before the Cerdan fight in Raging Bull?

Member of La Motta's entourage, performance-documentary camera, boxing fan, and omniscient viewer.

What logical absurdity occurs in the three-shot sequence depicting the 1943 Detroit bout between La Motta and Sugar Ray Robinson in Raging Bull?

Shot 3 depicts a still photograph of La Motta punching Robinson out of the ring that illogically includes the image of the ringside photographer from Shot 2 who presumably took the photograph.