Rudolph Arnheim's Film Theory

Film als Kunst / Film as Art (1933)

  • Arnheim focuses on the aesthetic use of cinema, highlighting film's own style and medium.

  • Film lacks a clear, tangible medium, unlike music (sound) or painting (color).

Film as Art: Using Limits

  • Some say reality is film's medium. But Arnheim says an art medium should be able to be changed. If film can't change reality, it's not art.

  • Arnheim says films are art because they change how reality looks.

Limits in Showing Reality

  • 3D to 2D: Making things flat loses depth.

  • Sense of Depth: Less depth changes how we see space.

  • Lighting and Color: Changed lighting affects reality.

  • Framing: Choosing what to show.

  • Absence of Space-Time Continuum: Editing cuts up time and space.

  • Limited Sensory Input: Film uses sight and sound.

What We See vs. What We Think We See

  • Our eyes work like cameras, but our brains change what we see. The brain fixes what we see.

  • Example: We see a table as square even if it looks different.

Arnheim's View on Film Changes

  • Film changes what we see, which is not real. These are film's 'technical limits.'

  • Changes happen when showing things, not by changing real things, like in other arts.

  • Film Changes: Like fast/slow motion, fades, and focus tricks. These are special to film.

Art Focuses on Form

  • Art cares more about how things are shown than what is shown.

  • Every art has its own senses.

  • Art uses symbols to put the world into its style.

How Art Develops

  • Over time, art gets better, finding the best ways to show things.

  • It's hard to show abstract ideas in music.

  • Art finds its perfect form. Music made the sonata and symphony, which don't need words.

  • Art should fit its style.

Arnheim and Silent Film

  • Arnheim says silent film from the 1920s is film's best form because everything was balanced.

  • Sound ruined this balance.

  • The Jazz Singer (1927) was the first film with talking, which changed things.

How Sound Changed Film

  • Sound made film too real.

  • Sound made other parts of film less important than talking. The balance was lost.

R. Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception (1954)

  • Arnheim says art shows things like rising, falling, strong, weak, and balance.

  • He says we see these things in our minds, with people, and in nature.

  • Art shows us that our feelings are like the forces in the world. We see our place in the world.

Purpose of Art

  • Arnheim and Gestalt idea:

    • Our minds connect to the outside world.

    • Our minds make patterns.

    • Artists make strong patterns, reflecting the world's patterns.

    • Art finds balance between the artist and the world.