Chapter 12: Models of Film Theory This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Basic Models of Film Theory ä Realist ä Auteurist ä Psychoanalytic ä Ideological ä Feminist ä Cognitive Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Realist Theory ä Looks for correspondences between film images and the realities before the camera ä Restrictions on stylistic manipulation ä Andre Bazin ä Ethical formulation ä Deep-focus cinematography ä The long take ä Jean Renoir, Orson Welles Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

ä Bazin’s approach ä Strength ä Stress on ethical contract between filmmaker and viewer ä Weakness ä Typifies few films ä Deep focus, long takes, and montage may co-exist in a given film Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Other Realist Models ä Documentary Realism ä Italian neo-realism ä Perceptual realism ä Basis for realism at perceptual level ä Three-dimensional visual/acoustic information ä Cinema conveys same information as found in everyday life ä Constrained by cinema’s transformative elements Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Auteurist Theory ä The film director as author and artist ä A recognizable stylistic signature ä Consistencies of theme and visual design ä Alfred Hitchcock ä Strength: ä Helps legitimize the medium as an art ä Weakness: ä Attributional errors ä Filmmaking is collaborative Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Psychoanalytic Models ä Derived from the writings of Freud and Jacques Lacan ä Cinema activates unconscious, non-rational pleasures and anxieties ä Voyeurism ä Fetish and taboo imagery Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

ä Strength ä Emphasis on the emotional power of cinema ä Emphasis on its ability to arouse desire and pleasure ä Weakness ä Based on ambiguous clinical data ä Tendency to over-extend its claims Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Ideological Models ä Ideology – set of beliefs about society and the world ä Emphasizes how film portrays society and expresses ideologies ä Levels of ideological expression ä First order ä Rambo: First Blood Part II ä Second order ä Back to the Future Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

ä Ideological point of view: ä Support for established social values ä Critique of established values ä Conglomeration ä Mixed set of appeals and outlooks ä Enhances marketing to large, heterogeneous audiences Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

ä Strength ä Emphasizes relationship of film and society ä Exposes distorted portraits of social issues ä Weakness ä Tends to over-extend its claims ä Reduces films to ideological symptoms Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Feminist Models ä Depiction of gender in film ä Connects this to social ideologies and practices ä Images of women (and men) in films made by men ä Alternative forms of feminist filmmaking ä May blend psychoanalytic and ideological elements Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

ä Strength ä Emphasis on the ways gender influences the production of images ä Weakness ä Gender is one of many filters on human experience Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Cognitive Models ä Viewer perception of visual and auditory information ä Perceptual processing ä How viewers organize these perceptions and derive meaning from them ä Interpretive processing ä Schemas (frameworks of interpretation) ä Bases for a viewer’s understanding of cinema ä Perceptual correspondences ä Social correspondences Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

ä Strengths ä The theory is research-based, supported by empirical data ä By accounting for the intelligibility of cinema, the theory also accounts, in part, for the medium’s popularity ä Weakness ä Relative lack of attention to emotion ä Lack of attention to cinema’s transformative functions Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007