Film Studies

What is "Categorical" Documentary?

Categories provide a basis for organizing the film's form Begins by identifying its subject simplistic patterns of developments therefore must adjust variations can maintain interest by mixing in other kinds of forms

What is Character?

Character is a physical embodiment of a social attitude, style or worldview which is relatively unchanging

What are the three distinct levels of genre production?

Characteristics shared by all genre films Characteristics shared by film within a particular genre Characters that set one genre film off from all the other films

What genre is The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Sharman, 1975)? Why is it that genre? How does it combine multiple genres and did it work?

Comedy, Musical

What is Language in Terms of Genre?

Commercial Cinema in a communication system Filmic communication is comparable to verbal communication

What are the different types of Documentary? Describe them.

Compilation: Assembling images through archival footage Talking Head: Records testimony about events or subjects Direct Cinema: records and ongoing events as it happens with minimal interference by the filmmaker Portrait: scenes from the life of a compelling person Mockumentary: Uses the conventions of documentary for fictional means

What is Metatextual Horror?

Contemporary horror films that account for our current technological climate and audience who are already very accustom to tropes of the genre

True or False? Film Noir is a Genre.

False. It's a Movement, like German Expressionism, It's a specific period in history

What is "Rhetorical Form" Documentary?

Filmmakers present them as a persuasive argument, often as if they were observations It is more explicit about its goal than categorial

The Source, In relation to Rhetorical Form Documentary

First hand accounts of events, expert testimony at a hearing, or interviews with people assumed to be knowledgeable

What're some specific technical devices?

Flashing Lights Flames, Smoke, Explosions Low angle shots of woman

What is a Backstage Musical?

Focusing on performers within the story world

What did Film Noir have an influence on beside most american films between 1941 and 1953?

French New Wave

How is Genre Studied?

Genre can be studied because it is a formalized sign system based on shared knowledge

Where do most of the aspects of Horror Films originate from?

German Expressionism

What were the two main developments for horror during the 1990s?

Handy cam/found footage films and self-referential/meta films

How did Mumblecore get it's name?

It was named for its dialogue

How is Genre organized and what is the result of this?

It's organized around certain perpetual processes which lead to expectations. These expectations become "rules" through their repetition

How does it relate to Documentary?

It's tendency to capture social truths

What are some of the main stylistic elements of Film Noir?

Majority of scenes are lit for night Oblique and vertical lines preferred over horizontal Actors and setting given equal lighting emphasis This lends to a fatalistic mood Compositional tension over physical action Attachment to water Love of romantic narration One can only take pleasure in reliving a doomed past Complex chronological order The how is always more important than the what

The celebration (Vinterberg, 1998)

Man proposes a toast at his fathers 60th birthday, reveals to the family that the father had sexually abused him and his sister for many years.

What is an Auteur, according to Sarris?

The Director as the Author of the film The do not always run true to form The badness of a director is not necessarily considered the badness of a film Most Critical that a director is technically competent A great director has to at least be a good director Auteurs need a distinguishable personality The way a film looks and moves should have some relationship to the way a director thinks and feels Concerned with interior meaning Tension between a director's personality and his/her material

What is Parole?

The development and understanding of a virtually unlimited range of individual utterances

When was Direct Cinema developed?

The early 1960s

What is Dual Celebration?

The hero's triumph over a contained situation verses a cultural situation

When did The Musical emerge as a genre?

The late 1920s

Psychotic Action and Suicidal Impulse (194-1953)

The protagonist started to go bananas The phase of the B noir film and psychoanalytically inclined The cream of the noir period, most aesthetically and sociologically piercing Painfully Self aware

What does Syntagmatic mean?

The relationship a shot has with that precedes and follows it(linear)

What else started to occur in horror because of this new freedom in the 1970s?

The sexualization of characters

What is Langue?

The speaker's and listener's shared knowledge of the grammatical rules that make up the language system

How do we Analyze Genre?

Through genre conventions such as plot, themes or film techniques. Through Iconography such as objects and settings or stars

How do we understand Genre?

Through similarity and difference

What was the best way to capture social truths of the time?

Through the camera

What is Genre's main use?

To distinguish one sort of film from another

According to Michael Renov, what are the four distinct purposes of documentary?

To record, reveal or preserve To persuade or prove To analyze or interrogate To express

What did Frontier Film (1937) seek to do?

To uncover aspects of American life ignored by hollywood

What are the two defining characteristics of Film Noir?

Tone and Mood

What studio, during the 1930s, made most of the popular Horror films?

Universal Studios

What is the difference between verbal language and film genre?

Verbal language systems are essentially neutral and meaningless whereas film genres are not Film Genre reorganizes a familiar, meaningful system in an original way

Gummo (Korine, 1998)

Wannabe gangerters in wheelchairs

What was the main objective of the Dogme 95 movement?

Wanted to get to a social truth through artificial means

What were the four major Influences to Film Noir?

War and Postwar Disillusionment Post war Realism The German Expatriates The Hard-Boiled Tradition

What Genre is The Good the Bad and The Ugly (Leone, 1966)? Why is it that genre? What makes it stand out?

Western

1) War and Postwar Disillusionment

delayed reaction to the 30s propaganda films delayed the onset of film noir the aftertaste of the war resonated in the kinds of films being made

What were some of the Criticisms of Dogme 95?

No true "realism" could exist It's "publicity stunt" nature negates the nuances of emotion cinema typically offers it became a "one-trick" pony Many of the founding directors became Auteurs post Dogme 95, and the movement folded in on itself

What are the fundamental narrative components?

Plot, Setting and Character

What are these genre's main objectives in terms of emotional response?

Pornography - Sexual Pleasure Melodrama - Weeping Horror - Screaming and Terror

According to Linda Williams, what are the three main body genres?

Pornography, Horror, and Melodramas

In the 1970s, Horror films became more gruesome and violent. Why was this?

Sensors first established by the Hays Code loosened their grip

What are some characteristics of Genre?

lacks a certain scientific precision some stand out by subjects or themes musicals for example stand out by presentation plot pattern often effects genre emotional effect (Lina Williams) Horror - scared, action - excited etc.

What is a Straight Musical?

Sing and dance in everyday situations

What genre is Singin' In the Rain (Kelly, 1952)? How does it adhere to or depart from Musical Conventions?

Singin' in the Rain is a Musical because of the Romance, Singing and Dancing involved. It adheres to conventions of a musical such as crane shots, high-key lighting and dressing room scenes. It departs from these conventions by showing filmmaking components such as from "The sound barrier clip" where the actress cant speak into the mic properly.

What does Paradigmatic mean?

Single object in single frame

What was Dogme 95 a reaction against/rejection of?

Special effects and big budgets

How does Kiss me deadly stray from noir?

Strays from realism / Super-natural aspect / Sci-Fi Out of the city / city streets The protagonist didn't die Horror themed

What time period does Film Noir mostly relate to?

The 1940s to the 1970s - a period that looked at the underside of the american character

What's an example of a handy cam/found footage film at this time?

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The 1950s were mostly known for what kind of Horror films?

The Creature Feature

What Genre did horror become associated with during this time?

Science Fiction - Creatures from Another Planet

Give an example of a film that pays homage to the history of the Horror genre.

Scream 4 (2011) Cabin in the Woods (2012)

War Time Period (1941-1946) - Film Noir

Mainly centred around a private and/or a lone wolf more talk than action - this is where the fast paced dialogue we associate with film noir came from

Why must we always trouble "truth" in documentary?

Because the filmmakers still make conscious decisions as to what they shoot or show to the audience, and they have a lot of power as to how their subject is portrayed. Often documentary is biased and attempts to persuade the audience although it is presented as factual information

When was documentary Established as a film genre?

In the mid 1920s and was still relatively new in the 1930s

What is an example of a film that incorporates aspects of multiple genres?

Being John Malkovich - Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

What can effect genre?

Individual Genre Films

Julien Donkey-Boy (Korine, 1999)

Boy getting soaked by a hose while his father mocks him "dont shiver, be a man, my son won't be a coward" etc.

Jewell on Hawks

Auteurism as an antithesis to the "assembly line" of Hollywood Cinema Men and women of last, intelligence, and imagination are often portrayed as being destroyed by this system Focuses primarily on American director, however these directors were very much related to european directors even though it was a producer-based system, films were stamped with a director's particular vision

Who Coined the Phrase New Queer Cinema?

B. Ruby Rich in 1992

What film pushed New Queer Cinema into the mainstream?

Brokeback Mountain

What's the main difference between Dogme 95 and other movements?

Based on a precise checklist which each director followed

Subject-Cantered Arguments, In relation to Rhetorical Form

Appeals to beliefs common at the time, use examples to support it's point, follow already familiar patterns of argument

Viewer-Cantered Arguments, In relation to Rhetorcial Form

Appeals to the emotions of the viewer, create curiosity and suspense

How did Direct Cinema see Documentary?

As the "creative treatment of actuality" The importance is not the authenticity of the materials, but the authenticity of the result Documentary defines not the subject or the style, but the approach

What are the Three Main Cycles of Horror Cinema?

30s, 50s, and 70s. Then to a certain extent 1990s/early 2000s.

What is Neo Noir?

A Neo Noir film is a modern contemporary film that predominately uses elements of Film Noir but with updated themes, content, or style that were absent in Film Noir of the 1940s and 1950s.

What can or cannot define a genre?

A genre can be defined by character types and the conflicts they generate but genres cannot be defined by setting alone

What is determinate Space?

A symbolic arena of action (Western, Gangster etc.) Usually involves a hero who acts upon that space then leaves

What do all genres uses as a conflict point? Can you give an example?

All film genres treat some form of threat to the social order. American Psycho.

What are Bordwell's thoughts on Documentary?

Although documentaries claim to present factual information the filmmakers still make conscious decisions as to what is filmed and edited. Documentaries still try to persuade the audience to think or feel a certain way, and is usually biased

What is the problem with documentary as pure reality?

Although one of the purposes of documentary is to depict reality, it is constructed and can't be a pure representation of reality, The filmmakers have a lot of power over how their subject is/are portrayed.

2) Post war Realism

American filmmakers took to on-location shooting and realistic exteriors Noir Placed in the streets with everyday people Audiences were tired of the lavishness of Hollywood particularly the sets

Describe The Big Sleep (Hawks, 1946).

Cops interrogate someone - Woman gives the detective money and tries to seduce him, he accuses her of being paid off to throw him off the case.

Post-War Realistic Period (1945-1949)

Crime in the streets - depict a sense of fear the public had about crime no longer occurring out of a view realistic urban look mainly realized by setting

What is Film Noir mostly based on?

Cultural and Stylistic elements

What other developments have been in to the horror genre as of late?

Cyber/Social Media Horror - Unfriended (2014)

What is Film Noir derived from?

Cynicism, pessimism and darkness post 1946

What films does New Queer Cinema Represent?

Defines films released in the late 80s and early 90s that took up iterations of queerness

What are some of the main conventions of a Musical?

Difficult to pin down specific Iconography Characteristic Settings such as dressing rooms Technical elements such as crane shots and high-key lighting

What is Direct Cinema?

Direct Cinema is a documentary genre that originated in the early 1960s. It was reliant on the development of lightweight cameras and often featured long takes and handheld shots. It tended to speak on social truths as well

Describe the film Dracula.

Dracula enters the home while his victims are sleeping (vulnerable position) He is, like many villains, a predatory threat but a civilized one The film also depicts uninhibited expressions of sexual desire Challenges the religious symbolism of blood (The blood of christ)

What Genre is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Nichols, 1966)? What makes it that Genre?

Drama

What is an identifying feature of any genre?

Dramatic Conflicts

What is an example of a Neo Noir Film?

Drive, Nightcrawler, The Dark Knight, Sin City

How did you feel when you watched this film? What kind of techniques aided in this?

I felt uncomfortable watching this scene because of the long takes and how the disturbing subject matter is presented

When was Horror developed as a more solidified genre and why?

In the 1930s, particularly because of the popularity of films Dracula (Browning, 1931) and Frankenstein (Whale, 1931)

What is Nikkatsu Noir?

In the late 50s and early 60s, Japanese film studio Nikkatsu used film noir amount other styles to cater a younger audience They did this to combat American Influence

What is Indeterminate Space?

It Involves a doubled and dynamic hero who inhabits a "civilized setting" (Musical, Melodrama) Usually relies more on a highly conventional value

What was the objective of Mumblecore?

It attempted to get at the route of human nature beyond the constraints of Hollywood Cinema

What is the main problem with genre?

It is often too formulaic

Genre Is Indicative of it's Historical Content. What does this mean?

It means that Genre tends to stick to the "rules" for that genre that have been established over time. Although nowadays merging of genres is occurring.

What did Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) do for Horror Cinema?

It set the stage for Horror Cinema in the 1930s and proved that there was an audience for them

Who first coined the term Documentary?

John Grierson

Who Pioneered Dogme 95?

Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg

What was Direct Cinema Characterized by?

Long takes and handheld shots

What are some noir-like attributes of Kiss Me Deadly?

Low Key Lighting Night-time setting Romantic Narration Metaphorical Dialogue Death Psycho Woman

What type of villain was most predominant in Horror films during the 1970s?

Mostly featured human villains but dehumanized them. Showed them as "pure evil" The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974)

What are some of the aspects or "Rules" of Dogme 95?

Much like earlier film moment, the dogme movement was concerned with ideology must not contain superficial action genre movements are not permitted optical work and filters forbidden must be with hand-held camera

What is the main aspect of a Musical?

Musical numbers often associated with romance

What makes High School (Wiseman, 1968) a Direct Cinema film?

Often leaves overlapping audio and blurry shots, this was also a characteristic of the movement The "Truth" was in it's errors

4)The Hard-Boiled Tradition

Out of the "hard-boiled" school of writers Based on a cynical way of thinking and acting Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944) encapsulates that "hard-boiled" writing style Small time, unredeemed, unheroic

If you think of auteurism as 3 circles what would each circle be?

Outer circle as a technique Middle circle is a personal style Inner circle is interior meaning

What Genre is Scarface (DePalma, 1983)? Why is it that genre? What is the "space" in this clip?

Scarface is a Crime Drama. The space in this clip is determinate space, more specifically a Gangster film.

What are the Three Main Types of Arguments In Rhetorical Form Documentaries?

Relating to the Source, The Subject, and the Viewer

Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich, 1955)

Released at the end of the film noir period The delay gives it a sense of detachment from the Film Noir Period Americans were easier to see a more bourgeois version of themselves Often features better production values than other hollywood films

What are some aspects of Language?

Scenes, Shots, etc. as Visual sentences

What are some of the genres that Film Noir takes aspects from?

The Gangster and Melodramas

What is the relationship of genre between the Filmmaker and the Audience?

The Genre exists as a "contract" between the filmmakers and the audience The genre film is an event that honours that contract

Give an example of a film or films that are too formulaic.

The Hangover Trilogy

What negatively effected Horror in the mid 1930s?

The Hays code, which set up moral censorship and guidelines

Who dictates Genre?

The Press/film critics Industry Professionals such as Studio Heads Audience Filmmakers

What were some of the Sub-Genres that were developed during 1970s Horror?

The Slasher, Rape/Revenge

What was one of the first Alien Invasion films?

The Thing From Another World (Hawks, 1951)

What are the main themes used in Film Noir?

The Upwardly mobile forces the 30s have halted Frontiersim has turned to paranoia and claustrophobia A passion for the past and present Fear of the future Emphasize loss, nostalgia, insecurity and self-doubt

What are the Three Main Periods of Film Noir? What years did they take place?

The War Time Period (1941-1946) The Post-War Realistic Period (1945 - 1949) The Psychotic Action and Suicidal Impulse Period (1949 - 1953)

What was "The Worker's Film and Photo League (1930-1935)"? What was their objective?

The Worker's Film and Photo League was an organization of filmmakers, photographers, writers and projectionists in the 1930s. They were the dedicated to using film and photography for social change.

What was Direct Cinema dependant on?

The advancement of lightweight cameras

How is Documentary comparable to Italian Neo Realism?

They both uses handheld cameras and on-location shooting They both aim to seek out social realism and are committed to capturing the hardships and problems of everyday life

How does a Sub-Genre come to be?

When many films use aspects of the same two genres. (ex. Romantic Comedy)

What are "happy accidents" in documentary?

When something unplanned or accounted for is captured in the documentary and positively benefits it

3) The German Expatriates

While not to overestimate the influence the germans over hollywood, they were definitely masters of film noir Contradictory elements into a uniform style (lighting vs realism) most noted for harsh contrast and irregular nature in lighting