FEA 302

CLASSICAL FILM THEORY

Click to edit Master subtitle style INSTRUCTOR: SARAH TATTING-KINZY

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Bla Balzs

Born in Hungary 1884 Penned opera/ballet scenarios and film reviews before writing first book on film in 1924 -- The Visible Man Also screenwriter and director of films, including Somewhere in Footer Text

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Theory of the Film

Offspring of Arnheims Film as Art (intentional or not) Considered one of the first and best introductions to film because of its clarity and caution Provided a Text audience with a wide Footer

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Imitations include Formalist books

Divided by chapter based on the technical variables of film (composition, lighting, editing, sound, color, etc.) Outlining various possibilities for artistic control, underscoring the unnatural aspects of the medium
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Andrew

Argues against texts that catalogue film effects without a sense of shape and purpose Says we have to dig deeper for the full dimensions of formative film theory Notes how Balzs believed the same and Footer Text

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Russian Formalists

Dates of the movement (1918-30) fit with the first age of formative film theory (1920-1935) -- second age began in 1960s with rise of film semiotics and theory in classrooms Set out an entire theory of human activity, asking what makes the artistic aspects of a mans life so special? Established a system of four categories of Footer every possible human activity functions for Text

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These categories are

PRACTICAL: objects or actions which serve an immediate use, like highways and their construction THEORETICAL: objects or actions which function for general and unspecified uses, like Microbiology for human health SYMBOLIC: objects or actions Footer Text functioning in the place of another

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Aesthetic objects or actions / Art

Cinema fits perfectly into the aesthetic category Aesthetic objects/activities not always art i.e. mathematician solving problems ART is the name we give to Footer Text aesthetic objects or activities which

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Ballet Mechanique Fernand Leger (1924)

French artist said most films waste efforts trying to build a recognizable world, neglecting the powerful spectacular effect of the object the possibility of the fragment. Fits with Shklovskys idea of everyday objects becoming Footer Text unimportant while showing their

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Defamiliarization

The overall process where technique calls attention to the object

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Literary Formalism

Boris Tomashevsky catalogued various literary techniques and pointed out how each forces art away from the representation of reality Plot (technique) from story (reality)
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Foregrounding

Artistic technique where object or action is emphasized in some way to stand out to the audience Purposely shifted to a position/situation that cannot be avoided
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Techniques of deviation, like foregrounding

Can be over-used Quantity of use doesnt make one piece of art more artful than another Must be used in relation to a Footer Text specific background otherwise all

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Some Formalists, including Balzs

Praised the use of deviation AND strove to avoid the reductionism that could occur from overuse

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Balzs on the film business

He also realistic in analyzing the economic infrastructure of film (perhaps due to Marxist beliefs) Said that film could grow only when business conditions allowed it to at the mercy of demand for popular entertainment
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For Balzs

The form-language of what objects and actions were suitable for cinema = a natural product of the economic situation of supply/demand and the ensuing oscillation between subject matter and technical form

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Balzs on Creative Potential of Film

Very open to new technologies these things could be used to reach formative potential Adaptations fine as long as the filmmaker tries to reshape it via the form-language of cinema Believed that filmic versions of Footer Text

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Conservative on Distortion

Distortion must always be the distortion of something. If that something is no longer present in the picture then the meaning and significanceis also gone Called for strange angles only when the spectator could still orient himself and differentiate the familiar from the strange Footer Text

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Balzs on the AvantGarde and Abstract

Felt that cinema was bookended by avant-garde on one side and pure documentary on the other -- and found that both ends intentionally avoided story In documentary, filmmakers should find truth in the noise of reality and set theFooter Text truth free so it could speak

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Balzss opinions here weakened his overall theory

Shouldnt avant-garde and documentary filmmakers be free to show their version of the strange regardless of the presence of humanly interesting plots? Balzs was a Formalist believing that art results from the conscious Footer Text and consistent transformation of

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Balzs and Realist/Formalist views on the CU shot

Hinted at the special ability cinema has to being us into accord with nature -- and how the close-up gives cinema this power of revelation The CU can show us a quality in a Footer Text gesture of a hand that we never

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Theory of the Film on the CU shot

Balzs believed as Marx did The root of all art is man The film close-up shows us the face of man and the face of objects in relation man The close-up makes an audience Footer Text

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Theory of the Film on the CU shot

Compared the CU shot to a silent soliloquy Where soliloquys can be viewed as unnatural, the CU speaks the inner life of a person with expression alone
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Theory of the Film on the CU shot

The CU shot reveals the world of microphysiognomy which could not otherwise be seen with the naked eye or in everyday life Felt that sound film diminished this a bit
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The Graduate

Director Mike Nichols (1967) 7:00

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The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Director Sergio Leone (1966) 3:30

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Psycho

Director Alfred Hitchcock (1960) :40

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Balzs in Review

Primary and lifelong goal was the advancement of the art itself Had a profound regard for the cinema of late silent era Asserted that dramatic films perform the function of all great art by bringing us to an awareness of
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