Responding to Film A Text Guide for Students

Responding to Film is a dynamic tool for students who seek as complete an understanding of film as is humanly possible. By focussing on film, the author looks at how it offers students an understanding of themselves, of their culture, and of art. This guide also seeks to familiarize students with the practical methodology for studying film: how to understand film genres, techniques, and language.

Acknowledgments

xi

Introduction How to Respond to Film

1

(1)

The Individual Response

1

(1)

The Critical Response

2

(1)

All Responses Are Legitimate

3

(1)

The Experience of Viewing a Film

4

(5)

The Literary Response

9

(1)

The Aims of This Text Guide

9

(1)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext Links

28

(1)

Suggested Films for Study

28

(2)

Responding to Film Genre

30

(24)

Origins of Film Genres: Epic, Drama, and Comedy

30

(2)

The Modern Epic Film

32

(4)

Tragic Genre Derivatives: Drama and Melodrama

36

(8)

The Comic Genre: The Romantic Archetype

44

(4)

Genre Derivatives

48

(3)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext Links

51

(1)

Suggested Films for Study

52

(2)

Responding to Film Techniques

54

(21)

Learning Film Techniques

54

(3)

Important Film Techniques

57

(16)

References and Suggested Readings and Hypertext links

73

(1)

Suggested Films for Study

74

(1)

Responding to Film Language

75

(21)

Definition of Film Language

75

(1)

Codes and Codification: The Semiotician's Visual Methods

76

(3)

Axes and Nodes: Reading Film Language

79

(6)

Combining Visual and Audial Nodes: Varieties of Film Discourse

85

(2)

Axes and Nodes in the Discursive Language of Comedy

87

(3)

The Soundtrack: Audial Axes and Nodes

90

(1)

Film and Music

91

(1)

The New Language of Film: Digital Technology and Hypertext

92

(2)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext Links

94

(1)

Suggested Films for Study

94

(2)

Responding to Film as History

96

(20)

Placing a Film in Its Historical Context

97

(3)

More Reasons for Studying Film Historically

100

(11)

Film's Historical Settings: The New Historicism

111

(1)

History and Social Issues

112

(1)

Film Is History

113

(1)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext links

113

(1)

Suggested Films for Study

114

(2)

Responding to Films in Black and White

116

(14)

The Attraction of Color

116

(1)

The Classic Black-and-White Movies: Colorization

117

(2)

Why Movies in Black and White Endure

119

(2)

Films in Black and White Through the 1960s and Beyond

121

(5)

Black and White Today

126

(2)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext links

128

(1)

Suggested Films for Study

128

(1)

Suggested Black-and-White Films for Study

128

(2)

Responding to Foreign Films

130

(17)

The Origins of International Cinema

130

(2)

Foreign Film-Unpopular in the American Classroom

132

(1)

The Decline of Foreign Film

132

(1)

Foreign Film's Heyday

133

(1)

The Art-House Movie: Mostly Foreign

134

(1)

More Contrasts Between Foreign and Domestic Films

135

(5)

Foreign Films for Study

140

(5)

Watching a Foreign Film Today

145

(1)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext links

145

(1)

Suggested Foreign Films for Study

145

(2)

Responding to Film's Literary Sources

147

(30)

Can a Film Measure Up to Its Literary Source?

147

(2)

Film and the Literary Tradition

149

(6)

Adaptations of Merit

155

(1)

Film equivalents of Classic Literary Works

156

(18)

Literary derivations

174

(1)

The Future of literary Adaptations: A Marriage

175

(1)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext links

175

(1)

Film Adaptations Suggested for Study'

175

(2)

Responding to Film as Film

177

(23)

Film's Uniqueness

177

(2)

Reality vs. Illusion: Film's Superiority

179

(2)

Film: Distinct from Literature, Matches Literature

181

(1)

Film Is Visual Reality

182

(1)

Film-Sum Total of Its Parts

183

(1)

Films and Star Power

184

(3)

Film as Film: Some Examples

187

(10)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext Links

197

(1)

Suggested Films for Study

198

(2)

Responding to Social Themes in Film

200

(23)

Should a Film Contain a Moral?

200

(1)

Film is conscious of Moral Behavior

201

(2)

Message as Part of a Story

203

(1)

Using Film Language to Uncover Social Themes

203

(6)

Film and Gender

209

(7)

Film and Social Themes

216

(5)

Suggested Readings and Hypertext Links

221

(1)

Suggested Films for Study

221

(2)

Responding to Film Violence

223

(17)

Two Facets of Film Violence

223

(1)

The prevalence of Film Violence

224

(1)

The Historical Perspective on Film Violence

225

(2)

Dealing with Violence in Film

227

(12)

Suggested Re readings and Hypertext Links

239

(1)

Responding to Film Technology

240

(5)

The Value of Commentaries

241

(1)

Hypertext and its uses

242

(3)

A Sample Course

245

(28)

The Great Dictator (1941): Information Sheet

246

(2)

The Seventh Seal (1956): Information Sheet

248

(2)

Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and love the Bomb (1964): Information Sheet

250

(2)

Psycho (1960): Information Sheet

252

(2)

Amadeus (1984): Information Sheet

254

(3)

Platoon (1986): Information Sheet

257

(3)

Quiz Show (1994): Information Sheet

260

(2)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Information Sheet

262

(2)

A Passage to India (1984): Information Sheet

264

(4)

Schindler's List (1993): Information Sheet

268

(2)

The English Patient (1996): Information Sheet

270

(3)

Index

273

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Responding to Film A Text Guide for Students of Cinema Art

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials