The film Theeb, like other classical Hollywood narrative films, is governed by its appearance of being real and believable. The attempt to convey realism is through its narration. Narration is shaping our experience through film style (Bordwell 1986, p. 26). Classical narrative is made up of perfect balance and symmetry of style that aims to convey a message to the audience. It integrates all elements of the film to reassure and satisfy the spectators. The film follows a set of norms and standards that matches and gratifies the viewer’s expectations. Stylistic features are in the service of the narrative as they serve to convey information, helping the viewer follow the story and construct a coherent time and space. By the end of a classical Hollywood film, all questions that spectators have would be answered and they don’t have to leave the cinema feeling perplexed. Elements of style serve to shape the narrative as they function to read it for the audience. Furthermore, in the development of a narrative, every event is motivated. Thus, the use of cinematic style is generally motivated by the narrative. All of the above results in what Bordwell refers to as an excessively obvious cinema (Bordwell 1986, p. 26). Due to the dominance of the style, spectators come to expect certain stylistic choices for certain narrative situations. Hence, classical narratives focuses on the spectators understanding of the story in the film. Unlike films from the classical Hollywood cinema, it
Although the best reasons for “going to the movies” are to be entertained and eat popcorn, understanding a film is actually quite complex. Movies are not only a reflection of life, they also have the capability of shaping our norms, values, attitudes, and perception of life. Through the media of film, one can find stories of practically anything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Movie-makers use their art to entertain, to promote political agendas, to educate, and to present life as it is, was, or could be. They can present truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether. A movie can be a work of fiction, non-fiction, or anything in-between. A film is an artist’s interpretation. What one takes away from a film depends upon how one interprets what has been seen and heard. Understanding film is indeed difficult.
In the essay Little Themes by Claude Chabrol, Claude Chabrol argues that the script of a movie does not matter, but the theme of the movie is the most important. He says there is no such thing as a 'big theme' and a 'little theme', because the smaller the theme is, the more one can give it a big treatment. In this essay we are made to understand that a film's moral position should be in its form and style, not in an underlying social message in its narrative and that the content of a movie is subject to style. Style is something that is personal to each filmmaker. Style is what differentiate movies from one another. Several
Being one of the world’s most popular art forms, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into film as well. In this essay I will argue that the
A set of practices concerning the narrative structure compose the classical Hollywood Paradigm. These conventions create a plot centering around a character who undergoes a journey in an attempt to achieve some type of goal (). By giving the
Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.
Theorist Vsevolod Pudovkin claims that narrative films are mainly a “product of construction” and cautious compilations of “selections of images that have been shot” (Renée).
In conventional Hollywood cinema, narrative is subservient to the viewer 's overall pleasure and ease of understanding, as it provides an overarching framework which may elucidate the motivations and consequences of a character 's actions. However, Korine expresses his dismay with classical narrative, "I can 't stand plots, because I don 't feel life has plots. There is no beginning, middle, or end, and it upsets me when things are tied up so perfectly" (Geoff King, 59). As one may expect, JDB 's narrative structure challenges our expectations, dissolving any sense of linear continuity in favour of "a cinema of unpredictability" (Adrian
Whenever books are adapted for film, changes inevitably have to be made. The medium of film offers several advantages and disadvantages over the book: it is not as adept at exploring the inner workings of people - it cannot explore their minds so easily; however, the added visual and audio capabilities of film open whole new areas of the imagination which, in the hands of a competent writer-director, can more than compensate.
Understanding movies comes from describing and analyzing the cinematic, theatrical, and literary elements that combine to create meaning. These steps create a basic understanding of the artistic and technical elements found in moviemaking. In addition, the major characteristics of different film genres and classic movies will be analyzed. The purpose of this paper is analyzing the Academy Award winning film Chicago. This paper will describe the six steps that a person should think about when watching a movie. These steps include, (1) analysis of the narrative: story, plot and meaning; (2) theatrical elements, (3) cinematography, (4) editing, (5) sound and the (6) complete package.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that,
In service of this argument, the essay unfolds in three parts. The first section sketches an appropriate framework for understanding how cinema marshals and moves viewers by engaging them in a fully embodied experience.4 The second section offers a brief overview of the film's plot before turning to an analysis of its triptych narrative and affective development. The third and final section considers the methodological, critical, and theoretical implications suggested by the preceding analysis.
What makes for a classic Hollywood film? Increasingly, films have evolved to the point where the standard by which one calls a “classic Hollywood film” has evolved over time. What one calls a classic film by yesterday’s standards is not the same as that of today’s standards. The film Casablanca is no exception to this. Although David Bordwell’s article, “Classical Hollywood Cinema” defines what the classical Hollywood film does, the film Casablanca does not exactly conform to the very definition that Bordwell provides the audience with in his article. It is true that the film capers closely to Bordwell’s definition, but in more ways than not, the film diverges from Bordwell’s definition of the typical Hollywood film.
David Bordwell wrote his article ‘The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film’ in an effort to convey the main idea that “art cinema” can be considered as a distinct mode of film practice, through its definite historical existence alongside other cinematic modes, set of formal conventions, and implicit viewing procedures. Rather than searching for the source of the art, or what drives the art in film, Bordwell compares art cinema to the classical narrative cinema, and highlights the differences in narrative structure. Bordwell makes the assumption that it defined itself against the classical narrative mode; especially with the way it deals with space, time, and the cause and effect link of events.
Hollywood cinema is primarily subjected to telling stories. The inclination of Hollywood narratives comes not just from good chronicles but from good story telling. The following essay will discuss Hollywood’s commercial aesthetic as applied to storytelling, expand on the characteristics of the “principles of classical film narration” and evaluate alternative modes of narration and other deviations from the classical mode.
Cinema after 1906, according to Gunning, pushed towards the structure of linear narrative, and away from the immediacy of the "spectacular image" (Strauven, 1999: 387).