Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large. Reality, in everyday usage means "the state of things as they actually exist" Art refers to a diverse range of Human activities creations and expressions that are appealing to the Senses or Emotions of a human individual A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions
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History
As the new art form of the twentieth century, film immediately and continuously invited theoretical attempts to define its nature and function. Mostly as a result of film's own inferiority complex as the youngest of the arts, the impetus for much of early film theory was to gain a degree of respectability.
In some respects, French philosopher Henri Bergson's Matter and Memory anticipated the development of film theory at a time that the cinema was just being born as a new medium. Matter and Memory is one of the four main works by the French philosopher Henri Bergson ( 1859 - 1941) He commented on the need for new ways of thinking about movement, and coined the terms "the movement-image" and "the time-image". However, in his 1906 essay L'illusion cinématographique (in L'évolution créatrice), he rejects film as an exemplification of what he had in mind. Nonetheless, decades later, in Cinéma I and Cinema II (1983-1985), the philosopher Gilles Deleuze took Matter and Memory as the basis of his philosophy of film and revisited Bergson's concepts, combining them with the semiotics of Charles Peirce. Cinema 1 The Movement Image is a book by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze combining philosophy with film criticism Gilles Deleuze ( (January 18 1925 &ndash November 4 1995 was a French philosopher of the late 20th century Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse) (September 10 1839 &ndash April 19 1914 was an American Logician mathematician, philosopher
Early film theory arose in the silent era and was mostly concerned with defining the crucial elements of the medium. It largely evolved from the works of directors like Germaine Dulac, Louis Delluc, Jean Epstein, Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov, Dziga Vertov, Paul Rotha and film theorists like Rudolf Arnheim, Béla Balázs and Siegfried Kracauer. Germaine Dulac ( 17 November 1882, Amiens, France - 20 July 1942, Paris) was a French film director and early Louis Delluc ( October 14, 1890 &ndash March 22, 1924) was a French Film director, Screen writer and film critic Jean Epstein ( 25 March 1897, Warsaw &ndash 3 April 1953, Paris) was a film director and early film theoretician Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн January 23, 1898 &ndash February 11, 1948) was Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov ( Лев Владимирович Кулешов; in Tambov - 29 March 1970 in Moscow) was a Russian Dziga Vertov (Дзига Вертов Дзиґа Вертов January 15, 1896 &ndash February 12, 1954) was a Soviet pioneer Paul Rotha (born Paul Thompson, June 3, 1907, London - March 7, 1984, Wallingford, Oxfordshire) was Rudolf Arnheim ( July 15, 1904 &ndash June 9, 2007) was a German -born author art and Film theorist and perceptual psychologist Béla Balázs ( 4 August 1884, Szeged – 17 May 1949, Budapest) born Herbert Bauer, was a Hungarian Siegfried Kracauer ( February 8, 1889, Frankfurt am Main &ndash November 26, 1966, New York) was a German These individuals emphasized how film differed from reality. On how it might be considered a valid art form.
In the years after World War II, the French film critic and theorist André Bazin reacted against this approach to the cinema, arguing that film's essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality not in its difference from reality. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including André Bazin ( April 18, 1918 &ndash November 11, 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film
In the 1960s and 1970s, film theory took up residence in academe, importing concepts from established disciplines like psychoanalysis, gender studies, anthropology, literary theory, semiotics and linguistics. Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior Gender studies is a field of Interdisciplinary study which analyzes the phenomenon of Gender. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of Literature and of the methods for analyzing literature Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields
During the 1990s the digital revolution in image technologies has had an impact on film theory in various ways. There has been a refocus onto celluloid film's ability to capture an indexical image of a moment in time by theorists like Mary Ann Doane, Philip Rosen and Laura Mulvey who was informed by psychoanalysis. Mary Ann Doane is currently George Hazard Crooker Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, and was a pioneer in the study Laura Mulvey (born August 15, 1941) was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior From a psychoanalytical perspective, after the Lacanian notion of the Real, Slavoj Žižek and Bracha L. Ettinger offered new aspects of the gaze extensively used in contemporary film analysis. Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French ʒak lakɑ̃ ( April 13, 1901 &ndash September 9, 1981) was a French Psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek (ˈslavoj ˈʒiʒɛk (born 21 March 1949) is a Post-Marxist Sociologist, Philosopher, and Cultural critic Bracha L Ettinger (born 1951 also known as Bracha Ettinger, Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Hebrew ברכה אטינגר, ברכה ליכטנברג-אטינגר In analysing Visual culture, the concept of The Gaze (also gaze and Le regard in French describes how the viewer gazes upon There has also been a historical revisiting of early cinema screenings, practices and spectatorship modes by writers Tom Gunning, Miriam Hansen and Yuri Tsivian.
Specific theories of film
- Apparatus theory
- Auteur theory
- Feminist film theory
- Formalist film theory
- Marxist film theory
- Psychoanalytical film theory
- Socialist realism
- Screen theory
- Structuralist film theory
Further reading
- Dudley Andrew, Concepts in Film Theory, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Apparatus theory, derived in part from Marxist film theory, Semiotics, and Psychoanalysis, was a dominant theory within cinema studies during Feminist film theory is theoretical Film criticism derived from Feminist politics and Feminist theory. Formalist film theory is a theory of Film study that is focused on the formal or technical elements of a film i Marxist film theory is one of the oldest forms of Film theory. The concepts of Psychoanalysis have been applied to Films in various ways Socialist realism is a teleologically -oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of Socialism and Communism Screen theory is a Marxist film theory associated with the British journal ''Screen'' in the 1970s The structuralist film theory emphasizes how Films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions not dissimilar to the way Languages are
- André Bazin, What is Cinema? essays selected and translated by Hugh Gray, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. André Bazin ( April 18, 1918 &ndash November 11, 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film
- Bracha L. Ettinger, The Matrixial Gaze, Paris: BLE Atelier, 1994. Bracha L Ettinger (born 1951 also known as Bracha Ettinger, Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Hebrew ברכה אטינגר, ברכה ליכטנברג-אטינגר Reprinted, Leeds: Leeds University,1995. Reprinted in: Drawing Papers n. 24, edited by Catherine de Zegher and Brian Massumi, NY: The Drawing Center, 2001. Brian Massumi is a philosopher writer and political theorist His work focuses on perception affect and the virtual
- Francesco Casetti, Theories of Cinema, 1945-1990, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999. Francesco Casetti (Trento - April 2 1947 is an Italian Film and Television theorist.
- Bill Nichols, Representing Reality. Bill Nichols is an American historian and theoretician of Documentary film. Issues and Concepts in Documentary, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
- Robert Stam, Film Theory: an introduction", Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000
- The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Oxford University Press, 1998. Robert Stam is University Professor at New York University, where he teaches about the French New Wave filmmakers
- Slavoj Žižek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real, London: Verso, 2000. Slavoj Žižek (ˈslavoj ˈʒiʒɛk (born 21 March 1949) is a Post-Marxist Sociologist, Philosopher, and Cultural critic