Criticism aims to evaluate the merits of a film AND explore thematic content Questions How are the shots designed and composed How effective is the direction of actors What contribution does performance make to the whole How is the story told Is thematic content supported by structural design Film Theory Questions What it is as a medium How it works How it embodies meaning for viewers What kind of meanings it embodies SIX MODELS 1 Realist 2 Auteurist 3 Psychoanalytic 4 Ideological 5 Feminist 6 Cognitive Realist Theory Characteristics Andre Bazin represent special wholeness and ambiguities of reality give audience freedom of response Minimize the importance of editing o Deep focus cinematography a great distance separates sharply focused foreground and background objects o Long take cinematography shots of long duration Strengths Connects film s style with a viewer s physical and perceptual experience of the world Challenges filmmakers and viewers to think about the cinema s potential for unfairly Stresses the ethical contract between a filmmakers and an audience manipulating its audiences Limitations viewer s perception Minimizes the degree to which deep focus long take cinematography can shape the Auteurist Theory studies film authors Strengths desires Limitations movies Characteristics Strengths Limitations Consistency in theme and design throughout director s films Cinematic techniques stories and themes Elevates cinema to a real level of art legitimizes the film industry Film production is collaborative There is more than one author for every aspect of the film Psychoanalytic Theory emphasizes film elicitation of unconscious sources of pleasure and desire Characteristics Condensation psychic energy and impulses become condensed into one or more resonant dream images Displacement substitute images that take the place of fundamental and forbidden desire Examines the dream like qualities of film narrative and film technique Emphasize the complex ways that films arouse an audience s repressed emotions and Cannot extend itself to explain ALL dimensions of an audience s emotional response to o SOME responses are rational and can be explained for themselves Ideological Theory examine the relationship between movies and society How does film represent social and political realities Characteristics Ideological Point of View takes a stance on a social cultural racial etc issues o Position 1 Ideological Support positive support of social values ex war film bravery heroism in war o Position 2 Ideological Critique negative critical view of social values o Position 3 Ideological Conglomeration mixed emotions about social values Appeal to large audiences DON T want to offend anyone African American o 1990s more black directors appeared o Silent Era black actors did not exist white people put on black make up o Hollywood Era 1930s 50s black actors played minor roles o Blaxploitation focused on drugs crime and violence in black culture instead of moral uplift to gain racial equality Strengths Limitations Keep viewers vigilant against the egregious screen distortions of important social issues Critics can collapse on different levels of meaning too quickly moving too rapidly from the specificity of the film leading to an extraction of a more abstract and generalized ideological message Feminist Theory analyze representations of gender on screen and the pleasures associated with them Characteristics Analysis describe the ways that films portray gender in visual techniques o Ex close ups on bodies to make women seem erotic sexual Analyze the narrative strategies o Ex behavior of female characters will depict their personality Focuses on current male gender roles in cinema o Ex hard bodied superheroes Creates feminine films that show women in lead roles daily struggles etc Strengths images Contributes to the understanding of how gender perspectives and biases influence film o Narratives are organized to privilege male characters at the expense of strong female characters Calls attention to the repression in cinema Limitations Lacks a sensitive understanding of which material will most benefit from the feminist lens of analysis Cognitive Theory studies the way viewers understand and interpret visual and auditory information in film 1 Viewer s perception and emotional experience 2 The ways the viewer s organize and categorize these perceptions in order to derive meaning Characteristics Strengths Limitations Perceptual Processing sensory perception by viewers Interpretive Processing higher level interpretations that are placed on sensory information Schemas framework of interpretations that can help understand a film based on experiences in the world Research based Provides a strong foundation for understanding how viewers make sense of film images model results are supported by data and narratives o Answers WHY IS CINEMA SO POPULAR Says little about the transformative functions of cinema or the way films go beyond to imaginatively transform the boundaries of a viewer s experience