Fresh approaches to film
By: Brian McDonnell
Publisher: Longman
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Auckland, N.Z
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
Subjects: Motion pictures; History
Description: A user-friendly, introductory (yet comprehensive) text intended for students taking courses in media studies, film studies or visual language. The text assumes that some traditional approaches are likely to be familiar to most students and so introduces new approaches (along with the traditional) that represent the latest ways of thinking about films.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 202) and index.
Table of contents: title: Part 1 : Thinking critically about film (Introduction ; What is theory? ; Literary and humanist approaches; title: case study : The Piano ; Auteur; title: case study : Alfred Hitchcock ; Historical : industrial/technological ; National cinema : New Zealand ; Genre; title: case study : Westerns ; Semiotics; title: case study : The Piano ; Political approaches : ideology, representation; title: case study : feminism ; Psychoanalysis ; Formalism ; Summary; title: case study : film noir); title: Part 2 : Understanding film form and narrative (Introduction ; Aspects of the formalist approach ; Narrative ; Hollywood narrative (Aspects od classical, mainstream narrative ; Coherence and causality of plot structure ; Character-centred, goal-oriented stories ; Strong audience involvement ; Narrative retardation, repetition and redundancy ; Climax and resolution ; The melodramatic mode as part of the classical tradition).; title: Alternative structures within the classical tradition ; Characteristics of art films; title: an alternative, non-classical mode); title: Part 3 : Exploring the language of film (Introduction ; Aspects of the shot : photographic properties ; Aspects of the shot : mise en scène ; Codes which operate beyond the shot ; Conclusion); title: Part 4 : Case studies : applying the approaches (Braveheart ; Once were warriors ; Heavenly creatures ; What's eating Gilbert Grape?).