Film Criticism
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Course Introduction
Film Criticism examines the principles, methods, and traditions of analyzing and evaluating films. Students in this course explore different types of criticism, including formalist, auteur, sociological, feminist, and psychoanalytic approaches, to develop a comprehensive understanding of how films communicate meaning and reflect culture. Emphasis is placed on the close reading of films, writing critical essays, and engaging with the historical and contemporary debates within the field, fostering the ability to articulate informed, nuanced interpretations of cinematic works.
Recommended Textbook
Film A Critical Introduction 3rd Edition by Maria T. Pramaggiore
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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Q1) Alternative modes of filmmaking and spectatorship,including independent art cinema,experimental films and documentaries,have only come into existence in the last 10-20 years of film history.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Discuss why Maxim Gorky called the cinema a "kingdom of shadows."
Answer: Because audiences immerse themselves in the lives of fictional characters and story worlds that are created by the artistic combination of color,light and sound.
Q3) Discuss how Eadweard Muybridge's work in motion photography led to the development of filmmaking.
Answer: Muybridge's experiments in serial photography had as much to do with scientific discovery as they did with film as an art form.Muybridge's famous photographs of horses in motion (1878)were inspired by a question that Leland Stanford (later Governor of California)hired Muybridge to answer: do horses lift all four feet off the ground when running (The answer was yes.)Muybridge set up a bank of still cameras,each of which captured a shot of the horse as it moved by.These sequences of still shots offered insight into the details of human and animal movement.
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Chapter 2: An Approach to Film Analysis
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Q1) When audiences go to the cinema,they bring with them expectations about ________.
A) how the film will be organized
B) the type of story the film will tell
C) the kind of character the star will play
D) all of the above
Answer: D
Q2) When directors conclude their films with an unhappy ending,one potential side effect is ________.
A) audiences will be alienated
B) other directors will emulate the narrative innovation
C) the film will be criticized for being too derivative
D) the film will appeal more to women than men
Answer: A
Q3) Using a film we have screened in class,discuss the different ways it may be analyzed by a casual viewer,a film critic and a film scholar. Discuss the framework each of these viewers might use to evaluate this film and the role that viewer expectation plays in each of these analyses.
Answer: to be judged by instructor
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Chapter 3: Writing About Film
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Q1) A good research paper does not merely collect and repeat the information contained in these sources.Serious research involves a process whereby the writer gathers information and ideas that may support and contest the working __________.
Answer: thesis
Q2) The sample film analysis of <i>Steamboat Bill,Jr.</i>opens with a comparison of the film to ________.
A) <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>
B) <i>As You Like It</i>
C) <i>Macbeth</i>
D) <i>Hamlet</i>
Answer: A
Q3) Which of the following details is an example of how Bill Jr.from <i>Steamboat Bill Jr</i>.embodies modern values?
A) He drives a fancy car.
B) His father owns the county's new riverboat.
C) He wears a carnation when he meets his father at the train station.
D) His stocky build stands in sharp contrast to his father's diminutive stature.
Answer: C
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Chapter 4: Narrative Form
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Q1) In ________ narratives,events are not tightly connected in a cause and effect sequence and characters do not focus on a single goal.
A) homeric
B) classical
C) expressionist
D) episodic
Q2) In unconventional narratives,turning points can still signal important shifts,even though if they do not form the basis for a three (or four)act structure.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The Russian term ________ refers to the complete,chronological story of a film,including events that occur on and off screen.
A) <i>fabula</i>
B) <i>chronotsz</i>
C) <i>plodtz</i>
D) <i>syuzhet</i>
Q4) Identify the two central plotlines,or lines of action,in <i>Stagecoach.</i>
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Chapter 5: Mise en Scène
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Q1) Location shooting is often less expensive than shooting on a constructed set.
A)True
B)False
Q2) ________ is when an actress is repeatedly cast in a kind of role she has played before.
Q3) Identify two things a character's costuming might reveal.
Q4) ________ colors are vibrant,rich,and bright.
A) Saturated
B) Desaturated
C) Warm
D) Cool
Q5) Identify two advantages of repeatedly casting an actor in similar roles.
Q6) Acting in a way that shatters the theatrical illusion for the purpose of eliciting an intellectual response in the audience is known as ________.
A) postmodern <i>mise en scène</i>
B) method acting
C) Brechtian distanciation
D) deconstructionism
Q7) Three dimensional makeup attached to faces and bodies is called ________.
Q8) The places in which a film's action unfolds are known as the ________.
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Chapter 6: Cinematography
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Q1) Identify two common functions of camera movement,and discuss an example of each from a film we have screened in class this semester.
Q2) What happens when James returns a second time to his fantasy apartment in <i>Ratcatcher</i>?
Q3) The horizontal turning motion of a camera fixed to a tripod,a movement typically used to show the expanse of a landscape is a(n)________.
Q4) ________ "bend" the light coming into the lens,blurring the image and creating a soft visual look.
A) Diffusion filters
B) Polarizing filters
C) Telephoto lenses
D) Neutral-density filters
Q5) A major difference between Technicolor and Eastmancolor was ________.
A) Eastmancolor combined three filmstocks as opposed to Technicolor's use of two
B) Eastmancolor produced less saturated colors
C) Eastmancolor was more stable
D) all of the above
Q6) The measurement of an image's width in relation to its height is called ________.
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Chapter 7: Editing
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Q1) A shot taken from opposite the angle of the preceding shot is known as a
Q2) Like many French New Wave films,<i>Band of Outsiders</i> distinguishes itself from American genre films,preferring instead to cultivate its status as part of France's tradition of serious art.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The Hollywood standard for editing is called ________ editing.
Q4) In <i>The Ghost and Mrs.Muir</i>,an eyeline match just before Mrs.Muir undresses for bed allows the audience to see the ________ that has caused her to hesitate and encourages the viewer to share her thought process.
A) portrait
B) dog
C) clock
D) shadow
Q5) The development of digital video and computer technology has only recently made the concept of a feature-length,one-shot film possible.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Sound
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Q1) The title for <i>No Country for Old Men</i> is an intertextual reference to
A) <i>The Birth of a Nation</i>
B) <i>Taxi Driver</i>
C) a poem by W.B. Yeats
D) a famous speech by President Ronald Reagan
Q2) The ________ of a sound can convey perspective and details about the environment surrounding a character. An echoing voice might suggest an empty space.
Q3) Briefly (in 1-2 sentences)explain why film scholar Claudia Gorbman calls soundtrack music "unheard melodies."
Q4) Analyze an example of how the timing in this scene emphasizes Michael's hypocrisy.
Q5) Which of the following sentences is describing a <i>vocal tic</i>?
A) Kane's voice reverberates down the empty hallways of Xanadu.
B) The gangsters in <i>Pulp Fiction </i>repeatedly utter foul words.
C) Owen Wilson speaks in slow, fluid phrases with offbeat intonation.
D) In <i>Alien</i>, Ripley's voice is soft, conveying her calm, rational approach to the crew's problems.
Q6) Identify two common functions of sound effects.
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Chapter 9: Alternatives to Narrative Fiction
Film:Documentary and Avant-garde Films
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Q1) Documentary filmmakers are just as motivated by profitability as their commercial fiction film counterparts.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In general,documentaries capture an unmediated (or unbiased)reality.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A documentary such as Robert Flaherty's <i>Nanook of the North</i>,whose purpose is to present a way of life of a culture or subculture,is called a(n)________ film.
Q4) In making <i>Nanook of the North</i>,Robert Flaherty ________.
A) insisted on calling the main subject of the film by his real name, "Nanook," even after his producers urged him to translate the name for impatient audiences
B) staged events
C) made his preference for industrial culture clear
D) introduced the gramophone (or, record player) into Inuit culture
Q5) Films made with the sole intent of persuading viewers of the rightness of a single view are referred to as _______________.
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Q6) ___________ films engage viewers by showing them some aspect of the real world.
Chapter 10: Film and Ideology
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Q1) The 1915 release of <i>The Birth of a Nation</i> has been linked to a revival of the Ku Klux Klan organization,whose numbers had been dwindling for more than a decade.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A society structured by the ideologies of male supremacy is called a ________.
A) patriarchy
B) matriarchy
C) oligarchy
D) monarchy
Q3) The feminist filmmaking movement ________.
A) preceded the feminist critique of mainstream films
B) grew out of the women's liberation movement
C) devalued documentary films because they didn't reach as many women as those manufactured by Hollywood
D) all of these
Q4) Both <i>Million Dollar Baby</i> and Avatar feature disabled central characters. Why do some critics argue they reflect different ideologies of disability?
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Chapter 11: Social Context and Film Style:National,
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Q1) Which of the following films was not one of the five major studios during the studio era?
A) MGM
B) Paramount
C) Warner Brothers
D) Disney
Q2) _____________________ films complicate the notion of national identity and the very idea that audiences can link a film to a fixed national origin.
A) Neorealist
B) Expressionist
C) Transnational
D) Geo-fluidic
Q3) Using a film that has been screened in class,discuss whether or not you believe it fits into the "classical Hollywood" style. What elements of the film signal this? If it does not fit into the "classical Hollywood" style, how might it be seen as a reaction against it?
Q4) Explain how either <i>Whale Rider or Smoke Signals</i> reflects Fourth Cinema's interest in the "tension between competing national allegiances."
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Chapter 12: Film Stardom As a Cultural Phenomenon
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Q1) Explain how Bette Davis's career demonstrates how the star phenomenon depends on collapsing an actor's private life into her performances.
Q2) During the Hollywood studio era,stars were ________.
A) under lengthy contracts with one particular studio
B) less of an economic factor than they are today
C) typecast less often
D) all of these
Q3) Gay audiences identify with Judy Garland because ________.
A) there is a discrepancy between her onscreen image and her personal life
B) she was not allowed to marry the person she loved
C) she had a larger-than-life "campy" persona
D) her star persona was not especially feminine
Q4) Maria LaPlace demonstrates that Bette Davis's star persona defined her as
A) fragile and innocent
B) talented, determined, and independent
C) glamorous and sexy
D) driven by her desire for fame
Q5) Describe Indian star Lata Mangeshkar's unusual star persona.
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Chapter 13: Genre
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Q1) One reason Hollywood studios liked producing genre films is because ________.
A) they could reuse sets
B) they could easily dub them for overseas exhibition
C) they would succeed overseas, since genre films were uniquely American
D) all of these
Q2) To be included within a given genre,a film must exhibit <i>all </i>of the characteristics and conventions associated with that genre.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Identify two characteristics of the Western narrative.
Q4) _________________ films like <i>Alien</i> fuse the conventions of two or more genres.
A) multi-generic
B) revisionist
C) deconstructive
D) hybrid
Q5) How did Alfred Hitchcock upset audience expectations in North By Northwest?
Q6) Using a film that has been screened in class,discuss the difference between Rick Altman's concept of semantics and syntax.
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Chapter 14: Film Authorship
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Q1) Peter Wollen argues that the meaning of any text may exceed the intentions of the person or people who created it.
A)True
B)False
Q2) When they were marketing <i>United 93</i> (one of the first films to tackle the terrorist attacks on September 11,2001),why did studio heads try to hide the fact that director Paul Greengrass had directed two entries in the extraordinarily popular <i>Bourne trilogy</i>?
Q3) The case of Ousmane Sembene demonstrates how the <i>auteur</i> critic can
A) look at how atypical films fit into the director's <i>ouvre</i>
B) consider how biographical details influence a director's work
C) argue that the <i>auteur</i> can exist only in a non-industrialized film culture
D) study the tension between a filmmaker's national origin and the style he develops to cultivate an international audience
Q4) Fantastic <i>Mr.Fox</i> marked a dramatic departure for director Wes Anderson.How?
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Chapter 15: Cinema As Industry: Economics and Technology
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Q1) Critics have explored the similarities between the French New Wave and Mumblecore's ultra low-budget films,most of which have been shot on digital video. A)True
B)False
Q2) The dramatic contrast between the press coverage of the independent film <i>Paranormal ctivity</i> and the coverage of the epic blockbuster <i>Avatar</i> demonstrates ________.
A) how popular writing about independent and mainstream film tends to focus on budget and profits
B) how writing about independent film avoids focusing on budget issues and focuses more on aesthetic issues
C) how writing about budgets and profits has fallen out of fashion in the film industry
D) how both films draw from conventions of the 50s science fiction films that focused on alien invasion
Q3) Define "vertical integration" and "block booking." Explain their importance in the development of the Hollywood studio system.
Q4) Explain how Hollywood's production of ideas has been "creatively centralized."
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