Film Theories (contd.

)
Unit 2
 Film Theory
Film History – is the study of the evolution of cinema
as a visual art form from the late 19th century to the
present day.
Focuses on the technical aspects of the medium
Film Criticism – is the interpretation, evaluation, and
analysis of films.
Offers an interpretation of the composition of the film
as well as its stylistic and technical aspects.
Film Theory – analyzes the many dimensions of films
to offer a critical, social and cultural interpretation.
Try to understand film as an art form, and its influence
on society and culture.
 Film Theory
Theory is a framework that seeks to explain why
something is or why something will be.
Film theory is concerned with the present of the
text: the film itself.
Film theory is a catch-all term used to refer to
technical and theoretical ways of studying film.
Film theory often situates the study of film(s) within a
specific point of view; for example: the works of Orson
Welles within the point of view of auteur theory.
Film theory has been one of the predominant forms of
discourse for media studies since the 1920s.
4 Major Schools of Film Theory
Formalist
Auteur
Feminist
Apparatus
Types of Film Theories
Structuralist
Post-Structuralist
Feminist
Auteur
Genre Studies
Marxist
Psychoanalytic
German Expressionism
FORMALIST THEORY
Formalist theory analyzes the way a film’s

technical elements impact viewers. This

theory looks for meaning in camera shots,
editing, lighting, and sound.
Structuralism
Structuralism is a branch of philosophy that

examines how small things relate to bigger

structures, i.e., marriage and social bonding.
In film theory, structuralism is used as a

framework to examine how small elements of

filmmaking — i.e., blocking and staging, shot
size, lighting, etc. — contribute to the work as a
whole.
 French New Wave
● French New Wave otherwise called as Nouvelle
Vague is a film movement in France began in late
1950s.
● The wave was started by the critics in association
with Cahiers de Cinema who later became
filmmakers.
● Though Nouvelle Vague is not a movement, it was
visible that they challenged the ‘quality’ of French
Cinema setting a postwar trend within the French
French New Wave
Bazin believed a film should be a director’s vision
It is up to the viewer to interpret the content—
ideas that influenced the French New Wave
Film theory in this era brought new focus on
realism, auteur theory, and avant-garde
filmmaking.
Auteur Film Theory
‘Auteur’ means author in French.
To understand this theory, you have to look at a
movie as a book and the director is the author.
This theory analyzes movies based on the idea that
movies are a story constructed with the style and
vision of the director just as an author crafts a story
with its own unique style and use of techniques.
This theory examines the technical aspects of the
film, the lighting, sound, editing, etc., as tools that
each director wields uniquely and with its own style.
Auteur theory assumes that the director is the
primary artistic visionary of a film.
Auteur film makers
Woody Allen
Christopher Nolan
Martin Scorsese
Alfred Hitchcock
Charles Chaplin
Avant-garde cinema
Experimental film, experimental cinema, or avant-
garde cinema is
 a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-
evaluates cinematic conventions and explores
non-narrative forms or alternatives to
traditional narratives or methods of working.
Feminist theory
Feminist film theory studies representations of women
in cinema.
It allows theorists to re-situate films — which have
historically been dominated by men — within a
framework of gender relationality, so that we can better
understand power dynamics both in the film, and in the
making of the film.
A foundational work of feminist film theory is Laura
Mulvey’s 1975 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative
Cinema,” in which she coined the term “male gaze.”
Feminist theory may investigate how filmmakers
objectify and sexualize female characters without regard
for their subjectivity.
Bechdel test
In 1985, cartoonist and graphic novelist Alison
Bechdel created a comic strip called The Rule, a
part of Dykes to Watch Out For series.
In it, two women discuss going to the movies
and one adds that she only sees releases that
have at least two female characters in it who
speak to each other about something besides a
man.
Dubbed the Bechdel Test (or the Bechdel-
Wallace Test), it grew into a gauge of gender
equality.
Movies on feminism
Erin Brockovich
Alien
Hidden Figures
Moana
A League of their own
Genre Studies
This type of film theory analyzes films of specific
genres and their common themes and tropes. It also
examines what popular genres and their films say
about society. For example, genre studies theorists
might analyze the link between cop movies and toxic
masculinity.
Queer theory
Queer Theory subverts traditional
institutions of society that are based on the
heteronormative model of human sexuality,
and acknowledges the broad spectrum of
sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender
identity.
Queer films
Brokeback Mountain
Milk
Boys don’t cry
The World to Come
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Marxist film theory
Marxist film theory studies the representation
of power structures and class struggle in film.
In Marxist readings of a film, the theorist may
focus on protagonists fighting for the needs of a
group against the powers of capital.
Marxist movies
Modern Times
Battleship Potemkin
The Man with a Movie Camera
German Expressionism
 German Expressionism is a part of modernist
movement initially started with poetry and painting
in Germany.
 It was the movement where people sought to express
what felt or saw during the First World War. German
expressionism mainly spread around Germany and
Northern European states.
 The Expressionist movement today is considered as
one of the artistic movement.
The Scream - Edward Munch
1893
Dominant characteristics of Expressionism
 Expressionism used mise-en-scene and heavy
atmosphere
 Long shadow effects
 Artificial sets with realistic details
 The details in the sets bring forth the emotional,
that stirs audience mind
 Camera set in unexpected angles gives audience a
different perception
 Aims in evoking mystery, hallucinations and
extreme emotional stress
 Slow pace than other regular movies
German Expressionism
“the use of artificial light and shadows, the
atmosphere of unease, exaggerated acting styles,
themes of psychological expression and a pervading
sense of horror and the supernatural, can all be traced
back to Expressionism in its literary, artistic or
theatrical manifestations.”

Tim Burton - Hollywood’s most iconic filmmakers; is

best known for his films Edward Scissorhands,
Beetlejuice,The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman,
Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish,
Corpse Bride, and Alice in Wonderland.
Italian Neo Realism

 Italian neorealism (Italian: Neorealismo), also

known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement
characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the
working class, filmed on location, frequently using
non-professional actors.
Psychoanalytic film theory
Psychoanalytic film theory emphasizes the
study of the human psyche, analyzing the effect
of things like narcissism, sexual desire, or
unconscious thoughts on a character’s
movement through a narrative.
Psychoanalytic movies
Psycho
Fight club
Black Swan
Annie Hall
Sisters
Stanley Kubrick is considered to be one of the finest
filmmakers in the history of cinema, an artist of great
intellect, who challenged his audience as if they were
opponents in his game of chess, exposing many
generations to new ways of thinking and different
perceptions of cinema, and the world, as we know it.
 Apparatus Theory
The **apparatus film theory** believes that
movies are innately ideological and carry a
meaning that is reflective of real-world beliefs.
This theory also attempts to examine the interplay
between the audience and the film.
Influenced by psychoanalytic and Marxist theory,
this theory attempts to extract real-world, practical
meaning from a film and attempts to understand
how a film’s reflection of real political or
ideological beliefs influences an audience’s belief.
Apparatus Theory
In this theoretical lens, each element of the film is a tool for

significant political or ideological meaning to pass through

This theory considers **the camera to be an eye** that takes

the place of the audience’s own eye, allowing the audience

to step into and explore a new world or perspective they
may never have the chance to otherwise know.
APPARATUS THEORY
Popularized in the 1970s, apparatus theory
suggests all films reflect reality in some way.
It declares that every film element has
meaning.
People who believe in apparatus theory
think they can learn more about a film’s
meaning by analyzing the meaning of its
elements.
 Conclusion
The essence of film theory boils down to the notion

that cinema and film is an art form and, like all art
forms, it contains layers of messages and meaning
that are ripe for extrapolation and interpretation.
Each school of film theory allows the audience to peel

back the layers of a movie and look deeper, exploring

your own participation in cinema through emotional
and cultural reactions to it.