Like all other disciplines on the surface of mother
earth, the film industry has some pyrotechnics that spells it functionability, also
tend to pave way for all and sundry to delve into the very edges of what
screenplay really entails.
Film theory is an academic discipline that aims to
explore 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. Film theory is not to be confused with general
film criticism, though there can be some crossover between the two disciplines.
French philosopher Henri Bergson's Matter and Memory
(1896) has been cited as anticipating the development of film theory during the
birth of cinema. Bergson 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'illusioncinématographique
(in L'évolutioncréatrice), 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 Sanders Peirce.
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, and DzigaVertov and film theorists like Rudolf
Arnheim, BélaBalázs and Siegfried Kracauer. These individuals emphasized how
film differed from reality and 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.
In the 1960s and 1970s, film theory took up residence in
academia importing concepts from established disciplines like psychoanalysis,
gender studies, anthropology, literary theory, semiotics and linguistics.
However, not until the late 1980s or early 1990s did film theory per se achieve
much prominence in American universities by displacing the prevailing
humanistic, auteur theory that had dominated cinema studies and which had been
focused on the practical elements of film writing, production, editing and
criticism. American scholar David Bordwell has spoken against many prominent
developments film theory since the 1970s, i.e., he uses the humorously
derogatory term "SLAB theory" to refer to film studies based on the
ideas of Saussure, Lacan, Althusser, and/or Barthes. Instead, Bordwell promotes
what he describes as "neoformalism."
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. From a psychoanalytical perspective,
after the Lacanian notion of "the Real", SlavojŽižek offered new
aspects of "the gaze" extensively used in contemporary film analysis.
There has also been a historical revisiting of early cinema screenings,
practices and spectatorship modes by writers Tom Gunning, Miriam Hansen and Yuri
Tsivian.
Television writer/producer David Weddle suggests that
film theory as practiced in the early 2000s is a form of bait and switch,
taking advantage of young, would-be filmmakers: anyone in Hollywood filmmaking
who used film theory terms like "fabula" and "syuzhet"
would be "laughed off the lot." Weddle also quotes Roger Ebert's
opinion that "Film theory has nothing to do with film" and is an
obscuricantist "cult;" and quotes silent film historian Kevin
Brownlow's alarm that academic film theorists are typically "quite
aggressively Marxist."
In 2008, German filmmaker Werner Herzog suggested that
"Theoretical film studies has become really awful. That’s not how you
should study film. Abolish these courses and do something else which makes much
more sense."
Some of the major theories of film are:
1. Apparatus theory
Apparatus theory, derived in part from Marxist film
theory, semiotics, and psychoanalysis, was a dominant theory within cinema
studies during the 1970s. It maintains that cinema is by nature ideological
because its mechanics of representation are ideological. Its mechanics of
representation include the camera and editing. The central position of the
spectator within the perspective of the composition is also ideological.
Apparatus theory also argues that cinema maintains the
dominant ideology of the culture within the viewer. Ideology is not imposed on
cinema, but is part of its nature. It follows an institutional model of
spectatorship.
Notable Apparatus
theorists:
i.
Jacques Lacan
ii.
Louis Althusser
iii.
Jean-Louis Baudry
iv.
Jean-Louis Comolli
v.
Christian Metz
vi.
Giorgio Agamben
vii.
Laura Mulvey
viii.
Peter Wollen
ix.
Constance Penley
2. Formalist film theory
Formalist film theory is a theory of film study that is
focused on the formal, or technical, elements of a film: i.e., the lighting,
scoring, sound and set design, use of color, shot composition, and editing. It
is a major theory of film study today.Formalism, at its most general, considers
the synthesis (or lack of synthesis) of the multiple elements of film
production, and the effects, emotional and intellectual, of that synthesis and
of the individual elements. For example, take the single element of editing. A
formalist might study how standard Hollywood "continuity editing"
creates a more comforting effect and non-continuity or jump-cut editing might
become more disconcerting or volatile.
Moreso, one might consider the synthesis of several
elements, such as editing, shot composition, and music. The shoot-out that ends
Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western "Dollars" trilogy is a notable
example of how these elements work together to produce an effect: The shot
selection goes from very wide to very close and tense; the length of shots
decreases as the sequence progresses towards its end; the music builds. All of
these elements, in combination rather than individually, create tension.
Formalism is unique in that it embraces both ideological
and auteurist branches of criticism. In both these cases, the common
denominator for Formalist criticism is style.
3. Genre Theory
Genre theory or genre studies got underway with the
Greeks. The Greeks felt that the type of person an author was would be directly
responsible for the type of poetry they wrote. The Greeks also believed that
certain metrical forms were suited only to certain genres. Aristotle said,
We have, then,
a natural instinct for representation and fortune and rhythm—and starting with
these instincts men very gradually developed them until they produced poetry
out of their improvisations. Poetry then split into two kinds according to the
poet's nature. For the more serious poets represented the noble deeds of noble
men, while those of a less exalted nature represented the actions of inferior
men, at first writing satire just as the others wrote hymns and eulogies.
This is all based on Plato's mimetic principle. Exalted
people will, in imitation of exaltation, write about exalted people doing exalted
things, and vice versa with the "lower" types (Farrell, 383). Genre
was not a black-and-white issue even for Aristotle, who recognized that though
the ‘’Iliad’’ is an epic it can be considered a tragedy as well, both because
of its tone as well as the nobility of its characters. However, most of the
Greek critics were less acutely aware—if aware at all—of the inconsistencies in
this system. For these critics, there was no room for ambiguity in their
literary taxonomy because these categories were thought to have innate
qualities that could not be disregarded.
The Romans carried on the Greek tradition of literary
criticism. The Roman critics were quite happy to continue on in the assumption
that there were essential differences between the types of poetry and drama.
There is much evidence in their works that Roman writers themselves saw through
these ideas and understood genres and how they function on a more advanced
level. However, it was the critics who left their mark on Roman literary
criticism, and they were not innovators.
After the fall of Rome, when the scholastic system took
over literary criticism, genre theory was still based on the essential nature
of genres. This is most likely because of Christianity's affinity for Platonic
concepts. This state of affairs persisted until the 18th century.
At the end of the 18th century, the theory of genre based
on classical thought began to unravel beneath the intellectual chafing of the
Enlightenment. The introduction of the printing press brought texts to a larger
audience. Then pamphlets and broadsides began to diffuse information even
farther, and a greater number of less privileged members of society became
literate and began to express their views. Suddenly authors of both
"high" and "low" culture were now competing for the same
audience. This worked to destabilize the classical notions of genre, while
still drawing attention to genre because new genres like the novel were being
generated (Prince, 455).
Locke, in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690),
had reduced data to its smallest part: the simple idea derived from sense.
However, as the science of cognition became more precise it was shown that even
this simple idea derived from sense was itself divisible. This new information
prompted David Hartley to write in his Observation on Man (1749),
How far the
Number of Orders may go is impossible to say. I see no Contradiction in
supposing it infinite, and a great Difficulty in stopping at any particular
Size. (Prince, 456).
 |
JAMES BOND
|
The possibility of an infinite number of types alarmed
theologians of the time because their assumption was that rigorously applied
empiricism would uncover the underlying divine nature of creation, and now it
appeared that rigorously applied empiricism would only uncover an ever-growing
number of types and subsequent sub-types.
In order to re-establish the divine in categorization,
the new taxonomical system of aesthetics arose. This system offered first
beauty, and then the sublime as the taxonomical device. The problem with
Aesthetics was that it assumed the divine and thus the sublime must underlie
all these categories, and thus, the ugly would become beautiful at some point.
The paradox is glaring.
4. Marxist film theory
Marxist film theory is one of the oldest forms of film
theory.
Sergei Eisenstein and many other Soviet filmmakers in the
1920s expressed ideas of Marxism through film. In fact, the Hegelian dialectic
was considered best displayed in film editing through the Kuleshov Experiment
and the development of montage.
While this structuralist approach to Marxism and
filmmaking was used, the more vociferous complaint that the Russian filmmakers
had was with the narrative structure of Hollywood filmmaking.
Eisenstein's solution was to shun narrative structure by
eliminating the individual protagonist and tell stories where the action is
moved by the group and the story is told through a clash of one image against
the next (whether in composition, motion, or idea) so that the audience is
never lulled into believing that they are watching something that has not been
worked over.
Eisenstein himself, however, was accused by the Soviet
authorities under Joseph Stalin of "formalist error," of highlighting
form as a thing of beauty instead of portraying the worker nobly.
French Marxist film makers, such as Jean-Luc Godard,
would employ radical editing and choice of subject matter, as well as
subversive parody, to heighten class consciousness and promote Marxist ideas.
Situationist film maker Guy Debord, author of The Society
of the Spectacle, began his film Ingirumimusnocte et consumimurigni [Wandering
around in the night we are consumed by fire] with a radical critique of the
spectator who goes to the cinema to forget about his dispossessed daily life.
Situationist film makers produced a number of important
films, where the only contribution by the situationist film cooperative was the
sound-track. In Can dialectics break bricks? (1973) a Chinese Kung Fu film was
transformed by redubbing into an epistle on state capitalism and Proletarian
revolution. The intellectual technique of using capitalism's own structures
against itself is known as détournement.
Marxist film theory has developed from these precise and
historical beginnings and is now sometimes viewed in a wider way to refer to
any power relationships or structures within a moving image text.
5. Psychoanalytical film theory
Psychoanalytical film theory is a school of academic film
criticism that developed in the 1970s and '80s, is closely allied with critical
theory, and that analyzes films from the perspective of psychoanalysis,
generally the works of Jacques Lacan.
The film viewer is seen as the subject of a
"gaze" that is largely "constructed" by the film itself,
where what is on screen becomes the object of that subject's desire.
The viewing subject may be offered particular
identifications (usually with a leading male character) from which to watch.
The theory stresses the subject's longing for a completeness which the film may
appear to offer through identification with an image; in fact, according to
Lacanian theory, identification with the image is never anything but an
illusion and the subject is always split simply by virtue of coming into
existence.
6. Screen theory
Screen theory is a Marxist film theory associated with
the British journal Screen in the 1970s. The theoreticians of this approach --
Colin MacCabe, Stephen Heath and Laura Mulvey -- describe the "cinematic
apparatus" as a version of Althusser's Ideological State Apparatus (ISA).
According to screen theory, it is the spectacle that creates the spectator and
not the other way round. The fact that the subject is created and subjected at
the same time by the narrative on screen is masked by the apparent realism of
the communicated content.
7. Structuralist film theory
Structuralist
film theory is a branch of film theory that is rooted in Structuralism, itself
based on structural linguistics, a now-obsolete branch of linguistics.[citation
needed] Structuralist film theory emphasizes how films convey meaning through
the use of codes and conventions not dissimilar to the way languages are used
to construct meaning in communication.
An example of this is understanding how the simple
combination of shots can create an additional idea: the blank expression on a
person's face, an appetising meal, and then back to the person's face. While
nothing in this sequence literally expresses hunger—or desire—the juxtaposition
of the images convey that meaning to the audience.
Unraveling this additional meaning can become quite
complex. Lighting, angle, shot duration, juxtaposition, cultural context, and a
wide array of other elements can actively reinforce or undermine a sequence's
meaning.
8. Feminist film theory
Feminist film theory is theoretical film criticism
derived from feminist politics and feminist theory. Feminists have many
approaches to cinema analysis, regarding the film elements analysed and their
theoretical underpinnings
The development of feminist film theory was influenced by
second wave feminism and the development of women's studies within the academy.
Feminist scholars began taking cues from the new theories arising from these
movements to analyzing film. Initial attempts in the United States in the early
1970s were generally based on sociological theory and focused on the function
of women characters in particular film narratives or genres and of stereotypes
as a reflection of a society's view of women. Works such as Marjorie Rosen’s
Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies, and the American Dream (1973) and Molly Haskell’s
From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in Movies (1974) analyze how the
women portrayed in film related to the broader historical context, the
stereotypes depicted, the extent to which the women were shown as active or
passive, and the amount of screen time given to women.
In contrast, film theoreticians in England began
integrating critical theory based perspectives drawn from psychoanalysis,
semiotics, and Marxism, and eventually these ideas gained hold within the
American scholarly community in the later 1970s and 1980s. Analysis generally
focused on "the production of meaning in a film text, the way a text
constructs a viewing subject, and the ways in which the very mechanisms of cinematic
production affect the representation of women and reinforce sexism".
In his article, "From the Imaginary Signifier:
Identification, Mirror," Christian Metz argues that viewing film is only
possible through scopophilia (pleasure from looking, related to voyeurism),
which is best exemplified in silent film.
According to Cynthia A. Freeland in "Feminist
Frameworks for Horror Films," feminist studies of horror films have
focused on psychodynamics where the chief interest is "on viewers' motives
and interests in watching horror films".
More recently, scholars have expanded their work to
include analysis of television and digital media. Additionally, they have begun
to explore notions of difference, engaging in dialogue about the differences
among women (part of movement away from essentialism in feminist work more
generally), the various methodologies and perspectives contained under the
umbrella of feminist film theory, and the multiplicity of methods and intended
effects that influence the development of films. Scholars are also taking
increasingly global perspectives, responding to postcolonialist criticisms of
Anglo- and Eurocentrism in the academy more generally. Increased focus has been
given to, "disparate feminisms, nationalisms, and media in various locations
and across class, racial, and ethnic groups throughout the world".
RELATING THE
APPARATUS FILM THEORY TO NOLLYWOOD’S “SAWOROIDE” (1999)
This 1999-shot film, Saworoide, an epic Yoruba movie, by
TundeKelani beam-lights the robust and enviable Yoruba culture and oral
tradition. The movie symbolizes the patterned institution of the laudable
Yoruba heritage.
 |
| TALKING DRUM |
The level of professionalism that is evident in this film
emphasis on the economic yields of movie production over any artistic
considerations. I chose this film specifically because it involves a number of
factors chief of which is creative interpretations and projections of culture
-Yoruba culture in this instance- in his films, which reflects his appropriation
of orality as performative energy.
The film maker believes it is necessary that artistic and
cultural productions speak in any culture as well as to others as part of
global cultural education.Kelani aims largely to speak through locally mediated
experiences, through memory recognizable, through metaphysics- which some
cultures might consider exotic- but ultimately to celebrate aspects of African
history and culture and enlighten others about these. That is the celebratory
vision in Saworoide and at the level of allegorism and orality. The plot of the
story is well crafted and the dialogue rich and nuanced. Acting is never
lacking in Kelani’s ensemble because the ‘naturalness’ of the old hands of
Yoruba traveling theatre who have been collaborating with the theatre scholars,
since Duro Ladipo and Kola Ogunmola, is always felt. Take LerePaimo (of Eda
fame), Dr. Akinleye(of Idamu Padre fame), Dr Kola Oyewo, AlagbaBayoFaleti,
Abiodun Oya, Dejumo Lewis and Prof. Akin Ishola and you have the most formidable
cast you could ever get in this part of ‘wood’.
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