Chapter 11 Film Criticism and Interpretation Copyright Allyn
- Slides: 7
Chapter 11: Film Criticism and Interpretation Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program.
What Criticism Does ä Uncovers subtle or implicit meaning ä Clarifies contradictory meanings ä Creates a novel interpretation ä Uses rhetoric to persuade Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
Modes of Criticism ä Newspaper and television reviews ä Aimed at a general audience ä Tells the moviegoer whether a film is worth seeing ä The reviewer gives a highly personal and emotional response to films ä Gives plot summary ä Little discussion of film structure or historical context Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
ä General Interest Journal-based Criticism ä More literate and informed criticism than newspaper and TV reviewing ä Offers more sophisticated portrait of a film’s structure, meaning and historical context ä Pauline Kael Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
ä Scholarly criticism ä Aimed at smaller community of readers and film scholars ä Does not serve the consumer function of the other modes ä Little attention paid to issues of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ ä Detailed treatment of film history, theory, structure Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
Creating Criticism ä Three stages in the creation of criticism ä Identification ä ä Proceeds deductively Based on a pre-existing framework of interpretation ä ä Description ä ä ä (a social, philosophical, aesthetic, or historical context that you can apply to the film) Requires precise terminology Selection of details to support the framework of interpretation Interpretation ä Assigning meaning to a scene or film ä Uncovering latent meaning Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
Attributional Errors ä Errors of intended meaning ä Errors in assigning authorship Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
