Chapter 7 Modes of Screen Reality SCREEN REALITY

Chapter 7: Modes of Screen Reality

SCREEN REALITY ä Modes: ä Ways that cinema configures visual, physical, social and/or psychological reality ä Modes vary across different films and groups of films ä Different modes can co-exist within a film ä Co-constructed by viewers ä Changes over time

Basic Modes ä Realism ä Expressionism ä Fantasy ä Self-reflexivity

Realism ä Ordinary Fictional Realism ä ä Historical Realism ä ä Naturalistic Visual Style Linear Narrative Structure Plausible Character Behavior art direction, costume design Documentary Realism ä ä A pro-filmic referent Absence of Fictionalizing Elements

Expressionism ä Classic German Expressionism (1920 s) ä As Contemporary Style ä Hitchcock ä Visual Distortions as Psychological Correlate ä Can co-exist with a Realist frame

Fantasy ä ä Settings, characters, subjects placed in alternate realms than viewer’s own Established Through Production Design and Special Effects ä ä Showcasing cinema technology Making fantasy credible: ä ä ä Shooting on real locations Accumulating narrative detail Building perceptual realism into production design and special effects

Self-Reflexivity ä Self-consciousness (of cinema as cinema) of style or theme ä Cinema acknowledged as an artifice ä Two forms: ä Comic ä Woody Allen, Austin Powers ä Didactic ä Bertolt Brecht, Jean-Luc Godard, Spike Lee