Formalist film theory
{{Short description|Emphasis on style & form over content or possible meanings of films}}
{{Essay-like|date=March 2023}}{{More footnotes|date=February 2008}}
Formalist film theory is an approach to film theory 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. This approach was proposed by Hugo Münsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Sergei Eisenstein, and Béla Balázs.Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories: An Introduction, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1976, Part I. Today, formalist film theory is a recognized approach in film studies.
Formalism in ideological approaches
= Classical Hollywood cinema =
Classical Hollywood cinema uses a style referred to as the institutional mode of representation: continuity editing, massive coverage, three-point lighting, "mood" music, and dissolves. The socio-economic ideological explanation for this is style involves Hollywood's desire to monetarily profit and appeal to ticket-buyers.{{Cite web |last=Bordwell |first=David |orig-date=Original Edition published 1997, second printing 1999 |title=On The History Of Film Style |url=https://www.davidbordwell.net/books/on-history-film-style-davidbordwell-180531.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240905161834/https://www.davidbordwell.net/books/on-history-film-style-davidbordwell-180531.pdf |archive-date=September 5, 2024 |access-date=February 27, 2025 |website=David Bordwell's website on cinema |pages=144-148 |format=PDF |isbn=978-0-9832440-3-5}}
= Film noir =
Film noir is marked by lower production values, darker images, under lighting, location shooting, and general nihilism. This is largely due to the pessimistic outlook filmmakers and filmgoers expressed during the war and post-war years. In the following decades, many German Expressionists{{Cite book |last=Phillips |first=Gene D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYAzadGt2UcC&pg=PA17 |title=Out of the Shadows: Expanding the Canon of Classic Film Noir |date=2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-8189-1 |language=en}} immigrated to America. Their stylized lighting effects and themes of disillusionment due to the war left an impact on Film noir and classical Hollywood films. {{cite web |url=https://daily.jstor.org/how-fritz-langs-flight-from-nazi-germany-shaped-hollywood/ |title= How Fritz Lang’s Flight from Nazi Germany Shaped Hollywood |last= Hunt|first= Kristin |date= May 21, 2020 |website= Daily.JStor |publisher= JSTOR |access-date= June 21, 2024}}
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- Bordwell, David, Film Art: An Introduction; McGraw-Hill; 7th edition (June 2003).
- Braudy, Leo, ed., Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings; Oxford University Press; 6th edition (March 2004).
- Gianetti, Louis, Understanding Movies; Prentice Hall; 10th edition (March 2004)
{{Filmstudies}}