The Film Artist Flashcards
What are the three premises of auteur theory? [three concentric cirlces]
1) competence - the technical competence of a director is a criterion of value [none = cast out from the pantheon of directors]
2) personality - distinguishable personality of the director as a criterion of value [characteristic style; reflects the way Dir. Thinks and feels.]
3) [ultimate] interior meaning - tension between a dir. Personality and his material. [mise-en-scene]
According to auteur theory, how might one tell a genuine director?
A pattern established after a number of films.
What might be used to characterize an auteur? Examples?
Thematic preoccupations, recurring motifs, visual style and temp…
John Ford: pattern can be seen in emphasis on scenery; regression to savagery [and a changed attitude in his films at a certain point towards scenery and ‘savages;]
In auteur theory, what is the ‘structural approach’?
A core related motifs that underly an auteur’s work.
In auteur theory, great directors might be distinguished through what?
The force of their preoccupations, unconscious, unintended meaning can be decoded…. Not communication, but an artifact which is unconsciously stricter in certain ways. .. “UNCONSCIOUS CATALYST”
Both classical and romantic aesthetics hold to what belief concerning details?
What every details should have meaning…
In auteur theory, the badness of a director means…?
No necessarily considered the badness of a film…
Overall what does Pauline Kael suggest is behind auteur theory?
Narcissism and male fantasies
What are Kael’s criticisms of the three circles of auteur theory?
1) technical competence - shaky - what about those who violate conventions, “only technique is the technique you invent for yourself” - Cocteau
2) distinguishable personality - can also define the worst films; Hitchock’s style is more manipulative; contempt of director for audience. Praise both an artist’s good and bad work??? Incapable of sound judgement… Like Dior = good-type judgement. Mystical insight. Wrench directors from the social and historical environs.
3) interior mean and tension between personality and material - but they downgrade writer directors? Lack of this tension? Aren’t they in the best position to use film for personal expression?
What are two modes of acting and what is the difference between them?
Presentation and representational; two sides of an acting spectrum that considers the audience: representation characters seem to be speaking to one another though the performance is aimed at audience, while presentational has a greater degree of awareness of audience.
Concerning performance, contemporary development in cinema move towards what?
Use of cinematic strategies that conceal the fundamental ‘staginess’ of acting..
As James Naremore writes, what was the first step towards fascilitating a change towards greater psychological realism?
Shortening the distance between actors and the camera; the close-up, intimacy and window into greater subtlety and represeational performances; less pantomime and projected performances.
What is meant by great actors doing “nothing extremely well”?
That tight framing, requires actors to cultivate gestureless approaches; cultivate unusual stillness or restraint.
What one important principle of ‘realist acting’ that Naremore discusses?
That situations are devised in which characters talk about one thing while doing something else.
What is pantomime known as to actors? (Hint: kind of style/approach/movement in film acting)
“Delsartean” named after Delsart; book published - pantomime-type gestures; common socially recognizeable codified gestures.
