Introduction to Film and
Television Studies
Formal analysis
Why analyze a film?
When the film piques our interest, we analyze it
in order to explain, in formal and historical
terms, what is going on in the work that would
cue such a response … ultimately we write and
read criticism as much for issues raised as for
the explication of a single film. Theory and
criticism thus become two different aspects of
the same give-and-take process. (Kristin
Thompson: Breaking the Glass Armour p. 5)
Cinematic competence includes
• Ability to understand motivations of fictional
characters and how those generate action
• Ability to detect themes
• Ability to assess ideological issues
• Ability to relate an individual film to frames
such as art in general, film history, genres,
other modes of representation
• Ability to assess and appreciate the individual
qualities of a film
Reading strategies (Stuart Hall)
Differences in decoding
• Dominant-hegemonic position: the message is
decoded entirely as it was intended
• Negotiating position: at least some
components are adapted or reinterpreted
according in ‘local’ terms
• Oppositional position: the message is read in
terms of an alternative framework resulting in
a reading which may carry far away from the
intended meanings
Scale of competence
• Basic competence: the spectator recognizes the diegetic
and explicit meanings
• A fully competent spectator either
– recognizes the implicit meanings and accepts their
ideological connotations (hegemonic rstr)
– recognizes and accepts basic assumptions but not all their
implications (negotiating rstr)
– finds her own implicit meanings on the basis of her own
ideological position (oppositional rstr)
• A critical spectator analyzes also symptomatic meanings,
i.e. ideological implications and psychological symptoms
Background assumptions of Formalism
• Narration as a process of “selecting, arranging, and
rendering story material in order to achieve specific timebound effects on a perceiver” (NF)
• The work itself defines which aspects of reality are
relevant for comprehension
• Meanings are not messages conveyed by he film but
parts of the film’s structure
• Viktor Shklovski: ”It is true that in a work of literature we
also have the expression of ideas, but it is not a question
of ideas clothed in artistic form, but rather artistic form
created from ideas as its material.”
• Not everything is narrational and/or thematic. The filmic
qualities can be an autonomous dimension of the film excess
Formalist analysis in practice
• How can the film be understood in terms of
motivations?
• How does the film guide the spectator in
forming hypothesis and how does it either
confirm them or deny them?
• Does the film confirm to certain norms or
does it challenge them?
• How do all the different elements function
narratively, thematically or expressively?
• How does the film build up into a whole?
Background constructions (Thompson)
• enable the assessing of realistic motivation
• define which aspects of reality are relevant in
the film
• define to which aesthetic norms the film
adheres to
• form a horizon in the spectators mind which
make the film comprehensible
Tasks of film criticism
• To analyze and expand the range of perception and
understanding in respect of a challenging work or art
• Prevent the formation of a gap between the artist and
the audience by demonstrating how the work of art
functions
• Bring a challenging work within the range of the
audience not by simplifying it but by developing useful
concepts and approaches
• Show a conventional work in a new light e.g. bringing out
neglected background constructions
Semantic fields
• Conceptual structures that organize potential meanings
in respect of one another
• Precede analysis but may be revised as the analysis
proceeds
• Are selected according to what is though to be relevant
in a given community
• Are supposed to be able to pick up all the relevant
features of the object of study
• Have traditionally derived from the humanities: what
does the work tell us about the human condition, love,
anxiety, alienation, difficulties in communication,
relativity of values etc.
How is interpretation worked out? (DB)
• The most pertinent meanings are assumed to
be either implicit, symptomatic or both
• One or more semantic field is highlighted
• Different levels of the film are mapped out in
terms of semantic fields by correlating textual
and semantic features with one another
• Presenting an argumentation which displays
the novelty and value of the interpretation
Four tasks of an interpreter (DB)
• Demonstrate why the film chosen is a relevant object of
analysis
• Demonstrate how the critical concepts applied suit the
specific features of the film under study
• Make the interpretation novel by
- presenting a new theory or method
- revising an existing theory or method
- applying an established theory to a new area
- drawing attention to features previously neglected
• Present the interpretation in a convincing way