Film Analysis: Looking and
Writing About Movies
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 2012
What is a Film?
 Film:
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Celluloid strip on which images that make up motion pictures were
captured, spliced, and projected
 Movie:
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Short for “motion pictures”
 Cinema
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Comes from Greek kinesis (“movement”)
Auguste and Louis Lumière coined “cinema hall” as space to exhibit
their invention
 Differentiation and relevance among terms is constantly
undermined by many factors.
What is a Film?
 Industry:
 Commercial product for mass consumer; film as one medium
of multi-million $ franchise developments across world
 (Popular) Art Form:
 Synthesis of aesthetic choices to convey meaning
 Entertainment:
 Source of pleasure and escape
 Illusions of Reality:
 Screen functions as a metaphorical mirror or window
Making a Movie: Production
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Scriptwriting and Funding: the script is developed
and funding is acquired.
2. Preparation for Filming: planning the production.
3. Shooting: the actual film is made.
4. Assembly: images and sounds are combined,
music, dialogue and titles are added.
1.
5. Distribution, Exhibition
Modes of Production
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 Large Scale: prior to 1960s, large studios centrally
managed film production.
 Independent Production: usually lower budget films
where directors often have more control over
production.
 Small-Scale Production: where one person or a small
group creates the entire film.
Art and Production Modes
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 Films can be categorized based on how they are
made, such as the fiction (narrative) film and the
documentary film.
 The director is traditionally considered the author of
a film because the crew’s job is to create the
director’s vision.
 The producer’s role is primarily to provide capital for
funding the film (thus, he or she may have power
over the “final cut”).
Audience Expectations
 What do we expect from movies?
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Narrative: tells a story, cause-and-effect sequence of events
Duration around 2 hours
Understand individual character psychology and motivation
Series of still images that, when shown at 24 fps, we perceive as
continuous and fluid
Action takes place in coherent realms of time and space
Aesthetically pleasing
Commercial, feature-length movies
Documentary
Short films
Abstract Experimental and Avant-garde
Why Care or Write About Films?
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 Complex form of artistic representation and
communication.
 “The movies we see shape the way we view the world
around us and our place in that world. What’s more, a
close analysis of any particular movie can tell us a great
deal about the artist, society, or industry that created it”
(Barsam and Monahan 2)
 Recognize cinematic tools and principles employed to tell
stories, convey information and meaning, and influence
our emotions and ideas.
Film Analysis
 Involves breaking down a sequence, scene, or entire
movie to identify the tools and techniques that comprise
it
 Also concerned with the function and potential effect
of that combination is unintended effects
 Examines “cinematic language” or film grammar
 Many different approaches in film analysis
 Essential questions: what does it mean? how is meaning
communicated? what stylistic elements are manipulated
to convey important information?
Artistic Decisions in Filmmaking
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 Artistic Considerations:
 Form consists of the overall, unified shape of the
parts of the film.
 Style is the way a film uses the techniques of
filmmaking.
 Formal Film Analysis involves the study of narrative
structure and filmic style.
Film Form as a System
 Form: the overall system of relations that we can
perceive among various elements in the whole film

Complex synthesis of elemental systems
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Mise-en-scène, sound, narrative, editing, etc.
Highly organized, assembled, and sculpted elements
 Form can include narrative elements and stylistic
elements. Ex. The Wizard of Oz
Principles of Film Form
 Function
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Every element within a film can have one or more functions, fulfilling
role(s) within the whole system (motivation)
 Similarity, Repetition, and Patterns
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A repeated significant element is a “motif”; patterns create
expectation
 Difference and Variation
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Changes and variations of elements can create variety, contrast and
change
 Development
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A progression moving from beginning to middle to end
(segmentation)
 Unity/Disunity
 Realism/Antirealism
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“Realism” in movies is highly orchestrated and constructed
Fundamentals of Film Form
 Movies depend on light
 Interplay between illumination and shadow to imply character
state of mind
 Light (responsible for projection) and lighting
 Movies provide an illusion of movement
 Persistence of Vision: brain retains an image longer than the
eye records it
 Phi Phenomenon: created by events that succeed each other
rapidly (apparent motion of light, two adjacent lights blinking)
 Movies manipulate space and time in unique ways
Ch. 3 “Film Terms and Topics”
 Themes
 Film and the Other Arts
 Narrative
 Characters
 Point of View
 Mise-en-scène and Realism
 Composition and the Image
 The Shot
 The Edited Image
 Sound
 Animation, 3-D, and New Media
Mise-en-scène
 Design
 Settings and décor
 Props
 Lighting
 Actors
 Costumes
 Makeup
 Hairstyling
 Composition
 Organization
 Distribution
 Balance
 Relationship of actors
and objects in frame
What is Editing?
 The coordination of one shot with the next
 The duration of the of the shot and its relation to the
previous and next shots affect the viewer’s reaction
 Examples of techniques:
 Fade-in/fade-out, Wipe, Dissolve, Cut, Jump Cut, Split
Screen, Freeze-frame, Iris
 Major approaches to editing: continuity and
discontinuity
Editing techniques to maintain continuity
• Establishing (Master) Shot
• Shot/Reverse Shot
• Parallel Editing
Crosscutting
• Point-of-view
• Match Cuts
• On-Action
• Graphic Match
• Eyeline Match
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What makes cinema “cinematic”?
 Narratives come from literature, folk tales, mythology
 Mise-en-scène comes from theatre
 Individual still/shot comes from photography
 Framed and composed images derive from painting
 Editing makes cinema “cinema” (claims Vertov)
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“Montage” means editing in French
 “monter” (to assemble or put together)
Cinematography
 Literally means “writing in movement”(capturing moving
images on film or digital media)
 Greek roots:
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Kinesis (“movement”)
Photo (“light”)
Graphia (“writing”)
 Cinematographic qualities include the angles, heights, and
movements of the camera.
Cinematographic Properties of Shot
 Film Stock
 Gauge/Size, B&W, Color
 Lighting
 Source, Quality, Direction, Style
 Low-key, High-key, 3-point
 Lenses
 Aperture (adjustable iris)
 Focal Length (perspective; long=narrow POV)
 Depth of field (distances in focus)
 Ex. Racking (change in POV)
Framing and Composition
 Transforms unlimited view into a limited view
 Aspect ratio (w:h: 1.33:1)
 Considerations:
 Proximity to the camera
 Depth of composition
 Camera angle and height
 Scale of various objects
 Type of camera movement
Depth, Angle and Height, Scale
 Shallow, deep-focus cinematography, rule of thirds,
centered
 Eye-level, high-angle, low-angle, dutch-angle, aerialview
 Size and placement of object in space
More Cinematography
 Pan, Tilt, Tracking/Dolly/Travelling, Zoom, Crane
 Handheld camera
 Shakiness can convey sense of loss of control
 Steadicam
 Omniscient POV, Character POV
 Slow motion, fast motion, long take (duration)
 Difference between “long take” and “long shot”
Fundamentals of Film Sound
 Perceptual Properties
• Loudness is connected to perceived distance, but is
constantly manipulated.
• Pitch is the highness or lowness of the sound, and helps
viewers distinguish different sounds.
• Timbre is the tone quality, whether nasal, mellow or in
between.
Dimensions of Film Sound
 Rhythm
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Beat, tempo, pattern
 Fidelity
 Space
 Diegetic and non-diegetic sound
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Diegetic sound can be onscreen or offscreen.
Diegetic sound can be external (objective) or internal (subjective).
 Perspective
 Time
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Synchronous or asynchronous, simultaneous or non-simultaneous.
Six Approaches to Writing about Film
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 1. Film History
 Organize and investigate films according to their place within a
historical context and in light of historical developments
 2. National Cinemas
 Discuss films in terms of their cultural or national character, in
that ways of seeing the world and ways of portraying the world
in the movies differ for each country and culture.
 3. Genres
 Discuss films based on common patterns of form and content
in particular “genres” that change historically
Approaches (continued)
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 4. Auteurs
 Identifies and examines a movie by associating it with a
director or occasionally with another dominant figure, such as
a “star”
 5. Formalism
 Concerned with matters of structure and style, especially how
features (mise-en-scene, narrative, etc.) are organized in
particular ways
 6. Ideology
 Examine the ideas or beliefs on which we based our lives and
our vision of the world
 Race, class, gender, nation/postcolonial, queer theory
Audiences and Aims of Film Criticism
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 The Movie Review
 Appears in almost every newspaper
 Aims at the broadest possible audience (general)
 Aims to introduce unknown films and to recommend or not
recommend them
 The Theoretical Essay
 Assumes audience knowledgeable about specific films, film
history, and critical theory
 Aims to explain some of the larger and complex structures of
the cinema and how we understand them
 Ex. Essay on the relation of film and reality.
Audiences and Aims (continued)
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 The Critical Essay (Film Analysis)
 Between Review and Theoretical Essay
 Assume audience has seen or familiar with the film
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Envision audience as fellow students
Aims to reveal subtleties or complexities that may have
escaped viewers (point our attention to details or readings
that illuminate a new understanding of the film)
Ex. Might focus on a short sequence at the beginning, or a
camera angle that becomes associated with specific
character.
Principles of Narrative Film
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 Narrative is the telling of a story
 A chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time
and space
 While common in fiction films, it can be employed in
other types of films
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“Narrative structure” in March of the Penguins
 Narrative construction relies on the viewer to pick up
cues, anticipate action and recall information
 Analyze how movies tell their stories, and what
stories they tell.
Elements of Narrative
 Exposition
 Everything preceding and including inciting moment—the event that
sets the rest of the narrative in motion
 Rising Action
 Development of the action
 Climax
 Narrative’s turning point
 Falling Action
 Following climax, bring narrative to conclusion
 Denouement
 Resolution or conclusion of the narrative
 Beginning, Middle, Ending
 Elements of Narrative in Mildred Pierce
Plot and Story
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 Story: all the events in a narrative, both explicitly
presented and inferred.
 Diegesis: total world of the story (events,
characters, objects, settings, and sounds)
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Nondiegetic and diegetic elements
 Plot: non-diegetic elements and everything visibly
and audibly presented, but not what is presumed or
inferred.
 Story and Plot elements in Mildred Pierce
Story Range
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 Range refers to how much information the viewer is
given; think of a continuum.
 Restricted: when viewer’s knowledge is restricted
to that of a main character.
 Unrestricted: When viewers know more and hear
more than any of the characters know.
 Story range in Mildred Pierce
Story Depth
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 Depth refers to how deeply the plot plunges the
viewer into the character’s psychological states.
 This is also a continuum that can vary between
objective and subjective points of view.
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Point-of-view shot
Mental subjectivity can be embedded in framework of
objective narration (8 ½, Memento)
 Story depth in Mildred Pierce
Narration and Narrators
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 Narration: telling of a story
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Range (restricted/omniscient) and depth (subjective/objective)
 Narrator: character (within the story or not) who
purports to be telling the viewer the story.
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First-person (actual character)
Voice-over (not a character)
Reliable, unreliable
 Direct Address: character turns to camera and speaks
to the audience
 Narration in Mildred Pierce
Narrative Considerations
 Order (when occur in plot)
 Events (which are chosen to be represented)
 Suspense vs. Surprise (Hitchcock: bomb under table)
 Repetition (how often event occurs in plot)
 Characters (round, flat, protagonist, antagonist,
characterization)
 Setting (time and place)
 Scope (overall range of movie’s story)
 Narrative Structure in Mildred Pierce
Mildred Pierce (1945)
 Directed by Michael Curtiz
 Adapted from the 1941 novel by James M. Cain
 Nominated for 6 Academy Awards
 In 1996, preserved by the Library of Congress
National
Film Registry
Six Approaches to Mildred Pierce
 Film History
 National Cinema
 Auteurism
 Genre
 Formalism
 Ideology
 David Bordwell, “Cognition and Comprehension:
Viewing and Forgetting in Mildred Pierce” (2008)
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Roland Barthes, study of narrative structures (137, 141, 143)
Cognitive Approach or Perspective
 What enables films—particularly narrative films—to
be understood? Or makes them understandable?
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Search for ways in which films are designed to elicit the sorts
of cognizing activities that will lead to comprehension (137)
 Norm: wide set of customary practices (screen space)
 Cues: norm-driven subsystem, initiate process of
elaboration
 Schema-based knowledge: knowledge structure that
enables the spectator to extrapolate beyond the given
information (ex. knowledge of ways the world works)
 These factors vary historically and culturally (1940s)
Argument
 Mildred Pierce: “classical Hollywood cinema” (138)
 Case study for cognitive approach
 Bordwell argues that the film relies on norms of
narration to encourage two possible scenarios for
inference and hypothesis testing
 Furthermore, the film assumes the viewer will forget
certain stylistic norms
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Thus, Hollywood norms exhibit a hierarchy of knowledge,
privileging narrative over style, allowing for the filmmakers to
conceal crucial narrational deceptions (138).
Two Methods of Murder
 Context: early 1940s
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Who? (conceal murderer’s identity):The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Why? (conceal motive of murder): The Letter (1940)
 Who is the murderer?
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Cues:
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The word “Mildred,” smooth transition from house to Mildred on pier,
she tries to frame Wally, Bert tries to say he was the murderer
The issue then becomes why does she do it?
 Why is Mildred not shown to be the murderer?
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Conventions of mystery stories: red herrings, double-crossing, false
appearances/
Skeptical spectator (vs. naïve)
 We create hypotheses and comprehend cues and
information to confirm or discredit our hypotheses.
The Partial Replay
 Viewing, like reading, involves “forgetting” (143), and
filmmakers exploit the viewer’s inability to recall details
 Ex. the two murder scenes
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“By speaking when he is not looking toward his killer, he no longer
seems to be naming the culprit but rather recalling Mildred” (147):
we forget when and how Monty says “Mildred.”
There is an ellipses (gap) between Monty’s murder and a car driving
away that is “not marked at all” in the first version (149)
“One overriding default assumption of the classical film is that a cut
within a defined locale is taken to convey continuous duration unless
there are stylist or contextual indications to the contrary (e.g., a
dissolve or some drastic change of costume or furnishings)” (149)
 The opening scene’s narration has concealed that two women were
present, and that the most important pieces of info include that there
was a murder, and a woman fled the scene.
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Conclusions
 The film “deceives us blatantly but helps us overlook
the deception. It accomplishes this because
narrative comprehension demands that we go
beyond the data, jump to conclusions—in short,
make inferences and frame hypotheses” (149)
 The film shows how cognitive approach can relate
comprehension with detailed observations about a
film’s structure and style (formalism)
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Result is a significantly new picture of a film and its viewer.
Cognitive Approach
 Isolates “comprehension” as a central viewing
activity
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Ignores other aspects of viewing experience: emotion,
interpretation
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“When a critic posits Mildred as the Castrating Mother or a symbol
of the contradictions of entrepreneurial capitalism, the critic is still
seeking out cues, categorizing, applying schemas, and making
inferences that carry weight among a particular social group” (150)
Not every classical Hollywood (narrative) film is a mystery

Every narrative harbors secrets.
Gregg Garrett Essay on Adaptation
 Narrative

In Cain’s book, Mildred exhibits more flaws and questionable actions
that challenged the Production Code of 1934
For the film, her act was cleaned up, she became more of a victim of
circumstance rather than a sinner
 Veda and Monty had to be punished by the end of the film
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Veda was a gifted singer in the book; her talent is almost completely
erased from the film: she becomes a club singer/dancer
Narrative structure: murder mystery, flashback story
 Joan Crawford
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Known for vitality and almost masculine-like drive
Star during early 1930s, won Oscar for Lead Actress
Her glamour may have elevated status of character (class)
The Hays Code: Self-Censorship
 Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America
(MPPDA)
 Improve public image after series of scandals, save
money instead of losing money from audience boycotts
 Handle foreign issues like quotas
 Industry self-censorship: the Production Code of 1934
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Early 1930s conservatism
Outline of moral standards governing depictions of crime, sex,
violence, and other controversial subjects
Controversy in 1939 over “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”
Studios releasing films without MPPDA seals of approval had to pay
$25,000 fine
A film without a seal also was barred from any MPPDA member’s
theaters
The Hays Code: Self-Censorship
 Objectionable material was still used but became
more indirect
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Fade-out could hint that a couple was about to make love
Extreme violence could occur just offscreen
Sophisticated dialogue could suggest much without violating
the Code
 Abandoned in 1967, replaced by rating system
 http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-
code.html
The Searchers Student Essay
Classical Hollywood Cinema
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 Historically, in fiction filmmaking the action comes
from individual characters as causal agents
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Individual protagonist (usually male) motivated to achieve a
clearly stated goal
Continuity system
 Time is typically subordinate to cause and effect
 Often Hollywood narrative is objective and involves
closure
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“Happy Ending”
Features of “Classical” Film Style
 “Classical” or traditional mode of narrative cinema:
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Encouraged the audience to forget technique and labor that went
into creation of the final productive (imagines passive viewer)
Individual character identification with relatable psychology (we
understand their motivation/searching for a goal)
Chronological and causal narrative structure (beg-mid-end)
Invisible editing
Star system, minimal acting
Continuity system:180deg rule, eyeline match, shot/reverse shot
Studio sets
Minimal photographic expressionism (promote “naturalism”)
Narrative closure: resolution of problems (usually “happy” or
satisfying to some degree)
Continuity Editing
A system of editing that allows space, time and action to flow smoothly
over a series of shots
 The rhythm is dependent on camera distance of the shot
 The goal is to present a coherent, clear story and not draw attention to
its construction
 Becomes dominant form of editing in commercial cinema, particularly
“classical Hollywood”
 What happens on screen makes as much narrative sense as possible,
screen direction is consistent from shot to shot, and graphic, spatial,
and temporal relations are maintained from shot to shot.
Genres
 Hollywood specializes in producing and selling
“genre” films: action, comedy, family, epic, horror,
etc.
 Mildred Pierce
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Film Noir
“Woman’s film” of 1930’s and 1940’s
Melodrama, “weepie”
“Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess” by Linda Williams-1991
 Horror, Melodrama, Pornography
 Ex. Burt leaves Mildred; Mildred arrives home to find Kay ill
 “Get out before I kill you!”

Defining Genre
 Genres are groups of films that have themes, subjects
or techniques in common that unites them
 Analyzing a Genre:
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Genre conventions are plot elements, themes, techniques or
icons that define the genre.
Genre films may choose to revise or reject the conventions
associated with them.
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Ex. Star Wars (dir. George Lucas, 1976), Brokeback Mountain
(dir. Ang Lee, 2005)
Genre films usually offer something familiar in terms of
convention, but also something new.
Genre History
 Genres are constantly changing over time, borrowing
techniques from other media and reflecting
innovations.
 Genres become established when one film has
commercial success and is imitated.
 Genres become in and out of fashion in cycles.
Film Noir “Genre”: style or “look”
 “Dark film” (French): an outlook, tone, or style
 Context of WWII: expose ordinary Americans to the horrors of
war
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Films fed off the postwar disillusionment that followed prolonged
exposure to warfare, atomic bomb, and political instability
Cynicism, sexuality, greed, corruption, fatalistic narrative
Large urban spaces, night scenes, gritty and realistic exteriors
Chiaroscuro lighting (contrast dark/light), complex
narratives
Film Noir
 Protagonist is antihero/outsider: self-destructive, not
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ambitious, world-weary; detective is frequent character
Women are elevated to role of “femme fatale” (WWII
context)
Good and bad: complex roles, but they are always
“punished”
Ex. Lighting scheme, night scenes; Mildred drinks and
smokes (world-weary); unreliable narration (Mildred’s
version of story); two femme fatales; the “look” and
narrative structure of the film
James M. Cain: Postman, Double Indemnity
“Woman’s film” of 1930’s and 1940’s
 Derived from domestic fiction
 Focus on relationships among family members and the
importance of women coping with enforced confinement and
the paranoid fears it generates
 Melodrama:
 Repressive social conditions produce realms of fantasy
 Resonances of the “if only” ultimately throw into relief the
presumptions of the realist aesthetic
 Ex. Stella Dallas (1937), Letter from an Unknown
Woman (1948), Now, Voyager (1942)
Todd Haynes (1961-)
 Director of Mildred Pierce miniseries (2011)
 Graduated from Brown University
 Majored in art and semiotics
 Filmography:
 Superstar, short film (1987)
 Poison (1990)
 Safe (1995)
 Velvet Goldmine (1998)
 Far From Heaven (2002)
 I’m Not There. (2007)
Far From Heaven (2002), All That Heaven Allows (1955)