Ideology, Genre, Auteur
Article by:
Robin Wood
Presentation by:
Jed Shoemaker
Outline
Outline (30 sec)
Introduction (1 min.)
Terms To Help You Write Your Paper ( 3 min. )
Capitalist Ideology in American Cinema ( 12 min.)
Genre and Auteur (2 min.)
Mix Gingerly (2 min.)
Questions and/or clips ( 25 min. - actual time above)
Introduction
“The Truth Lies not in one dream, but in many” Pasolini, Arabian Nights
“Each Theory… has its own validity” (Wood 208)
Terms To Help You Write Your Papers
Montage Theory-
Editing is the key “creative act” and thus
more important than any other aspect.
Terms To Help You Write Your Papers
Realist Theory-
An attempt to balance the scales of
production of film. “[Downgrades] montage and artifice.”
(Wood 203)
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Semiotic Theory-
Rejects/”deconstructs” realist art which leads
to “open text.” ( open to interpretation)
Terms To Help You Write Your Papers
Filmic Text-
Manner of referring to the artistic aspects of the
film that is similar to discussing literature.
The mise-en-scene for example, is part of a film’s
overall “filmic text.”
American Capitalist Ideology In Film
1) Capitalist right to ownership
2) Work Ethic
Honest toil = GOOD
2) Idleness = EVIL
American Capitalist Ideology In Film
3) Marriage & Family
American Capitalist Ideology In Film
4) Nature - Two contradictory views :
Nature as wild, untamed,
rugged
Nature as paradise tamed by man
American Capitalist Ideology In Film
5) The City, Progress, and Technology
Conflict between yielding to progress and maintaining tradition.
American Capitalist Ideology In Film
5) Success Vs. Wealth
* Wealth is both celebrated and
chastised by Hollywood ideology
depending on the means of acquisition
and the particular film.
(Rosebud Syndrome)->
UNHAPPY
Scale of happiness based on class and wealth
Rich- selfish, insincere, must protect their assets -or- educated and just.
Middle class- represented as majority, have no reasonable unmet needs.
Poor- down to earth, happy but struggling -or- miserable and struggling.
Middle class- Down to earth, but not struggling.
Poor -> Rich / “New Money” Money without corruption, i.e.Molly.
HAPPY
American Capitalist Ideology In Film
8) America is the land of ultimate possibilities- both positive and negative.
American Capitalist Ideology In Film
9) Standard Happy Endings- The ultimate impossibility:
Typical Hollywood studio productions give the main character(s)
implausible but suspenseful conditions for victory and yet most are
successful.
The hero or heroine overcomes impossible odds and ends victorious,
showing that he can surmount a Kantian paradox.
This “emergency exit”- (Sirk)
reaffirms the ISA’s that may
otherwise be questioned due to the
otherwise illogical ideology.
American Capitalist Ideology In Film
9 & 10)
11)
Ideal Male
Aberrant Male is weak and
docile. Similar to ideal
female.
Ideal Female
12)
Aberrant Female is too
masculine or a temptress.
Genre and Auteur
* Genres are ideologically pure if they deal only with one side of a given
ideological contradiction.
* There is little ideological conflict in
a simpler Genre film.
* However, when Genres are less
clear, less traditional, the conflict is
visible.
•In It’s a Wonderful Life, the Baileys
and Potter stand for the two
different interpretations of
capitalism:
Work ethic and reward
Vs.
Disgusting avarice
Genre and Auteur
•Auteur Is a method of defining a work of film by the “finger print” of
the director as an artist.
•It is flawed in that it denies the creative work of the rest of a film’s cast
and crew because the director has ultimate veto. It does not take into
account the fact that film is a collective process.
•Auteur is valuable because it acknowledges that a director’s will is
important in the overall form of the film, sometimes disproportionately so.
example: Hitchcock films.
Mix Gingerly
•Genre - Disaster Film/Romance
•Auteur- James Cameron, Director of:
* Terminator 2
* Terminator 2-3D
* Terminator 3
* True Lies
* True Lies 2
•Ideology- conflict between the happiness
and the misery caused by capitalism and
polarization of wealth.
(obviously there are more conflicts)