The 8 Critical Approaches
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Star / Performer
Genre
Auteur
Social and political contexts
Gender issues
Ethnicity
Institution
Technology
Star / Performer
• You can research an individual or group of
individuals, which could lead to something
such as a ‘star-study’, historical
developments in star status, cultural
relationships the notion of star / performer,
fandom, issues of performance.
Star / Performer
• Area of investigation:
The characteristics of
Rhys Ifans’
performance across
different directors and
production contexts
• Focus film: Enduring
Love
• Related films: Twin
Town and Notting Hill
Star / Performer
• Area of investigation:
The meaning brought
to a film by Juliette
Binoche
• Focus film: The
Unbearable Lightness
of Being
• Related films: Les
Amants du Pont Neuf
and The English
Patient
Genre
• You could focus your research on a single
genre or a range of genres. This area is
designed for you to develop investigations
that consider film as a structured product
that is designed to relate to other similar
films. You might investigate the evolution
of a genre, consider the idea of national
cinema or look at genre as a cultural
product.
Genre
• Area of investigation:
The shaping of the
gangster genre by the
films of Martin
Scorcese
• Focus film: Mean
Streets
• Related films:
Goodfellas and
Casino
Genre
• Area of investigation:
The perceived
communist threat and
the rise of the
American science
fiction film
• Focus film: The Day
the Earth Stood Still
• Related films: Plan 9
from Outer Space and
On the Beach
The Auteur
• allows a film or body of films to be seen in the context of
an authorial voice. It is intended that this context be as
broadly interpreted as possible, and so the traditional
view of an auteur as a single person (usually the
director) is extended to include any individual who leaves
a 'signature' of control (over the production and/or over
meaning) on a film, be they the screenwriter, the
cinematographer, the composer, or even an actor.
Indeed, this is taken further still by considering the
collaborative auteur (two or more individuals who when
they come together on a project leave an unmistakable
signature - Scorsese and DeNiro, for example), and the
institutional auteur (where an institution, be it a studio, a
government agency or a collective, leaves a signature on
a film irrespective of who actually worked on it - the
comedies produced at Ealing demonstrate this well).
The Auteur
• Area of investigation:
Luc Besson's move
from French film to
Americanised movies
and the impact on his
cinematic style
• Focus film: Leon
• Related films:
Subway and Nikita
The Auteur
• Area of investigation:
Ealing Studios'
'signature'
• Focus film: Kind
Hearts and Coronets
• Related films: The
Man in the White Suit
and The Lavender Hill
Mob
Social and political contexts
• This could focus on the contexts of the
production of the film, or on the
commentary offered by films on a
particular social or political context (E.G
Iraq War – Farenheit 9-11)
Social and political contexts
• Area of investigation:
German film's
reflection of Germany
before and after
reunification
• Focus film: Kings of
the Road
• Related films: Run
Lola Run and
Downfall
Social and political contexts
• Area of investigation:
Films dealing with the
Vietnam War as a
symptom of modern
America
• Focus film: Platoon
• Related films:
Forrest Gump and
Hamburger Hill
Gender
• encourages an approach that allows the
study of gendered films or gendered
filmmaking, but also one that allows the
study of gendered spectatorship. Issues of
sexuality, of gender, of representation, and
of other related contexts can be explored
either singly or through a comparative
approach (such as comparing male and
female directorial approaches to the crime
movie genre).
Gender
• Area of investigation:
Kathryn Bigelow's
approach to the
contemporary horror
film
• Focus film: Near
Dark
• Related films: From
Dusk Till Dawn and
The Forsaken
Gender
• Area of investigation:
American New Queer
Cinema and identity
• Focus film: Go Fish
• Related films: Paris
is Burning and All
Over Me
Ethnicity
• may be explored through diverse
approaches including analysing the
representations within a film, and issues
around those making a film. It should be
viewed as a broad approach that can
include more traditional topics (such as
Sexploitation movies, or the representation
of the American Indian in the Western
genre),
Ethnicity
• Area of investigation:
British-Indian cinema
coming of age
• Focus film: Bend it
Like Beckham
• Related films: My
Son the Fanatic and
Bhaji on the Beach
Ethnicity
• Area of investigation:
the changing
representation of
young black men in
British film
• Focus film: Bullet
Boy
• Related films:
Pressure and Babylon
Institution
• engages with issues of industry that may have
been stimulated from concepts engaged with in
FM2 British and American film. Most obvious will
be the industrialised production contexts for film
production (the studios ,the production
companies, and even the established methods
of production), but issues around film finance,
producing, law, regulation, distribution, exhibition
and governmental influence over filmmaking are
all valuable areas through which to contextualise
a research project.
Institution
• Area of investigation:
the impact of the
Hays Code
• Focus film: Ecstasy
• Related films:
Tarzan and His Mate
and The Outlaw
Institution
• Area of investigation:
American Zoetrope independence and
success
• Focus film:
Apocalypse Now
• Related films: The
Good Shepherd and
Sleepy Hollow
Technology
• this context is one that encompasses all the
constructional devices in cinema, from
production through to distribution and exhibition
methods. A wide range of investigations can be
contextualised by technology from an historic
approach dealing with a production development
such as the introduction of surround sound,
through to the impact of video on the industry, or
the implication of digital exhibition (most
importantly with the broader areas of
investigation is the need to anchor them to a
particular focus film).
Technology
• Area of investigation:
development of CGI
in animation and its
impact on audiences
• Focus film: Toy
Story
• Related films: Toy
Story 2 and Shrek
Technology
• Area of investigation:
the development of
colour film techniques
• Focus film: Gone
with the Wind
• Related films: The
Black Pirate and The
Sheltering Sky
Past years questions
Tara Costello
• Area of investigation:
a close study into
John Waters
influences and how
this is translated in his
construction of female
characters
Chelsea Fullbrook
• Area of investigation:
a close study into Tim
Burton exploring the
extent to which his
childhood
experiences are
significant in defining
his auteur signature
Rebecca Hammond
• Area of investigation:
a study into what
makes Pixar films so
distinctive from other
animation studio films
Callum Jackson
• Area of investigation:
to what extent does
Korea’s censorship
effect the social,
cultural and political
representations in
Korean cinema
Ross Lusted
• Area of investigation:
a close analytical
study of Chicano
cinema between
2000-2009; it’s self
reflexive
representations and
the impact of these
perception on national
identity
Hannah Moore
• Area of investigation:
how musicals present
utopian ideologies to
provide escape from
social zeitgeist
Ruby Purcell
• Area of investigation:
how cinema has
represented an
interpreted fashion as
a cultural form
Jake Saunders
• Area of investigation: a
comparative analytical
study of the
representations of
homosexuality in British
and Hollywood cinema,
exploring the different
ways in which these are
constructed and
presented, as well as
their social, cultural and
political significance
Ross Wood
• Area of investigation:
a study into the extent
to which Tom Hanks
solo performances
have established him
as an auteur
Nancy Campopiano
• Critical Approach:
Social & Political
• Area of investigation:
Representations of
corruption in Africa
and its social and
political effects on
Western perceptions
of Africa
Alex Flynn
• Critical Approach:
Institution/
Technology
• Area of investigation:
The impact of Pixar
on the development
and reception of
contemporary
animation feature
films
Harry Mills
• Critical Approach:
Social & Political
• Area of investigation:
A comparison of
American mainstream
and independent films
and the social and
political commentary
these films make
pertaining to
adolescence
Hayley Morris
• Critical Approach:
Social & Political
• Area of investigation:
How 1970’s musicals
rebelled against the
societal norms on
gender and sexuality
Caroline Gittins
• Critical Approach:
Auteur Study
• Area of investigation:
The collaboration of
Tim Burton and
Johnny Depp and
their construction of
protagonists as a
defining feature of
their auteur signature
Deborah Obeski
• Critical Approach:
Social & Political
• Area of investigation:
The social and
political implications
of the civil rights
movement as
represented across a
body of film
Lawrence Salisbury
• Critical Approach:
Social & Political
• Area of investigation:
How films represent
American ideologies
and societal views of
homosexuality within
the period that they
were set
Lauren Scotcher
• Critical Approach:
Social & Political
• Area of investigation:
The social and
political commentary
offered on 9/11
across a body of films
and the effect they
have hand on
perceptions of
America
Nick Storey
• Critical Approach:
Social & Political
• Area of investigation:
Ideologies of the Iraq
war as depicted
across a body films
Summer Homework
1. Create a Small Scale blog – email the link to
rajib@welling.bexley.sch.uk
2. Complete the task one sheet
3. Complete the tack two sheet. Write down a list
of your favourite films or films that you have
found interesting and enjoyable to watch
4. 4 look back at your list, write out questions that
could be investigated from the films
5. Put all initial thoughts an feelings (that’s points
2 – 4) into a presentation that will be given
during the first lesson back