FILM THEORIES

SEC 4 Term 2
Film Theory
◦ Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies
that historically began by questioning the formal essential attributes of ever-evolving cinematic
media
◦ It provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts,
individual viewers, and society at large
◦ Early film theory arose in the silent era and was mostly concerned with defining the crucial elements
of the medium
◦ Film theory took up residence in academia importing concepts from established disciplines like
psychoanalysis, gender studies, anthropology, literary theory, semiotics and linguistics
◦ All of the above elements play a crucial role in the creation of an impactful film
Types of Film Theories
◦ Apparatus theory
◦ Auteur theory
◦ Cognitive film theory
◦ Genre studies
◦ Semiotics
◦ Psychoanalytic film theory
◦ Narrative film theory
Apparatus Film Theory
◦ The definition of the word apparatus as a noun is the technical equipment or
machinery needed for a particular activity or a purpose
◦ The apparatus theory of film is the idea that is used to make a movie like sets,
cameras and their positions and computer generated imagery that make up
the ideological perspective and the reality of what makes a film.
◦ All these alters what a viewer sees in a film
◦ It is all done so in such a craft full manner it convinces the audience that
what is sees is real no matter how ludicrous and far-fetched the scenario
being shot may be.
Behind the scenes- Inception
Auteur theory

◦ An auteur is an artist, usually a film director, who applies a highly centralized and subjective
control to many aspects of a collaborative creative work; in other words, a person equivalent
to an author of a novel or a play
◦ The term commonly refers to filmmakers or directors with a recognizable style or thematic
preoccupation
◦ This Concept has also been applied to producers of popular music as well as to video game
creators as well
◦ The director is considered to be the most important among the people working on a film
◦ A directors’ obsessions that showed up repeatedly in his films and the distinct imprint of
his personality that appeared in all of his works made him a prime candidate for critical
focus
Auteur Theory
Cognitive Film Theory
◦ It is a school of thought in film theory, literary theory and similar fields about the value of the arts that
approaches them not simply (or not even) as sources of delight, amusement, pleasure, or emotional
catharsis, but, instead, as sources of understanding
◦ Cognitive film theory (as proposed by Noël Carroll) respectively, where it generally aims to explain
audience comprehension, emotional elicitation, and aesthetic preference
◦ Cognitive film theory tends to focus on the experience and reaction of the film spectator, on the
relationship between film content proper, context in which the viewing experience takes place, and
viewer psychology.
◦ These perceptions and reactions can obviously vary from person to person in the audience depending
on how strongly they feel about the subject or how well they identify with the emotions of the
protagonist/antagonist. So this film theory studies how audience expectations/ feeling might
influence a film or vice-versa.
Cognitive theory as shown in ‘Mean Girls’
Psychoanalytic Film Theory
◦ Psychoanalytic film theory is a school of academic thought that evokes of the concepts of psychoanalysts
Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan
◦ The Surrealist movement, saw film as a means of engaging the unconscious. Since films had the ability
to tell a story using techniques such as superimposition, and slow motion, the Surrealists saw this as
mimicking dreams
◦ Early applications of psychoanalysis to cinema concentrated on unmasking latent meanings behind
screen images, before moving on to a consideration of film as a representation of fantasy
◦ Freud's concepts of the Oedipus complex, narcissism, castration, the unconscious, the return, and
hysteria are all utilized in film theory
◦ There was also an early exploration of the "gaze" in the cinema, stressing on the viewer's identification
with the camera's vision
◦ The 1990’s established a feminine gaze and has articulated its differences from the phallic gaze and
its relation to feminine as well as maternal specificities and potentialities of "coemergence", offering
a critique of Sigmund Freud's and Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis, is extensively used in analysis of films
Psychoanalytic Film Theory- Male Gaze
◦ The male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts and in
literature
◦ From a heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual
objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer
◦ In the visual and aesthetic presentations of narrative cinema, the male gaze has three
perspectives: (i) that of the man behind the camera, (ii) that of the male characters
within the film's cinematic representations; and (iii) that of the spectator gazing at
the image
◦ The picture you are about to see will highlight all aspects of the Male and Female
gaze theory for you
ROBERT DOISNEAU.html
Psychoanalytic Film Theory- Male Gaze
Female Gaze theory in films
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lapZQysjAMI
◦ The female gaze is a feminist film theoretical term representing the gaze of the female viewer
◦ In contemporary usage, the female gaze has been used to refer to the perspective a female filmmaker
(screenwriter/director/producer) brings to a film that would be different from a male view of the
subject.
◦ The female gaze looks at three viewpoints.
◦ The individual filming
◦ The characters within the film
◦ The spectator
◦ One would expect these elements to focus in men but these too focus, instead, on women
Female Gaze theory in films
◦ Female Gaze theory in films tends to focus on Toxic masculinity, which is a narrow and repressive
description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status and aggression.
◦ The female gaze is a mighty tool for subverting genres that have traditionally been male-driven –
thrillers, in particular – in really interesting ways
◦ It’s emotional and intimate. It sees people as people. It seeks to empathize rather than to objectify.
◦ It’s respectful, it’s technical, it hasn’t had a chance to develop, it tells the truth, it involves physical
work, it’s feminine and unashamed
◦ The ‘male’ gaze seeks to devour and control, and the ‘female’ gaze is more a frame of mind, where
approach to subject and material is more emotional and respectful
◦ Lets look at a few clips to identify if its female or male gaze at play…
Film- Black Swan
Film- How to lose friends and alternate
people
Hidden Figures
Baywatch
Psychoanalytic film theory
◦ The interaction of human minds with the environment they are surrounded which makes
the human change in behavior such systematic study is psychology.
◦ Psychologists believe that films and cinemas that show the moving images on the screen to the
people have deeper impact since the perception and the cognitive ability of human minds on
seeing the moving image is much higher.
◦ The impacts of watching certain themes and genres like sci-fi, horrors, thriller created a
ripple in the psychological current where the cognitive ability and the knowledge used to
analyze the scenes in the brain. This kind of psychological activity that formed the
spectator-screen relationship paved way for “psychological film theory.”
◦ https://youtu.be/jane6C4rIwc
Genre theory
◦ Genre theory is used in the study of films in order to facilitate the categorization of films
◦ When we speak of the western we know that within this collection of films we may expect to find gun
fights, horses and Indians, the solitary cowboy and to some degree the actors and directors of such
films. Another example would be when looking at the horror film where we know everyone will die
except one. Etc.
◦ Some genres may be: Audience/ time-period/ marketing etc.
◦ When marketing and studying cinema it is important to know who the intended audience are, so the
film caters to their needs and is created keeping their ideologies in mind.
◦ An important part of Genre theory is knowing at which period the film was being placed in. Colors,
background lights etc. need to be modified accordingly.
◦ Genre theory is a very good way of marketing a film both for the producers, secondly for the audience. In
particular we may notice this with the teen movie genre.
Teen Audience- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwDH3BpaCQI&t=9s
Time Period- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKn-Agk-yAI&t=2s
 Semiotics in Film
◦ Semiotics Theories. Semiotics. Based on “semiosis,” the relationship between a sign, an object,
and a meaning. The sign represents the object, or referent, in the mind of an interpreter.
“Interpretant” refers to a sign that serves as the representation of an object.
◦ The study of these signs, codes and conventions in film is called semiotics, or semiotic
analysis. Semiotic analysis is a way to explain how an audience makes meaning from codes.
◦ For instance, the colour red simply denotes a colour, but in a certain context it can connote
emotion, like anger, or love. These codes are often used in media to reinforce, subtly, the way
audiences should think about certain things or how they should behave.
◦ For example a long-standing cultural ideology is that diamonds (or chocolate) symbolise love and
that people should give this to your significant other as proof of their love for the other.
FILMIC CODE
◦ Four types of signs and codes exist in semiotic analysis of film:
◦ Indexical Signs: These are the most basic of signs in film. Indexical signs indirectly point to a certain
meaning – they act as cues to existing knowledge. For example, smoke means fire, panting means
exercise, a ringing bell means end of class.
◦ Symbolic Code: Symbolic codes often denote something they have nothing to do with at first glance, but
only because the code exists and because we use them society-wide. For example the white dove
symbolises peace, the colour green symbolises jealousy.
◦ Iconic Signs and Code: They are meant to appear like the thing itself. However, they always represent
more than just the thing itself. When we see a cop, we also associate this with our cultural ideas of
“justice” or “the law”, or even masculinity or toughness.
◦ Enigma Code: This is often used in trailers of movies as well as posters. They make people wonder. For
example, “who murdered the protagonist”, or “how will they survive the apocalypse”. They pique
curiosity and intrigue the viewers, with the intention of making them go see the movie.
Seven
Seven
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFooMdDtTvM
◦ The amount of rain in the film is no accident. The religious backdrop of the Se7en is very
potent. The killer John Doe feels that he is doing God's work, cleansing the earth of sinners.
The rain is a symbol of the great cleansing, the beginnings of the flood from Genesis 7
(coincidence?).
◦ The film focuses on the biblical reference to the seven deadly sins, the protagonist
unknowingly becomes a part of the antagonists plan and completes his work.
◦ The rainy cityscape is a stark contrast to the film's final desert location. It is interesting to note
that it is only after John Doe is captured that we no longer have any rain, showing that the
scourge of the sinners has dried up.
Narrative Film theory
◦ Key Narrative theorists:
◦ Vladimir Propp
◦ Tzvetan Todorov
◦ Roland Barthes
◦ Claude Levi Strauss
Vladimir Propp
◦ He was a Russian Critic and literary theorist who analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales
◦ This is what he proposed:
◦ The Hero (seeks something)
◦ The Villain (opposes the hero)
◦ The Donor (Helps the hero by providing a magic object)
◦ The Dispatcher (sends hero on his way)
◦ The Helper (helps the hero)
◦ The Princess (the reward for the hero, who also needs to be saved from the villain)
◦ All of the above can be seen in Harry Potter-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiuCdPJ83n4
Tsvetan Todorov
◦ Bulgarian Literary theorist
◦ Suggests most narratives start with a state of equilibrium which is disrupted by an outside force and has
to be fought against to establish the sense of equilibrium
◦ Seen a lot in Horror films
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7AfnJd55PI&t=283s

Equilibrium Disequilibrium

New Equilibrium
Roland Barthes

◦ French Semiologist who suggested narrative works with five different codes which activate
the reader to make sense of it.
◦ Action- A narrative device where a resolution is produced through the action
◦ Enigma- teases the audience by presenting a puzzle for the audience to solve, it also works to
delay the end pleasurably
◦ Symbolic- Connotation (an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its
literal or primary meaning)e.g discipline
◦ Semantic- Denotation (the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or
ideas that the word suggests)e.g hot
◦ Cultural- as related to a specific culture (meanings is not only a cultural academic perspective,
but more importantly, it involves the definition of the essential characteristics of culture.)
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 Roland Barthes
◦ When a writer deliberately withholds information from the audience to leave a plot point unexplained, they are
using a ‘hermeneutic code.’ We are left to form our own interpretation of the event or question how it might
be resolved later in the story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKl4-zC1WZs
◦ Barthes argued some codes had “flickers of meaning” in the text. Rather than simply working on a denotational
level, these signs carried connotations beyond their basic definition and gave the reader a little more insight
to the characters, setting and plot.
◦ Symbolic codes are best defined as thematic or structural devices. The different colours of lightsabers in the
Star Wars franchise are obvious examples of symbolic codes. The Jedi’s lightsabers are typically blue or green,
whereas the Sith use red-bladed weapons which are more menacing and aggressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esnMDtMysHo
◦ Many stories allude to concepts and ideas that exist outside the text. In order for these signifiers to be
decoded fully by the audience, that information needs to be part of our framework of knowledge. These
cultural codes include historical, social, psychological or literary references. For eg. The Big Bang Theory
Claude Levi Strauss

◦ Social anthropologist who studied tribal cultures

◦ Examined how stories unconsciously reflect values, beliefs and cultures.
◦ These are usually reflected in binary opposites:
◦ Christian Pagan
◦ Domestic Savage
◦ Weak Strong
◦ Good Evil