Appendix 1: Short Introduction to Film Study

Appendix 1: Short Introduction to Film Study The next few pages offer an alphabetical list of topics often used in the critical evaluation of film with sample questions to aid in the critical discussion.1 Acting/Actors/Stars The cinema has long been driven by the visual appeal of its actors. Acting styles have changed since the silent days from the pantomime of the dive to the preference for nonprofessionals in the neorealist period to the present close connection between television, new media, and film. Silent-era actors in particular were universally popular because of the lack of linguistic barriers in their performances. Over the decades the personas of certain actors has even become identified with national, cultural, and class identities as well as with the style of living and attitudes in various time periods. In Italy, actors such as Alberto Sordi and Marcello Mastroianni were widely identified with the basic character traits of the Italian populace as were female stars such as Sophia Loren, Monica Vitti, or Anna Magnani. What type of acting style is used (nonprofessionals, method acting, theatrical, star persona)? Audience Film industries, including Italy, have periodically changed the type of films they produce in response to changes in target audiences. In the United States for example, Hollywood film production was targeted toward a female audience until the 1960s when the target audience became increasingly younger and male. In Italy, production in the 1960s and 1970s and thereafter introduced entertainment (art cinema, erotically charged cinema) not available on television because of censorship codes. What was the intended audience of the film? How was the film received when released? How has the film aged? Camera techniques Film theorists such as Christian Metz and Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote of the ability of shot selection to provide a language for film.2 The image on the screen has been filmed through the eye of a camera, which approaches its subject from certain angles and movements. Techniques used with a camera lens can include zoom or telephoto variations that will 162 APPENDIX I: SHORT INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDY increase the size of an object in relation to the frame, or a wide angle which conversely pulls the camera frame back. An anamorphic lens may be used for making films for wide screen projection. Cameras may also have a filter of glass or gelatin in order to change the color and hue of the image that is exposed onto the film stock which may also be manipulated to change the final image. For example the use of a dupe negative may give a rough documentary tone. The photographic image is limited by its framing, which allows for the reduction, deletion, or magnification of images. There are established standards for frame ratios or the aspect ration of a frame’s width to height. Decisions about lighting are essential, especially in black-and-white film. The propor- tion of light to dark in a scene is called tonality and is important in creating mood and atmosphere. A low-key tonality is achieved when more than half the image on the screen is devoted to darks and half-tone values, so as to give an aura of ominous foreboding, fear, or the mystery of romance. A scene is in high-key tonality, instead, when more than half the image is committed to light bright values to suggest cheerfulness and gaiety. An extremely bright white hue, however, may suggest coldness, lack of human values, and alienation. In color film certain colors may be used to portray emotions or in relation to specific character and plot elements. A director’s and cinematographer’s choices are evident in the kinds of shots used. Sequences are presented with what may be called either an objective or subjective camera. The objective camera style usually consists of a technique that aims at reproducing the narrative in the most realistic way possible, close to a documentary technique. According to Bazin, De Sica and Zavattini’s Ladri di biciclette/The Bicycle Thief (1948) is a clear example of such a style, and most neorealist films have a reputation for being shot accordingly. The story, however, or part of it, may also be presented in such a way that the audience feels that they are seeing it through the point of view of one of the characters. This subjective camera style is a technique also found in neorealist films, usually to underline the emotional con- nections between the film characters and the audience. Even in what is considered a para- digm of Neorealist film, Rossellini’s Roma città aperta/Open City (1945), we have a powerful subjective camera shot whereby when Francesco, Pina’s fiancé, is being taken away by the Nazis in a truck, the sequence of Pina running after the truck and being shot, is filmed by a camera on the truck, that is, it is projected as if seen through Francesco’ s perspective. Sometimes the camera is fixed and its movements are exclusively from a pivotal point. A pan is the image produced when the camera films its subject horizontally from a fixed position by simply turning on its axis. But a camera may also be in motion with a crane shot,a dolly or tracking shot, moving forward, backward, or diagonally, which create angles to heighten or emphasize the interests of the director. The camera can perform other movements from a fixed position such as the tilt, an up or down movement of the camera from a pivotal point. Some other interesting shots are marked by a progressive approach or retreat of the camera eye from its filming subject. In a zoom-in, the camera eye approaches its subject, magnifying the details on which it concentrates, while reducing at the same time the area being filmed. With a zoom-out, instead, the camera progressively moves away from its subject, connecting it with the surroundings that are being included in the shot. An excellent example of both zoom-in and zoom-out shots is included in the central sequence of Scola’s C’eravamo tanto amati/We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974). An initial zoom-out includes all three important male characters on a piazza that they exit from three different streets—signaling the different ways of life that each of them will choose from then on. At this point, the camera zooms-in to the center of the piazza onto a chalk-drawing on the pavement, which slowly turns into color with the progressive approaching of the camera eye—signaling the film time change from black-and-white to color. APPENDIX I: SHORT INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDY 163 As with painting where works may be classified as a still life, portrait, or landscape, the camera presents different perspectives. Sometimes characters are presented in close-up,a shot that focuses on the head of a person, which may become an extreme close-up of facial features, for example, for dramatic concentration. Antonioni often uses close-ups of objects to dramatize their importance in the narrative, as in the opening sequence of L’eclisse/The Eclipse (1962). Other figure shots are the medium shot waist-up view of a character, the three quarters shot (known in Italy as the piano americano, the American shot) and the full shot, which presents an actor’s entire body and is often used to introduce new characters. In the following shot the frame shifts to follow the movement of a character or object. The long shot frames figures within a wider landscape. With these different size variations are definitions for the amount of time that a shot is held such as the long take which is an extended shot of a character or image, often with the intent of communicating a psycho- logical state. An establishing shot may be used at the beginning of a film or at the start of a sequence usually to reveal the setting for events may be revoked in a reestablishing shot. Sometimes an establishing shot prepares the scene for the general mood of the story or for the type of characters that will be introduced. The Salina estate shown at the opening of Visconti’s Il gattopardo/The Leopard (1963) in all its imposing grandeur and beauty, and yet only partially cultivated and parched, establishes the right atmosphere for the story of the downfall of the House of Salina conveyed through a melancholic and static narrative mood and the complex and pessimistic character of the Prince. For example, in Visconti’ s The Leopard, during most of the credits sequence, the camera dwells on the country estate of the Prince of Salina, first from a far away panoramic view, then slowly zooming in on the facade of the villa until it enters through one of the terrace door into the chapel where the family is reciting the evening rosary. These shots clearly establish the social and historical background of the story as well as the upbringing of the members of the Prince’s family. Part of camera techniques involves trick photography where images are photographed in a foreground or background of photomats of painted glass or sets with the intention of creating an illusion about a setting. Such special effects as the process shot or matte shots have given way to entirely digital computer-generated imagery or the use of backgrounds such as bluescreens onto which generated imagery may be applied through the use of computer graphics. Editing Shot assembling (mise en scène in French and messa in scena in Italian) is an essential function in constructing the narrative of the films.

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