Worksheet Instruction: Answer the following questions; discuss in two sentences each. A worksheet for my Media Theory class for the lecture on Ideology as Instrumental Rationality and the Walter Benjamin essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" 1. Why does aura wither in the age of mechanical reproduction? (p. 21) Aura withers in the age of mechanical reproduction because when an original gets reproduced, “the copies become detached to the domain of tradition.” By making many reproductions of the original, the process leads to
Essays
Filmmakers and Film Criticism Video Essay Transcript
Video Essay Transcript for My Students For this film theory and criticism course, some of you may not find this very appealing, especially if you are more of a production person and not someone who would prefer spending more time in reading books about film theories and criticism and engage in intellectual discourse relating films watched with assigned readings. But think of this way, being filmmakers, knowing film’s roots, how it develops and how it manages to survive and thrive through
‘The Red Balloon’ Short Film Critique: Relationship and Poetry Through a Child’s Gaze
A short essay for my Film Theory and Criticism Class The 1956 French short film classic “The Red Balloon” (Le ballon rouge) features a tender drama with a fine touch of flight of fancy. Its subdued setting features a lot of grays, suggesting the depressing quality of the film’s mood and tone, which is then contrasted with the blazing red balloon in mid air. This post-war motion-picture classic written and directed by Albert Lamorisse features a seemingly cynical world that turns magical
(Response Paper) David Bordwell: The Blurred Line Separating Art Cinema with Classical Hollywood Cinema
In response to: The David Bordwell essay “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice” from the journal “Film Criticism” A response paper for my Advanced Film Theory and Criticism class In the essay “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice,” American film theorist and film historian David Bordwell primarily discussed how art cinema can be considered as a distinct mode of film practice by comparing it to classical narrative cinema (which can be traced to studio feature filmmaking in Hollywood since
(Response Paper) Laura Mulvey: The Women as Element of Spectacle in the Patriarchal Order
In response to: The Laura Mulvey essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” from the journal “Screen” A response paper for my Advanced Film Theory and Criticism class In the essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey objectively examined the roots of woman’s oppression in cinema using the socially established interpretation of sexual difference which controls images, including the erotic ways of looking at spectacle, as applied in films. She looked into the language of patriarchy using the tools provided by psychoanalysis, offering
(Response Paper) Elizabeth Spelman: Centuries of a Woman’s Body as a Gift and as a Curse
In response to: The Elizabeth Spelman essay “Woman as Body: Ancient Contemporary Views” from the journal “Feminist Studies” A response paper for my Advanced Film Theory and Criticism class I find philosopher Elizabeth Spelman’s “Woman as Body: Ancient Contemporary Views” as an eye-opening essay. It helped me better understand the oppression of women through the centuries, while making me realize the importance of really knowing iconic figures in history more than the popular accounts about them. This becomes of extreme importance in the case of
(Response Paper) Ideology, Reality, and the Apparatus Film Theory with Jean-Louis Baudry
In response to: The Jean-Louis Baudry essay “The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in Cinema” from the Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen book “Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings” A response paper for my Advanced Film Theory and Criticism class In this essay “The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in Cinema,” French psychoanalytic film theorist Jean-Louis Baudry asserted that cinema is, by nature, ideological. This is because films are created to represent reality and the mechanics
(Response Paper) Cinema and Ideology with Jean-Luc Comolli and Jean Narboni
In response to: The Jean-Luc Comolli and Jean Narboni essay “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism” from the journal “Screen” A response paper for my Advanced Film Theory and Criticism class This essay entitled “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism” by French writers Jean-Luc Comolli and Jean Narboni started with an introduction of the pioneering French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, offering a general overview of its objectives, goals, and ideology. It also presented the perennial question “What is film?” and “What is cinema?” – questions that continue to linger around many
(Response Paper) The Mythology of Roland Barthes: Studying the Semiological Nature of Myth
In response to: The section “Myth Today” from the book “Mythologies" by Roland Barthes A response paper for my Advanced Film Theory and Criticism class In reading French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician Roland Barthes’ “Myth Today” from his book “Mythologies,” I found myself more open to the nature of cinema as a theoretical discussion. In presenting the groundwork for semiology and its relationship to myth, I got to the starting point of examining current forms of existence and revealing the ideological
(Response Paper) Film Semiotics in the Earlier Lens of Christian Metz
In response to: The chapter “Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema” from the book “Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema” by Christian Metz A response paper for my Advanced Film Theory and Criticism class Being not very much used to the way it approached its scientific methodology, particularly his semiotic approach to film studies, I found the chapter “Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema” from French film theorist Christian Metz’s seminal work “Film Language: A Semiotics of the