CIN201Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Photoplay, Flashforward, Medium Specificity
Document Summary
Wrote one of the earliest book-length attempts at film theory. Writings provide us with a clear example of the formalist/anti-realist film theory prevalent in the pre-wwii era. Art is not designed for practical use; instead it invites contemplation. Art should be considered an end, rather than a means. Art"s beauty derives from an internal coherence, experienced as formal unity. The internal coherence of art helps reinforce its separateness from the external world. It is, instead, a world unto itself. Any art form, to be considered art, had to establish its. Kantian-prescribed credentials as such by distinguishing itself from reality by virtue of its unique features. Technique becomes the key to understanding how a particular artform functions to establish its separation from reality. For any medium to be established as art, the theorist will have to be able to point to the ways in which the medium in question is not merely a version of reality.
