Film Studies 2200F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: The Passion Of Joan Of Arc, Continuity Editing, Aesthetic Realism
Document Summary
We study the theory of cinema to better understand: the construction of images, their meaning, their reception. Christian metz especially important in 1960s & 70s. La language = system of rules behind every natural language. Language = what you see/hear w/o any specific system i. e. everything that takes place in front of your eyes. A discrete unit in a language is replaceable however not in a film because in film every symbol if significant and therefore is different from language. Metz stresses the narrative function of film cinema became a narrative and took over some attributes of a language such as a phrase, sentence, paragraph ect. Film is a vehicle to tell a story a frame and a shot are not the same as a word because words can be replaced by other words whereas frames and shots are irreplaceable iconic images. Film cannot be analyszed in the same was language is. Pure semiotics does not work in film analysis.