FAMST 96 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Auteur Theory
9 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Narration
Informed by genre
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Built by plot and style
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Plot + style = narration
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Narration is what enables us as viewers to construct a fabula
Big focus on the effect on the audience
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How the audience perceives (also employing audience expectations)
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What is excluded from narration according to Bordwell?
Anything unrelated to the story (excess)
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Components of style that do not go along with plot or help us put
together the story
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Controlling the knowledge and information
Range and depth of knowledge
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Gaps and how they affect an audience
Can either cue, constrain, block information
□
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Level of communicativeness is related to how much information the
film wants to give us
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Chain of events, causal relationship
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Mise-en-scene
Beyond plot, style, and narration
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Narrational Strategies in Bad Education
What can we say about the specific relationship between style and plot in
this particular film? Do the stylistic elements always contribute to the plot
and our construction of a story?
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How might we describe narrative time as it functions in the film?
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Story within the story -- the film within a film
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How the style of the film guides us and directs us towards a particular
fabula construction
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Prior knowledge that Ignacio wrote the story where the two boys are seen
getting separated from each other, embodying Enrique and Ignacio's
personas in real life
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Transition/morphing faces as a reunion part
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Double trick because we are fooled into thinking that Juan is Ignacio
because of the morph
We initially think these are flashbacks but they are flashforwards
§
The younger kid parts are flashforwards of the movie version filmed
based on the story that Ignacio wrote as an adult
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This only becomes apparent much later in the film when we see
them on set
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Gap, but a gap that we think we're filling but it wasn't really a gap at
all
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Iris dissolve can clue us a little into how the film within the film is not a
flashback
Not used anywhere else in the film
§
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Overstylization of the film -- could be thought of as excess
i.e. use of color
Offers us some knowledge and information, but not really
necessary to construct a fabula
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§
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Andrew Martin - "A Term that Means Everything and Nothing Specific"
Trying to get a grasp of what mise-en-scene means
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Attacks how people have talked about mise-en-scene
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Targets Bordwell and Thompson's definition of mise-en-scene in Film Art
Their definition is everything we see as it relates to a theater
production
Only what would be found on stage□
No camera movement, no dissolves or editing techniques□
Includes props, costumes, arrangement, character
interaction, lighting, setting
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Block quote on pg. 14 of Martin article□
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In film, there's never a time where a camera angle isn't a part of what
we're seeing
Always a perspective that the camera provides that relates to the
way things are staged
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For Martin, it doesn't make sense to argue that the camera
perspective doesn't matter
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Inadequate definitions according to Martin
Bordwell and Thompson's definition
He considers it too limiting as it appeals to the film medium□
Forces us to ignore too many elements that are a part of our
experience (i.e. all things related to the camera)
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Martin wants to create a flexible and holistic definition of
mise-en-scene
Everything working together, very broad, everything
included (editing, cinematography, etc.)
®
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Although martin wants a more broad definition, he doesn't
want to equivalate it to style
Meaning everything and nothing specific
®
Always potentially transformative
®
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Martin wants to include the impact on audiences in mise-en-scene
The "affect"
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How the audience is affected by the film (or by style)
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"…mise-en-scene is indeed the art of arranging, choreographing, and
displaying…" (15)
Using staging as a definition for mise-en-scene
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Specifically trying to point us to particular positions in constructing
the mise-en-scene
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So what doesn't count as mise-en-scene at this point?? Need to
read more of the book to find out
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"for my part, at the outset of this book, I want to hold onto Ruiz's sense of
mise-en-scene as always potentially transformative -- but transformative
in ways that refer to the materiality of cinema, not solely the inspiration
of a director on set or phenomenological subjectivity of enraptured
viewers" (19)
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Auteur theory
What is Martin's take?
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Section 3 Notes
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
12:24 PM
Document Summary
Narration is what enables us as viewers to construct a fabula. Big focus on the effect on the audience. How the audience perceives (also employing audience expectations) Components of style that do not go along with plot or help us put together the story. Level of communicativeness is related to how much information the film wants to give us. Story within the story -- the film within a film. How the style of the film guides us and directs us towards a particular fabula construction. Prior knowledge that ignacio wrote the story where the two boys are seen getting separated from each other, embodying enrique and ignacio"s personas in real life. Double trick because we are fooled into thinking that juan is ignacio because of the morph. We initially think these are flashbacks but they are flashforwards. The younger kid parts are flashforwards of the movie version filmed based on the story that ignacio wrote as an adult.
