In the mission statement of this blog, I
indicated that I would be approaching the field of film criticism from the
perspective of a particular school of aesthetics – Romantic Realism. But, in
order to establish what is meant by “Romantic Realism”, to explain its
principles, and to apply its methods of analysis, there is a little background
work that must be done first. There is a hierarchy to the field of philosophy,
and we can’t begin discussing Romantic Realism without first discussing
aesthetics as a whole, particularly in the context of film. This is the purpose
of my first post on aesthetics – to define precisely what is meant by that
concept, and to provide a foundation on which we can build more nuanced ideas.
The first question that we will ask is, “what is
aesthetics”? Aesthetics is a fancy word for, “The philosophy of art” and seeks
to answer the questions pertaining to the definition of art, its role in man’s
life, and by what standards works of art can be judged (if any). Different
schools of aesthetics have different answers to these questions, and we will
not delve into those at this primordial stage of our discussion, except to say
that it is important to realize that a certain aesthetic perspective does not
arise from a philosophical vacuum, but instead follows from more fundamental
philosophical views. Hence, aesthetics is often related and dependent on other
important ideas, which leads to these different perspectives on art, itself.
These relationships can be very fun to explore, and may be the subject of
future aesthetic posts.
While multiple schools of aesthetic thought
exist, there are common concepts throughout the field that are fundamental. In
all of art, whether a painting, poem, symphony or film, there are two
fundamental aspects of a particular work that we can identify: what is
shown, and how the artist shows it. The “what” is referred to as the
“subject” and the “how” is known as the “style”. The forms on the painting,
words of the poem, notes of the symphony, and what appears on screen in a film
are the subject, respectively. No matter how definite or abstract, a piece of
art must provide us with something to experience at the sensory level, and that
which we experience is the subject. Distinct from the subject is the piece’s
style, which comprises the many methods used by the artist to show us the
subject. Obviously, a piece’s style is largely determined by its medium, and
particular forms of art will be associated with particular styles. But, within
particular media, there exist myriad stylistic choices which seek to have an
effect on the audience and show the subject in a specific way. It is the
harmony and interplay between subject and the style which produces the
characteristics of a piece of art which generate passionate responses from an
audience. The expertise of an artist is to unify a stylistic choice with the
subject he wishes to portray and effect a unique message or statement.
Since this is a blog focused on the moving
pictures, it is critical to enumerate the specific concepts in film used to
generate both subject and style (although not exhaustively, obviously). In
film, the subject is created through use of story-telling concepts like plot,
characterization, and theme. Plot, as defined by Ayn Rand, is “a purposeful
progression of logically connected events leading to the resolution of a
climax.” (Basic Principles of Literature, The Romantic Manifesto, p82)
Characterization involves the process of creating and displaying characters in
the story – introducing us to the people who are important to the story and
plot and showing us how they react to the events around them. And, finally, the
theme of a work is its overall goal or focus; it deals with not what the film
shows or how it shows it, but instead what it means to say – what its purpose
is.
The style of a particular film is a little more
difficult to sum up in such succinct terms, if only because while the concepts
involved in generating a subject are fairly broad and limited, those detailing
the style of a film are quite specific and numerous. Elements of a film’s style
include, but are not limited to: cinematography (which has many sub-parts such
as composition, aspect ratio, camera movement, black and white vs. color, etc),
acting choices, direction, use of voice-over, method of story-telling and even
the particular choices made in editing the film. Critically, it is the
interaction between a film’s subject and style which provides us means for
informed analysis.
Superficial analysis of a film often leads much
to be desired, and while there is some value and merit to merely providing
one’s opinion on the worth of film, a proper understanding of subject and style
provides us a more objective approach to analysis. This process entails first
identifying the subject of a film, especially its theme, and then analyzing how
the particular aspects of style are used to express that subject. As a simple
example, we could take Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and his
choice to shoot the film in black-and-white instead of color. In terms of the
subject of this film, there is clearly much to say, but it will suffice to
identify that the plot deals with Nazi concentration camps, many characters in
the story are subjugated, and the theme directly pertains to the response of
the human spirit in times of great horror and adversity. Given this subject,
Spielberg’s decision to show his world in black-and-white has two effects
relating to the subject: it creates a bleak, joyless world (the director
himself has noted that he sees color as a symbol of happiness), and also
establishes a stark contrast between the corrupt and the virtuous characters in
the film. Hence, we see that a single stylistic choice portrays aspects of
plot, characterization, and theme – and very effectively.
Films that are able to accomplish artistic feats
such as these are deserving of our praise and admiration for uniquely utilizing
the tools of its medium (style) to tell a compelling, important story
(subject). When we analyze a film, it is important for us to look beyond
whether or not we enjoyed it, and instead attempt to appreciate its artistic
merits, and determine why it elicits that particular response. And, it is
absolutely critical to realize that those are two distinct concepts: one may
evaluate a film as “great” while simultaneously contending, “I didn’t really
like it”. It is the focus of this blog to remark on each idea by providing both
well-reasoned arguments and impassioned opinions on films.
Source: wiki, google
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