Doing Film Studies

Sarah Casey Benyahia, Claire Mortimer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780415602709
• eBook ISBN: 9781136170058
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Doing Film Studies examines what it really means to study film, encouraging the reader to question the dominant theories as well as understanding the key approaches to cinema. This book provides an overview of the construction of film studies - including its history and evolution - and examines the application of theories to film texts. Important questions discussed include:

• Why does film studies need a canon?
• What is the relationship between authorship and genre theory?
• What is screen theory?
• How do we read a film text?
• Why is the concept of the spectator important to film?
• How is film involved in national identity?
• What is meant by a 'film industry'?

Aimed at students in their final year of secondary education or beginning their degrees, Doing Film Studies equips the reader with the tools needed in approaching the study of film.

WHAT WE WATCH AND
WHAT WE STUDY

The Canon in Practice

What we study

In having chosen to undertake the study of film, you will have quickly become aware of how popular the subject now is in higher education, being widely on offer in a range of institutions, in a bewildering variety of permutations. It may be difficult to imagine how the subject had to struggle to be accepted by academia, meeting with initial suspicion and disdain, perhaps because of the obvious associations with popular culture and mass entertainment, seemingly at odds with serious academic study. This debate around the popular and the academic is central to understanding the nature of film studies.

Before engaging with how film has become the subject that it is today, we need to consider what exactly is involved in studying it: what is the typical course content? What films will you be expected to study and why study those films, in particular? What can you expect to learn from them?

As with any academic subject, what constitutes film studies has been shaped by a variety of forces and influential figures over time to form the subject you experience today. Film itself is a comparatively young form and has only been in existence since the late nineteenth century. It is also a relatively young subject, having gained academic credibility in the last 30 years after fighting for acceptance. The form in which we find it today reflects the values and input of significant ‘players’ in the academic world, but also reflects a subject which is itself in flux. The technology of film-making, distribution and exhibition itself has undergone massive changes in a very short space of time with the impact of digital technologies.

A typical film studies degree will offer a grounding in film history and film theory, developing critical and analytical skills, with a core emphasis on Hollywood cinema. Beyond this a course will offer opportunities to explore other aspects of film, such as national cinemas, specific directors, specific film movements (for example, the French New Wave or film noir), film genres and critical issues (such as gender and film). Some courses will also offer creative opportunities such as practical film-making and screenwriting.

The popular experience of film bears little connection to the academic film landscape in terms of the films which feature in the film curriculum, and which are critically rated by the film cognoscenti. Film is primarily an industry, being a significant aspect of popular culture, where everyone has their own concepts of their personal film greats. Unlike literature, theatre and other arts, film is a popular art form and thus is universally ‘owned’ by the populace; everyone has an opinion as to what makes a good film. During recent years there has been a growing academic recognition of the importance of popular culture, as is evident in influential research such as Henry Jenkins's seminal work on fandom.

Film studies today is derived from a blend of approaches and theory from a range of different disciplines, including anthropology, art, theatre, literature and linguistics, which have informed the critical and theoretical approaches to the subject. The landscape of the subject is mapped out around the film canon — that is, a core of ‘classic’ films which are understood to have been vital in the development of the form, and which are seen to define the ‘best’ of film in all its key phases to date. In this respect the canon is the core of the subject, the filmic equivalent of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen et al. The canon has always been crucial to academics in staking their claim that film is an art form, epitomized by certain essential texts, which signpost a critical history of ‘great’ moments: great films, directors or film movements.

What we watch

The universal experience of cinema for most students is dominated by popular Hollywood cinema. The exploration of why this is the case forms a key area of study, involving a consideration of film history and debates touching on global politics, economic forces and cultural hegemony. The popularity of Hollywood cinema is reflected in box office statistics.

The box office is dominated by films funded by the major Hollywood film studios, many of which gain global success, beyond the English-speaking market, and thus dominate world cinemas, indicating the continuing power of popular Hollywood film. For example, the highest grossing films in the UK in 2010 reveal certain trends, such as the popularity of fantasy, whether it be animation (Toy Story 3), the superhero genre (Iron Man 2), sci-fi (Inception) or vampire romance (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse). Many of the highest grossing films prove Hollywood's success in targeting the family market, but also demonstrate how Hollywood continues to be risk-averse, with a reliance on sequels, and adaptations of narratives which have already been successful, as books, television series or cartoon characters for example. It is also helpful to consider what is missing. The ten highest grossing films at the UK box office featured no films produced by a UK studio, only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) has any claim to being a British film. The absolute majority of the films are set in the US and there are no British directors featured in the list.

What do we learn from these lists?

In this context, ‘popular’ cinema is the cinema that is most widely consumed — this can be crassly measured by box office receipts. In most cases these will be the films that are produced by the few dominant Hollywood studios, owned by the vast media conglomerates that have a global presence. Nevertheless, these are generally not the films that gain critical esteem and academic kudos, and will not form the core of any film studies degree course.

There is clearly a substantial gap between the cinema which is part of popular consciousness, and the cinema that informs the world of academia. This is clear when comparing the top ten box office hits of 2010 with the critics' top films of the year as chosen by Sight and Sound magazine. There is no common ground between the two, the top five films of the year, according to the critics, being:

1 The Social Network (David Fincher), US;

2 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Boonmee raluek chat), Thailand/UK/France/Germany/Spain/The Netherlands/US;

3 Another Year (Mike Leigh), UK;

4 Carlos (Olivier Assayas), France/Germany/Belgium;

5 The Arbor (Clio Barnard), UK.

Sight and Sound is the monthly magazine produced by the British Film Institute (BFI), whose remit is to promote ‘understanding and appreciation of film and television heritage and culture’. This emphasis on education and enlightenment is reflected in its ‘best’ films of the year, a list which is notable for prioritizing films which would not be easy to find in the multiplex (with the exception of The Social Network) and, consequently, offer a different experience of cinema from the mainstream. These films are largely made by independent studios, on smaller budgets, relying less on stars and special effects for their appeal, and they reflect the output of national cinemas away from the Hollywood juggernaut.

Sight and Sound creates a different landscape for the appreciation of what is ‘great’ and of value when considering cinema. Its choices reflect an appreciation of film as art and as the product of an artist, rather than offering the seemingly ephemeral pleasures of the cinema of the multiplex. The ultimate list of ‘greatness' in film is the critics’ top ten film list produced by Sight and Sound magazine every ten years, purporting to be a list of the best films of all time. The first poll was held in 1952, as the movement towards a more serious approach to film appreciation gathered momentum. For many commentators and academics, this list defines the film canon, subsequently having immense influence and, in turn, reflecting the defining currents in the world of film studies.

The 2012 critics' poll top ten is as follows:

1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)

3. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)

4. La Règle du Jeu (Renoir, 1939)

5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)

7. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)

8. Man With a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)

9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)

10. 8½ (Fellini, 1963)

(Sight and Sound, September 2012)

Such a list maps out a charter for the study of film, clearly signposting the film ‘greats’ by an esteemed body of opinion. It forms an agenda for the history of film, which sees the most significant films having been prod...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Also Available from Routledge
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: About this Book
• Part I What We Watch and What We Study
• Part II The History of Film Studies
• Part III Studying the Film Text
• Part IV Film as a Contemporary Discipline
• Index