TFM: Chapter 11 Test with Answers 2024

Auteur theory - A theory of film popularized by the critics of the French journal Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s. The theory emphasizes the director as the major creator of film art, stamping the material with his or her own personal vision, style, and thematic obsessions. Iconography - The use of a well-known cultural symbol or complex of symbols in an artistic presentation. In movies, iconography can involve a star's persona, the pre-established conventions of a genre (like the shootout in a western), the use of archetypal characters and situations, and such stylistic features as lighting, settings, costuming, props, and so on. Genre - A recognizable type of movie, characterized by certain pre-established conventions. Some common American genres are westerns, thrillers, sci-fi movies, etc. A ready-made narrative form. Film noir - A French term - literally, "black cinema" - referring to a kind of urban American genre that sprang up after World War II, emphasizing a fatalistic, despairing universe where there is no escape from mean city streets, loneliness, and death. Stylistically, noir emphasizes low-key and high-contrast lighting, complex compositions, and a strong atmosphere of dread and paranoia. Marxist - An ideological term used to describe any person or film that is biased in favor of left-wing values, particularly in their more extreme form. Realists - A style of filmmaking that attempts to duplicate the look of objective reality as it's commonly perceived, with emphasis on authentic locations and details, long shots, lengthy takes, and a minimum of distorting techniques. Formalists - A style of filmmaking in which aesthetic forms take precedence over the subject matter as content. Time and space as ordinarily perceived are often distorted. Emphasis is on the essential, symbolic characteristics of objects and people, not necessarily on their superficial appearance. Formalists are often lyrical, self-consciously heightening their style to call attention to it as a value for its own sake. Neorealist - An Italian film movement that produced its best works between 1945 and 1955. Strongly realistic in its techniques, neorealism emphasized documentary aspects of film art, stressing loose episodic plots, unextraordinary events and characters, natural lighting, actual location settings, nonprofessional actors, a preoccupation with poverty and social problems, and an emphasis on humanistic and democratic ideals. The term has also been used to describe other films that reflect the technical and stylistic biases of Italian neorealism.