Take Home Midterm

FILM 2400 Exam I
The following short answer questions have been formulated in a way that presupposes that you have read all articles very carefully and synthesized the main line of argument in each article. DO NOT use any direct quotes. Instead, paraphrase or summarize the arguments you are discussing. TYPE your responses. No hand-written exams will be accepted. Each response must be at least one page long (Time New Roman, 12 pts, double spaced).

10 questions x 10 points each = 100 points

Choose ONLY 10 from the following 20 questions:

1. Identify and briefly explain at least two of the ways in which the notion of ‘theory’ in the humanities (e.g. film theory) differs from the notion of ‘theory’ in the hard sciences.
2. Identify and briefly explain two major differences between formalist and realist theories of film.
3. Identify and briefly explain at least three types of montage that Eisenstein discusses in his essays.
4. Identify and briefly explain at least three ways in which film is not merely a mechanical reproduction of reality, according to Arnheim.
5. Identify and briefly explain at least three ways in which the photoplay differs from the stage play, according to Münsterberg.
6. According to Bazin, how does identification in cinema function differently from identification in theatre?
7. Why does Bazin argue that the cinema of Flaherty and Orson Wells is superior to German Expressionism (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) and to montage cinema (Eisenstein)?
8. What does Panofsky mean by “the dynamization of space”?
9. What does Panofsky mean when he writes that “the screenplay, in contrast to the theatre play, has no aesthetic existence independent of its performance, and...its characters have no aesthetic existence outside the actors” (299)?
10. Identify and briefly explain the four ‘cinematic subjects’ Kracauer discusses under the title “recording functions.”
11. Identify and briefly explain at least four of the ‘cinematic subjects’ Kracauer discusses under the title “revealing functions.”
12. Identify and briefly explain at least three ways in which literature differs from cinema, according to Chatman.
13. Identify and briefly explain the three premises of the auteur theory, according to Andrew Sarris.
14. What is the difference between an ‘auteur’ and a ‘metteur en scène’?
15. What makes Hawks an auteur, according to Peter Wollen?
16. What does Barthes mean when he writes that “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author”?
17. How does the ritual theory of genre differ from the ideological theory of genre?
18. How does the semantic theory of genre differ from the syntactic theory of genre?
19. According to Althusser, what is an Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) and how does it function? How is the notion of ISA relevant to the study of film?
20. According to Barthes, what is the structure of myth and how does it function? How is the notion of myth relevant to the study of film?