The History of Film Style. Narrative Structure and Cinematic Style - Essay Example

?Narrative Structure and Cinematic Style The word Hollywood has been famous since its creation to present status, as each year hundreds of successfuland most entertaining films are produced there. Classical Hollywood and Art Film cinema are two most important aspects of Hollywood cinema that have developed over past few years leading Hollywood up to the ladder of success in diversified forms of films. Classical Hollywood Cinematic style was developed in 1917 to 1960 and this style became popular due to international dominance of Hollywood films. Classical Hollywood Cinematic style has attained popularity at the global mainly due to unified driving force behind called as motivational convention. The period in which classical Hollywood films got famous is known as “Golden age of Hollywood” (Jewell 2007). After Golden age of Hollywood, innumerable films have been produced that have gained popularity at the global level, one of which is seven awards winning recent film entitled as "Lantana". Along with the rise of Classical Hollywood films attention of film professionals also diverted towards arts films during 1960s. Art films involve reflection of high cultural and educational values. These films focus on the authorial expressivity of the director on actions and perceptions of characters. In both types of cinematic work, innovative techniques or styles are used for the development and exploration of new ideas (Jewell 2007). This paper aims to evaluate narrative styles and cinematic techniques of Classical and Art films of Hollywood. Also, most importantly the influence of these styles on New Hollywood and New Australian film directors with reference to an Australian film Lantana (2001) by Ray Lawrence. It is an Australian film that won seven awards and popularity all over the world. In this film, some most prominent traditional stylistics and narrative techniques of classical and art films era have been adopted. The term classic flickers some timeless, great, old, black and white films on our mind screens and these are true stereotypes. However, there are some traditional styles, modes of representation and techniques, which are used to make classical films to awe-inspiring in quality. In almost all classical films an element of “auteurism” has been observed, which implies that the vision and viewpoint of the director should be clearly reflect in the film (D. Bordwell 1997). A touch of auteurism has been clearly reflected in the film Lantana (2001) by Ray Lawrence. This touch was noticed with the intensity and analysis of a complex series of relationships in suburban Sydney, and the mysterious crime scenes. In art film cinema different films such as auteur films are presented that clearly depicts viewpoints and perceptions of directors like Classical Hollywood films. An element of "auteurism" was prioritized in both classical and art films of Hollywood. Thus, it is noteworthy here that the new directors have also adopted theory of auteurism in their films that clearly reflects thoughts and ideas of a director. For instance, Lantana movie critics have claimed that the way whole movie has been designed and produced reflects upon the personality analysis of Lawrence, and it can be explicitly observed the way he presented emotional bonds in the film are his own perspectives. Also, film literature has evidenced that the film Picnic at Hanging Rock released in 1975 was based on the Joan Landsey book related to unpredictable disappearance of a schoolgirls. Scholars have written that this was a sharp you turn in the development of Australian cinema, as it was the first quality film in which the theory of Auteurism was applied and as a result Weir became the first director to reflect inferiority of Australian culture (Weir 1975). Radical techniques have been employed to create a sense of profound thoughts through photography, which ensured that photography focus everything in shot and implementation of a “Mise-en-Scene” stylistic technique allow viewers observe deeply. While using this stylistic technique actors never look directly into the camera and space is reflected to have an articulated look (D. Bordwell 1997). It is an art of involving audiences deeper into the film scene known as “Mise-en-Scene” in classical films era, which has also been observed in new Hollywood films. For example, Lantana by Lawrence, Mise en scene was quite evident from the visuals and designs used including, background details, costumes, use of colors and lighting as all these elements were encoded with a meaningful thought. For, example, when Valerie left her message on the fateful evening of the accident, those paragraphs on the table, one of her, Eleanor and John smiling at the camera clearly depicted the grief of the separated family. Another, example, is the backdrop used in the scene where Leon had a meeting with Jane. Both of them stood in front of a billboard featuring a kid’s face, her eyes were spotted between figures wordlessly reproving their clandestine flirtation (Lantana, 2001). Additionally, the fascinating story teller director Peter Greenaway has beautifully utilized technique of mise-en-scene in many of his films including, "Drowning by Number" (1988), "The Cook, the thief, His wife and Her Lover"(1989). From the above-mentioned example it can clearly noticed that despite advancement in film making perceptions and techniques, there are numbers of traditional stylistic and radical techniques such as mise-en-scene has been adopted and widely used by new directors of the era like Lawrence, who has creatively used it in his film Lantana. In Classical Hollywood cinema directors have unified time and space in order to match their concepts in reality (D. Bordwell 1997). Some other professionals have discussed that editing is an influential element and classical Hollywood cinema is continuously using editing techniques to make the cut invisible. Additionally, there are numerous other stylistic techniques like Montage have been widely used by the directors of Classical Hollywood films over past many years (D. Bordwell 1997). Montage technique was slightly used in the film lantana to show conclusion of each character's own story (Lawrence 2001). Through the utilization of montage technique, Lawrence intended to further intensify the emotional relationship s between the couples appeared in the film. In art films, montage stylistics techniques have been used to produce great emotional responses among viewers (Ray 1985). Lawrence had shown in his film that use of lighting in an extra ordinary manner can make great difference to classical films. The director of Lantana has played an exceptional role with their innovative inventions and use of stylistic techniques. Likewise, in the film Lantana this technique has also been used on other films. Such as, Eisenstein used montage technique in his film “Battleship Potemkin’ to condense time, space and information. Utilization of another famous technique of classical and art films era termed as Montage contribute to prove the claim of techniques and styles adopted by new Hollywood and Australian directors. For example, the Danish film "The Celebration" by Thomas Vinterberg clearly presents that the director and concept writer have intended to make this film look different from those of classical era, but like classical era filmmakers they have also adopted Montage technique to join scenes and present them in a sequential order (Lauridsen 1999). Classical narrative style is mainly celebrated in Hollywood industry for the storytelling with motion pictures. Narrative style is formed out of small part of actions put together in a way that the blending goes overlooked. Various sequences of scene have been blend together with the contribution of characters, props, visual and special effects. Likewise, noticed in the film “Lantana” by Lawrence and "Frantic" directed by Roman Polanski, released1988. This approach is most commonly used as storytelling structure in the cinema (Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson 1998). From the film Lantana, it is evident that narrative structure is composed of three act-segments that organize the story to be viewed and understand by the audience. In the first segment main characters, events, aims and obstacles introduced to the storyline. Antagonist (the villain) and Protagonist (the hero) are two must have characters for the narrative classical style of films. In the second, segment of act secondary scenes of complications are added to grab little more attention of the audience when main characters fail to achieve their tasks. A false motion of story has been created to point the action towards unpredictable Climax. In the final section the dramatic end has been confronted to result the main story that is called Climax. It is the time when key struggles of the main character waged and the winner of the story determined. Similar narrative structure has been followed in the Film Lantana by Lawrence as this story begins with a dead body of a woman and then tells series of stories latterly related to that dead body. Middle part of the movie is followed by sex scenes and emotional relationships between characters. Along with a touch of narrative betrayal scene evident from character of Sojna, who sees a therapist and upheld a deep grief, with the doubt that her husband is having affair with his gay patient. After, depiction of complexes of relationships the film proceeds to the climax scenes. That shows Jane saw her neighbor park his truck and hurl mysterious thing into the Lantana in an empty lot, which was the woman's shoe finally unveiling the mystery lays between five couples. Storytelling format that is followed in classical films of Hollywood is not implied in the narrative structure of art films, rather they provide recurring attributes, which offers broad guideline in terms of conventions (Digital Film Archive 2001). Cause and effects strategy is widely used in art films, which include narrative theme revolving around coincidence, chance and random outcomes of events. Furthermore, it has been reported that narrative style of art films upholds such approaches that do not allow film characters to perform actively and usually narrative story moves slowly in the film. Also, in art films narration is designed in the manner to avoid closed endings, supporting instead a concept of irresolution and hesitancy (Peake 2004). A great number of art films ended in such a dramatized way that they seem to have stopped rather than ended. Use of this cause and effect strategy is evident from the film as characters of Leon, Sojna and Jane are interweaved into the theme of film in such a way that their actions form the basis for later consequences in the film. For instance, Leon hated the pairing of Jane and Sojna and he ended their arrangement out of envy, this act of Leon emotionally hurt Jane (Lantana, 2001). Invisible story telling styles of class Hollywood films has been widely adopted by Lawrence in Lantana. Use of this technique of storytelling in the film Lantana is evident from the scene when Leon tells Sojna about his affair that ended, but he still loved her. Also, new and Australian directors have adopted this technique, as it implies compilation of ideas and scenes to create a sequence of overall story. An Australian thrill film of post classical era, "Kiss or Kill" (1997) by Bennett, clearly depict use of story-telling style by concept writer and director. It is then continuity style has become much popular among filmmakers and audiences and adopted by Lantana. The continuity style of storytelling encourages the audience to become captivated and fascinated without noticing camera tricks and editing (Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson 1998). Like in the very beginning of the film, audience was compelled to think who dead body was that and who has killed the person. It has been observed that specific style of shooting and editing was developed to be utilized in classical and art films of Hollywood, that style was known as continuity style. This style is still used in films as it has been proven popular for both filmmakers and audiences. Continuity style intentionally fixes out to appear the camera, its work and editing invisible (D. Bordwell 1997). Vital role of continuity styles is an art of telling story at the same time hiding another side of the story mechanisms themselves. Moreover, continuity style of shooting and editing has also been noticed and it evident from the medium shot end scenes of the film Lantana in which a woman was lost in deep thoughts inside her car (Lantana, 2001). Further, it can be elaborated that Lawrence directed in an astonishing, but impressing manner in which continuity style has been deeply focused and cut to linger in people's minds. The director's literal focus to emphasize the film texture and profoundly layered an emotion so that one has real life totally lived. All character are uniformly remarkable as the director intended to lead audience to an experience along them and then punctuate the observation by lingering on the shots, or in other words by cutting quickly away. Additionally, another style of classical films is known as Noir films, in which focus is made on cynical attitudes and sexual motivation that have emerged from German Expressionism. In the film, Lantana an element of Film Noir is characterized by a dreamy blue and gold color bathed atmosphere. This style of classical films era that has been adopted by directors of new Hollywood and Australian films (Lantana, 2001). Additionally, Australian director George Miller depicted elements of film noir and western genre in his film Mad Max released in (1979). Hollywood art cinema accounts for all those films, which are serious and independent in nature and mostly targeted particular audience rather than mass audiences. Art films include a canon and some formal qualities, which make them present different from classical and other genre films in Hollywood. Like, Lantana appears as an independent film mainly due to the story theme about lost souls and psychological thriller that kept the interest of audience till the end. A sense of social realism in art films of Hollywood is one of the most popular traditional styles that have given hype to the art cinema at the global level (Brunetta 2009). Social realism touch in art films of Hollywood has been discussed among professionals and they have found that it has its root in the Italian Neo-realism movement. Film makers such as Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini have adopted artist styles in their films. Main focus of this style was the presentation of social interaction emphasizing realist values in front of audience (Brunetta 2009). As observed, in the Lantana because in this movie characters do not appear as the glamorous stars with attractive personalities, rather they demonstrated as causal characters of Australia. Distinct couples, each with their own set on problems, with no clear justification and lots of twist through the film. Additionally, In the film, Lantana 2001 focus was made on the complexities of relationships between the film characters, who promoted realistic values through their performances and vibrant style of dialogue delivery (Lawrence 2001). The directors of art films tend to reflect upon the historical cultural events such as World War I (Ray 1985). Additionally, as the presenters of high cultural values film makers use thematic characteristics, special exhibition outlets, and particular artistic statuses. Apart from techniques adopted from classical films, various techniques have been taken from art films as well to include in the movie Lantana. The reason for which a sense of social realism is being attached to the Lantana is because it depicts reality unlike many other captivating movies. This movie is close to reality as story revolves around couples whose lives intersects via the figure of a missing psychiatrist, Dr Valerie Somers. Film cuts between these characters Bovell's screenplay utilizes the techniques of unveiling to initial withhold, later exploring information about men and women in this sorties, related to hidden truths, hopes, imagination, fidelities and their cheatings. These are some most prominent factors that force audience think and relate the defined phenomena closely related to the ground realities of life they easily experienced and observed around in daily routine life. Here are some examples, from other films it is reflected social realism and social interaction is promoted and in modern age films this component can be easily observed. Such as, in the Picnic at Hanging Rock, the director has also reflected upon innovative notions of social interaction in this film (Weir 1975). Similarly, in the film Memento (2000) by Nolan and his younger brother Jonathan explicitly depicts different forms of social interaction with the presentation of story in distinguishing sequences of scenes; one in black and white and one in colored time line (Nolan 2000). Narration in art films based upon two principles namely realism and authorial expressivity. Narrative styles adopted in art films also reflects upon psychological causation, but the themes and characters of art cinema lack specified goals or motives unlike classical cinema(Mann 2008). Scenes of woman’s death and unidentified body in the bushes functions as to create a psychological causation, which simply implies presentation of loud and extreme expression to grab attention of the viewers in the film Lantana. Additionally, it has been observed that experimental features are added to the films in a sophisticated manner as to identify some issues and resolve them through ambiguity. Film literature reveals that as art films are not governed commercial imperative to offer pleasure and entertainment, thus their narrative styles distinguished from mainstream films (Mann 2008). In the world of media, it has evidenced and proved many times that there are two things that captivate audience's interest more profoundly one is violence referring murder and mysterious stories and second is sex. And both of these attributions have been noticed in this film Lantana by Lawrence. Psychological causation is one of the most important aspects of art cinema, Drowning by Numbers (1988) being the most artistic film of the time, the director has openly expressed psychological concepts through complex and clever forms of art work. Through this film concept writer and director have intended to hit cognition of audience mainly with the compilation of remarkable visuals, playful acting and depiction filled with sex and death scenes (Greenaway 1988). In the film, Lantana open sex scenes between police officer Leon and Jane again points towards cognitive narrative techniques used by prior directors in their films to maintain interest of the audience. Psychological causation has also been observed in another art film entitled as The Apartment, in which attention and cognitive involvement of audience was gained through open sex scenes and complexities of a triangle love story (Mimouni 1996). On the other hand, experimental features are also commonly used to engage audience into the film theme or story like done by (Weerasethakul 2010). In his award winning film Uncle Boonmee who ocean recalls his past lives and in the film Lantana by Lawrence. In other words, it can be discussed that psychological causation creates a deep impact on cognition and in the film Lantana the director has left some imaginations on audiences' minds. For example, Jane and her husband's reconciliation was left to the audiences' minds, and the scene with Valerie Somer in the lighted telephone booth with graffiti is illustrated at length, but later what happened was not demonstrated. These are some very creative psychological causation techniques and directorial choices reflecting auteurism at the same time. Above analysis of different film techniques and styles clearly help to understand the fact that directors of New Hollywood and Australia and have greatly influenced by the traditional stylistics techniques and narrative approaches. In classical era, these directors have widely used most suitable and reliable techniques to maintain the standard of post classical era films. Several examples of technique and style adoption are mentioned above with reference to much film particularly the most remarkable film of time Lantana (2001) by Lawrence. Therefore, it can be concluded that advancement in film making and other technologies can add up speed and proficiency to films, but canon of cinematic styles are still valuable and will always be considered while designing narrative structure and styles of the films of coming years. List of References Bordwell, D., 1997. On the History of Film Style. Harvard: Harvard University Press. Bordwell, D., Staiger, J. and Thompson, K., 1998. Classical Hollywood Comedy. London: Routledge. Brunetta, G., 2009. The History of Italian Cinema: A Guide to Italian Film from Its Origins to the Twenty-First Century. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Digital Film Archive, 2001. Classical Hollywood Style. [Online] Available at: < http://www.digitalfilmarchive.net/clda/moving_image_arts/film_lesson_plans/documents/ALLlessonplans.pdf > [accessed 22 September 2012]. Drowning by Numbers. 1988. [Film] Directed by P. Greenaway. s.l.: s.n. Jewell, R., 2007. The golden age of cinema: Hollywood, 1929-1945. Birmingham: Blackwell Pub. Kiss or Kill. 1997. [Film] Directed by B. Bennett. s.l.: s.n. Lantana. 2001. [Film] Directed by R. Lawrence. s.l.: s.n. Lauridsen, P., 1999. The Celebration: Classical Drama and Docu Soap Style. [Online] Available at: < http://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_10/section_3/artc1A.html Mad Max. 1979. [Film] Directed by G. Miller. s.l.: s.n. Mann, D., 2008. Hollywood Independents: The Postwar Talent Takeover. Minnesota: U of Minnesota Press,. Memento. 2000. [Film] Directed by C. Nolan. s.l.: s.n. Peake, T., 2004. Cinema and Life Development: Healing Lives and Training Therapists. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Picnic at Hanging Rock. 1975. [Film] Directed by P. Weir. s.l.: s.n. Ray, R., 1985. A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1980. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. The Apartment. 1996. [Film] Directed by G. Mimouni. s.l.: s.n. The Celebration. 1998. [Film] Directed by T. Vinterberg. s.l.: s.n. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. 2010. [Film] Directed by A. Weerasethakul. s.l.: s.n. Read More