Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Teacher: Mr Becker
Areas Covered
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Realism or realisms? Realism and the cinema Defining social realism Practice and Politics Issues and themes Representation Form and Style Style
Social Realism
Designed to include everything. Expresses ideas of:
1. The texts content. 2. Its concerns. 3. Its visual style.
Realism or 'realisms'?
Realism or 'realisms'?
Realism or 'realisms'?
Development of realism
Gathered force in the nineteenth century. Emerged as a:
frequently opposed reform-seeking
Philosophers Artists
expression representation
Suggestions
Carroll:
the term realism should only be used with a particular word attached in front of it:
social - documentary -
Realism or 'realisms'?
Approaches
Approaches by:
Andre Bazin Emile Zola
Siegfried Kracauer Gerhardie
(contends there are several realisms) (believed film was a practice precisely describing the actual circumstances of human life) (believed film was capable of representing the real, unlike any other form of media) (believed the goal of naturalism is to bring back the complete false belief of real life)
...seek to represent the truth of things that have become associated with realism, such as:
Conventions Codes
Realism and the cinema
Key features
The way character and place are linked.
In order to explore an aspect of modern life.
Similar to a style of art or literature that
Shows people as they are in real life
Practice
Practice is:
the way in which a film is:
produced finished In British Social Realism, this has generally meant:
independent production, conducted via using:
traditional skills real locations non-professional actors
Because of filmmakers usage of non-actors and location shooting, Samantha Lay questions the commitment being shown to documentary truth, by the filmmakers.
Practice and Politics
Influence of politics
The politics of the film maker will influence them to be:
different distinct
from the ordinary or the norm. This leads them to demonstrate a commitment to a specific set of ideas about the social world.
Practice and Politics
Moral Realism
In the opinion of Andrew Higson moral realism is:
the way British social realist texts have been propelled to varying degrees by a:
mission ideal goal
Aims:
Produce:
Creative Visually
Content
Content is made up of two conjoined and formed aspects:
1. the issues and themes that social realist texts seek to explore. 2. the types of representations generally constructed.
Because of the relevance of content issues, films and film text are tied to their specific moments of production and consumption, and different points of contrast are provided, including the different moments, movements and cycles of the film.
Constructs
Through the constructs of film texts, we can determine
what reality is being constructed from which specific point of view, through
an analysis of
themes issues
Issues
Issues relate to the different social problems portrayed in films that were topical or ongoing around the time of the films production, which was a cause for national and social concern.
Social issues are more immediate and visual social fears and concerns, usually with a high media profile and consequently a short shelf-life.
Examples of Issues
Issues are subject to constant change, because of the elements occurring in the same period of time, due to the now-ness of films, and then-ness of films.
An example of this is promiscuity, which was more of a concern in the 1950s, rather than the 1980s and 1990s.
Notable issues nowadays include child sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse, which are portrayed in a numerous amount of films, television dramas, and soap operas, such as Eastenders. Issues are obvious and explicit, with a main storyline of a family spiralling out of control due to alcohol and drug abuse being a good example.
Themes
Themes are often not as explicit as issues are, but they are moreover implied. Themes represent less obvious threats to social unity and stability, and work at a much deeper level. Themes are more descriptive of remarkable occurrences, whereas issues tend to work as labels.
Issues and themes
Examples of themes
Films are described in thematic terms that give us a deeper meaning of what lays behind the addiction issue, for example, the changing role of the working class in British social life from production to consumption. Themes are broader, longer-lived sets of concerns, usually implied within a given text. For example, in British social realism, some of the prevalent and recurring themes include the demise of the traditional working class, national identity, and the changing of gender roles.
Issues and themes
Observations/Opinions/Arguments
Film is a commercial medium, rather than an educational tool. Representation of specific character types tended towards social extension. People of working class were largely represented by social extension, at different moments of social and economic change. Social realist texts draw in characters that were not in the centre of Hollywood productions. British cinema had severely underrepresented the working class. Documentaries in the 1930s that represented the working class, worked to be excessively irrational towards the working class male body engaged in hard labour.
Samantha Lay
Williams Hill
Representation
Social Extension
Social extension is:
the extension of
a range of characters to include groups
individuals whom were not often represented on screens in the normal cinemas considered and accepted by most people.
The social extension in British Social Realism has urged filmmakers to rectify the social and representational lack of equality, in relation to class.
Representation
which was partly due to the newly emergent youth culture, which filmmakers fascinated about. It was also due to the respect for the unpretentious traditional working class, which these filmmakers regarded as being under threat from the influence of American culture, and under threat from the forces of consumerism.
Representation
Representation
Representation
Samantha Lay makes the point that:
British social realist films tend to give white male working class characters advantages. She explains that British social realisms sense of social extension is extremely bad and shocking, as it has a huge lack of working class characters from different multicultural societies.
This point made leads Samantha Lay to observe how very little
asylum seekers refugees illegal workers
are rarely featured on British screens, beyond news bulletins and documentaries, and how they should be observed much better than in previous times.
Representation
Conclusion of representation
In a summary of Lays conclusion, it should be noted that within the framework of social extension
the representation of working class characters in British social realist films is being attended to, whilst on the other hand these texts tend to favour white male working class characters.
These are then defined as prone to the social and psychological traumas of violence, unemployment, and addiction. Also the fact of the continuous moves from public to private and political to personal, are lost from the frame globally, as well as nationally, due to the wider structural inequalities being extended. Finally, some of the texts explore the thoughts or ideas belonging to the central protagonists through a recreation of the past, which can be argued via films offering a remembrance of happy times in the past, as a possible alternative to the heritage film in British cinema.
Representation
Form
The term form is being used to:
signify the
shape mode in which social realist texts exist
techniques, to
capture observe analyse
of previously
under-represented and less important groups, looked upon as out of the mainstream.
that mainstream cinema had previously shunned and ignored. Form and Style
Intentions
The intentions of:
Gary Oldman Ken Loach Lindsay Anderson John Grierson
were all different, but what bought together their work was their presence of intent which they valued more than searching for fame and income.
Documentaries
Documentaries are:
judged to say about things as they really are, which in other words means that they offer a slice of life to the viewers.
Programmes
Programmes are
judged to be screened to simply entertain the viewing public, which is not offering a view of life as it really is.
Naturalism
Some people considered naturalism to be:
British social realist texts preferring to associate themselves with
Content instead of style.
Style
Gritty
The term gritty describes the
surface realism of
landscapes inhabited by the
characters
the way in which they are both filmed
Style
Poetic realism
Created by:
A widely used number of stylistic techniques including the sequences of
establishing shot sizes, namely
wide-angled long shots of urban landscapes.
Style
and some of the techniques are consequently part of mainstream cinema, such as
hand-held techniques