Film Theories description

1. Film Theories

2. Laura Mulveys Theory
- The audience views films from the perspective of a heterosexual
male.
- The camera focuses and objectifies female.
- Females only experience narrative secondary by identifying as a male.
- One of the prime criticisms and theories of feminist film theory.
Laura Mulvey, who was born 15 August 1941 (age 74) is a British feminist
film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is
currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of
London. She worked at the British Film Institute for many years before
taking up her current position.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey)

3. The Bechdel Test
The Bechdel test first appeared in 1985 in Alison Bechdel's comic strip
‘Dykes To Watch Out For’. In a strip titled "The Rule", which features two
women, who resemble the future, the women discuss seeing a film and
the black woman explains that she only goes to a movie if it satisfies the
following requirements:
 The movie has to have at least two women in it.
 who talk to each other.
 about something besides a man.

4. Levi Strauss Theory
‘Binary Oppositions’ – when compete opposites are used to create meaning. It exists
as a result of oppositional forces.
In media, opposition create points of interest. They can be powerful and resonate
with meaning. E.g.. Hero and villain.
Lines of binary oppositions are often blurred to create character depth. Eg. Breaking
bad – Walter White
 Claude Lévi-Strauss 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009 was a French
anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the
theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the Chair of Social
Anthropology at the Collège de France between 1959 and 1982 and was elected a
member of the Académie française in 1973. He received numerous honors from
universities and institutions throughout the world and has been called, alongside
James George Frazer and Franz Boas the "father of modern anthropology"

5. Tessa Perkins
 Perkin argues that stereotypes are not always simple. They contain complex
understanding of information about roles and status in society. Perkins also
argues that they are not always negative and often contain truths.
 Stereotypes are not always negative.
 They can be held about ones own groups.
 Not always false.
 They are not rigid or unchanging.

6. Propp
Propp analysed typical character types from fairy tales. He believed that most
narratives a variation or combination of these character types:
 The villain
 The princess
 Princesses father
 The helper
 The donor
 The false hero
 The dispatcher

7. Roland Barthes
 Hermeneutic code (the enigma code): the code of enigmas or puzzles. This
refers to any elements of the story that is not fully explained and becomes a
mystery.
 Proairetic code: this code also builds tension, referring to any other action or
event that indicates something else is going to happen, and which hence gets
the reader guessing as to what will happen next.

8. Todorov
He stated that narrative is often structured with a pattern:
 Equilibrium – everything is ok, stable as it has been.
 Disequilibrium – a problem that threatens the equilibrium
 New equilibrium – A new altered stable resulting from the conflict.