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82751 00 i-xxii r10 rp 8/24/09 12:04 PM Page i THIRD EDITION LOOKING AT MOVIES 82751 00 i-xxii r10 rp 8/24/09 12:04 PM Page ii T H I R D E D I T I O N LOOKING AT 82751 00 i-xxii r10 rp 8/24/09 12:04 PM Page iv W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s Institute, the adult educa- tion division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By mid-century, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program—trade books and college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today—with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees. Copyright © 2010, 2007, 2004 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Since this page cannot accommodate all the copyright notices, the Permissions Acknowledgments section beginning on page 559 constitutes an extension of the copyright page. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Third Edition Editor: Peter Simon Senior Project Editor: Thomas Foley Senior Production Manager: Benjamin Reynolds Developmental/Manuscript Editor: Carol Flechner Electronic Media Editor: Eileen Connell Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson Assistant Editor: Conor Sullivan Book design: Lissi Sigillo Index by Cohen Carruth, Inc. Developmental Editor for the First Edition: Kurt Wildermuth Authors’ photograph: Joshua Curry Cover design: Leo Hageman The text of this book is composed in Benton Modern Two, with the display set in Interstate Bold Composition by TexTech International. Digital art file manipulation by Jay’s Publishers Services. Drawn art by ElectraGraphics, Inc. Manufacturing by the Courier Companies—Kendallville, IN. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barsam, Richard Meran. Looking at movies : an introduction to film / Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan.—3rd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-393-93279-9 (pbk.) 1. Motion pictures. 2. Cinematography. I. Monahan, Dave, 1962– II. Title. PN1994.B313 2009 791.43—dc22 2009033758 ISBN 978-0-393-11652-6 (ebook) W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 www.wwnorton.com W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 82751 00 i-xxii r10 rp 8/24/09 12:04 PM Page iii MOVIES AN INTRODUCTION TO FILM RICHARD BARSAM & DAVE MONAHAN B W. W. NORTON & COMPANY NEW YORK • LONDON This page intentionally left blank 82751 00 i-xxii r10 rp 8/24/09 12:04 PM Page v About the Authors RICHARD BARSAM (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York. He is the author of Nonfiction Film: A Critical History (rev. and exp. ed., 1992), The Vision of Robert Flaherty: The Artist as Myth and Filmmaker(1988), In the Dark: A Primer for the Movies(1977), and Filmguide to “Triumph of the Will”(1975); editor of Nonfiction Film: Theory and Criticism (1976); and contributing author to Paul Monaco’s The Sixties: 1960–1969 (Vol.8 in the History of the American Cinema series, 2001) and Filming Robert Flaherty’s “Louisiana Story”: The Helen Van Dongen Diary (ed. Eva Orbanz, 1998). His articles and book reviews have appeared in Cinema Journal, Quarterly Review of Film Studies, Film Comment, Studies in Visual Communication, and Harper’s. He has been a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and the Editorial Board ofCinema Journal,and he cofounded the journal Persistence of Vision. DAVE MONAHAN(M.F.A., Columbia University) is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His work as a writer, director, or editor includes Ringo (2005); Monkey Junction (2005); Prime Time (1996); and Angels Watching over Me (1993). His work has been screened internationally in over fifty film festivals and has earned numerous awards, including the New Line Cinema Award for Most Original Film (Prime Time) and the Seattle International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short Film (Ringo). ABOUT THE AUTHORS v This page intentionally left blank 82751 00 i-xxii r10 rp 8/24/09 12:04 PM Page vii Contents To Students xiii About the Book xv Acknowledgments xix CHAPTER 2 Principles of Film Form 27 Learning Objectives 28 CHAPTER 1 Looking at Movies 1 Film Form 28 Form and Content 28 Learning Objectives 2 Form and Expectations 33 Looking at Movies 2 Patterns 35 What Is a Movie? 3 Fundamentals of Film Form 39 Ways of Looking at Movies 5 Movies Depend on Light 39 Invisibility and Cinematic Language 7 Movies Provide an Illusion of Movement 42 Cultural Invisibility 9 Movies Manipulate Space and Time in Unique Implicit and Explicit Meaning 11 Ways 44 Viewer Expectations 13 Realism and Antirealism 50 Formal Analysis 14 Verisimilitude 52 Alternative Approaches to Analysis 20 Cinematic Language 53 Analyzing Movies 23 Screening Checklist: Looking at Movies 23 Analyzing Movies 56 Questions for Review 24 Screening Checklist: Principles of Film Form 56 Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter 24 Questions for Review 57 Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter 57 CONTENTS vii 82751 00 i-xxii r10 rp 8/24/09 12:05 PM Page viii CHAPTER 3 Types of Movies 59 CHAPTER 4 Elements of Narrative 113 Learning Objectives 60 The Idea of Narrative 60 Learning Objectives 114 Types of Movies 64 What Is Narrative? 114 Narrative Movies 64 The Screenwriter 115 Documentary Movies 65 Evolution of a Typical Screenplay 116 Experimental Movies 70 Elements of Narrative 119 Hybrid Movies 76 Story and Plot 120 Genre 78 Order 125 Genre Conventions 81 Events 127 Theme 81 Duration 128 Setting 82 Suspense versus Surprise 132 Presentation 82 Repetition 133 Character Types 83 Characters 134 Story Formulas 83 Stars 83 Setting 138 Scope 139 Six Major American Genres 83 Narration and Narrators 140 Gangster 83 Looking at Narrative: John Ford’s Film Noir 86 Science Fiction 89 Stagecoach 142 Horror 92 Story 142 The Western 95 Plot 144 The Musical 98 Order 144 Diegetic and Nondiegetic Elements 144 Evolution and Transformation of Genre 101 Events 144 What about Animation? 103 Duration 147 Analyzing Types of Movies 108 Suspense 147 Screening Checklist: Types of Movies 108 Repetition 147 Questions for Review 109 Characters 147 Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter 109 Setting 147 Scope 149 Narration 149 Analyzing Elements of Narrative 151 Screening Checklist: Elements of Narrative 151 Questions for Review 151 Movies Described or Illustrated in This Chapter 152 viii CONTENTS