Length: 1250 – 1500 words
In the 1975 article
“The Apparatus: Meta psychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in
Cinema,” Jean-Louis Baudry writes, “that taking into account the darkness of
the movie theatre, the relative passivity of the situation, the forced
immobility of the cine-subject, and the effects which result from the
projection of images, moving images, the cinematographic apparatus brings about
a state of artificial regression. […] It is evident that cinema is not dream:
but it reproduces an impression of reality, it unlocks, releases a cinema
effect which is comparable to the impression of reality caused by dream.”
Analyze how “Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, 1977, UK)” attempts to break the spectator
out of a dream-like state and why it attempts to do so.
Some questions that
may help guide your thinking, include:
• How does your chosen film acknowledge the
cinematographic apparatus, and to what effect?
• How does your chosen film attempt to produce
either unpleasure or pleasure, and to what effect?
• How does your chosen film counter the
conventions of commercial cinema, and to what effect?
Reinforce your writing with appropriate references to relevant texts Here:
1.
Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and
Narrative Cinema” (1975)
2.
Peter Wollen, “Godard and Counter Cinema: Vent d’Est”(1972)
3.
Teshome Gabriel, Towards a Critical
Theory of Third World Films (1994)
4.
Ella Shohat and Robert
Stam, “Stereotype, Realism, and the Struggle Over Representation”(1994)
Include an analysis of at least one scene from your chosen film to
support your claims. For a refresher on what to include in a scene analysis,
see the Yale Film Analysis website.
Remember to format your essay according to an academic style guide such
as the MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers.
The essay will be evaluated according to the Evaluation Criteria for
Humanities Writing document which is attached as well.
