(BQ) Part 1 book "Film Art - An introduction" has contents: Summary - Style as a formal system, film genres; documentary, experimental, and animated films; film criticism - Sample analyses; historical changes in film art - Conventions and choices, tradition and trends. | Summary: Style as a Formal System The eoncept of Style At the beginning of Part Two, we saw how the different parts of a filrn relate to one another dynamically within its overall fonn. Now, having exatnined each category of techniques of the film medium, we may go on to see how these techniques interact to create another formal system of the film, its style. These two systemsstyle and narrative/non-narrative form-in turn interact within the total film. Stylistic patterns are a major part of any film. Sometimes, though, we talk about style in several films by the same filmmaker. When we discussed sound tn A Mcut Escapecl, we charactertzed Robert Bresson as a director who makes sound par- "lt's what you call style in retrospect only. At the point of actually making the movie, it's just about making individual choices. ." - Ethan Coen, producer/writer story, scene by scene. You make specific choices that you think are appropriate or compelling or interesting for that particular scene, Then, at the end of the doy, you put it all together and somebody looks at it and, if there's some consistency to it, they say, 'Well, that's their style,"' - Joel Coen, director/writer 304 ticularly important in many of his films; we analyzed several important ways in which sound related to image in A Man Escapecl. This use of sound is one aspect of Bresson's unique style. Similarly, we looked at Our Hospitalih'in terms of how its comic mise-en-scene is organrzed around a consistent Llse of long shots; this is part of Buster Keaton's style in other films, too. Both Bresson and Keaton have distinctive filmmaking styles, and we can become familiar with those styles by analyzing the way in which they utilize techniques within whole filmic systems. Further, we can also speak of a group s1,le-the consistent use of techniques across the work of several filmmakers. We can speak of a German Expressionist style, or a Soviet Montage style. In Part Six, we will consider some significant qrollp
