Slide 1

The Landlord (1970) Slide 2 Review: Shot composition & Mise-en-scene Shot Long Take vs. Long Shot Establishing Shot Panning vs. Tracking Three Point Lighting Low Key Lighting Diegetic vs. Non-Diegetic sound Parallel Editing Slide 3 Auteur What is an author? Who is the author of a film? How do you ascribe authorship when it comes to film? Media critics have developed the notion of the auteur as the person who is most responsible for the films overarching vision. His/her vision transcends the industrial system in which they are placed and understanding their perspective can enrich our understanding of any one of their works. E.g. the director, the producer, writer, etc. From your reading for this week, who do you think is the auteur of The Landlord (1970)? Slide 4 Spike Lee as an Auteur Some scholars have combined an analysis of a directors shot composition with analysis of their biography, and recurring themes to describe the unique vision that unites their body of work. Themes: New York Neighborhoodse.g. Crooklyn (1994), Red Hook Summer (2011), Clockers (1995) Interracial relationships, platonic, eruptive and otherwisee.g. Jungle Fever (1991), Do The Right Thing (1989) Black revolution and Black politicse.g. Malcolm X (1992), Staging of conflict in and through musice.g. Clockers (1995), School Daze (1988) Signature Cinematic Effects: The Dolly ShotMalcolm X (1992), Clockers (1995) Interweaving of music into the narrativee.g. Clockers (1995) Confrontational Direct Addresse.g. 25 th Hour (2001) (36:07) Biography: Born and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. Black Middle Class Child of a jazz musician Bill Lee Lover of the musical Slide 5 Genre A category or type used to describe a media text. How do we deduce what constitutes a genre? Iconography Settings Costumes Events Protagonist Central Conflicts Style (Visual and Editing) Genres share: Genres are a contract between producers and consumers about what constitutes the category. Thus as audiences changeand are differently conceived, so critics definitions of genre shift. At their most significant, genres tap become a kind of cultural ritual revealing deeply held cultural values. Genres do not have to be mutually exclusive. Sub-genres and hybrids do exist. To what genre does The Landlord belong? Support your answer with evidence. Common film genres: Melodrama Horror Science Fiction Comedy Western Slide 6 The Searchers (1956) Slide 7 Slide 8 Imitation of Life (1934) Slide 9 Imitation of Life (1959) Slide 10 Slide 11 The Exorcist (1975) Slide 12 The Shining (1980) Slide 13 The Walking Dead (2010-) Slide 14 whiteness Richard Dyer: In the realm of categories, black is always marked as colourand is always particularizing; whereas white is not anything really, not an identity, not a particularizing quality, because it is everythingwhite is no colour because it is all colours. (Dyer, White) To be everything and nothing, is the source of [whitenesss] representational power. (Dyer, White) In films whiteness is associated with order, rationality, rigidity, qualities brought out by the contrast with black disorder, irrationality, and looseness. (Dyer, White) George Lipsitz: White is the unmarked category against which difference is constructed but whiteness is invested in like property but it is also a means of accumulating property and keeping it from othersWhite Americans are encouraged to invest in whiteness, to remain true to an identity that provides them with resources, power, and opportunity. (George Lipsitz, Possessive Investment in Whiteness, vii-viii) Slide 15 Cultures of Dissemblance By dissemblance I mean the behavior and attitudes of Black women that created the appearance of openness and disclosure but actually shielded the truth of their inner lives and selves from their oppressors. (Darlene Clark Hine, Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women) Slide 16 Satire In black circles, the humor is not derived from the typical joke process. It flows from the participants commonly held satiric view of the world and themselves. Humor in these instances is not based on unexpected twists or reversals, on the contrary, it is derived from an acknowledgement of the shared ironic attitude underlying the quip. (Mel WatkinsOn The Real Side) Satire-constituted by aggression, judgement, play and laughter. The Essence of satire is that it perceives some absurdity inherent in the logic of some position anddraws the absurdity out and isolates it so that all can see it. (G.K. Chesterton)