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ARTS1060 2022 Final Essay Questions (Value: 50%). Due Date: Friday 29th April 11 pm

(Sydney time). Word Length: 2000 words.

Answer TWO of the following questions in essay form (1000 words each). Before
commencing, make sure that you have read the Assessment Criteria and Essay Guidelines
and Requirements available on Moodle. Please ensure that the referencing style and
presentation of your work adheres to the course Referencing and Style Guide, also available
on Moodle. Marks will be determined according to the extent to which your essays adhere to or
depart from the guidelines and criteria in this guide. NB You cannot write on the same films in
both essays. Nor can you write on a topic or a film that corresponds to your tutorial
presentation. Submit both your essays as a single document. Make sure that the
document you submit is the correct version. Do not contact your tutor with an updated or
corrected file. This will not be marked. Include the question number on the first page of each
essay.

Mise-en-scène
1. Understood as the framing and positioning of the actors in screen space, staging is more
than just one part of the process of mise-en-scène. It encompasses all its related
components and gives these components a spatial and temporal rendering. Analysing in
detail scenes drawn from two films screened in the course, discuss how the spatial and
temporal operations of staging construct cinematic meanings. How are these meanings
altered over the course of the films?

Auteurism
2. The limitations of auteurism lie not just in its occlusion of the industrial dimensions of
filmmaking, but also in its incapacity to understand film history other than through the
lens of ‘individual genius.’ On what basis can this critique be justified? What might be
salvaged from auteurism’s legacy? Your answer needs to draw on an analysis of films
screened during the course as well as the arguments and concepts developed in the
lecture and course readings.

Narrative and Narration
3. ‘A film’s narration not only manipulates degrees of knowledge but also manipulates the
depth of our knowledge.’ (Bordwell, 85). Discuss the narrative strategies used in two
films in the course to manipulate our range and depth of knowledge by utilising the
spectrum between restricted and unrestricted narration. Your answer needs to include
detailed and accurate analysis of specific scenes and formal elements of the films.

Editing and Montage
4. Eisenstein’s conception of dialectical montage is designed as a direct challenge to the
operations and principles of continuity editing. Drawing on a detailed analysis of scenes
in Battleship Potemkin, how does dialectical montage operate at the level of the individual
shot? How does this operation relate to the other categories of montage discussed by
Eisenstein?

Sound
5. Like other male characters in films screened in this course, Harry Caul can be described
as a ‘cipher in torment.’ (Pauline Kael) The distinctive element of Coppola’s film is the
way in which the drama of interpretation shifts from being a matter of what is there to see
to being one of what is it that I’m listening to? Referring explicitly to the categories of sound
discussed in the lecture and course reading, how does The Conversation render an
experience of cognitive dissonance? How might we link Harry’s dilemma to that of other
male characters encountered in the course?

Genre
6. ‘Because it is essentially a narrative system, a film genre can be examined in terms of its
fundamental structural components: plot, character, setting, thematics, style and so on.
We should be careful though to maintain a distinction between the film genre and the
genre film. Whereas the genre exists as a sort of tacit contract between filmmakers and
audience, the genre film is an actual event that honours such a contract. To discuss the
Western genre is to address neither a single Western film nor even all Westerns, but
rather that system of conventions which identify Western film as such.’ (Schatz, 691)

How does Eastwood’s Unforgiven both maintain and renegotiate the tacit contract that, for
Schatz, binds filmmakers, audiences and the genre film? How is this renegotiation
evident in the structural components identified in Schatz’s quote?

Documentary
7. ‘And there’s another woman gleaning,’ Varda tells us near the start of The Gleaners and I.
‘That’s me.’ How does Varda’s statement embody the aesthetic principles and ethical
standpoints that characterize the two modes of documentary practice that Bill Nichols
describes as the ‘participatory’ and the ‘performative’? Your answer must provide an
accurate and detailed analysis of specific scenes and filmic moments from The Gleaners
and I as well as debates on the ethics of documentary filmmaking discussed in the
readings and lecture.

Film Style and Narrative Complexity in Contemporary Television
8. Brett Mills claims that scholars are yet to agree on what it means to call particular forms
of television ‘cinematic.’ Taking into account the debates outlined in Mill’s chapter and
the discussion of narrative complexity from the lecture, consider the ways in which Mad
Men functions as an example of ‘cinematic’ television. Your answer must include a
detailed analysis of specific scenes, techniques and narrative devices used in at least two
episodes of Season 1 of Mad Men.