A True Language of Cinema

in Projections
Author:
Maria Belodubrovskaya Department of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/proj.2023.170105
Keywords:
affect; emotion; language; minimal unit; narrative cue; style; visual grammar
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Abstract

Since cinema communicates meanings through images and sounds, it has long been assumed that it possesses a language—a coded system of units and rules. Cinematic practice is infinitely varied, and it has proven difficult for film theory to pinpoint a language of cinema beyond the assertion that classical continuity codes cinematic illusion. The computational approach presented in James Cutting's Movies on Our Minds: The Evolution of Cinematic Engagement offers a promising new path toward defining a true language of cinema. It shows that mainstream narrative film uses a reliable set of measurable, evolving formal patterns to match the neuropsychological capacities of the average viewer. This article argues that the cinematic “code” Cutting identifies can be elaborated by specifying the minimal narrative unit.

Contributor Notes

Maria Belodubrovskaya is associate professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Not According to Plan: Filmmaking under Stalin (Cornell University Press, 2017) and has published articles on film aesthetics, history, theory in Cinema Journal, Film History, Projections, Slavic Review, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, KinoKultura, and several edited volumes.

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Projections

The Journal for Movies and Mind

Cover Projections
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
11
Keywords:
affect; emotion; language; minimal unit; narrative cue; style; visual grammar
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2023
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2023
Copyright:
© The Author/s 2023

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