Understanding how spectators interact with films requires some theory of filmic representation. This article reviews three such theories. The first, a communication model, assumes that an artwork constitutes or contains a message passed from a sender to a receiver. The second, a signification model, assumes that the film operates within a system of codes and that the perceiver applies codes to signs in the text in order to arrive at meanings. This conception of film as signification may be found in both classic structuralist and post-structuralist accounts. The third, an empirical-experiential model, assumes that an artwork is designed to create an experience for the spectator. This article argues that the cognitive approach to film studies is founded on the third model of representation. The article also traces the strengths and limits of cognitive film theory and its theory of representation.
Search Results
David Bordwell
valuable realm of knowledge: the historical poetics of cinema” ( Bordwell 1985: 336 ). This area of inquiry moved to the center of my concerns in the decades that followed the book. Still, I’ve found that aspects of cognitive science can help clarify
Brian Boyd
. Madison : University of Wisconsin Press . Bordwell , David . 2008 . Poetics of Cinema . New York : Routledge . Boyd , Brian . 2009 . On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction . Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard
Jeff Smith, Dominic Topp, Jason Gendler, and Francesco Sticchi
Bordwell's discussion of puzzle films and forking path narratives in The Way Hollywood Tells It (2006) and Poetics of Cinema (2008) , to Warren Buckland's two edited collections of essays on puzzle films (2009 , 2014 ), to Jason Mittell's Complex
Ted Nannicelli
engage historical and sociological cinema research. References Altman , Rick . 2004 . Silent Film Sound . New York : Columbia University Press . Bordwell , David . 2008 . “ CinemaScope: The Modern Miracle You See Without Glasses .” In Poetics of
Gradation of Emphasis in the CinemaScope Westerns of Anthony Mann
A Style Analysis
Sam Roggen
. Bordwell , David . 2007 . “ CinemaScope: The Modern Miracle You See Without Glasses .” Pp. 281 – 325 in Poetics of Cinema . London : Routledge . Bordwell , David . 2008 . “ Gradation of Emphasis, Starring Glenn Ford .” www
Jonathan Frome
. Oxford : Oxford University Press . Bordwell , David . 2008 . Poetics of Cinema . New York : Routledge . Buckland , Warren . 1989 . “ Critique of Poor Reason .” Screen 30 ( 4 ): 80 – 103 . doi: 10.1093/screen/30.4.80 . 10.1093/screen/30
A Structure of Antipathy
Constructing the Villain in Narrative Film
Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen
. Baumeister , Roy F. 1997 . Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty . New York : W. H. Freeman . Bordwell , David . 2008 . Poetics of Cinema . New York : Routledge . Carroll , Noël . 1999 . “ Film, Emotion and Genre .” In Passionate Views
Film, Art, and the Third Culture
A Response
Murray Smith
Poetics of Cinema , 327 – 335 . New York : Routledge . Bullough , Edward . 1912 . “ ‘Psychical Distance’ as a Factor in Art and an Aesthetic Principle .” British Journal of Psychology 5 ( 2 ): 87 – 118 . doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1912.tb00057.x