As someone who has spent a lot of time studying film in an academic environment (roughly 5 years now). I have gotten really good at sounding like I know what I'm talking about. The secret, as with any pretentious fan club, lies in learning the club's secret language. What follows is a crash course in film criticism's secret language so you too can sound really smart while making some pretty simple observations.
This secret language is based entirely around making the right references:
If a film is vague, symbolic, and surreal a reasonable term to use would be something like: "dreamlike", but this doesn't show off how well you know important filmmakers you know so you should instead suggest that it is "Lynchian". By referencing David Lynch you demonstrate that you not only understand the movie you're commenting on but David Lynch's work too. You don't have to actually know anything about Lynch's work beyond the fact that it's surreal, people will just assume you do.
However be very careful who you reference. If a film is dark, gothic, with surreal angular sets, and macabre themes, DO NOT say it's "Burton-esque" or reference "Tim Burton" at all. In fact NEVER name drop a director who has made a popular film in the past 10-20 years unless their name is Christopher Nolan (and even then you could probably replace most Nolan references with Stanley Kubrick). If you want to sound smart the older the reference the better. Here's a list of some popular styles and directors and who or what to reference instead:
Tim Burton = German Expressionism, (a movement in 1920's Germany that Tim Burton echos with his work) Fritz Lang, and Robert Wiene are prominent examples.
Strong painterly shot compositions = Akira Kurosawa (Japanese filmmaker with an eye for stunningly beautiful composition owing to his detail in storyboarding)
Found footage or realistic = There are a few artistic movements and directors to reference including Italian Neo-Realism (depicting harsh economic realities) Vittorio De Sica, Cinema Verite (fancy french term for film truth best used for documentaries) Dziga Vertov, Dogma 95 (Danish movement/publicity stunt trying to suck all the fun out of film) Lars Von Trier (be careful with Von Trier he's kinda an asshole and on top of that he hasn't done Dogma 95 films in over a decade now).
Quentin Tarantino = Jean Luc Godard, but only in so far as Tarantino LOVES referencing Godard see: the entirety of Pulp Fiction (but only Godard's early work he got a bit weirder and more socialist as time went on). Otherwise their styles are quite a bit different. Also fun fact: Quentin Tarantino named his production company A Band Apart after Godard's 1964 film Bande à Part.
Generally feeling like a pretentious "student film" = French New Wave. This movement is KEY to sounding smart its the film critic's film movement because it was a film movement started by critics... go figure. Godard, François Truffaut, and Claude Chabrol.
NEVER use the term "meta" EVER that's an easy way to make sure you're well understood by normal non-criticism people. If a film references the fact that it's a film (such as the cast and crew getting arrested at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or the animator suffering a heart attack in the same) than its "self-reflexive". If the movie goes out of its way to distance you from the fiction of the film (such as introducing theater like elements like Dogville's white outline set) it's "Brechtian" (referencing famed German stage and film director Bertolt Brecht. also a favorite technique of Godard, and Tarantino).
There are also some terms borrowed from other artistic disciplines that are good to drop to sound smart. Here are a few examples:
Chiaroscuro = High contrast lighting. A term nicked from traditional art with bright highlights and deep shadows.
Mise-en-scène = A term from theater. It refers to everything you see in the film, costumes, camera placement, set design, lighting, actors, composition etc... Basically use it as a catch all for the look of the movie
You can also use pretty much any term or movement from painting and photography to apply to film. Surrealism, abstract, modernism, post-modernism, impressionism, expressionism, etc... All pretty much mean the same things when applied to film. Bonus: using these terms will make you sound EXTRA smart since they aren't used as often as directly referencing filmmakers and their works.
This should get you started on what to look for and glance at on wikipedia so you can sound way smarter than the average film goer when talking about film. Being pretentious shouldn't be the sole exclusive right of scholars. Everyone should know how to be insufferable ;).
Quentin Tarantino = Jean Luc Godard, but only in so far as Tarantino LOVES referencing Godard see: the entirety of Pulp Fiction (but only Godard's early work he got a bit weirder and more socialist as time went on). Otherwise their styles are quite a bit different. Also fun fact: Quentin Tarantino named his production company A Band Apart after Godard's 1964 film Bande à Part.
Generally feeling like a pretentious "student film" = French New Wave. This movement is KEY to sounding smart its the film critic's film movement because it was a film movement started by critics... go figure. Godard, François Truffaut, and Claude Chabrol.
NEVER use the term "meta" EVER that's an easy way to make sure you're well understood by normal non-criticism people. If a film references the fact that it's a film (such as the cast and crew getting arrested at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or the animator suffering a heart attack in the same) than its "self-reflexive". If the movie goes out of its way to distance you from the fiction of the film (such as introducing theater like elements like Dogville's white outline set) it's "Brechtian" (referencing famed German stage and film director Bertolt Brecht. also a favorite technique of Godard, and Tarantino).
There are also some terms borrowed from other artistic disciplines that are good to drop to sound smart. Here are a few examples:
Chiaroscuro = High contrast lighting. A term nicked from traditional art with bright highlights and deep shadows.
Mise-en-scène = A term from theater. It refers to everything you see in the film, costumes, camera placement, set design, lighting, actors, composition etc... Basically use it as a catch all for the look of the movie
You can also use pretty much any term or movement from painting and photography to apply to film. Surrealism, abstract, modernism, post-modernism, impressionism, expressionism, etc... All pretty much mean the same things when applied to film. Bonus: using these terms will make you sound EXTRA smart since they aren't used as often as directly referencing filmmakers and their works.
This should get you started on what to look for and glance at on wikipedia so you can sound way smarter than the average film goer when talking about film. Being pretentious shouldn't be the sole exclusive right of scholars. Everyone should know how to be insufferable ;).
No comments:
Post a Comment