Film David Bordwell Film Analysis Essay

You have to watch two film:

1. Reassemblage, Trinh Minh Ha

2. Cannibal Tours, Dennis O’Rourke

6-8 pages, not including film stills. Double-spaced, Times New Roman 12pt font, 1”margins.

Here’s the main three things you will do in your paper:

1. You will break down some of the characteristic formal elements of the films

you select and describe how they work to accomplish the director’s purpose

and create the intended effect. You don’t need to cover everything, and in fact

focusing down on particular formal elements or even a single element is

often most effective.

2. You will compare and contrast one film with the other in terms of their form.

Again keep it focused on what serves your argument, not everything is

possible to compare and contrast.

3. The comparison/contrast is in order to create your own an argument that

takes a critical stand, positive, negative, or both, on your chosen films. To the

extent that this paper is a “test,” the test is of your ability to come up with an

argument and to support it with #2 and #3 above. The “test” is not about

whether you can make an argument if you are already told what to say. The

“test” is on whether you can come up with a position yourself. Although it is

your job to come up with an argument, see further advice below.

The following readings concern film form. You should reference one or more.

“The Ontology of the Photographic Image,” Andre Bazin

“Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram,” Sergei Eisenstein

“The Significance of Form in Film,” David Bordwell

“Unprivileged Camera Style,” David MacDougall

“Mechanical Eye, Electronic Ear and the Lure of Authenticity,” Trinh Minh-Ha

Note that you may, in addition to the above, use any course readings at any time in

your essay, but be sure to use at least one from the above list.

Include “film stills” to help illustrate your point and identify specific parts of the film

you are writing about, using the lecture recordings as source material.

If you don’t know how to make and handle screenshots on your computer, look it up on the Google.

Organization and Writing:

Open the essay with some example from one of the films that raises the issue of

representational politics or exemplifies representational quality. Explain why this is

important and interesting. Briefly explain what you will consider as you look into

this, particularly what films you will consider. State what you ultimately have to say

about this (your argument or thesis), which has something to do with film form and

is mostly likely comparative about the two films. Most likely the argument is about

convincing the reader that one of the films is better than the other on the chosen

criteria.

The body is where you convince the reader to believe your statement of comparison.

It might be best to take your “lesser” film first and describe the film form. Use

description and film stills. Then connect that film form to your critical analysis and

argument. Whenever it seems like a good time, cite one of the readings on film form.

Then, take your “greater” film and do the same. Whenever it seems like a good time,

cite one of the readings on film form.

Finally, re-present your argument now that many things have already been

explained. If you have a tight structure at this point, you might do some focused

“free-writes” with a timer to see what comes up when you reflect on upon your

thesis, almost kind of randomly. Whether that yields anything useful, or just served

as a warm up to get you ready to write, you can then proceed to think through some

meaningful implications about your statement, which may or may not go beyond the

specific films, but would stay on the specific issue or criteria you always had in mind

for this paper.

Quotations/citations:

At the end of a sentence or quote, put in parentheses (Last Name, page #), like: (Eisenstein, page 5) or (Minh-ha, page 2).

For a film citation at end of sentence or under film still put (Title, Director last name) like (Reassemblage, Minh-ha)

You are not allowed to use any outside sources, even if they are very interesting.

The grading rubric is as follows:

6 points: The inclusion of the required “ingredients” as defined in the original paper

assignment. None are missing.

6 points: The connections drawn between these ingredient items are clear, logical,

and persuasive.

6 points: Coherency and grammar on a sentence-by-sentence level. This is simply

raw language ability and logical flow, so be sure to get the help you need, if you need

it, before turning your essay in.

There are an additional 2 of the 20 points available for organic unity, or the overall

way in which the paper makes a coherent impression and all the pieces line up with

that impression.