Varieties of film experience - Issues and debates (FM4)

FM4: VARIETIES OF FILM EXPERIENCE – ISSUES AND DEBATES

Focus of the unit

This unit contributes to synoptic assessment. Understanding will be fostered through:

·         studying complex films from different contexts, extending knowledge of the diversity of film and its effects

·         exploring spectatorship issues in relation to a particular type of film

·         applying key concepts and critical approaches gained throughout the course to explore one film in a synoptic manner.

Content Section A: World Cinema

This section requires a specific engagement with a World Cinema topic, including contextual knowledge. There are prescribed topics but no prescribed films and questions will be broadly-based.

Specialist Study: Empowering Women

The study of examples of films from World Cinema that engage with the empowering of women may be eclectic in its geographical range including, for example, Qui Ju, Real Women Have Curves, Five in the Afternoon, Moolaadé and Volver. Alternatively, the focus may be on a particular continental cinema, such as that of Africa or South America. The challenge of this topic is to compare and contrast films which may come from very different social and cultural contexts.

Section B: Spectatorship Topics

The emphasis in all four options for Section B is on the study of the interaction of aspects of film form and the spectator. It offers continuity from work in FM1.

Spectatorship and Documentary

The study of the impact on the spectator of different kinds of documentary – for example, the overtly persuasive and the apparently observational film. Examples may be taken from both historical (such as 30s and 40s British Documentary or 60s Cinéma Verité) and contemporary examples, including work on video. A minimum of two feature-length documentaries should be studied for this topic

Section C: Single Film - Critical Study

The ability of candidates to engage in critical study of a single film is examined in this section. The synoptic dimension is clear – as there is the expectation that the candidate's cumulative learning will be brought to bear in this study.

Critical approaches that may be applied include those arising from the frameworks for the FM3 research project while contextual study will consolidate work completed for FM2 and FM4 Sections A and B. The role of macro and micro elements of film in the construction of meaning and the creation of emotion informs the specification as a whole.

Each of the films available for study has given rise to much debate in its critical reception and each lends itself to study within one or more of the critical frameworks listed for FM3. A consideration of some of these debates and the application of critical frameworks will provide the basis for the candidate's own engagement with the film.