Patrick White writes:
> I find that asking students, "What did you notice?" in a film they
have
seen is a very valuable and relatively open question. They then talk
about what they saw and heard, …
Focusing on what students ‘saw’ and ‘heard’ is valuable, but we need to
make a distinction between ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ a film on the one
hand, and ‘looking at’ and ‘listening to’ it on the other.
A particular film theory enables (or enforces) us to identify specific
aspects of a film’s structure, and to look at and listen to the film
from the perspective of its own values. There is no value-free
perspective from which we can directly ‘see’ and ‘hear’ a film; we can
only ‘look at’ and ‘listen to’ a film with a particular set of values.
One function of film theory is to construct different conceptual
perspectives on a film, each informed by a specific set of values. Each
theoretical perspective encourages/forces those who take up its
perspective to ‘look at’ and ‘listen to’ a film from its own set of
values (that is, encourages us to look at the film in its [the theory’s]
own image – this is why psychoanalytic critics see Oedipus everywhere,
for example).
But this, of course, raises the issue of whether we can ever 'see' and
'hear' a film at all.
Warren Buckland
Associate Professor of Film Studies
School of Film and Television
Chapman University
One University Drive
Orange
California 92866
USA.
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