Kristin Thompson: Neoformalist Film Analysis

Although rather dense and hard to follow, Kristin Thompson's article on Neoformalist Film Analysis scrutinizes a rather intriguing perspective of film analysis: neoformalism. The neoformalist approach Thompson discusses revolves around aesthetics of a film. I found Thompson's advocacy for neoformalism to be most interesting because it is not utilized by many film theorists. I agree with Thompson in stating that a film has many aspects to it; each film is its own work of art. Further, because individual films are masterpieces, there are other factors that contribute to the making of the magic. Some of these factors include historical context, inspiration, and other various outside elements aside from aesthetics. Thompson points out that there is not necessarily one fixed method of neoformalist film analysis. Additionally, the neoformalist approach features components that breakdown how film is visually communicated: sender; medium; receiver.  This component of neoformalism is extremely helpful in film analyzation.