Neoformalism

Kristin Thompson’s explanation of neoformalism in her book, Breaking the Glass Armor, was extremely dense and hard to follow. She first talks about how many critics use preexisting methods to talk about films. She then convinces the reader that those preexisting methods are not favorable when analyzing film because they do not look at each film individually. What is unique about the neoformalist method is that is not a uniform way of analyzing movies. It changes from movie to movie and allows the critic to go more in-depth and personalize their critique. I also thought it was interesting that she says that trying to find meaning can contribute to the defamiliarizing effect of a film. Instead of trying to figure out the meaning of a film, neoformalist focus more interpretation. They like to focus on interpretation because it may emphasize meanings we did not see previously or may emphasize the work in relation to society. Thompson also says that neoformalists look at a movie and its relation to the world as opposed to trying explain the world. It is important to use a method that is able to constantly modify itself because of the constantly changing nature of our society.