Neoformalist Film Analysis

This reading by Kristin Thompson brings forth the concept of neoformalist film analysis which is an approach that derives from Russian formalism. What I found while reading this was that Neoformalism leaves a lot of room for personal interpretation. Something that I thought was important about neoformalism was that it didn't just take art as something permanent, but rather that it recognizes that it can be culturally determined and can mean different things to different people. an aspect of neoformalism that this reading points out as important is that a neoformalist approach roots itself in the historical context of the film, this way norms can be better understood and clearer. There were three aspects of this historical context, or back ground, that was then explained in the reading. The first was the everyday world. I thought that this made sense because having an understanding of the everyday world of the time period in which a film was made would make the choice of wardrobe, and dialogue clear to someone who is even watching the film 40 years after it was released. The second was about other artworks, and the final one was the use of films as advertising and such. Something important that I found about neoformalism was the position in which it placed the spectator or audience of the film. This was important of course to me because this is largely the role that I play in films as I have never been a filmmaker. The neoformalist approach puts the audience as a an active member of the film, and this writing states that as a viewer we actually have a large effect on the final effect of the film. While reading this I associated this idea of having an effect with the award shows which honor films. Largely, at these it events it is up to those who went out and watched the film to have the final say on if that film will go down in award history or fade out. Something that really stuck out to me about this article was the critique of neoformalism in that it applies to an elite group of films that only a certain audience can have access to. To me, I placed films that are placed at the academy awards in this "elite" category. Its argument however, is that this approach can be taken and used towards different types of films and perhaps all films that we watch. From what I gathered, Neoformalism has a main goal of making people return to films with a higher understanding and a more active view on it. From what I gathered about neoformalism from this article, I associated it with what a large audience of people do with todays movies. I think that while there is room to passively watch the films, I think that a majority of film watchers take this approach in some way or another as this approach focuses primarily on how the viewers react to different formal elements of the film to judge a quality of the film.