Self-study
P1
Film scholar David Bordwell refers to the years 1917–1960 as the classical era of filmmaking in Hollywood. ███
Intro Topic ·
Hollywood's classical era according to Bordwell
Early- to mid-1900s
Bordwell's view ·
Era's style focused on straightforward, realistic narratives
Filmmaking techniques were used to immerse the viewer in a realistic story
P2
██████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ████████████ ████ ████████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███
Exception to Bordwell ·
Musical films of the 30s
They don't just focus on plot-driven narrative; they also have musical sequences
Example of exception ·
Musical sequence in Berkeley film
Unrealistic ("fanciful") sequence departs from film's plot
Author's view ·
Musical filmmaking techniques serve other, non-narrative goals
Telling a realistic story is not the priority in musical sequences
Key question ·
Can musicals fit Bordwell's definition of the classical era of Hollywood?
Or do musicals contradict Bordwell's view?
P3
Bordwell's answer ·
Yes, musicals are still realistic in their own way
Musical audiences expect breaks from the plot, so including those breaks is "realistic"
Author's criticism ·
Bordwell's explanation is wrong
Even though audiences expect breaks from the plot, those breaks are still a departure from the "reality" portrayed in the film
expand criticism ·
Bordwell's view is too narrow
Too focused on fitting film styles into definitions while ignoring how audiences engage with films
Passage Style
Critique or debate
11.
The author of the passage █████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
Busby Berkeley's films ███ ██████ █████ ████████ ██ ████ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████████
Unsupported. We know that Berkeley’s films are
b
The use of █████████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ███████████
Unsupported. The author never describes the technical elements of classical era films as simplistic. There is no indication of the simplicity/complexity of the technical elements used in these films.
c
The film genres ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████████████ ███████ █████████████ ██████
Unsupported. We only
d
Audiences learn to ██████ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████
This is
e
Most musical films ██ ███ █████ ████████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ████████
Unsupported. We know that Berkeley’s musicals were not realistic, according to the author. The passage doesn’t indicate that most of the 1930s musicals were realistic.