Marxist film theory
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Marxist film theory is an approach to film theory centered on concepts that make possible a political understanding of the medium.[1][failed verification]
An individual studying Marxist representations in a film might take special interest in its representations of political hierarchy and social injustices.[citation needed]
Overview
While this
Eisenstein's solution was to shun narrative structure by eliminating the individual protagonist and tell stories where the action is moved by the group and the story is told through a clash of one image against the next (whether in composition, motion, or idea) so that the audience is never lulled into believing that they are watching something that has not been worked over.[3]
Eisenstein himself, however, was accused by the Soviet authorities under Joseph Stalin of "formalist error", of highlighting form as a thing of beauty instead of portraying the worker nobly.[3]
French Marxist film makers, such as Jean-Luc Godard, employed radical editing and choice of subject matter as well as subversive parody to heighten class consciousness and promote Marxist ideas.[4]
Situationist film maker Guy Debord, author of The Society of the Spectacle, began his film In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni with a radical critique of the spectator who goes to the cinema to forget about their dispossessed daily life.[citation needed]
Situationist film makers produced a number of important films, where the only contribution by the situationist film cooperative was the sound-track. In
See also
- Karl Marx in film
- Screen theory, a Marxist-psychoanalytic film theory associated with the British journal Screen in the 1970s
References
- ^ Mike Wayne (ed.), Understanding Film: Marxist Perspectives, Pluto Press, 2005, p. 24.
- ISBN 978-0-429-33867-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-003-07080-1.
- ^ "Godard: Images, Sounds, Politics". Goodreads. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
Bibliography
- Forsyth, Scott (1997). "Marxism, Film and Theory: From the Barricades to Postmodernism". ISSN 0081-0606.
- Kornbluh, Anne (2019). Marxist Film Theory and Fight Club. ISBN 9781501347320.