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2.docxAnalysis of Selected ‘Film Stills’ (from Nightmare Alley)
Introduction: Read the following:
For a long time, I have been intrigued by the phenomenon of being
interested and even fascinated by photos from a film … and then of losing
everything of those photos (not just the captivation but the memory of the
image) when once inside the viewing room – a change which can even result
in a complete reversal of values. I at first ascribed this taste for [film] stills to my
lack of cinematic culture, to my resistance to film; I thought of myself as like
those children who prefer the pictures to the text, or like those clients
who, unable to attain the adult possession of objects (because [they are] too
expensive), are content to derive pleasure from looking at the choice of
samples [from] a department store catalogue.
* * *
[The film still] throws off the constraint of filmic time; [this] constraint is
extremely powerful…. For written texts…reading time is free; for film,
this is not so, since the image cannot go faster or slower without losing its
perceptual figure ….
--- Roland Barthes. “The Third Meaning: Research Notes on Some Eisenstein Stills.”
Image, Music, Text . Trans. Stephen Heath. London: Fontana, 1977. 52-68.
Relevant Terms for this Exercise : (Source: Timothy Corrigan’s A Short Guide to Writing
Composition : “the arrangement and relationship of the visual elements within a frame.”
Frame : “the borders of an image within which the subject is composed.”
Scene : “a space within which a narrative action takes place; it is composed of one or more shots."
Shot: “a continuously exposed and unedited image of any length.”
Sequence : “a series of scenes of shots unified by a shared action or motif.”
TOPIC : Barthes suggests that studying a “film still” liberates us from the imposition of “filmic time.” And, after we have been liberated from the “constraint of filmic time,” we are able to notice aspects of a particular film that we were not able to recognize before.
Using Roland Barthes’ comments about the power of filmic images as your critical frame of reference, write a response in which you select and analyze three screenshots (i.e., “film stills”) from Nightmare Alley . Consider why and how studying the selected screenshots (or “film stills”) from the sequence conveys the film’s style and/or thematic concerns.
[The series of selected screenshots from Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, dir., 1947) is available as a separate PDF file. To access this PDF file, go to our Canvas Home Page.]
Submission Guidelines:
· Make sure that you accurately identify the selected screenshots (by number) in your response.
· Submit Commentary 2, via the Canvas dropbox, as a Word attachment (.doc or .docx file).
· Double space.
· Word length (minimum range): 300-350 words.
