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FILMS and POPULAR CULTURE
Comments on Film
Breaking Film News (every 2 hours):
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The videos below help explain the diagram interface on this page.
 THE STRUCTURE OF FILM NARRATIVE
Diagram interface for 15 additional pages that explore the relationships of elements involved in the production and viewing of films. A combination of ideas from Plato and Aristotle, with some common sense about narrative structures. Click on each node to show pages. The interface is a little temperamental, and it can be difficult to get the "little hand" to pop up for each node, but there are 15 pages accessible through the diagram. The diagram is meant to indicate the built-in transcendental nature of film narrative structure as well as the common-sense interrelationships among the various sources of meaning (interpretive contexts) available in contemporary life. Videos above help explain diagram and how to use it. In progress.
NOTEWORTHY FILMS OF 2006
X-Men 3 - Harmless, excellent fun. Carries forward Marvel's Morality from Spiderman: "With great power comes great responsibility." Terrific for exploring the theme of the various responses to having power and/or being different: despair, anger, wanting to conform.
NEW LINKS
NEW! Image Processing in the Visual Arts - Entering the Imagosphere. Slide show with sound commentary. Note: This is a prototype; the "speech" is more or less spontaneous. There are a few cases where the last item on the slide is not fully explained. I was limited to 60 seconds per slide. The sound starts simultaneously with each slide. Disable popup blockers if you do not hear sound. Feedback welcome for this experimental talk.
MINDTOOLS WIKI. A way for you to contribute your thoughts.
MISTAKES IN FILMS Interesting site. Appears to count "mistakes" as anything that is a deviation from literal reality or from the story/scene/location continuity "reality" established by the film -- but since replication of reality is not the issue in film, there can be more detail here about some films than you would care to know. Nevertheless, there is a lot of information here and it is amazing how many errors creep into films.
NEW PAGE
Comics: Miscellaneous Art and Comments
HOW TO VIEW A FILM
This section would be longer, but for the fact that it is now virtually impossible to view a film in the United States, since most theaters are populated with people who are CONSTANTLY TALKING. The only solution I know is to try to go when no one else does. Try the last show on Sunday.
PURPOSES OF THESE PAGES
Films can provide entertainment, an opportunity for intellectual reflection, and a means to understand the depths of the human heart. But it has become harder to find films that provide all of these things. Often, critical praise and box office reports are poor indicators of quality.
These pages were designed with the following purposes in mind: (1) to provide a guide to quality films; and (2) to provide resources for both popular and academic criticism of films. Links to sites supporting other critical perspectives are not necessarily endorsements on my part of the views expressed at these sites; they simply express views I feel deserve more attention.
In addition, I have supplied some comments on films and some alternative groupings of films. The structure of social narratives intrigues me, as does the phenomenology of film and the structure of film. There are so other many sites dedicated to similar topics and so many scholars who spend their full time on such topics that I am acutely conscious that my efforts are behind the curve at best and primitive and naive at worst. However, I have no illusions and my intent is to provide a starting place that may be useful to some. I still think my Seven Mistakes of Film Criticism is good, and it remains a popular page. I recommend everyone read the excerpt from the Magic Mountain. And the entire topic of the relationship between the thematic content of films and globalization is probably still an under-explored area. Read (or view) comments at your own risk! - A. D. Birch, Ph.D.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMMENT? DO YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR THIS SITE?
Feel free to contact me if you have a comment or question regarding any material on this site. I welcome your suggestions for additional links.
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