Blog Assignment #7: The Stuff Films are Made of

The Cinephiliac Approach to analyzing film can be defined as the fetishizing of fragments of a film, either individual shots or marginal (often unintentional) details in the image, especially those that appear only for a moment. A cinephile’s objective is to retain the pleasure found in the emotional response to a film, and more importantly, to make that pleasure productive instead of repressing it. According to Susan Sontag, the act of interpreting a film (“de-coding” it) removes the pleasure from the cinematic experience and transforms the text into something it is not. She asserts that by beginning with a concentration on cinematic form, and describing the particular response to a given detail in the form of an anecdote, the critic can retain his/her special love for the cinema without trying to "uncover" the film's true meaning.

For this blog post, you will experiment with the cinephiliac approach, choosing a moment, a detail, or a shot that stands out in your memory from Tom Ford’s A Single Man. It is not important that you begin this exercise with an understanding of the moment, but rather that you begin there and work to uncover its significance according to your own background knowledge and what you are able to uncover doing preliminary research into the moment. For example, Craig mentioned the owl at the end of the film. Recalling this image, you might look into possible connections that can be made. You might discuss the owl imagery in Psycho or research Hegel’s The Owl of Minerva. If there is a connection to be made, discuss the importance of the moment and how it allows you to think deeply about A Single Man. But, keep the objective in mind…you are not trying to make the film into something it is not (i.e., don’t say “this film is about…”) but to discuss how YOU made connections that are present within the film. So, if you are going to discuss the Owl of Minerva, you must relate HOW the film speaks to this idea as a whole (for you).

Group TWO: 300 words minimum; due Friday by 3:00 pm.

Group ONE: Respond to someone's post by either commenting on or building from the moment discussed by the author. OR, if the moment discussed reminds you of another moment from the film or a moment from a different film, you may post your thoughts on these types of connections. 300 words minimum, due Sunday by noon.