Part II: What is the Nature of Film

4. Defining the Photoplay by Hugo Münsterberg
5. The Artistry of Silent Film by Rudolph Arnheim
6. Cinematic Realism by André Bazin
7. Film, Photography, and Transparency by Kendall L. Walton
8. Non-fictional Cinematic Artworks and Knowledge by Trevor Ponech

 

The essays in this section present different attempts to understand what film is and how it is different from other art forms. The films that one might show in relation to these readings should give students an acquaintance with a range of different filmmaking techniques.	Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915)
Sherlock, Jr. (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckel, Buster Keaton, 1924)	In particular, it would be useful for students to see early narrative films such as, perhaps, D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, along with films that use editing techniques that are no longer standard, such as Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. These silent films will make a nice contrast with films that employ the realist style of filmmaking, such as Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game or Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.
There are also many silent shorts that can illustrate alternative modes of filmmaking, including Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali's surrealist masterpiece, Un Chien Andalou. In addition, students should be shown a documentary or non-fiction film, such as Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line or Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, to assist them in thinking about how such films differ from fiction films.	Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941)	Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1934)