Film Perception

Essay # 45165

Film

Film Perception

A look at perceptions on films in terms of genre and the concept of stardom.

1,467 words () | 12 sources | MLA | 2003 Australia

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how films have always played a vital role in our construction of the world and how this is mainly due to the fact that dominant ideologies often play a major part within the construction of a film. By drawing examples from the opening scene of the musical "Singing in the Rain" (Donen & Kelly 1951), it explores the theoretical concept of genre and its function within the film industry and society. It also outlines the basis in which the concept of stardom is constructed and perceived and thus determines how these filmic representations can provide for the viewers a ground in which meanings are constructed.

From the Paper:

"Stardom, as Dyer wrote is about reading the star images as a cultural text linking film stars and their films to their larger historical and social contexts (1979: 40). Stars, in terms of its aesthetic discourse, bear a seemingly fixed and genuine relation in reference to the real world. Firstly, the photographic still or role playing is a symbol in which audiences use to make sense of in films and secondly as an extensively used device of the movie industry to promote films. Since as Steven Cohan argued, musical genre often explicitly display female spectacle (2002: 80), female stardom often embodied the prevailing cultural norms of the time in which stardom were dealt with among actresses."