pgs. 364-365
Craig Hartford "God"

Key Concepts
-Realism is defined as an absence of "style" and more linked towards "life."
-Realism rejects artifice to portray the material world.
-Although Realistic narratives are patterned and manipulated, realistic storytellers attempt to submerge the pattern, bury it beneath the surface "clutter" and apparent randomness of the dramatic events.
-Realistic narrators prefer losse, dicursive plots, with no clearly defined beginning, middle, or end.
-"like life"

Mulholland Drive (USA, 2001)

Chinatown (USA, 1974)



pgs. 366-367
Isabelle Kiely

KEY CONCEPTS
-realist films are often structured around cycles or rites of passage

-cycles: passage of seasons, "circle of life"
-rites of passage: birth, puberty, first love, painful separations, death

-circular narrative may not reveal itself until the end of the movie
-often episodic: doesn't "'build' inexorably, but seems to drift into surprising scenes"

-main narrative is often slow to emerge
-"digressions" turn out to parallel main story

-seven key traits

-nonintrusive, objective report of events
-rejection of conventional movie cliches in favor of concrete reality
-often "expose" or focuses on gritty/realistic subject matter
-antisentimental point of view, rejects phony optimism
-avoids exaggeration
-rejects ideas like "destiny"/"fate"
-prefers straightforward, plain presentation

VOCABULARY
-realism: rejection of artifice or style to present world "without distortion"
-digressions: a passage that deviates from the central story of the film
-episodic: divided into separate, but related parts

MOVIES REFERENCED

	Late Spring: a widower attempts to marry off his only daughter before she becomes a spinster. Theme revolves around disappointment and "bitter pills of self denial"; seasonal title is symbolic of humans within film. (Yasujiro Ozu)
	True Love: tensions rise between men and women in an Italian-American community before a wedding. Scenes arranged in seemingly random order; conclusion is ambiguous and ambivalent- no real solutions to the complex problems in the film. (Nancy Savoca)
	M*A*S*H: two soldiers/surgeons serve in Korean War. Episodic in nature- opens on their arrival, ends on their leaving. Drifts into scenes that don't necessarily propel plot forward. (Robert Altman)

More on Ozu: SensesofCinema.com


Pages 367-368
David Lewis

Key Concept
Slice of Life- a poetic fragment, not a neatly structured tale.
Lyrican (C)- A stylistic exuberance and subjectivity, emphasizing the sensuous beauty of the medium and producing an intense outporing of emotion.

Movie Reference

• La Haine or Hate (1996, France), with Vincent Cassel, Saïd Taghmaoui, and Hubert Koundé; directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
• The movie is a uncompromising portrayal of the three lower class thugs who are friends. The film depicts 24 hours in the lives of these three main characters. The film causes an uproar in France when it's released and provoked much debate in France over its unflinching presentation of urban and police violence.