Other theorists such as Slavoj Žižek, who makes very deep and somewhat perverted theories on film, check out the film The Pervert's Guide to Cinema in which he covers films such as The Birds where he talks about the main characters sexual desires.
There are countless books and articles in libraries all over the place full of theories on films and other texts. And here we come to my point.
We, as film scholars, attempt to understand film and the meanings and themes that they suggest. I think this can be fun at times. I like to look for meaning in things, but mainly things that interest me.
When I'm faced with documentary theory or feminist theory or whatever, it tends to become very dull and dry. For example, I was reading an article for my seminar yesterday...it was talking about Masculinity in the TV show The Professionals
It went on to talk about Doyle's haircut and how that represented his masculinity. I mean fair enough it does express how the idea of masculinity has changed over the years (baring in mind this is a show from the 70's) but It is not something I would get lost in.
Another thing I would like to express is how we are limited as to how much of our own theories we are allowed to put in without constantly referring back to what someone else has said. To me that doesn't seem like it is encouraging us to look at films in our way, but rather look at them in someone else's mindset. This completely bricks up or minds to open thought. It's like they want us to accept other peoples theories as fact...yes they get problematized a lot, yet I always feel myself constantly being pressured into comparing and referring back to a theory which I don't think is right.
Maybe I'm being biased...maybe I'm not but at present, this is how I feel on the matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment