BFI study day

1) Type up your notes from the day.

• Constructing and performing gender: "gender becomes a set of connotations that have become naturalized." Gender roles are constructed, men and women are victimised from a patriarchal society. 
• bell hooks believes that traditionally masculine attitudes and behaviours aren't natural but rather constructed by a patriarchal society. 
• Van Zoonen believes that in a patriarchal society women bodies are sexualised and vulnerable whilst men's bodies are sexualised through power and strength. 
• Butler believes that gender is a performance: a repeated system of behaviours and costumes that are used so many times they may become seen as 'natural' 
• Barthes believes that signs we assume and denotations are actually 'dominant connotations' that hide ideologies. 
• Authors 'encode' their work with meaning. Audiences often do not decode meanings the way a texts creator intended, same from negotiated or even oppositional meanings. 
• Meta-narrative- A totalising cultural narrative, that organises thought and experiences into a a grand 'story' that makes sense of our lives. 
• Simulacra- Imitation that seems more real than the things it's imitating. 

*I lost my notes, those are taken form Aranvir's blog*

2) Write a one-sentence summary of the ideas of the theorists Matthew Daintrey-Hall covered (you can use your notes from task 1 here if relevant): 

bell hooks: "Gender becomes a set of connotations that have become naturalized."  She suggests that the gender stereotypes aren't normal and are constructed by society.

Liesbet van Zoonen: she believes that women are treated the same way as they were before and nothing had really changed. (women are still sexualised)

Judith Butler: 'gender as a performance' male and female behaviour is socially constructed and not natural

Saussure: -

Barthes-denotations are 'dominant connotations'

Lyotard: he believes in cultural narrative, that we need a narrative that audience can relate to

Baudrillard- the idea of hyperreality- the reality is replaced and what's not real is though of as real


 3) Choose one of the films we saw extracts from and watch the whole movie: Captain Fantastic (2016), Pulp Fiction (1994) or Inception (2010). Write a 300 word analysis of your chosen film using theories from the study day (use the exam paragraph structure we were shown on the day - theory introduction, examples from text, why this 'proves' or 'disproves' the theory).

I talked about the film 'inception'. I chose this one because it's one of my favourite film, creating almost a 'frame within a frame' with the illusion of the plot being an actual making of a film. The creative narrative is about a dream that you can actually control. The theory of Stuart Hall can be applied to this film because the director's preferred reading is that it is not a normal spy genre film, as it does not involve robberies, etc. The oppositional reading is exactly what is the deaper meaning explain by the director. It's a concept of Lyotard's theory, where we talk about things being reliatable to the audience, and as weird as it might seem, the idea of controling your dream is very real and possible. The movie keeps you on the adge of your seat and is beautifly constructed with the maze-like plots and twists. You can also see some enigma codes to what was the whole point of protagonists story and actions. His wife, his children all led up to him finally comming back home. The is a great satisfaction for an audience when we can finally see the faces of his children at the end.