The movie “Marie Antoinette” from 2006 and “Hugo” are examples of the cinema of attractions (2011)

Narrative Filmmaking

Narrative filmmaking refers to the categories of movies that tell a story. The majority of movies are often the ones that are broadcast on TV, seen in theaters, or streamed online. The plot presented and the method of conveying it are commonly acknowledged as the two components of the narrative. The story is understood to be a series of depicted events, characters, and actions from which the viewer creates an imagined cause-and-effect universe, place, and time. Even though many forms of movies utilize various storytelling approaches, whenever we talk about a narrative film, typically we are referring to fictional films (Mulvey, 2003).

Illusion and Fictional Films

According to Pallant, & Price (2015), Just about all movie encounter is based using description on illusion. Films are essentially nevertheless pictures projected on to a flat display screen. Practically nothing moves, and generally, there isn’t an actual depth of space, however many of us cannot help but observe motion as well as spatial cues when the movie is projected. The whole approach is founded on a tale fantasy which we come across as being present. Out of this point of view, a fictional motion picture is a particular form of a motion picture in line with the content of the movies as well as sounds as opposed to their material attributes. Typically, the fictional film, the main topic of narrative criticism, theory, and history, considers a viewer who but not just perceives motion exactly where none is present but also constructs personas, moment, location, as well as themes.

The Cinema of Attractions

The term cinema of attractions was introduced by Tom Gunning to us through his writings. As he pointed out that the cinema of attractions solicits an incredibly conscious understanding of the movie image which engages the curiosity of the viewer. Rather than having the viewer’s concentrating on the narrative, the motion pictures from the cinema of attractions stimulate the viewers to be conscious of the excitement, the impulse, and act of looking, from the film (Gunning, 1986). Indeed, this is certainly most evident when it comes to the early motion picture when there is not much of a story active in the movies. The motion picture was initially developed to generate visual delight; it is acknowledged as a sequence pictures demonstrating the motions.

The Persistence of Attractions

A significant factor I came across as being interesting is the fact that Gunning pointed out the prominence associated with the cinema of attractions was over about 1906-1907. However, that attractions didn’t just disappear, it went ’underground.’ Gunning (1986), states there are still is the cinema of attractions engaged in the later on movies, despite the development of editing and enhancing of narrative cinema. I am entirely in agreement with this, In my opinion, the attractions continue to be just about an essential components in future motion pictures although it may not be measured much as previously. Numerous Hollywood blockbusters can certainly be viewed to have elements of the cinema of attractions by use of actions and special effects among many other.

The Film “Marie Antoinette”

The movie Marie Antoinette shows a clear picture of earlier films that focused on the narrative itself. The film does not possess any form of cinema of attraction it plainly just gives a narration. For an individual who only encounters photographs of Versailles, the film helps demonstrate great luxury of the location along with the stringent guidelines that everybody was required to adhere to the rules (Pallant, & Price, (2015). Before Antoinette gets to Versailles and needs to go through the ceremonial handing over in which Antoinette removes all the things that were Austrian well before getting into France formally, the film is presenting exactly how specific the French had been in all of their arrangements.

In building up the etiquette of Versailles, there are scenes where Antoinette awakens and is given assistance by a significant number of women. The primary point of this stage was the fact that royals always had people around them. It portrayed how royals during this period would certainly have no notion of modern-day privacy. There was no time a royal person was alone to themselves to the extent that a dauphine was prohibited possibly even from dressing themselves.

There happened to be strict rules to go by At Versailles, if they recommended that one had to wait for at least three different ladies to get into the room before the right one could put on your shift, then it had to be so. The movie displays this very well particularly in the scenes where Louis and Antoinette had meals with each other, where they need to be served in a very particular manner.

The Films “Hugo” and “Marie Antoinette”

In narrative cinema typically the illusions or perhaps tricks exist to deliver the storyline, and it is very apparent that Hugo suits unquestionably in this category. Beginning with the out of the question tracking shot which moves through the Paris sky inside the train yard, on the platform and in an modify disguised by heavy steam via the station right into a close-up of Hugo viewing everything right from the rear of a clock face. It is undeniable that Hugo displays an affectionate connection to Méliès’s heritage - apparent in, for instance, the restoration of Méliès’s widely recognized glass studio that enables Scorsese to pull a trick which was priceless to Méliès. Scorsese’s motion picture in no way condescends to early motion pictures on the whole, which has made Hugo particularly appealing to viewers of historical cinema past (Griffiths, 2002).

Additionally, Scorsese’s makes use of 3D technological innovation to film every scene of Hugo basically which concurs with Gunning’s point in which the system of attraction continues to be an essential component of great film-making. It is fascinating, however, that in an interview with Rob Legato, the film’s visual effects supervisor, he frequently claims the fact that prolonged Steadicam series at the start of Hugo assists in telling the tale of how it feels like to be Hugo. Ross (2015), states that, typically the brilliant ability of the shot offers the objective of narration, probably not the other way round, the shot remains to be applauded as a piece of a breathtaking video camera as well as computer work.

Tension Between Narration and Visual Form

The two films have shown the tension between cinemas being a narration of a visual form. The movie Hugo has been able to take advantage of the concept of the cinema of attraction to make its viewers have great admiration for it the effects have been heavily used to stir emotion as well as excitement from the viewer. The effects in Hugo cannot be compared to the film Marie Antoinette, as it is more of a narrative trying to portray the life of a foreign woman who is royal having to adhere to strict rules in a foreign land. As much as there is little talking in the film with the intention of the pictures to stir some effect on the viewer, the Marie Antoinette film does little to achieve that.

Reference

Mulvey, L. (2003). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. The feminism and visual culture reader, 44-53.

Pallant, C., & Price, S. (2015). Storyboarding, Spectacle and Sequence in Narrative Cinema. In Storyboarding (pp. 84-110). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Gunning, T. (1986). The cinema of attraction: Early film, its spectator, and the avant-garde (pp. 56-62). na.

Ross, M. (2015). 3D Cinema of Attractions. In 3D Cinema (pp. 47-71). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Griffiths, A. (2002). Wondrous difference: Cinema, anthropology, and turn-of-the-century visual culture. Columbia University Press.