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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Film Style
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
5
Projects & Abstracts
2005-10-01
2023-09-21
2005-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
XIII International Film Studies Conference
2005/10/01
2036-461X
7
en
Film Style
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/21133/18761
5
FILM STYLE
XIII International Film Studies Conference
Udine/Gorizia, March 28-30, 2006




  When looking at the question of style what strikes one immediately is that the mean-
ing of this notion seems to come from its use, without it ever being really defined organ-
ically, especially when it comes to the sphere of cinema. References to the style of a peri
od, a genre, a school, a movement or a director (where the notion of style merges with
that of work and poetics) are in common use, but the definition of "style", as a way of
identifying a method of analysis suited to studies of this concept, remains vague and
lacking in effective systematization.
  The XIII Udine International Film Studies Conference is dedicated to the analysis and
study of the notion of style in cinema. The variety of approaches to this notion and its
different fields of application, as well as the continuous updating of the forms and
modes of cinematic narratives within a framework that is increasingly intermedial, all
indicate that a study of this kind could lead to original results at a historiographical.
theoretical and methodological level.
   If style has traditionally been approached from a prevalently author-based perspec-
tive as a complex of typical and recurrent expressive and formal strategies that distin-
guish a film maker immediately and point to a clear identity, this Conference proposes
to systematically abandon the sphere of "author-based styles" and focus its attention
not on the individual dimension but on macro-systems. In line with the tradition of the
conference we will also be paying particular attention to carly cinema, without, hou
ever, forgetting the new directions suggested by the contemporary scene.
   Here are a number of different directions studies could consider.

Defining a concept of style
  There is still no definitive explanation of the notion of style in the cinema sphere. It
we trace some general theoretical definitions in an "archacological" sense and relate
them to the context of film communication, what we find is a rather static framework
that is not particularly useful for the purposes of analysis. If Roland Barthes claims that
style is the antecedent of any linguistic problem, to such an extent that it becomes
almost a biological entity, Susan Sontag is of the opinion that it only becomes visible in
works of art when it reaches the extent of excess or stylization. The need to get away
from a certain degree of epistemological vagueness goes hand in hand with the need to
establish as a reference point the certainty that cinema products acquire their position
as works and texts only when they construct a relationship with a communicative sit.
uation, every part of which is already defined. It is within this structure that a typology
of film style must be looked for, by considering the need to analyse films on a cultural,
textual and productive level. The fairly frequent recourse to notions of style formula

 CINEMA & Cie, no. 7, Fall 2005                                                        169
  XIII INTERNATIONAL FILM STUDIES CONFERENCE



 ed in the sphere of history and theory of the figurative arts has, after all, not produced
  particularly convincing results.
     Standardising procedures intended as the consolidating and stabilising processes of
  linguistic-expressive strategy systems, that identify and become typical of a period, a
  movement or a school undoubtedly play a central role here. But at the same time how
  are we to explain the relationship between standardization and innovation in relation
  to style? Can style be conceived as a negotiation site?
    Referring to formal strategies clearly draws attention to the importance that the level
  of expression acquires with regard to the concept of style. But what importance should
  we give to themes, ti. semantic formalisation?

  Early Cinema styles
     In no other phase in film history has style been so debated over as in the origins of
  film and the phase that led to the cinema becoming institutionalized. The notion of
  style overlaps that of "genre" and in this direction a lot of work has been done to com.
 struct distinctive features and therefore to appreciate production compan
 products. Under this respect, there are many aspects that have yet to be studied in
 depth.

 Style and technology
   What are the effects of the development of cinematic technology on style and its
 notion? How does an established stylistic system incorporate new techniques and
 assign them a specific and original expressive functionality? And in what way, to move
 in the opposite direction, can the introduction of new technology change style?
   In the framework of the wider question of technology, the study of the relationship
 between style and modes of production is without doubt one of the most explored top
 ics, so what perspectives will future studies take? What is the potential of this
 approach, over and above the production context of the classical Hollywood cinema?

 National/international stvle
   Style can be seen as the expression of a culture, the expression of a national cinema
 (as shown in Barry Salt's studies). The foreshadowing of a national film style raises a
 series of considerations involving not only the moment of production but also that of
the consumption of individual films. In the area between these two poles four funds-
mental analytical criteria have recently been established (Andrew Higson, Steve Neale).
   In economic productive terms it is important to establish how and to what extent J
domestic cinema industry is required to construct a kind of cinema that is seen as being
national.
   On a textual level, the formal contents and structures of a nation's film need to be
examined to establish the intertextual relationships in the context of a "national* cul
ture expressed in other systems, such as music, literature, theatre, etc.
   At the level of consumption, the nationality of films released in a certain period can
be analysed as well as the type of paratextual products that activate and nourish these
cinematographic practices.
  Last of all, on an ideological discursive level, the critical, theoretical and popular
issues raised with regard to national cinema can be looked into.
  Can these four guidelines alone cover all the issues involved here? Can the national
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style of a film or group of films be defined using other parameters? Moreoser, with
regard to the processes and discussions that emerged in the first few years following the
introduction of sound to cinema, is it legitimate to think of European cinema as essen-
tial", in comparison with American movies, for example? In other words does European
cinema belong specifically to Europe? Is there such a thing as a European film "style?

Cinema and the other arts: matters of style
 The question of style can be a particularly fertile terrain for refining studies into the
relationships, exchanges, contamination and crossover between the cinema and other
communicative and expressive spheres. From this point of view, to what extent do
intermedial interaction and influences contribute to changing the notion of style ar.d
its parameters of identification? In 1919/20, for example, in Germany, style was a major
factor in terms of economic competition as well as critical and theoretical analysis.
Why have we forgotten these stages? The relationship between cinema and new media
is another particularly interesting area. Ads, videoclips and short films are often recog
nised as influencing contemporary cinema, but in which contexts and what shape does
 this influence occur?

Style and genre
  The film genre is the sphere in which the criteria of audiovisual recognition, shaping
and repetition are regulated. Genres are always constructed with hindsight and their
historical and social existence is based on pragmatic (i.e. the effects they are supposed
to reach with regard to their audience), semantic (the constant themes that are referred
to in their texts) or syntactic properties (the formal characteristics that regulate their
communicative principles). Recent theories (i.e. Rick Altman, Mark Jankovich) tend to
see film genres as mobile entities, constantly changing, underlining their relative char-
acter, dictated by material contingencies. Is there a clearly defined, certain, insur
mountable boundary between style and genre or should both terms rather be ascribed
to the same discursive family of narrative and linguistic "macrosystems"?

Style and acting performance
  Just as we can speak of acting styles, acting itself can be considered to be part of a more
general stylistic system: so what changes and influences result from acting perform-
ance? And how does the "general" style contribute to determining actors' performance?

 Reception
  Studies on cinematographic reception can make highly original contributions to the
 notion of style. Can style, like genre, function as a system of the audience's expectations
 and abilities? And in what way do factors such as criticism and audience affect the way
 a style develops? Can style, in its role as a communicative category, contribute to the
 definition of the spectator? What implications can be derived from comparing the
 notion of style to the notion of taste? What role does the paratextual apparatus of the
 film play in the construction of cinematographic style?


   Closing date for proposal presentations: November 15. 2005
   Any proposal received after this date will not be taken into consideration.

 CINEMA & Cie, no. 5, Fall 2005
                                                                                         171
  XIII INTERNATIONAL FILM STUDIES CONFERENCE


      For further information and contacts:
      Dipartimento di Storia e Tutela dei Beni Culturali
      Via Petracco 8
      33100 Udine (Italy)
      fax: +39/0432/556644 or +39/0432/556789
      c-mail: udincconference@gmail.com *
      www.damsweb.it/udineconferencc/*
      * N.B. the e-mail address and web site of the Conference have changed.




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