Excellence popularity typicality discuss the relative merits of each of these as a basis for the inclusion of films in a film history
'Excellence', 'popularity', 'typicality' - discuss the relative merits of each of these as a basis for the inclusion of films in a film history Any attempt to study film history requires the consideration of films, which occur within the categories of excellence, popularity and typicality. They are three very different approaches to film history; 'excellence' covering films recognised as having artistic merit, 'popularity' covering films which have been financially or sociologically successful and 'typicality', films which are classed as mainstream displaying qualities typical of classical Hollywood films. All three categories are used to study aspects of cinema rather than film history, rarely including documentary films and never including home movies, the most common use of the film medium worldwide. The most common way of studying film history is 'Excellency', grouping together films, which are generally agreed to be of exceptional aesthetic quality. This study, based on artistic merit, relates film study to other art forms such as painting, theatre and music. It is encouraged by the vast amounts of materials regularly reviewing and rating films, including newspapers, magazines and television shows and specific a
Despite being on a larger industry than Hollywood, Bollywood in ignored completely when studying typicality, popularity and excellence as ways of defining film history. Excellency in film is most commonly measured by a poll conducted among film critics by 'Sight And Sound' magazine every decade since 1952, producing a canon of the best 10 films of all time. As it is commonly calculated, popularity does not take into account the huge market for film on video and television. Newer films are shown on far more screens, with a bigger target audience as cinemas become more prevalent worldwide and the world population increases. In 'Wuthering Heights', the film ends with Heathcliff and Cathy, having faced obstacles to their love all their life, finding peace as ghosts wandering the moors together. The director and stars of the films are secondary to the effects though in the case of 'Titanic' much of its box office was due to the lead male, Leonardo DiCaprio's, popularity among the teenage female audience. They are films of great spectacle, usually very expensive; the number one film for box office takings, 'Titanic'(Cameron 1998), cost an estimated $280million to make. They are a minute percentage of all films made, already selected to continue to be on release, so can already be perceived as popular cinema. By creating an elite canon of films to study it is rejecting many other films which many people may regard as infinitely superior. It is the gross of a film, its box office minus the total expenditure on the film, which is usually used to ascertain its popularity. The film canon also tends to eschew science fiction, comedy, horror and children's/family films in favour of more realistic, adult films. '2001:A Space Odyssey'(Stanley Kubrick, 1968) is recognised as a great film by virtue of its direction alone with acting and plot secondary to virtuoso direction and cinematography. The majority of films made are neither huge financial successes nor critical successes, so are not included under either popularity or excellence. When it was attempted to calculate box office according to number of screens shown, taking into account the change in ticket prices, 'Gone With The Wind'(Fleming, 1939) is calculated to be easily the most successful film, taking equivalent to double its nearest rival, 'Star Wars'.
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Acceptance Essays
