Dada vs. Walter Benjamin: What Value Does Dada Have in Context of Walter Benjamins the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction?

Benyahia, Sarah Casey and Freddy Gaffney and Jon White. AS Film Studies The Essential Introduction. New York: Routledge

Article Three – Author: David Bordwell / Title of Article: The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film

‘There are…two kinds of film makers: one invents an imaginary reality; the other confronts an existing reality and attempts to understand it, criticise it…and finally, translate it into film’

Alex Ross Perry is a rising, prolific writer, director, and actor who has won acclaimed for his creativity from critics and other filmmakers. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art, he has completed four feature films, Impolex (2009), The Color Wheel (2011), Listen Up Philip (2014), and Queen of Earth (2015). Not only is he a dedicated original filmmaker in which all of his films were shot on a tradition mean, 16-millimeter film, of production, but also he is an audacious artist that he opts for the avant-garde narrative without following rigid adherence to Hollywood-inspire rules or award-winning recipes. Since then he remains a personage of importance in the New York City film production community as well as plays an influential part in encouraging students who enter the film program at the Tisch School of the Art to be diligent.

In the recent decade films have grown to be very popular, I believe that the reason is due to the fact that a movie gives the audience watching a visual experience with diverse emotions and feelings that they would not receive while reading a book. A movie is rated on its ability to suspend reality and immerse the audience in the world the movie. Baz Luhrman the winner of the AACTA Best Director/film has mastered the art of immersing the audience to make them feel like they are part of the movie. He achieves this through cinematic techniques; Baz Luhrman’s ability to immerse the audience has greatly evolved from his debut movies ‘Strictly Ballroom’ to his latest movie ‘The Great Gatsby’. Baz use camera angles and lighting in both movies to firstly hook the audience and secondly to put emphasis on character’s role.

In Dan Graham’s book, he explains his artworks as well as video techniques and architectural decisions made which pertain to the “self” with some connects to split personalities. In Graham’s “Video, Architecture, and Television” essay, it has different sections pertaining his opinions on how certain techniques, and their notable uses relating to what those uses mean. Graham discusses the “self” as well as the “self”-image in a section about “Video Feedback” With the topic of video feedback, the mentioning of “self”-perception is important to the discussion. When viewing an image, it’s usually “detached [and] static” (Graham 55). However, video feedback contributes another element to the perceiver, causing them the process the footage differently.

A film, generally speaking is digested on a surface level as a piece of entertainment and some elements can pass the viewers by. However films are cemented in the time and place they were made and the filmmakers unique self-expression is presented in an artistic form to fully give their work depth. Typically, feature films are narrative driven and focus on a central set of characters and their trials and tribulations. However, the film can mean something deeper when fully delving into the content of the work, whether it is cultural, political or ideological in its message. These elements presented give the work depth thus allowing deeper discussions and analysis of a work that may seem simple on a surface level. Student filmmakers have always strived to implement these points in their work. With the aim of improving their practice, it is considered a necessity to include these elements in order to fully dissect the elements of specific works to understand the method in which these messages are implemented. In this assignment, I will discuss the content of the cult film They Live (They Live, 1988) so I can fully grasp the symptomatic and ideological elements behind the film and how it has inspired other artists.

In the world we live in today, anyone can pick up a handheld video camera and record their son’s soccer game or daughter’s school play, but to really capture the beauty of an event takes true talent. It takes the expertise of a cinematographer or director of photography as they are also known, to capture the true essence of an event and scene. Thomas Edison even once said, “By faithfully reproducing and kind or type of movement, it [cinematography] constitutes man’s most astonishing victory to date over forgetfulness. It retains and restores the things memory alone can’t recover, not to mention its auxiliary agencies: the written page, drawing photography. … Like them, cinematography prevents the things of yesterday that are useful to tomorrow’s progress from sinking into oblivion; amongst these one must count moving things, which only a few years ago were considered impossible to fix in an image” (Neale, 54). A picture, whether it be a photographed image or a filmed image is nothing when it has not been looked at with the proper eyes. When expressed through the proper lens and eye an image can really be worth a thousand words.

Throughout history, films were known to be iconic and relevant to a certain genre. In each genre, you can pull out different directors that created pathways and opened doors that highlighted and chronically pinpointed eras of filmmaking. However, directors tend to blend genres over their career, but still pave ways for proceeding directors. One director, Stanley Kubrick, specialized in imaginative films that involved images beyond what was real. His genre focused on surrealism and horror, while using characters emotions to drive the stories. A director that was influenced by Kubrick’s filmmaking was David Lynch. Not only did Kubrick break barriers with his controversial films like Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork

I rented common movies nowadays in order to keep up with modern society and the interaction with people of common interest. Generally, movies are a mediocre as well as underrepresenting our realistic life, but it does teach me about emotional intelligence and the greatness of being socially-equipped. This can be compared to the prosaic in music, but classical music and modern music had gave me a chance to unveil the history behind the record. Treating music as a piece of art has prescribed me to value the inevitable mystery of the author and the criticism they are surpassing through. This helped me to fathom that I am certainly not the only one. By educating myself of the entertainment dilemma, I have transgressed my spatial intelligence and can be easily treated with dignity and

Dada emerged after World War I (Tate Museum n.d.). The anti-art movement was founded in Zurich, Switzerland where Dada was birthed for artistic and political purposes. Events at the cabaret proved pivotal in the founding of the art movement known as Dada. Questions about social structure, politics, values and culture were brought to light after the war (Gavroche 2017). Dada was an expression of the new perspective of the modern world. This essay will explore the effect that Dada had in Zürich, Switzerland after World War I and its significance in a time of healing and comprehending the damage the war had left. Firstly, the beginnings of Dada in Zurich will be investigated and how the movement came to be. Secondly, the importance of Dada during considerable changes in society will be discussed and how it gave way for people to question and challenge ideas. The influence of the founder of Dada, Hugo Ball will be discussed and how his inisitive had influence on later artistic movements. The legacy of Dada will be explored through an analysis of Dada pioneer, Marcel Duchamp and his readymades. And conclusively, the influence of Dada on 21st century art will be explored.

The role of film in our society, has uniquely created a powerful omnipresence, within human culture. Film is a narrative. The role of film in our society, has uniquely created a powerful omnipresence, within human culture. Film is a narrative; it reflects past, present, and future society. It’s a form of communication form societies- not just where society is presently and what it’s doing now- but where society has been. It holds a unique place in communication, art, culture, education, etc. It's a powerful vehicle, that is wholly unique because of its narrative and representational aspects. A medium of

Leonardo da Vinci was a true “Renaissance man,” who was interested in how things worked. Leonardo turned to science in the quest to improve his artwork. He studied how a muscle moves, as well as how veins are arranged in a leaf. During his discoveries, he filled his notebooks with observations and sketches. Then he incorporated his findings in his art. Leonardo was the first artist to study the physical proportions of men, women and children and to exercise these studies to determine the "ideal" human figure. He believed that the artist must know not just the rules of perspective, but all the laws of nature. Painting creates more admirable things than poetry

Hugo Ball defined Dada as “ foolery, foolery extracted from the emptiness in which all the higher problems are wrapped, a gladiator 's gesture, a game played with the shabby remnants . . . a public execution of false morality” (Richter 32). Dada was about freedom. Freedom from social, political, and artistic constraints.

First, in order to decide whether reality distortion through film has any immediate implications, we must establish that it is impossible to capture an “objective reality” through film. Though this is not an essay that is exactly concerned with philosophical posturing, a bit of existentialist thought is required when asking the question of whether or