Coursework Three: Dominant versus Counter Cinema: Comparison

Contemporary cinema is significantly dominated by Holywood films, which seem to continue their success until today. Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson claimed that during the period between 1917 and 1960, the filmmakers have created a distinctive style (so called 'Holywood style'), which has a pragmatic character, because of its global dominance. They also mention that all filmmakers face a decision regarding which way to go, either to accept the 'Holywood style' and follow it or subvert it consciously.

Peter Woolen makes here a point between these two different kinds of filmmakers by defining them as belonging to either dominant or counter cinema. Both of them are characterised by seven features, which help to identify the differences between both cinemas. In case of dominant cinema, he calls them the  'seven deadly sins' or in counter cinema - 'seven cardinal virtues'. 

To help to understand the difference between these two approaches, three examples of films are used to illustrate that: 'Halloween' (1978) directed by John Carpenter and ' The Silence of the Lambs' (1991) directed by Jonathan Demme as the classic Holywood films and 'Inglorious Bastards' (2009) directed by Quentin Tarantino as the one that subverts that classical style.

Holywood Classic Film   versus     Auteur Film                                                        (Domiant Cinema)                    (Counter Cinema)

1. Narrative transivity  versus  narrative intrasivativity 

The main difference here is that films from dominant cinema have a more 'straightforward' structure than the counter cinema films, as they use the casual chain: exposition, complication and resolution. This is achieved through the continuity style and its editing techniques. In case of counter cinema films, they challenge the continuity editing, as they tend to use episodic construction' and it very often provides rhetoric, rather than narrative. 

In 'the Silence of the Lambs' the director has based his techniques on Alfred Hitchock through the cross-cuting technique. To get a better idea of this, one of the scenes in 'Halloween' illustrates this. While we see  Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) sitting in a class and then we are moved to a scene with Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) leaving his school, which happens in the same time as the previous one. The opposite pattern can be noticed in 'Inglorious Basterds' where audience is moving in time from scene to scene. 

2. Identification versus estrangement 

In Dominant Cinema, the viewers can establish an emotional relation with the character and therefore identify themselves with them. In case of Counter Cinema, it is connected with the character's alienation and therefore it is distancing the viewers from them.

It is worth to note that the filmmakers use the ‘point of view’ shot to create audience identification with characters in the film.At  the beginning of ‘Halloween’ the audience can see through the eyes of the Michael Myer’s eyes, while he commits his first murder on his older sister and then the camera draws back at the end of the scene to deliver the final shock, the ability to see the children’s eyes from the other perspective, after he killed. Similarly, in ‘Silence of the Lambs’, the sequence of the serial killer 

stalking Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster).

An opposite example is reflected in the final scene in the 'Inglarious Basterds', which does not let the viewer to identify with one person.

3. Transparency versus foregrounding

Transparency is very typical for the classic Holywood films, as the film is a seamless flow of images, which creates a fantasy product, someone's fantasy. To achieve that, filmmakers use a various of techniques to destroy the sense of allusion. In opposite to dominant films, counter cinema concentrates on the production of meaning, as 'the image is given a semantic function within a genuine iconic role'.

In the examples of the Dominant cinema, viewers do not consider these stories as allusion and they easily get absorbed by them. In 'Inglorious Basterds' the filmmaker concentrates on the semiotic signs, which may be understood differently by the audience.

4. Single digesis versus multiple diegesis 

Simplistically saying in Hollywood films everything belongs to 'one world' even if they include such moments as travelling on the other planet, although in case of counter cinema, they tend to have 'more than one world', which is done by using a' film within a film.'

In case of 'Halloween' everything takes place in the same fictional city-Haddonfield and 'Silence of the Lambs', the films take in Quantico, Virginia. 'Inglorious Basterds' takes place during the Second World War and uses a previously mentioned feature by using: the film 'Nation's Pride' (directed by Eli Roth) . 

5. Closure versus aperture

Dominant cinema films are self contained objects and they are harmonised within its own boundaries and Counter Cinema films tend to use such methods as; pastiche, intertextuality or various quotations.

In this case, both examples from dominant cinema differ from each other, as 'Halloween' is the only self-contained film, which was the inspirtation for the other filmmakers, who made its remakes. Although 'The Silence of Lambs' is based on Thomas Harris's book (1988), which questions its belonging to the classic Holywood films.  In 'Inglorious Basterds' the use of intertextuality is very visible, as it inspires and uses the concepts from such films as: 'The Sound of Music' (1965), 'The Dirty Dozen' (1967),  and 'Inglarious Bastards' (1978).

6. Pleasure versus unpleasure 

Holywood films's aim is to entertain their audience and it does not require them to 'interpret' the movie too much, wherea counter cinema tends to provoke their audience and they may create different interpretations of the film.

Undoubtedly, 'Halloween' and 'The Silence of the Lambs' aim to entertain the viewer in many ways, as they easily absorb viewer's attention. Similarly 'Inglarious Basterds' easily entertains the audience, although it uses many provocative scenes, which lead to different interpretations and may not always 'entertain' the audience.

7. Fiction versus reality 

Classic Holywood films tend to depict the fictional characters and the world surrounding them, where 'the oppositional cinema' tends to present something 'real' and has some connection with the real world.

Despite this, all the examples of dominant cinema and counter cinema present fictional events, the 'Inglorious Basterds' relate to the Second World War history by various means, such as the previously 

mentioned reference to Eli Roth's documentary.


To summarise, filmmakers tend to choose either one of the approaches in creating their films, although sometimes it seems that certain features of the films suggest that they both conform and subvert the classic Holywood standards and techniques.



Videos:

Dirty Dozens (1969): Trailer. Available online from YouTube
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

Halloween (1978): Trailer. Available online from YouTube
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

Halloween (1978): Various Scenes. Available online from YouTube 
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

Halloween (1978): Opening Scene. Available online from YouTube
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

Inglorious Basterds (2007): Trailer. Available online from YouTube
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

Inglorious Basterds (2007): Final Scene. Available online from YouTube
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

Nation Pride: Behind the Scenes. Available online from YouTube
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

The Silence of the Lambs (1991): Trailer. Available online from YouTube
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

The Silence of the Lambs (1991): Scene. Available online from YouTube
[Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

References:

Definitions from Goldberg's website [Accessed on 3rd of March 2013]

Demirbas, Y., 2008. Towards New Understanding of Games: Auteur Game Criticism. Available online from a website.
[Accessed on 27th of February 2013]

Dominant Cinema and Counter Cinema website [Accessed on 27th of February 2013]

FAQ For 'The Silence of Lambs' website [Accessed on 27th of February 2013]

Film Lesson Plans website [Accessed on 27th of February 2013]

Fower, C., 2002. The European Cinema Reader. London: Routledge.
Available online from Google Books [Accessed on 27th of February 2013]

'Inglorious Basterds' Analysis website [Accessed on 27th of February 2013]

More Helpful Film Vocabulary website [Accessed on 27th of February 2013]