A Study Of Kristin Thompson’s Neoformalism Film Theory

Kristin Thompson(1950-present)is a well-known contemporary American film theorist and founder of the "Neoformalism" in American film theory,with several monographs and research papers covering various fields of film studies,including film theory,film criticism and film history studies.In the 1970s and 1980s,Thompson was deeply influenced by Russian formalist literary theory and Soviet film theorist Eisenstein.Combined with the thendeveloping cognitive science theory,she proposed a "Neoformalism" film theory.Her research focused on the narrative methods and techniques of Classical Hollywood and New Hollywood cinema,and advocated the ontological characteristics of films from the perspective of form and the cognitive construction of the audience.This coincides with Bordwell’s vision that film studies should return to its ontology,leaving behind the grand theories and studying the shots,images,editing and how the audience perceives them from the mesoscopic level,providing a groundbreaking way of thinking and setting up a pioneering paradigm for the ontological study of cinema,with important research significance and value.An overview of Thompson’s film studies reveals that the neoformalism is the theoretical foundation of his research.Her research is divided into three parts:film narrative studies,film criticism and interpretation,and film history.In order to present Thompson’s Neoformalism film thought in its entirety,this paper takes the core issues of these three areas as the main points,explores the inner relationships among them,organizes the ideas scattered in Thompson’s various writings,and establishes logical connections among film narrative,film criticism and film history by taking formalist ontology and cognitive construction as the chain.Guided by this research concept,the framework of this paper is designed as follows:the first chapter is a general survey of new formalism,which explains what is neoformalism and its formation process;the second chapter deals with the issue of film narrative,exploring "narrativity" as an important characteristic of "cinematicness" from the perspective of film as a narrative art;the third chapter deals with the issue of "cinematicness" from the perspective of film as a narrative art;and the third chapter deals with the issue of film narrative from the perspective of film as a narrative art.Chapter 3 discusses film criticism and interpretation,the application of NeoFormalism as a critical method,film meaning production and audience cognitive construction;Chapter 4 compares the history of world cinema from the perspective of form and structure,and enriches the content of film history with case studies;Chapter 5 interprets the value and acceptance of Thompson’s film theory,and summarizes the significance of her theory.The concluding section summarizes the research results of this paper,evaluates the theoretical value of this study and points out the problems to be further solved.The main contents of each section are as follows.The introductory section briefly describes the origin of the topic,the current state of research,the main research methods and the research framework.Thompson’s neoformalism film theory,as well as film narrative,film criticism and film history research in the context of neoformalism theory,encompass three major elements of film studies,which have a special status and research value in the history of film theory and are worthy of systematic study and reference.As she herself has received more and more academic attention,her academic status has been positively affirmed.However,most of the existing research results are fragmented and lack of systematic and holistic studies.After comprehensively collecting and organizing relevant literature,this paper systematically studies her theoretical sub-sections,reveals the inner logical relationship between her research fields,and on this basis,analyzes and presents her main views and theoretical framework.The first chapter of the dissertation is devoted to the background and theoretical origins of Kristin Thompson’s neoformalism film theory.Russian formalism,montage film theory and cognitive science all had an important influence on the formation of the neoformalism theory.From the background of the era,Hollywood films have undergone half a century of evolution from the classic period to the new period,and great changes in terms of story structure,characterization and conceptual awareness.In the late 1980s,post-structuralism,postmodernism,multiculturalism and "identity politics" were still very active.Surrounded by grand theories,Bordwell and Thompson called for a return to film studies from the middle-level,focusing on film narrative and audience perception from the perspective of formal structure.This chapter also collates the main terms and meanings of the neoformalism film theory,laying the theoretical foundation for the following study.The second chapter of the thesis is the core chapter.It focuses on film as a narrative art,and develops film ontology research from a formalist perspective of Kristin Thompson’s.First,as a narrative text,film has a corresponding formal structure.Based on Field’s three-act structure,Thompson argues that many films have a four-act structure.These four acts are:the beginning,the buildup,the progression and the climax.The climax is often followed by a short epilogue.Cause and effect connections and character centrism are the narrative patterns of classic Hollywood films.Most Hollywood films follow five key narrative principles.As a temporal complex of films,time and space plus narrative logic together form the Hollywood film narrative system.Next,this chapter continues to examine the cognitive interaction between film narrative and audience,highlighting the audience’s agency in film narrative through the distinction between story and plot.The interaction between film narratives and audiences is explored from two aspects:film structure and narrative activity of films,respectively.Afterwards,the paper enriches the neoformalist study of film narrative through Thompson’s comparative study on film and television storytelling.The third chapter of the dissertation deals with Thompson’s conception of film criticism and interpretation.This part is an extension from neoformalist’s study of film ontology to critical practice.At the very beginning of neoformalism film theory,Kristin Thompson makes it clear that neoformalism is a valid tool for conducting film criticism.This chapter first examines neoformalism as a method of film criticism,exploring its historical context,main analytical methods and analytical tools.Then it examines the classification and interpretation of film meaning.The audience’s cognitive construction is the focus of neoformalism theory.Next,the formation process of film aesthetic experience is discussed in terms of the dual subjective nature of the audience and the role of the film critic.She also conducts a case study of Thompson’s neoformalist film criticism in her three monographs,Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible:A Neoformalist Analysis,Breaking the Glass Armor:Neoformalist Film Analysis,and Storytelling in the New Hollywood:Understanding Classical Narrative Technique.Rather than focusing on the analysis of film themes and ideas,she shows how the film works as a whole,how it engages the audience through skillful storytelling,and how the form prompts the audience to react and complete the interpretation and construction of film meaning.The fourth chapter is a study of the history of world cinema.David Bordwell’s and Kristin Thompson’s film history studies are heavily influenced by the development of film theory and film criticism.Since its publication,they have worked together on the Film History:An Introduction(1994),which has been revised several times since its first publication and remains a best-selling and authoritative film history textbook in the world today.This chapter examines the authors’ position,background,research philosophy and methodology,starting from the background of the "revisionist" trend and the rise of new film historiography.Through their selection and compilation of historical materials,this chapter demonstrates that their film history research is dominated by their awareness of issues.The selection of historical materials adheres to the principles of comprehensive access and selective use,and the compilation of materials in an interpretive and narrative manner,with the history of Hollywood style as the focus of the study.The text also briefly compares it with George Sadoul’s Histoire DU Cinema Mondial and Philip Kemp’s Cinema:The Whole Story.Kristin Thompson’s film history research is divided into three areas:the history of world cinema,director case studies,and an examination of American cinema in the international market,and therefore the third section of this chapter develops case studies from these three areas.The film works of German director Ernst Lubitsch,British director Christopher Nolan,the Lord of the Rings franchise,and the export of American films in the world market between 1907 and 1934 are examined.Chapter 5 discusses the significance and value of Kristin Thompson’s neoformalism film theory.The first section explores the state of acceptance in the Academics,including its worldwide impact,theoretical characteristics,and personal writing style.The second section analyzes the significance and value of Thompson’s film theory from both theoretical and practical dimensions,as well as the limitations of her theory.Thompson’s research method of analyzing films in detail has,to a certain extent,realized the original intention of returning to the study of films in the context of the prevalence of "grand theories",and the research path is worthy of reference and significance.It brings a broader methodological scope and diverse interpretative perspectives to contemporary film theory research.Although in the process of research,Thompson is slightly far-fetched in her detailed analysis of some films in order to make the research conclusions conform to her own assumptions.But her theoretical thinking is based on analytical practice rather than purely metaphysical discourse,and this empirical character inspires new ideas for our film studies.The concluding section begins with a brief review of the paper’s main research and lists some of the paper’s unresolved issues.