Aesthetic Economies: The Expressive and the Excessive

Abstract

What is involved in film style — or, to put it another way, what constitutes the aesthetics of the cinematic medium? What are the elements that comprise the stylistic ensemble of any given film, or of film as a medium in general? The basic inventory of stylistic elements in cinema can be uncontroversially listed: properties of the image (mise en scene, here including the pictorial elements of camera framing and production design); properties of the soundtrack; acting performance; and editing. More difficult is the task of deciding on the aesthetic economy of these elements in relation to each other, and to their narrative and thematic contexts; as well as in relation to their intended or actual effect on the cinema spectator. Aesthetic economy, a concept overlooked in much film studies, is the central subject of this chapter.