Film Semiotics Research Articles

Irreality and counterfactual thinking in the semiotics of cinema: A cognitive-psychological aspect

Irreality and counterfactual thinking in the semiotics of cinema: A cognitive-psychological aspect

Scene Deconstruction and Plot Setting of a Silent Film

This study dissects Chaplin's method of conveying a story through visuals in his 1921 silent movie, 'The Kid,' emphasizing scene analysis and plot introduction. A detailed discussion of sequences allows the research to illustrate how Chaplin makes meaning, creates a narrative, and establishes emotion solely through visual motion without words. The study uses several theoretical approaches, including film semiotics, narrative theory, and visual composition analysis. This paper examines how Chaplin employs framing, editing, mise-en-scène, and physical comedy to construct a highly symbolic and emotionally rich picture. Special emphasis should be placed on how Chaplin uses both comic and dramatic scenes hand in hand, sometimes even in the same scenes. Key sequences analyzed include the opening scene, which efficiently introduces the main character and presents the setting; the separation scene, an emotionally charged sequence of a man being left by his wife; and the dream sequence, a fantastic sequence in which Chaplin breaks the laws of practical reality to develop character psychology and depth of themes. The paper also explores how Chaplin develops visual motifs and employs repeated actions to unify the narrative and chart the character's growth. Moreover, it discusses how the film's visual analysis and symbolism respond to early twentieth-century social concerns such as poverty and the position of children. As such, this research is pertinent to exploring the silent film narrative and its legacy through analyzing Chaplin's visual strategies. 'The Kid' illustrates that this was the pinnacle of the silent film genre and how complex narrative and character development can be conveyed without using words. Moreover, this research reveals Chaplin's creative processes. It contributes to understanding the potential of visual narrative in Cinema, proving the significance of the silent film language in developing film language.

A Study on the Use of the Symbol of “Buddha” in “The Great Buddha” —Based on the Perspective of Film Semiotics

A Study on the Use of the Symbol of “Buddha” in “The Great Buddha” —Based on the Perspective of Film Semiotics

Trying to Discuss the Important Significance of Semiotics in Film Criticism

Symbols are representative and symbolic signs that carry information that can be accepted and perceived. Modern semiotics emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, pioneered by Saussure and Peirce, and further developed and extended with the rise of structuralism. Film semiotics, a newly born methodology, has had profound effects on film criticism and film studies. This paper, based on the semiotic perspective, explores the origins and applications of film semiotics theory, examining its significance and contemporary value in film criticism.

On the Semiotic Embodiment of British Satirical Drama Films Take Chaplins Monsieur Verdoux and The Gold Rush as an Example

Film semiotics is a theory within the professional discipline of film and television that is rich in meaning. The works of many playwrights can be referred to as textbooks for the application of film semiotics analysis. This paper focuses on two works of drama legend Chaplins The Gold Rush and Monsieur Verdoux to compare and analyze the meaning of film semiotics. The Gold Rush, with The Gold Rush as the background and money as the symbol, satirizes human greed and unlimited pursuit of money and power, describes the weakness of human nature and the flaws of society, and reminds people to cherish the present moment. Monsieur Verdoux, with love as the clue and emotion as the symbol, embodies modern peoples pursuit of love and marriage, reflecting the changes and diversification of the concepts of marriage and love in contemporary society, and the pursuit of freedom and independence, reminding people to cherish freedom and independence, and the pursuit of true happiness. According to the research findings, the future research on movie semiotics still needs to be studied in depth.

An Autoethnography on Women’s Migration and Trauma

Research Article| April 01 2023 An Autoethnography on Women’s Migration and Trauma Sneha Samaddar Sneha Samaddar Sneha Samaddar is an assistant professor in the School of Cinema, Asian School of Media Studies, AAFT University. Sneha has a Doctorate in film studies: “Cinematic Representation of Partition: Trauma and Gender.” She specializes in film studies, gender studies, Partition literature, cinema and society, adaptation of films to text, film semiotics, and feminist research and theories. email: samaddarsneha1990@gmail.com Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar email: samaddarsneha1990@gmail.com Journal of Autoethnography (2023) 4 (2): 287–291. https://doi.org/10.1525/joae.2023.4.2.287 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Sneha Samaddar; An Autoethnography on Women’s Migration and Trauma. Journal of Autoethnography 1 April 2023; 4 (2): 287–291. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/joae.2023.4.2.287 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of Autoethnography Search Loss of home and family exposes women, making them vulnerable and more accessible than men, to men. Reading about the Partition of India in August 1947, I realized how forced migrations led to panic and oppression. As a twenty-first-century, modern, independent woman, I find, unfortunately, that even after seventy years some aspects of this vulnerability continue to prevail in our society. Even after having the agency to decide and willingly migrate, the trauma of loss of home and family, vulnerability of the unknown, and distress associated with being the “other,” more specific to gender, runs parallel in the journeys of the modern researcher (me) and one of the women who endured the Partition—my grandmother. I have been a researcher for six years. To talk about my experiences and legacies, add my voice to literature, and to expand sociological understanding, I have chosen to employ autoethnography.1 I migrated as a... You do not currently have access to this content.

Whispering Without A Body, (De)colonization of the Indigenous Language and Cultural Codes: Jorge Sanjinés from Manifestos to Third Cinema

Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sanjinés (1836–present) is the most influential representative of the Third Cinema (Revolutionary Bolivian cinema; Grupo Ukamau; 1960s to 1980s), whose manifestos determine the aesthetics and ideology of Sanjinés’s cinema. The article focuses on the Sanjinés's important films: Revolución (1963), Yawar Mallku (1969), El coraje del pueblo (1971) and La nación clandestina (1989). The aim of this study is to explore the political, social and aesthetic peculiarities of his manifestos to identify his revolutionary cinema. In the article, the Sanjinés's films and manifestos are analyzed by the Marxist and Apparatus Theories, as well as by Film Semiotics and Postcolonial Theory. The study shows the issue of cultural memory and history of Bolivia in totality by focusing on philosophical influences, visions and concepts (Imperialism; class and patriarchal terror; importance of indigenous culture and languages), which is also relevant for rethinking the cultural contexts of contemporary Bolivia and the Global South. The study is based on the rethinking of the works of those authors, (Jorge Sanjinés, Bertolt Brecht, Walter Mignolo, Mike Wayne, etc.) who discussed revolutionary cinema in a political and ideological context. The measurements are introduced to lead to an accurate connection between Sanjinés's manifestos and his films, which in its own turn indicates the fact that there is a direct link between his revolutionary theory and emancipatory practice. It also proves the concept that the author's visual and audio-visual codes have anti-colonial and liberating function. On the other hand, the article shows what role the indigenous language has for the artist, which has been colonized by the western culture.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE WANDERING EARTH II BASED ON PIERCE SEMIOTICS

As a highly-anticipated domestic science fiction series, “The Wandering Earth II” has captured widespread attention and ignited online discussion upon its release. The film weaves together multiple narrative threads, crafting a diverse array of characters and seamlessly blending surreal themes with realist storytelling. Consequently, its content and scope align closely with Peirce’s semiotic framework. As a founding figure in semiotics, Peirce incorporates various societal factors beyond symbols into his semiotic system, endowing it with extensive interdisciplinary applicability and research potential. Hence, this analysis of “The Wandering Earth II” employs Peirce’s semiotic framework to unravel the construction of the film’s symbolic system, with the aim of seeking novel textual expressions for film semiotics research while providing fresh semiotic perspectives on the interpretation of the movie.

ПОЕТИКА НЕВИМОВНОГО І «ФІЛЬМІЧНЕ» В РОБОТАХ РОЛАНА БАРТА

In the given article the author examines conceptual contribution of Roland Barthes to Film Theory from the standpoint of current debates on the methodology of analysis of the photographic and cinematic images. Barthes' input to the studies of visuality is being discussed in three interconnected aspects. Firstly, the evolution of Barthes' analytic approach is traced in the context of the formation of Film Semiotics in France and elsewhere (from the 1960s till now). Secondly, the model of textual analysis, elaborated by Barthes in the late 1960s, is considered in relation to the development of film analysis as a particular mode of reading film as a text. Thirdly, highly nuanced and inventive vocabulary, which Roland Barthes applied to the analysis of film language, seems to be particularly suitable for the phenomenalisation of the insignificant in a cinematic text, that is for the interpretation of the uncoded, open, evanescent, elusive, ineffable meanings in a film. Having elaborated such concepts as "third meaning", textual analysis, punctum, "le filmique", ‘traumatic units of cinema" and others, Roland Barthes provided a conceptual toolkit that allows for the analysis of that what I address here as "the poetics of the unspeakable". This concept, on the one hand, articulates the affective power of cinema as a means of communication, and on the other, characterises the specificity of a cinematic language if compared to other sign systems. Barthes developed the foundations of textual analysis of cinema. He was searching for answers to questions that cannot be solved within the framework of linguistics and semiotics of the text – about the insignificant, non-structural, non-semiotic – and found them in the filmic. His approach to cinema, and later to photography, maintains as a constant the attempt to understand how the viewer can overcome the power of the image: through the analysis of his affect and desire, as well as the identification of the signifiers of the ideology mechanisms. The analysis of the poetics of the unspeakable constitutes the "traumatic" core of film theory – it could be an optics to interpret Barthes' texts on cinema written between 1960 and 1980.

Text, architecture and film semiotics in Umberto Eco

Bu çalışma göstergebilimin temsilcilerinden Umberto Eco’nun dile yaklaşımını ve göstergebilim anlayışına getirdiği yenilikleri gösterme niteliğindedir. Makale, Eco’nun göstergebilim anlayışı çerçevesinde ele alınarak yazılı ve görsel yapıtlardaki göstergelerin okur, yazar ve izleyici bakımından nasıl yorumlanabileceğini belirtir. Makalede öncelikle göstergebilimin temel kavramları incelenmiştir. Göstergebilim hayatın tüm alanlarında karşımıza çıkan göstergelerin çözümlenme sürecinden bahsetmektedir. Bu çalışmada, metnin tek bir yorumunun olmadığını sonsuz sayıda yorumlanabileceğini ve yorumların aynı seviyede kabul görmediğinden hareketle aşırı yorumlara sınır çizmenin gerektiğini vurgulanmıştır. Eco öncesi dönemde, göstergebilim dilbilimin bir yan dalı ya da bir disiplini olarak kabul görürken, Eco ile beraber göstergebilim ve dilbilimin farklı nitelikleri göz önünde bulundurularak ayrı alanlar olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Eco göstergebilimin diğer alanlarla ilişkisi bağlamında film ve mimaride önemli katkılar sunarak, teorik ve pratik düzlemlerde filmlerin ve mimari yapıtların göstergebilimsel yoruma açık olduğunu iddia etmiştir. “Göstergebilim filmin anlaşılmasına ne derece katkıda bulunur?” ve “göstergebilimsel sorunların daha iyi anlaşılmasında filmsel deneyimler ne derecede yardımcı olur?” gibi temel sorulara Eco’nun verdiği cevaplar makalede betimlenmiştir. Eco metnin iç tutarlılığını sağlamak için okurun önemini vurgulayıp, okura merkezi bir konum vermeden metin-okur-yazar ilişkisini diyalektik açıdan kurgulamıştır. Metin düşüncedeki kuralcı ilkeler aşıldığı takdirde farklı yorumlara olanak tanıdığı için açık bir yapıdadır. Eco, açık yapıt kavramını, okuyucu, izleyici ya da dinleyicinin de yapıtın duyumsanmasına ve anlaşılmasına katıldıkları ve kendilerinden de bir şey kattıkları yapıt anlamında kullanmaktadır.

Pre·Election coverage by SABC·TV of the 1989 General Election

This article is based on the findings of a group of eleven specialists (WITS) who were commissioned by IDASA to monitor SABC-TV news coverage of the run-up to the 1989 general election. The report attempts to be a "case-study" In the construction of television news, employing discourse theory and the semiotics of film and communication In preference to the traditional quantitative approach. The encoding procedures of TV news were the main focus of the analysis which sought to demonstrate above all the shifting perspective within which news is constructed and how the signs and codes of news are closely related to those of fiction. It is freely acknowledged that the monitoring group occupied a position critical of the State and espoused a non-racist, non sexist, unitary political dispensation for South Africa, along the lines of the Freedom Charter.

The Subject Construction and Role Mental Model Construction of Erotic Movies Based on Lacan's Desire Theory.

Jacques Lacan is a famous French psychoanalyst, but his influence has long gone beyond the scope of psychoanalysis and has affected almost all fields of “human science.” Film and psychoanalysis coincided almost simultaneously and influenced each other. But with the development of film, researchers found that film studies in the period of classic film and film semiotics have come to an end. It has certain theoretical value to explore the construction of the subject and the mental model of the erotic film based on Lacan's desire theory. Method. The body in the film and video described in this paper includes both the material body as an aesthetic object and the spiritual body with aesthetic consciousness. The so-called artistic presentation of the body element means that the beauty of the body form displayed by the actor's body in the film video is perceived by the audience, and the desire to stare is captured by the audience, thereby completing the audience's entire body composed of eyes, body, and mind. The body is not only an aesthetic object but also an aesthetic subject, and the human cognitive system is not just a closed brain. Because the nervous system, body, and environment are constantly changing and interacting, true cognition is a unified system of all three. The main part of this paper uses Lacan's psychoanalytic theory to deeply analyze the relationship between the characters shown in the film. From the cognitive impairment of the self to the failure of communication between characters, the language of uncertainty entangled by desire is removed, and the behavior and facial expressions of the movie characters are used as the analysis basis to fully interpret the inner world of the characters. This includes love, hatred, pain, struggle, and many other contradictory emotions. In addition, this paper also analyzes the metaphor of the relationship between the characters from the perspective of semiotics and discusses the description of the relationship between the characters from the lens language from the perspective of cinematography. The special meaning conveyed by the recurring elements in the film is emphasized, and the correlation between the pictures is explained from the less mentioned photographic aspect of the film. Results/Discussion. Looking at Lacan's theory, the subject, the other, and desire are linked by the subject spirit, which is the core of the connection between the three, and only through the resistance and struggle of the subject spirit can the illusion of the subject be broken. Bewilderment and the suppression of the other and desire finally become the self. And the embodiment of this true self is particularly prominent in film art. Lacan's purpose is not merely to dissolve the subject but to seek a stand in the midst of destruction, pursuing the ultimate transcendence of man's desire for the external other and internal desire.

An Interpretation of the Light Design of Roger Deakins’ Works from the Perspective of Film Semiotics

Semiotics offers an effective way for the study of light design, and has important value for the theoretical study of lighting in films. The light symbol is of conventionality, iconicity and indication. The American Cinematographer, Roger Deakins, has won two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and been nominated 15 times for his works, which shows his high attainments in light design. In his creation, he used a variety of light design, so that the film can better show the plot of the script, restore the characters and scene modeling, which, at bottom, is a flexible use of the light symbol. With case study, literature study and interdisciplinary research, this paper takes Roger Deakins’ works as an example, attempting to interpret the light design with the theory of film semiotics from various angles, and seeking for new discoveries for the theoretical research and practical creation in light design.

Urban Image and Female Expression: The Symbolic Narrative Style of The Female Devil in Prada

With the promotion of women’s status and the awakening of female consciousness of independence, American chick 
 flicks as a kind of commercial film with extremely large box office revenue, it is still unable to get rid of the shackles of the 
 patriarchal in narrative and structure, but is getting close to the feminist film in terms of character shaping and film spiritual 
 construction.This paper takes film semiotics and feminism as the analysis point of The Devil in Prada.

REPRESENTASI ETNIS KETURUNAN ARAB DI INDONESIA DALAM FILM 3 HATI DUA DUNIA SATU CINTA

Film semiotics is one of the semiotic studies that uses film as its object. This study aims to determine the meaning of denotation and connotation contained in a film through semiotic analysis. This study discusses how the ethnic representation of Indonesian Arab descent in the film 3 Hati Dua Dunia Satu Cinta which aired in July 2010. The theory used is representation theory and uses a qualitative approach with semiotic analysis of Roland Barthes. The unit of analysis focuses on scenes that describe the lives of ethnic Indonesian Arab descendants. Data collection techniques in the form of documentation and literature study. The analysis was carried out by analyzing the data, describing each scene containing ethnic representations of Arab descent by looking for the denotative and connotative meanings contained in the scenes from the film, then carrying out the analysis process using Roland Barthes' semiotic theory. The results of the study show that in the film there are signs that describe the life of ethnic Indonesian Arab descent in the film 3 Hati Dua Dunia Satu Cinta which are represented through Arab attributes, such as the use of a robe and white cap for men, and the use of headscarves for men. woman. And in their cultural system, such as speaking using a mixed language of Arabic and Indonesian, their economic system which is predominantly trading, the matchmaking system and their artistic traditions such as Zapin dance and Gambus music.

Anime tourism in Italy: Travelling to the locations of the Studio Ghibli films

Film-induced tourism, intended as travelling to places where films and TV series have been shot or set, has been extensively studied in the last two decades in several disciplinary fields. For example, the term ‘media pilgrimage’ emerged in media sociology to highlight the sacred dimension these practices may assume, while fan studies have focused on the narrative of affection built upon specific places. Calling forth the relationship between film and landscape, these phenomena have been also explored in the light of film semiotics and media geography. In the past decade, the representation of landscape and the construction of the sense of place in animation benefited from increased scholarly attention; however, the links between tourism and animation still appear under-explored. Japanese animation, because of its prominent use of real locations as the basis for the building of its worlds and the tendency of its fanbases to take action (even in the form of animation-oriented tourism), is an especially promising field, in this respect. In the last fifteen years, a debate on ‘content(s) tourism’ has involved the Japanese government as well as academic scholarship, referring to a wide variety of contents, from novels to films and TV series, anime, manga, and games. The article presents a case study: a discussion of the experience of anime tourists who visited the Italian locations featured in the films by the world-famous animator and director Miyazaki Hayao, especially in Castle in the Sky (1986) and Porco Rosso (1992). The experiences of anime tourists were collected from images and texts shared through the social network Twitter.

Symbolic Tension in Contemporary Chinese Urban Film: Culture, Space and Community

Film semiotics is an important theory produced in the modern film period, and urban film closely responds to the process of contemporary Chinese urbanization. Borrowing the theory of film semiotics to analyze Chinese contemporary urban films, it can be found that typical cities have formed a unique symbolic tension, referring to urban culture, and having multiple symbolic elements sets to interpret the new imagination of the city. Urban film and film semiotics should jointly promote the poetic integration of various classes in the city, construct an urban emotional community, and form emotional resonance and spiritual progress.

크리스토퍼 놀란의 Dunkirk에 나타난 상호연결의 양상: 플롯, 쇼트, 몽타주를 중심으로

In Dunkirk (2017), Nolan visualizes Operation Dynamo, one of the largest military evacuations performed in the early days of World War II. In filming this epic event, Nolan recognizes that “any kind of comprehensive view” is not achievable for “an event of this magnitude.” Nolan chooses to apply the perspective of history from below in a cinematic way by weaving fragmentary episodes of unknown characters rather than prominent figures in historical narratives. This paper analyzes how Nolan connects cinematic elements to deal with the escape of hundreds of thousands of Allied forces from Dunkirk based on Yuri Lotman’s film semiotics. Dunkirk’s plot structure features the opposition between selfishness and altruism within the Allied forces. Nolan’s live approach to filming, achieved by shots from a large-format camera in as realistic an environment as possible, aims at providing an immersive experience both to the actors and the audience. Finally, the montage related to Nolan’s sense of balance in the equal arrangement of the film’s three parts. Granting durative equivalence to the three significantly different events is not just a mechanical balance consideration but an active intervention to fairly show the contribution of all the operation’s participants. In Dunkirk, Nolan asks who the real agent of Churchill’s famous phrase “blood, toil, tears and sweat” was, and his answer is, in every field: the mole, the sea, and the air.

Parody film as a postmodernist deconstruction in cinematography

Lately, the research of Parody film as a part of film discourse have reached its peak in the history and philosophy of science. The polycode essence of the concept of film discourse prompts changes and modifications in the interpretation of Parody film. Therefore, the subject of this analysis is Parody film. The goal of this research consists in examination of the peculiarities, meaning, and role of the concept of “parody film”, which is a creative work intended to ridicule the plot through satirical or ironic imitation. Research methodology is based on the method of analytical study of sources for clarification of the logic and content of the concepts of “parody”, “parody film”, and “film discourse”, as well for revealing the essence of parody film as a postmodernist deconstruction in cinematography. The article also employs the methods of comparative analysis and the concept of local cultures. The scientific novelty of this research consists in systematization of the existing knowledge on parody film in the light of film discourse, which being the phenomenon at the intersection of multiple disciplines is in the epicenter of scientific inquiries in linguistics, literary studies, sociolinguistics, philosophy of semiotics and film semiotics, critical discourse analysis, and theory of cinematography. The theoretical importance lies in characterization of the concepts of “parody”, “parody film”, “comedy”, “comedy film” in the context of modern knowledge of moviemaking and cinematography. The acquired results give a better perspective on the role of parody film in art and life of the society. The Interpreters fight for cinema, on the one hand adoring it as the art with unlimited capabilities, while on the other – neglecting the fact that it should need the unpretentious demands of the audience. The author claims that in a broad context, the parody film of the XXI century is not aimed at parodying a literary text. The filmmakers rather consider and use parody film as a means for drawing attention of various life circumstances.

АТТРАКЦИОНЫ ЭКРАНА: МЕЖДУ ВИЗУАЛЬНЫМ И НАРРАТИВНЫМ

Based on a number of provisions of aesthetics and film semiotics, the article interprets the structural features of the attractions of screen civilization and analyzes their varieties in the context of serial art products that reveal their structural and receptive specifics. The attraction has its deep reflection in the mental structure. The attraction appears as an external manifestation of the phantasm. The attraction, like phantasm, resonates on the basis of the difference of several episodes with which it is connected by the relation of causality. Art “produces the phantasm theatrically” (according to G. Deleuze), bringing the quasi-event from the depths of the psychic to the surface, into the symbolic space of artistic fiction. Phantasm is an internal resonance of the two series, while an attraction appears as an external manifestation and effect of the difference between the causal series (visual/narrative; rational/emotional; singular/universal, fictional/real, presence/absence). Based on the disjunctive synthesis of these series, an attraction occurs in films and comic books on foot of the ultimate (limiting the space for fiction) and the transcendent, going beyond the screen limitations, canceling the conventional barriers for fiction. A locomotive rushing into the auditorium from the cinema screen is an example of an attraction that is considered in the screen civilization as an attractive and sensational element of an artistic program. Such a cinema attraction is addressed almost exclusively to the eye, and for its success the resonance is important, which is provided by the predominance of the visual over the narrative. The juxtaposition, going back to André Gaudreault’s semiotics, between a cinematic attraction (in which the visual component is almost unchallenged) and НАУКА ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЯ № 17.1, 2021 14 THE ART AND SCIENCE OF TELEVISION that of films (filmique), in which the narrative might have a chance for revenge, reveals an interesting response in the culture of the modern series. A film attraction appears as a result of the constructive interaction of visual perceptions and creative interpretations of the plot, shaped by the recipients themselves. It is assumed that a cliffhanger, which is often used in the series, can be such an attraction. In the modern storytelling, the art of creating and maintaining intrigue is endowed with fundamental importance. The attraction of the series is aimed at the continuation, at the teaser of the next episode, which should look as attractive as possible and seem to be an artistic product absolutely mandatory for consumption. The techniques and practices developed for these purposes become systematically updated in the media space, which nowadays is literally “infected with cliffhangers”.