Buzzwords I use and what I think they mean, for class.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006Definitions of Film Theory and Criticism
From Biology by Campbell the 5th Ed. page 426 “The colloquial use of “theory” comes close to what scientists mean by a “hypothesis.” Campbell defines a hypothesis on page 14 as being “…a tennative answer to some question - an explanation or trial.” So a film theory could be understood as a potential explanation for what a film does. Unlike scientific theories they are grounded more in dogma and tradition but like scientific theories they must be justified by a rigid methodology of observation and analysis of facts.
Criticism is finding the proper context to judge a work of art and then applying the expectations
that come with that context to arrive at a judgement about how well the artist has fulfilled these
expectations.
” . . . or we could take my car. Gosh!”

