APPARATUS THEORY
“More than the other arts… the cinema involves us in the imaginary: it drums up all perception, but to switch it immediately over into its own absence, which is none the less the only signifier present”
- Christian Metz
APPARATUS THEORY argues that cinema is based on ideas or ideological because it reproduces the reality. Ideology is not imposed on cinema but part of its nature and it forms how we think. What was created on a film illustrates different ideas on which everything has meaning include the camera and editing.
It derived from a combination of Marxist theory, semiotics and psychoanalysis. Based on the paper of Paula Marphy entitled Psychoanalysis and Film Theory Part 1: ‘A New Kind of Mirror,’ from its very beginning, it was already showed how the other theories influence apparatus theory.
- Christian Metz
APPARATUS THEORY argues that cinema is based on ideas or ideological because it reproduces the reality. Ideology is not imposed on cinema but part of its nature and it forms how we think. What was created on a film illustrates different ideas on which everything has meaning include the camera and editing.
It derived from a combination of Marxist theory, semiotics and psychoanalysis. Based on the paper of Paula Marphy entitled Psychoanalysis and Film Theory Part 1: ‘A New Kind of Mirror,’ from its very beginning, it was already showed how the other theories influence apparatus theory.
In Marxism, film makers and film critics alike were forced to consider the relationship between ideology and power and the position of cinema within that dualism. The story is told through a clash of one image against the next whether in composition, motion, or idea so that the audience is never lulled into believing that they are watching something that has not been worked over.
In this theory, the film tells the spectators/viewers that the story is real although it was presented by the projector or screen. Through different ideas and the power of camera shots, the film will be realistic because of the way that they took the video and the editing that they did. Like in apparatus theory, it also reproduces reality.
In this theory, the film tells the spectators/viewers that the story is real although it was presented by the projector or screen. Through different ideas and the power of camera shots, the film will be realistic because of the way that they took the video and the editing that they did. Like in apparatus theory, it also reproduces reality.
While regarding the cinematic semiotics, Lacan said that rather than the subject creating and naming the world, language itself, which creates the world, ‘the concept…engenders the thing. They give the meaning of the real world through the language that they used although it has implications for filmic criticism.
Lacan said that language can never fully articulate what the subject wishes to say: the unsignifiable order of the real is evidence of this. Language will be their way on how the film will reproduce reality to the spectator. Through the meaning of the language they will use, the viewers will imagine and believe that the story they are watching is the story that happens in real life.
Lacan said that language can never fully articulate what the subject wishes to say: the unsignifiable order of the real is evidence of this. Language will be their way on how the film will reproduce reality to the spectator. Through the meaning of the language they will use, the viewers will imagine and believe that the story they are watching is the story that happens in real life.
Metz and Lacan provide the same ideas for their theories but in different way. Lacan's mirror stage is based on his belief that infants recognize themselves in a mirror (literal) or other symbolic contraption which induces apperception (the turning of oneself into an object that can be viewed by the child from outside of himself) from the age of about six months. While Metz apparatus theory defined it as a child mirror that replicates and creates a version of reality that is based upon an illusion.
To sum up, all of these theories reproduce the reality. Even if it is an illusion or imaginary, the film shows to the viewers the nature ideology of what is real. Marx, Lacan, Metz and semiotic theories provide information most especially in film critic to understand more what the film wants to reproduce.
To sum up, all of these theories reproduce the reality. Even if it is an illusion or imaginary, the film shows to the viewers the nature ideology of what is real. Marx, Lacan, Metz and semiotic theories provide information most especially in film critic to understand more what the film wants to reproduce.
REFERENCES:
Cinematic Apparatus
http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/cinematicapparatus.html
Film Theory and Language
http://media.edusites.co.uk/category/c/apparatus-theory/
Lacan, Jacques, 1989. Ecrits: a Selection. Translated by Alan Sheridan. London: Routledge.
Metz, Christian, 2000. ‘The Imaginary Signifier’ in Film and Theory: An Anthology, ed. by Robert Stam and Toby Miller. Oxford: Blackwell. [pp. 403-435]
Revisiting Christian Metz’ “Apparatus Theory.” A Dialogue
http://www.academia.edu/4399707/Revisiting_Christian_Metz_Apparatus_Theory._A_Dialogue
Cinematic Apparatus
http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/glossary/cinematicapparatus.html
Film Theory and Language
http://media.edusites.co.uk/category/c/apparatus-theory/
Lacan, Jacques, 1989. Ecrits: a Selection. Translated by Alan Sheridan. London: Routledge.
Metz, Christian, 2000. ‘The Imaginary Signifier’ in Film and Theory: An Anthology, ed. by Robert Stam and Toby Miller. Oxford: Blackwell. [pp. 403-435]
Revisiting Christian Metz’ “Apparatus Theory.” A Dialogue
http://www.academia.edu/4399707/Revisiting_Christian_Metz_Apparatus_Theory._A_Dialogue