Reading Comprehension

PT152 · S3 · P2 · Q11 David Bordwell

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Film scholar David Bordwell refers to the years 1917–1960 as the classical era of filmmaking in Hollywood.

Topic

Bordwell's definition of Hollywood's "classical period", as it relates to musicals

Framework

Challenge a Position

Main Point

Bordwell's explanation of how musicals fit within the realism of the "classical style" is not fully satisfying.

Summary

P1 - Introduction to Bordwell's "classical era"

This paragraph neutrally introduces Bordwell's characterization of the classical era -- basically, it was a realistic style that was all about telling a conventional story and making you forget that you were watching a movie. Stuff was only done to serve the interest of the narrative, not to call your attention to the fact that you were watching a work of visual art.

P2 - The Curious case of Musicals

It's weird that we don't get our central topic until the beginning of the 2nd paragraph, but the adjective "anomalous" is meant to have the same effect as our typical Purpose Pivot (usually using words like "but, yet, however, recently"). When we start with background and then pivot into something that feels like, "But this thing is different ... ", then we know that this different thing is what the author really wants to focus on.

This paragraph explains how musicals offer quite a challenge to the classical era definition, given that they have wacky musical numbers throughout the movie that are anything but realistic and don't have any purpose in advancing the story. The author innocuously asks whether musicals can be included in under the umbrella of classical era.

P3 - Bordwell's handling of "musicals" and the author's critique of that handling

Bordwell says,

The author ain't happy with this. She thinks it's really dodging the common sense issue that these musical numbers are totally un-realistic, and it also bothers the author that, as a viewer, you can plainly tell that the director is now just having fun as a visual artist, wants you to notice that, and doesn't any longer care about advancing the story.

The author is basically saying that even if an audience member said to themselves ahead of time, , the viewer would still notice the musical numbers as being a total break from reality.

The author concludes by trying to redirect the efforts of people like Bordwell so that they don't come back with crap they're currently selling, sayin' that musicals are realistic when they clearly aren't.

11.

The author of the passage would most likely agree with which one of the following statements?

  1. Busby Berkeley’s films are unique

    Opposite: unique

    The author is thinking that Berkeley's musicals are not unique but rather indicative of musicals of that era. In the beginning of the second paragraph, she talks about "the musical films of the 1930s" and then in the following sentence says, "In one film by Berkeley, for example ..." indicating that it is illustrative of musical films of the 30s.

    13% picked this

  2. The use of technical elements

    Too Strong: usually very simplistic

    One problem in interpreting this answer is that our author doesn't really love that musicals are being filed under "classical era", so can we count them among "films of the classical era"? In this passage, the musicals are included, and they definitely involve some complex stuff. Towards the end of the 2nd paragraph it says that, "editing and camera movement function not to help tell a story but to manipulate images into intricate patterns". Even if we left out the negative support that musicals provide for this answer, though, we still wouldn't find any positive support for this answer as it pertains to non-musicals. Nothing in the first paragraph means anything like "usually very simplistic".

    18% picked this

  3. The film genres popular in

    Too Strong: all

    We can't find any support for the extreme claim that 100% of film genres in the classical era were derived from noncinematic popular entertainment forms. We're told in the beginning of the 3rd paragraph that "the musical, no less than comedy or melodrama (two other staples of the classical era), evolved from popular live theater". That suggests that the most popular film genres in the classical era derived from noncinematic popular entertainment forms, but we don't know if this is true of all film genres during that era.

    6% picked this

  4. Correct

    Audiences learn to accept certain

    Why this is right

    This comes from the final sentence of the passage: viewers process cinematic images and eventually (repeated exposure) come to accept them as conventions. The word "primarily" is definitely a red flag word, but in context it feels pretty fair. The author is stressing, right before this line, that "knowledge of genre is acquired", and then says we should be studying how viewers process images and eventually accept them as conventions. So that context makes it seem like our author thinks this process is central to knowledge of genre is acquired.

    Skill tested: Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    60% picked this

  5. Most musical films of the

    Too Specific: most / realistic

    The only generalization we could make about "most" musical films of the 1930s comes from the first sentence of the 2nd paragraph: most musicals from the 30s interrupt narrative to present musical performances only tangentially related to the plot. This line isn't telling us whether the narrative or plot were realistic to begin with. There's a little bit of Opposite to this answer choice as well, because our author is trying to stress that musical films were not "concentrating" on realism, since they were given to flights of fancy multiple times per film.

    4% picked this

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