Reading Comprehension

PT155 · S3 · P1 · Q6 Screening Nonfiction Films

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The following passage is adapted from a 2001 article by a film historian.

Topic

Retrospectives for early nonfiction films

Framework

Challenge a Position, Problem / Solution

Main Point

Early nonfiction films shouldn't be shown together in retrospectives since it will not cast them in their best light and grouping them together creates an exhibition that is inauthentic compared to how they were viewed in their day.

Summary

P1 - Background Info Leading into the Problem

This paragraph discusses the goal of art exhibitions to "collect the similar" and explains how in film that manifests as 'a retrospective'. It ends with one of our big 4 Pivot words (but, yet, however, recently) suggesting that notable retrospectives on early nonfiction films will be our primary topic.

P2 - Description of the Problem

The author begins with another big 4 Pivot word, "But", and he even uses the first-person pronoun "I". This first sentence of the 2nd paragraph appears to be our thesis: collecting the similar is not a great idea for early nonfiction films. He explains why doing so will result in a boring event that doesn't resemble the way these films would have been presented in their time.

P3 - Author's Criticizes the Irony of the Problem

This paragraph establishes that the people responsible for the problem are deeply concerned with authenticity when it comes to restoring the films themselves, but should be more concerned with authenticity when it comes to putting on retrospectives that better resemble the carefully curated night of mixed programming, of which these early nonfiction films would have been a part.

6.

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

  1. An exhibition of works by

    Unknown Comparison: less interesting

    This seems to be referencing the early sentences of the passage, before the author's opinion had even appeared. The author didn't have any inherent preference for an exhibition of mixed artists over an exhibition of a single artist. The author actually says, "we might have an exhibition of Rembrandt's paintings (single artist). Another reasonable method might be to choose paintings with a particular theme or period (different artists)."

    13% picked this

  2. Correct

    When several works of art

    Why this is right

    This underlies the author's main point. The author cares a lot about the interplay of a night of mixed programming (drama, comedy, travelogue, and news), because she thinks that when several works of early nonfiction are exhibited together, "it is often profoundly dull for the viewer". Since the author's big recommendation is that, "The screening of these early nonfiction films would be better off if they were presented in the context of a night of mixed programming", she must believe that the context in which a work is seen matters. Thus, she probably thinks that the audience's response is affected by the interplay among those works.

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

    64% picked this

  3. Film archives and retrospective festivals

    Opposite, if anything

    The author is actually encouraging the people who screen early nonfiction films to take heed of the wisdom of the vaudeville tradition, in terms of presenting a night of mixed programming. The author thinks it would "ill behoove us" (do us badly) "to forsake their insights".

    6% picked this

  4. Most early cinemagoers did not

    Too Strong

    Too Strong: most Goes Against Common Sense We can't make any generalization about what's true of more than 50% of early cinemagoers' beliefs. While an early cinemagoer would have been unsurprised to go to a theater and see nonfiction films as well as comedies and dramas, that doesn't mean that they thought of all three as belonging to the same genre.

    5% picked this

  5. A work of art will

    Too Strong

    Too Strong: will / unless Academics vs. Audiences The author cares a lot about presenting early nonfiction films in an authentic setting, but she does so for the sake of normal audiences. She says in the 2nd paragraph: Gathering together several short films by the same maker or studio, while useful for historians and academics, is often profoundly dull for the viewer. So the author is worried that these early nonfiction films will not be appreciated as much by audiences unless they're presented in an authentic context of a night of mixed programming. But this answer is making a strong claim about all works of art that they will definitely be misunderstood by historians and academics if they aren't presented in an authentic setting.

    11% picked this

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