Bellourian Analysis Applied to 'Chinatown

Why Movie Analysis is a Big Deal

You know, people have been digging into books and stories forever, but movies? Analyzing them is kinda new (Bellour, 1975). Movies are so packed with stuff — dialogues, body language, camera tricks — that figuring out how to study them gets tricky (Stam, 2000). This piece will dive into Bellour's way of looking at films and apply it to 'Chinatown.' Plus, we’ll chat about what works and what doesn’t in Bellour’s approach.

The Nuts and Bolts of Bellourian Analysis

So, Bellour (1975) says movie analysis isn’t just about the plot or characters. It’s more about the nitty-gritty details like symbols, camera angles, and movements (Metz, 1975). You gotta really zoom in on each shot. Bellour once picked apart twelve shots from 'The Big Sleep' using six different codes (Bellour, 1974). Three of these were about the shots themselves: size, lens movement, and camera angles. The other three focused on the characters: their speech, how long they're on screen, and story elements tied to the text.

Repetition — What’s That About?

In Bellour's (1979) work, repetition is a biggie for analyzing texts. It has something called alternation too. There are three outside and three inside “Cine-Repetitions.” Two external ones are about making and watching movies. Bellour showed that one internal repetition happens from one frame to another since there are 24 frames per second in films.

A single image can't show everything; you need another shot to cover what's missing. It's like flipping pictures fast enough to make a movie look smooth. Another type is micro-repetition; it makes smaller narrative units by repeating stuff over again. Lastly, macro-repetition gives a rhyming effect by repeating differently from start to end.

Diving into Chinatown

Let’s break down 'Chinatown' with these ideas: specific film symbols and those internal "Cine-Repetitions." We’ll also dig into structural analysis using the Oedipus Scenario.

Bellour found out every second of film has 24 photos tightly linked together. For instance, in a five-minute part with 26 shots in 'Chinatown,' Gittes questions Evelyn about some glasses he thinks belong to Mr. Mulwray. We see five cinematic codes here: changing ratios between shots, moving lenses, main characters per unit, if they speak up in this unit, and the duration of shots and narration parts.

Unveiling Secrets Through Shots

The first shot starts with Gittes pulling out those glasses and grilling Evelyn for truth. When she speaks up in shot two — bam! The camera switches from him to her with a mid-shot moving closer for clarity. As their chat continues with similar topics (shots 2 to 12), they bounce back between each other.

This creates little story bits under a bigger one: Gittes pushing Evelyn till she spills the beans through intense ways. This back-and-forth is micro-repetition where lenses weave narratives through opposing setups like “e1-g1-e2-g2...” leading up till shot number twenty-six finishes as Gittes tucks away those specs again.

The Oedipus Complex Connection

'Chinatown' shows dysfunction through family mess-ups (daughter raped by dad) tied into abusing power where rich folks get off scot-free even after piling crimes while stealing granddaughters who’re daughters too! Feminine figures symbolize sexuality connected back into how much guys crave them according to Bellour's research: female positions rely on male desires.

Evelyn represents females messed over by violence or seen as troublemakers against manly authority; she fights back against daddy’s power-holdings challenging patriarchal structures but often ends tragically without escaping darkness surrounding noir worlds...

Conclusion: What's All This Mean Anyway?

Following Gittes along his detective journey reveals hidden truths tying into semiotics showing him deciphering clues alongside us unraveling mysteries wrapped around Evelyn — always hiding secrets beneath layers needing uncovering unlike straightforward men depicted symbolically stronger than women facing oppressive systems constantly battling status quos...

References

• Bellour, R. (1974). The Obvious and the Codes.
• Lapsley R., & Westlake M., (1988). Film Theory: An Introduction.
• Linderman P., (1981). Roman Polanski’s Chinatown: An Oedipal Text.
• Cledhill C., (1999). Film Noir Commentary on Gender Dynamics in Cinema.
• Levi-Strauss C., (1967). Structural Anthropology Examining Social Structures within Films.
• Stam R., (2000). New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism Post-Structuralism Studies.