{"id":1086,"date":"2025-11-11T03:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T03:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2025-11-11T03:00:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T03:00:23","slug":"the-art-cinema-as-a-mode-of-film-practice-and-the-hangover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/2025\/11\/11\/the-art-cinema-as-a-mode-of-film-practice-and-the-hangover\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice\u201d and &#8220;The Hangover&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>David Bordwell\u2019s <em>\u201cThe Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice\u201d<\/em> defines art cinema as a distinct mode that rejects classical Hollywood conventions of linear storytelling, defined cause and effect, and psychological clarity. Rather, it emphasizes realism, authorial expressivity, and ambiguity. Bordwell writes about how art films often feature psychologically complex characters, loosely structured narratives, and situations that don&#8217;t come to complete resolution. He argues that art cinema films, while more complex, actually present a more realistic version of reality by incorporating the deep complexities and problems left unsolved that frequently occur in real life.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/files\/2025\/11\/image-31-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1087\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/files\/2025\/11\/image-31-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/files\/2025\/11\/image-31-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/files\/2025\/11\/image-31-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/files\/2025\/11\/image-31.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A film I watched recently is <em>The Hangover <\/em> (2009), and while the movie is definitely a mainstream Hollywood comedy, it&#8217;s interesting to think about how the film adapts specific techniques from the art cinema style. Bordwell writes, &#8220;Just as the Hollywood silent cinema borrowed avant-garde devices but as-<br>similated them to narrative ends, so recent American filmmaking has appropriated art-film devices&#8221;, talking about how mainstream Hollywood films incorporate elements of art cinema. He goes on to list specific examples such as the open ending of <em>Five Easy Pieces<\/em> (1970) or the &#8220;psychological ambiguity&#8221; of <em>The Conversation<\/em> (1974). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The structure of <em>The Hangover <\/em>disrupts the typical cause-effect style of classical narrative cinema. All the events of the story are told out of order to keep the mystery of what happened that night alive, and the viewer is subject to extreme restricted narration. The film opens on the day of the wedding, near the end of the actual story, when the groomsmen call the bride to admit they lost the Doug (the groom). From there, the story cuts to two days previous to that as the boys are shown embarking on Doug&#8217;s bachelor party. Finally, the film cuts from the beginning of the night right to the chaotic morning after the party, where Doug is missing and no one can remember a thing from the night before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This non-linear structure immediately places the audience in a state of confusion and curiosity, mirroring the characters\u2019 own disorientation. Similar to the art cinema Bordwell describes, the film asks viewers to piece together what happened through fragments of memory, visual clues, and subjective perspectives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Bordwell\u2019s \u201cThe Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice\u201d defines art cinema as a distinct mode that rejects classical Hollywood conventions of linear storytelling, defined cause and effect, and psychological clarity. Rather, it emphasizes realism, authorial expressivity, and ambiguity. Bordwell writes about how art films often feature psychologically complex characters, loosely structured narratives, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9793,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reader","category-week-12-11-10-11-12-experimental-art-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9793"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1088,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}