Key Terms
This kind of cinema directly solicits spectator attention, incites visual curiosity, and provides pleasure through exciting spectacles.
What is the Cinema of Attractions?
This man directed Inception, Interstellar, and other mind-game films.
Who is Christopher Nolan?
This character believes he is investigating a mental asylum, unaware that is in a fact a patient there.
Who is Teddy Daniels?
What is the expository mode?
Who is Morpheus?
In contrast to the world outside of the film, this term refers to the narrative that we see on screen and refers to the world the characters themselves inhabit.
What is Diegesis?
The director of Parasite
Who is Bong Joon Ho?
The chosen One, the anomaly.
Who is Neo?
This documentary mode prioritizes emotion and artistic expression to create palpable moods and atmospheres.
What is the poetic mode?
In Jordan Peele's Get Out, this seemingly simple action done by Chris triggers a violent outburst from a character named Logan.
What is a camera flash/taking a picture/flash?
This key term, derived from the theatre, refers to everything in the frame of the film, which would include lighting, set, props, and the staging and movement of actors.
What is Mise-en-scene?
The director of Hot Fuzz
Who is Edgar Wright?
The eldest sister of the March family.
This documentary mode emphasizes the director's presence in the documentary, typically in the form of interviews.
What is the participatory mode?
What is Agent Smith's least favorite part of being captive in the Matrix?
This specific lighting technique is most commonly associated with film noir.
What is low-key lighting?
Who is BANKSY?
The mostly unseen, villainous narrator of Vertigo.
Who is Gavin Elster?
This documentary mode could be called self-conscious, as it draws attention to the documentary process itself.
What is the reflexive mode?
The name Rosebud is inscribed on this object in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.
What is a sled?
This camera technique occurs when the focus is shifted from one object to another within a single shot.
What is Rack Focus?
Who are Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly?
The name given to the alien creatures in Arrival
What are Heptapods?
This documentary mode emphasizes the filmmaker's subjective experience, sometimes using reenactments or experimental visual styles to provide personal insight into a societal issue.
What is the performative mode?
This is Eames' totem in Inception
What is a poker chip?