THE two volumes of the book are an outcome of research conducted by the author in an attempt to reshape the already established theoretical concepts of film studies into objective, integrated and technical form and invent a statistical model of psychophysical planning for aesthetic communication of a narrative film. While the first volume explains the conceptual development, the second emphasises the statistical aspects.
Aesthetic communication is different to scientific or everyday communication which is undertaken through discourse. While scientific communication solely depends on communication of the concept, ideas and thoughts by virtue of the artist’s intellectual capacity to “analyse, infer, abstract and symbols”, aesthetic communication is not only presentation of the rational discourse of some ideas present in the creator’s mind but also communication of the imaginative feeling centred around these ideas in order to create an aesthetic experience in the mind of the viewer.
Aesthetic experience of a narrative film originates from the pleasure experienced on viewing, recalling and enjoying the imagery discourse of its text. This way a film or movie becomes not only a source of entertainment and a means of fantasy fulfilment for the spectator, but also an institution to delineate knowledge of facts and realities of the natural and physical environments as also the mundane social and psychological lives of the people to discover the hidden truth underlying the facts and realities. In other words, the aesthetic impact of a narrative film depends on the spectator’s response to the beauty of the discourse and the sensory stimuli emanating from the screen for impinging on the sense organs, from the beauty of the actions and events and their dramatic representation and pleasure derived from both the surface and deeper levels of discourse.
The first volume of this treatise discusses the scope and limitations of the narrative film; definitions of image, representation, ideology, etc.; development of the concept of aesthetics; the journey through different discourse paths of the narrative films; the process of aesthetic communication; the creation of the environment in a narrative film; the solution of the problem of aesthetic communication; the psychology of the audience; and development of the model through ‘imsigns’, attributes and ideas. The author uses Satyajit Ray’s film Charulata to serve as the model and expounds on it.
The second volume explains the detached statistical aspects by explaining how truth is defused in the culture of mankind and how it is related to concepts of fact, knowledge, realities, discourse and narrative; how time, space and movement play their individual and joint roles; the history of the aesthetic resolution of the film world; different aspects of the characterisation process; the ‘imsigns’, attributes and ideas; and measurement of the psychophysical realities of the films.
This subject-specific treatise will be of interest to readers of sociology and film-making essentially.
(Vol. I-Bitorka, 77 Beniatola Street, Kolkata-700 005; and Vol.II- Sagnik Books,Dakshinpara, Barsat, Kolkata-700124; pkb_books@yahoo.com)
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