Nash, Kevin (2023) The modality of film-theatre: disrupting the absorption effects of Hollywood mode films. Doctoral thesis, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Abstract

This thesis proposes 'film-theatre' as a new theoretical and practical approach for disrupting the absorption effect of what are referred to as 'Hollywood mode' films. The Hollywood mode, which characterises most mainstream films and a significant number of independent films, uses a complex set of rues and conventions to produce the experience of a fictional world masquerading as reality. By concealing the apparatus that creates a psychological connection between the spectator and the protagonist's objectives. In this 'hypnotic' state (referred to in this as 'absorption'), the spectator is incapable of making an objective and rational judgement concerning the subject matter on screen or the social realities underlying it or of assessing the mode of representation and its effects. Through the alternative modality of film-theatre the thesis explores certain theatre techniques and performance and rehearsal practices as a source for strategies that interrupt the Hollywood mode, that arouse the spectator out of the sense of stupor that it creates, and that replace absorption with a self-reflexive dialectic effect. Three film-theatre techniques - improvisation, Brechtian alienation techniques, and the use of theatrical framing for extended periods of time - form the basis for case studies that examine how theatrical techniques and practices may be applied to film to provide alternative aesthetic possibilities to the Hollywood mode. The thesis argues that film-theatre is increasingly relevant in the wake of major changes in the Hollywod film and television industry during the twenty-first century (including the rise of franchise films, resulting in an extreme form of absorption; a new risk-averse economic climate; monopolistic practices; and the effects of globalisation on film cultures). These changes have led to a chronic crisis for the Hollywood film industry ad the Hollywood mode itself. At the same time, however, they provide an opportunity for film-theatre to play an active, potentially subversive, role both as a challenge to the Hollywood mode and as a model for examining alternative modes of storytelling through film.