Informace o publikaci
The Modular Model of Feature Film Plotting. A Historical Poetics of Artistic Problem-Solving
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2026 |
| Druh | Recenzovaný odborný článek |
| Časopis / Zdroj | Eastern European Screen Studies |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| www | Odkaz na dostupnou verzi článku na stránkách časopisu |
| Doi | https://doi.org/10.1080/29974828.2026.2658965 |
| Klíčová slova | Modular Plotting; Feature Film Narrative; Historical Poetics; Czech Silent Cinema; Small-Nation Cinema; History of Forms; Problem-Solving in Filmmaking |
| Přiložené soubory | |
| Popis | This article introduces the modular model of feature film plotting as one solution to a central problem of early feature filmmaking: how to sustain a long-form narrative before stable conventions of feature construction had fully crystallized. In this model, the feature is constructed not as a seamless causal chain, but as an assemblage of relatively autonomous blocks linked by parallels, contrasts, or thematic echoes. Its organizing principle is not classical organic unity, but unity in diversity. Based on a detailed analysis of all available surviving films produced by a small filmmaking collective in early 1920s Czechoslovakia, the article examines the model’s systematic adoption in response to postwar distribution pressures, limited production infrastructure and the practical need to make commercially viable feature films. It identifies key principles of this poetics, including porosity, cyclicality, and four recurrent types of linkage between blocks: juxtaposition, transposition, potentiation, and causality. It also shows how the model supported two different production dramaturgies across the collective’s two generations. More broadly, the article proposes modular plotting as a comparative analytical tool for understanding analogous narrative solutions in other historical contexts, from omnibus and slapstick films to early sound revues, musicals, fairy-tale films, and epics. |
| Související projekty: |