Roland Barthe Applied to The Sopranos

When looking at the advertisement for the series finale of HBO's The Sopranos, according to Roland Barthe's essay, it would be most important for us to take into account the following: the linguistic meaning; the connotative meaning and the denotative meaning. First, there is the linguistic meaning. That is to say, the meaning of any text used. In the case of this advertisement, the text has both implicit and explicit meanings. The first text that you see, 'the final episodes- April 8, 9:00 pm' has a very explicit meaning and, as Barthe would say, the importance of this text is that it's there. Having been in the bigger font, you can tell that it has the more important message which is simply the 'what' and 'when' which viewers certainly need to know. However, Barthe's assumption about only the presence of the text counting is wrong when it comes to the second message which reads 'made in America.' Since it does not have an explicit meaning, it's presence is not the only thing that matters. This secondary text's phrasing also matters since it should be intriguing to viewers, especially, Sopranos fans.

Secondly, there is the connotative meaning. The connotative meaning, or connotation, is the subjective meaning that can be denied or accepted depending on who is doing the interpreting. Or, as Barthe says, 'the number of readings of the same lexia varies according to individuals.' One person, a Sopranos fan, could see this and know immediately what it was about- what the last episode's story might entail; where the climax would take place; etc. Whereas, a person unfamiliar with The Sopranos might see it and come up with a completely about what the episode might be about because he was giving to much significance to the wrong parts of the picture. For example, they might think that the Statue of Liberty had something to do with the episode or that the character shown might have more of a part than he does.

Finally, there is the denotative meaning. That is, the literal meaning of what's in the advertisement as a whole. The denotative meaning, according to Barthe, 'naturalizes the symbolic message.' That is to say, that, after taking in the denotative meaning, the connotative meaning simply follows. However, in the case of this poster, again, that assertion doesn't always apply since not everyone who sees it may not be a Sopranos fan. So, in the case of a non-Sopranos fan, whatever connotative meaning they might come up with would still make sense, providing that it was taken from the denotative meaning and everything in their connotative interpretation could be back up by the simple denotative meaning.

"Blair Witch": Filmed with a Wand or a Scalpel?

I have to say that, after looking at the two quotes from The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, that I believe that the quote regarding magician and surgeon versus painter and cameraman is a better one to apply to The Blair Witch Project. I say this because giving the actors the camera made it, in turn, much more a portrayal of their reality than a movie is when the camera is operated omnisciently. It showed everything that happened to the characters as well as everything that they saw. However, regarding the last part of the quote, The Blair Witch Project wouldn't be considered art because, while watching it, we are constantly reminded of the presence of the camera due it being shaken so frequently.

Now, regarding the first quote and why it is not as applicable to The Blair Witch Project as the second one, I feel that, since the actors are, for the most part, portraying themselves, the idea of aura does not enter into it. Any aura, however, that is created stems from the fact that the camera is not put between us and the actors but is used by the actors and is more a part of the actors than it is in the case of movies that are shot with the camera having an omniscient point of view.

"Tokyo Story" vs. classical Hollywood: 2 Types of Realism

What I see as the biggest difference in perspective between Ozu's Tokyo Story and a classical Hollywood film is that they vary in the number of perspectives that they are shown from. Now, what this leads to is a question of which movie makes a greater use of realism. The way perspective is used in classical Hollywood movies is such that the viewer, for the duration of the movie, is lead to believe in a world where the only perspectives that count are that of God (referring to omniscient point-of-view) and of the protagonist(s). On the other hand, perspectives used in Tokyo Story are many more than that. Everyone's perspective is utilized in Tokyo Story so as to illustrate the values of Japanese culture. These different uses of perspective not only illustrate the cultures that create the differences between Japanese and American films but also illustrate the different ways that the concept of realism can be interpreted. The way that realism is interpreted in Tokyo Story is that reality is believed to be something that is shared by everybody whereas, in Hollywood cinema, reality is portrayed as something that is decided upon by the important people (that is, the main characters).