What is a sign?
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Context clue is a method of readers by which the unknown word can be understand through analyzing the whole sentence. The surrounding words are signs to convey the meaning of the whole sentence.
Similarly in the film theory of structuralism and semiotics,
it explains how the meaning of combination of shots or random symbols in a film can be determined through deeper structuring logic of cultural practices and products.
This theory has much influence from Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics where he discussed how signs are diadic (has the signifier and the signified), arbitrary (no natural reason why a signifier is linked to a signified), relational (there’s connection of signs in the same system) and differential.
There are four French key influences in the foundation of the contemporary film theory namely, Claude L’evi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Jacques Lacan and Louis Althusser.
Strauss, an anthropologist, elaborated the study of myth as a way to understand the belief of a social organization. It is their way for their collective dreams, outcome of aesthetic play and their foundation of ritual. This influence in films provides settlement for conflicting social differences.
Barthes treated cultural products such as clothes, advertisements and lifestyle choices as purveyors or provider of myths. Through this, it classifies the social meaning in a film.
From Freud’s Fundamental Psychoanalytic principles, Jacques Lacan expounded the unconscious can be divided into three realms namely the imaginary, symbolic and the real. These realms co-relate to the id (source of our bodily needs, wants, desires), ego (reality testing, control, planning) and super-ego (moral-judgment). He explained how the over-all structure of a film can be ascertained by means of differences of the unconscious.
And lastly, Louis Althusser points out the Structuring Absences in the Marxist theory. It tackles about how symptomic reading takes place. Meaning, there’s an absence from the explicit messages being conveyed that aims to cover the truth to the viewers.
From Raymond Bellour’s “System of Fragment”, he cited the film ‘The Birds’. The attack of the birds to Melanie is the sign for punishment for her sexual boldness. He also mentioned the shot-by-shot analysis to explain Mitch’s perspective where the unconsciousness of Mitch is being shown to the viewers. According to Bellour’s analysis, the film represents a methodical utilization of structuralist methodologies applied to a cinematic example.
Cinema 