Freedom of film: Freedom in the production and reception of feature films - Steven Spielberg (Jaws)

Freedom of Film: Freedom in the Production and Reception of Feature Films explores one of cinema's most fascinating tensions: how freedom emerges-and how it is limited-during both filmmaking and viewing. This thesis examines freedom on two levels: the filmmaker's freedom to create and the audience's freedom to interpret. Film is never made in a vacuum. It is shaped by systems-storytelling rules, production realities, genre expectations, editing conventions, and cultural context-that can empower artistic expression while also imposing constraints. To make this tension visible, the book compares two cinematic extremes: Steven Spielberg's Jaws and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. By placing Hollywood classical storytelling alongside the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague), the work shows how different filmmaking traditions structure meaning, emotion, suspense, realism, and audience engagement. From the power of the single image to montage, rhythm, and narrative design, Freedom of Film traces how cinematic meaning is formed-and why viewers may experience the "same" film in radically different ways. Ideal for readers interested in film studies, cinema theory, storytelling, film analysis, directing, editing, screenwriting, and audience reception, this thesis offers a clear, comparative framework to understand what "freedom" in film really means.