Film Theory and Criticism
Leo Braudy
Language: English
Pages: 928
ISBN: 0195365623
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Since publication of the first edition in 1974, Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen's Film Theory and Criticism has been the most widely used and cited anthology of critical writings about film. Now in its seventh edition, this landmark text continues to offer outstanding coverage of more than a century of thought and writing about the movies. Incorporating classic texts by pioneers in film theory--including Rudolf Arnheim, Siegfried Kracauer, and André Bazin--and cutting-edge essays by such contemporary scholars as David Bordwell, Tania Modleski, Thomas Schatz, and Richard Dyer, the book examines both historical and theoretical viewpoints on the subject.
Building upon the wide range of selections and the extensive historical coverage that marked previous editions, this new compilation stretches from the earliest attempts to define the cinema to the most recent efforts to place film in the contexts of psychology, sociology, and philosophy, and to explore issues of gender and race. Reorganized into eight sections--each comprising the major fields of critical controversy and analysis--this new edition features reformulated introductions and biographical headnotes that contextualize the readings, making the text more accessible than ever to students, film enthusiasts, and general readers alike. The seventh edition also integrates exciting new material on feminist theory, queer cinema, and global cinema, as well as a new section, "Digitization and Globalization," which engages important recent developments in technology and world cinema.
A wide-ranging critical and historical survey, Film Theory and Criticism remains the leading text for undergraduate courses in film theory. It is also ideal for graduate courses in film theory and criticism.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Leo Braudy is University Professor and Bing Professor of English at the University of Southern California. Among other books, he is author of Native Informant: Essays on Film, Fiction, and Popular Culture (OUP, 1991), The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History (OUP, 1986), and most recently, From Chivalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity (2003).
Marshall Cohen is University Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Southern California. He is coeditor, with Roger Copeland, of What Is Dance? Readings in Theory and Criticism (OUP, 1983) and founding editor of Philosophy and Public Affairs.
2001: A Space Odyssey (BFI Film Classics)
The Seventh Seal (BFI Film Classics)
Ratcatcher (BFI Film Classics)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (BFI Film Classics)
greatest tension, found nearly always at the end of the film. To prepare the spectator, or, more correctly, preserve him, for this final tension, it is especially important to see that he is not affected by unnecessary exhaustion during the course of the film. A method . . . that the scenarist can employ to this end is the careful distribution of the titles (which always distract the spectator), securing compression of the greater quantity of them into the first reels, and leaving the last one
guidance” of the spectator. We should now acquaint ourselves with the main special editing methods having as their aim the impression of the spectator. Contrast. Suppose it be our task to tell of the miserable situation of a starving man; the story will impress the more vividly if associated with mention of the senseless gluttony of a well-to-do man. On just such a simple contrast relation is based the corresponding editing method. On the screen the impression of this contrast is yet increased,
approaching execution. The watch on the wrist of the callous brute, as it were connects him 12 FILM LANGUAGE with the chief protagonist of the approaching tragic dénouement, thus ever present in the consciousness of the spectator. This is undoubtedly an interesting method, capable of considerable development. Symbolism. In the final scenes of the film Strike the shooting down of workmen is punctuated by shots of the slaughter of a bull in a stockyard. The scenarist, as it were, desires to
FILM LANGUAGE But let us pass on to examples: The hai-kai is a concentrated Impressionist sketch: Two splendid spots on the stove. The cat sits on them. (GE-DAI) Ancient monastery. Cold moon. Wolf howling. (KIKKO) Quiet field. Butterfly flying. Sleeping. (GO-SIN) The tanka is a little longer (by two lines). Mountain pheasant moving quietly, trailing his tail behind. Oh, shall I pass endless night alone. (HITOMASO) We see these as montage phrases, montage lists. The simplest juxtaposition of two
language-as-a-system-of-signs. The semiotics of the cinema is, similarly, the theory of film-as-a-system-of-signs. The idea is that we are to think of film as a kind of language and are to try to develop a linguistics of this language of film. This means, according to Christian Metz, that we will only be interested in certain aspects of film. We will be concerned only with the various ways in which particular films can have meaning and significance for normal spectators. We will be directly