Defining Cinema

This text focuses on the theoretical foundations of film studies as a discipline. It combines reprints of essays by major film theorists with contemporary analyses of their work. They offer accounts of what cinema is, how people watch and respond to films, and what constitutes good film-making.

List of contents

Introduction: what is film theory? / Peter Lehman
The montage of film attractions / Sergei M. Eisenstein
Eisenstein and Soviet cinema / Vance Kepley Jr
The evolution of the language of cinema / Andre¿ Bazin
Andre¿ Bazin's "Evolution" / Dudley Andrew
Basic concepts / Siegfried Kracauer
Kracauer's theory of film / Noe¿l Carroll
"Spatial and temporal articulations" and "Editing as a plastic art" Noe¿l Burch
To zero and beyond : Noe¿l Burch's Theory of film practice / Edward Branigan
"Identification, mirror" and "The passion for perceiving" / Christian Metz
Christian Metz / Robert T. Eberwein

About the author

PETER LEHMAN is a professor and director of graduate studies in media arts at the University of Arizona. He is the author of several books, including Running Scared: Masculinity and the Representation of the Male Body, and editor of Close Viewings: An Anthology of New Film Criticism.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Lehman
• Assisted by: Mirella Jona Affron (Editor), Peter Lehman (Editor), Robert Lyons (Editor)
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.08.1997
• EAN: 9780813523026
• ISBN: 978-0-8135-2302-6
• No. of pages: 216
• Dimensions: 153 mm x 231 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 381 g
• Series: Depth of Field (Paperback); Rutgers Depth of Field
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet