Film teachers and students will welcome this new
anthology, which makes available in one source a
comprehensive selection of recent theoretical work on
film, including many articles difficult to locate in the
scattered literature. The contents are drawn almost
entirely from the publications of the past fifteen
years, and include work by the most original film
thinkers - some well known to a wide public, some widely
known among readers of film journals. Several important
filmmakers are also represented. The materials have been
grouped in critical categories reflecting recent
approaches to the medium. In place of older questions
such as the relation of film to other arts, or film's
ability to capture an imprint of reality, the questions
emphasized in the anthology concern film's ideological
operations, the nature of film genres, the role of the
auteur in the creative process, the representation of
social groups (such as women) in film, the logical of
narrative and formal organizations in films, the
treatment of films as myths, and new theoretical
perspectives.Thus the contents reflect the use of
political, structualist, semiological and psychoanalytic
methods, as well as those of more traditional criticism.
There is virtually no duplication of materials included
in the Mast & Cohen anthology ''Film Theory and
Criticism''. The editor has provided an overall general
introduction, and mini-introductions to each text. A
glossary of terms used in structuralist-semiological
work is included, and lists of additional readings are
provided. Its scope and careful organization will make
this volume a fundamental resource for film scholarship
and teaching. |
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