1. Preparing Viewers and Views: Distribution, Promotions, and Exhibition Key Objectives
Viewing Cues: Your Knowledge of Film
Distribution: What We Can See
Cultural Spotlight: Cine-Clubs
In Focus: Distributing Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Viewing Cues Distribution
Marketing and Promotion: What We Want to See
In Focus: Promoting The Crying Game (1992)
Viewing Cues: Promotion
Movie Exhibition: The Where, When, and How of Movie Experiences
Cultural Spotlight: Watching Film and Television
In Focus: Exhibiting Citizen Kane (1941)
Viewing Cues: Exhibition
Critical Voices: Douglas Gomery on Promotion and Exhibition
The Next Level: Additional Sources
PART I: COMPOSITIONS: FILM SCENES, SHOTS, CUTS, AND SOUNDS
2. Exploring a Material World: Mise-en-scene
Key Objectives
The Foundations of Mise-en-scene
Cultural Spotlight: Watching Plays and Watching Movies
In Focus: Sets and Settings in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Viewing Cues: Setting
The Elements of Mise-en-scene: Objects, Actors, Costumes, and Lights
In Focus: From Props to Lighting in Do the Right Thing (1989)
Cultural Spotlight: Movie Spectaculars
Viewing Cues: Elements of Mise-en-scene
Point of View: Traditions and Values in Mise-en-scene
In Focus: Traditions and Values in The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Viewing Cues: Mise-en-scene Traditions and Values
Critical Voices: Bela Balaz on Mise-en-Scene
The Next Level: Additional Sources
3. Seeing through the Image: Cinematography
Key Objectives
The Foundations of Cinematography
Cultural Spotlight: Quattrocento Perspective
In Focus: Frames and Movements in The Grand Illusion (1937)
Viewing Cues: Frame, Depth, and Movement
Framed and Focused: Elements of Cinematography
In Focus: From Angles to Animation in Vertigo (1958)
Viewing Cues: Elements of Cinematography
Points of View: Values and Traditions in the Film Image
Cultural Spotlight: Digital Camera
In Focus: Values and Traditions in M (1931)
Viewing Cues: Cinematography Traditions and Values
Critical Voices: John Belton on Cinematography
The Next Level: Additional Sources
4. Relating Images: Editing
Key Objectives
The Foundations of Editing
A Short History of Editing
Cultural Spotlight: The Changing Technology of Film Editing
In Focus: Values and Traditions in The General (1927)
Viewing Cues: Cuts and Shots
The Patterns and Logics of Editing
In Focus: Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Viewing Cues: Patterns and Logics of Editing
Traditions and Values in Film Editing
In Focus: From The Battleship Potemkin (1925) to The Untouchables (1987)
Viewing Cues: Editing Traditions and Values
Critical Voices: Vsevolod Pudovkin on Editing
The Next Level: Additional Sources
5. Listening to Cinema: Film Sound
Key Objectives
The Foundations of Film Sound
Sound and Image
Techniques of Film Sound
In Focus: Sound and Image: From Recording to Reproduction in Singin' In the Rain (1952)
Cultural Spotlight: Cinematic Sensations
Viewing Cues: Elements of Film Sound
Voice, Music, and Effects on the Film Soundtrack
Sound Effects in Film
In Focus: Subjectivity through Sound in The Piano (1993)
Viewing Cues: Voice, Music, and Effects
Traditions and Values in Film Sound
In Focus: Values and Traditions in The Conversation (1974)
Viewing Cues: Film Sound Traditions and Values
Critical Voices: Mary Ann Doane on Film Sound
The Next Level: Additional Sources
PART II. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES: FROM STORIES TO GENRES
6. Stories about Time: Narrative Film
Key Objectives
The Foundations of Narrative
Cultural Spotlight: Japanese Cinema and the Benshii
In Focus: Plot and Narration in Apocalypse Now (1979)
Viewing Cues: Story, Plot, and Narration
Narrative Characters
In Focus: Characters in Casablanca (1942)
Viewing Cues: Narrative Characters
Narrative Times and Places: Shapes and Strategies in Film Narrative
Cultural Spotlight: Serials and Sequels
In Focus: Narrative Space and Time in The Searchers (1956
Viewing Cues: Narrative Times and Places
Points of View: Traditions and Values in Film Narratives
In Focus: Narrative Value in Mildred Pierce (1945) and Daughters of the Dust (1991 )
Viewing Cues: Narrative Traditions ad Values
Critical Voices: Manthia Diawara on Race in Narratives
The Next Level: Additional Sources
7. Other Cinematic Shapes: Documentary and Experimental Films
Key Objectives
The Foundations of Democracy and Experimental Films
Cultural Spotlight: Poetry and Cinema
In Focus: Nonfiction and Nonnarrative in Man of Aran (1934) and Meshes in the Afternoon (1943)
Viewing Cues: Nonfiction and Nonnarrative
Expositions, Imaginings, and Rhetorics: Formal Strategies in Documentary Films and Experimental Films
In Focus: Expositional and Imaginative Practices/Rhetorical Positions in Sans Soliel/Sunless (1982)
Viewing Cues: Expositional and Imaginative Practices
Points of View: Traditions and Values in Documentary and Experimental Films
Cultural Spotlight: Cinema Verite
In Focus: Values and Traditions in The Man with the Movie Camera (1929)
Viewing Cues: Documentary and Experimental Film Traditions and Values
Critical Voices: Maya Deren on Creative Use of Reality
The Next Level: Additional Sources
8. Rituals, Conventions, Archetypes, and Formulas: Movie Genres
Key Objectives
The Foundations of Film Genre
In Focus: Conventions and Expectations in The Gold Rush (1925)
Viewing Cues: Film Genre Conventions
Constellations of Movie Genres: Six Paradigms
Comedies
Westerns
Cultural Spotlight: Local Genres
Melodramas
Musicals
Horror Films
Crime Films
In Focus: Generic Chinatown (1974)
Viewing Cues: Categorizing Film by Genre
Points of View: Traditions and Values in Film Genres
In Focus: Values and Traditions in Vagabond (1986)
Viewing Cues: Film Genre Traditions and Values
Critical Voices: Carol J. Clover on Slasher Films and Feminism
The Next Level: Additional Sources
PART III: HISTORIES: HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND
9. Conventional Film History: Evolutions, Masterpieces, and Periodization
Key Objectives
Movie History as Evolution
Cultural Spotlight: Preservation and Archives
In Focus: Constructing Origins in The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Viewing Cues: A Film's Place in Film History
Film History as Masterpieces
In Focus: The Mastery of Alfred Hitchcock
Viewing Cues: Cinematic Masterpieces
Periodization and Film History
Preclassical Hollywood
Classical Hollywood
Post-Classical Hollywood
Modern Hollywood
In Focus: Modernism and Taxi Driver (1976)
Viewing Cues: Periodization
Critical Voices : Thomas Schatz on The New Hollywood
The Next Level: Additional Sources
10. Global Practices, Lost and Found Movies, and Cultural Contexts: Inclusive Histories of the Movies
Key Objectives
History Beyond Hollywood
Before World War II
After World War II
New German Cinema
Non-Western Postwar Cinema
Third Cinema
Contemporary Global Cinema
In Focus: The Apple (1998)
Viewing Cues: Film History Beyond Hollywood
The Lost and Found of American Film History
The Women Who Made the Movies
African American Cinema
Orphan Film
In Focus: Within Our Gates (1920)
Cultural Spotlight: Best Films Lists
Cultural Spotlight: Alternative Distribution Companies
Viewing Cues: The Lost and Found of American Film History
Ideology and Film: Celluloid Communism
In Focus: Salt of the Earth (1953)
Lesbian and Gay Film History
Representing Culture: Indigenous Media
Viewing Cues: Film, History, and Cultural Context
Critical Voices: Vivian Sobchack on Writing Film History
The Next Level: Additional Sources
11. Reading about Film: Critical Methods and Theories
Key Objectives
Concepts and Methods in Film Theory
Cultural Spotlight: Film Journals
In Focus: Genre and Author in Touch of Evil
Viewing Cues: Genre and Auteur Theory
Film Theory and Historical Context
Early Film Theory
Soviet Montage
Classical Film Theories or Realism and Formalism
In Focus: Coding Time in Time Code (2000)
Critical Questions in Contemporary Film Theory
Marxism, Structuralism, and Semiotics
Poststructuralism: Psychoanalysis, Apparatus Theory, Spectatorship, Feminist Theory
New Directions in Film Studies: Cultural Studies, Film and Philosophy, Postmodernism, and New Media
In Focus: Clueless about Contemporary Film Theory?
Cultural Spotlight: Approaching Theoretical and Scholarly Articles
Viewing Cues: Classical Film Theory
Critical Voices: Laura Mulvey
The Next Level: Additional Sources
12. Writing a Film Essay: Observations, Arguments, and Analysis
Key Objectives
Writing an Analytical Essay
In Focus: Analyzing Citizen Kane (1941)
Viewing Cues: Writing an Analytical Film Essay
Preparing to Write about a Film
In Focus: A Character and Stylistic Analysis of Sally Potter's Orlando (1993)
Viewing Cues: Preparing to Write About a Film
Writing a Film Essay
Cultural Spotlight: From Viewing a Film to Writing a Film Essay
In Focus: Interpretation, Argument, and Evidence in Rashomon (1950)
Viewing Cues: Argument in a Film Essay
Researching the Movies
In Focus: From Research to Writing in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Viewing Cues: Using Research
Critical Voices: Phillip Lopate on Pauline Kael
The Next Level: Additional Sources
Glossary