Synopses & Reviews
This text looks at film from part to whole--from the shot and the cut to the cultural, political, and economic contexts in which films are made. "Teaching Film is about getting control of the image and handing that control over to students," argues author Robert Kolker, and that's just what he does in his teaching and writing about film, including in this outstanding textbook and DVD-ROM package.
The new edition includes more detailed discussion of the shot, composition, editing, and genre; a thorough discussion of the technical and aesthetic changes resulting from film's digital transformation; and a revised discussion of the cultural context of film. The companion interactive DVD-ROM includes segments from classic and contemporary films, with explanatory text, stills, and animations illustrating key film elements and strategies.
About the Author
Advances, Grants and Royalty payments are paid through Literary Agent - Robert Lieberman (address in "Other Address" tax id# 16-1467985
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One: Image and Reality
IMAGES OF IMAGES
The “Truth” of the ImageThe Urge to Represent “Reality”Perspective and the Pleasures of Tricking the EyePhotography and RealityManipulation of the ImageReality as ImageFROM THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TO THE CINEMATIC IMAGEMoving ImagesNOTES AND REFERENCESChapter Two: Formal Structures: How Films Tell Their Stories
THE IMAGE, THE WORLD, AND THE FILM STUDIO
From Image to NarrativeTHE ECONOMICS OF THE IMAGE
The System Develops: Buster Keaton and Charlie ChaplinThe Growth of Corporate FilmmakingTHE CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD STYLE
Fabricating the ImageThe Whole and Its PartsMaking the Parts InvisibleStory, Plot, and NarrationConvention And ConsciousnessNotes and References
Chapter Three: Building Blocks I: The Shot
THE SHOT
COMPOSITION: THE SIZE OF THE FRAME
CineramaAnamorphic and “Flat” Wide Screen ProcessesLoss of StandardsHOW COMPOSITION WORKS
Composition in Early Cinema D.W. GriffithThe 90-degree Rule The Studios and the ShotMISE-EN-SCÈNE, GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM, EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULESMISE-EN-SCÈNE IN STERNBERG, MURNAU, AND HITCHCOCKORSON WELLES AND THE REINVENTION OF COMPOSITION
Deep Focus and The Long TakeWORKING AGAINST THE RULESLIGHTING AND COLORCOMPOSING IN WIDE SCREENTHE MOVING CAMERANOTES AND REFERENCES
Chapter Four: Building Blocks II: The Cut
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONTINUITY CUTTING
Griffith and CuttingShot/Reverse ShotPoint Of ViewSight Lines The 180-degree RuleCONVENTION, CULTURE, RESISTANCE
GenderCodingResponses To Conventional Cutting Eisensteinian MontageThe Narrative of the Classical StyleAvant-Garde FilmWorking Creatively Within and Against ConventionsNOTES AND REFERENCES
Chapter Five: The Story Tellers of Film I
COLLABORATION AS CREATIVITYCREATIVE CRAFTSPEOPLE
CinematographerProduction DesignerComputer DesignerSound DesignersEditorComposerScreenwriterActorsProducerNotes and References
Chapter Six: The Story Tellers of Film II: The Film Director
EUROPEAN ORIGINSTHE BIRTH OF THE AUTEURTHE AUTEUR THEORYRobert AltmanMartin ScorseseStanley KubrickAlfred Hitchcock
WOMEN AUTEURS
Womens Avant-garde FilmsMaya DerenAlice Guy-Blaché and Lois WeberDorothy ArznerIda LupinoWomen Filmmakers TodayJulie Dash, Julie Taymor, and Chantal Akerman
THE AUTEUR ABROADAUTEURISM TODAY
NOTES AND REFERENCES
Chapter Seven: Film as Cultural Practice
FILM IN THE REALM OF CULTURECULTURE AS TEXT
SubculturesMedia and CulturesThe New Web
THEORIES OF CULTURE
The Frankfurt SchoolThe Critique of American Popular CultureHigh Culture, Masscult, and MidcultWalter Benjamin and the Age of Mechanical ReproductionThe Aura of State Intervention The Birmingham School of Cultural StudiesReception and NegotiationJudgment and ValuesIntertextuality and Postmodernism
CULTURAL CRITICISM APPLIED TO VERTIGO AND DIE HARD
The Cultural-Technological Mix: Film and TelevisionBruce Willis, TV, and MoviesThe Actors Persona: Bruce Willis and James StewartVertigo and the Culture of the FiftiesThe Kinsey Reports The Vulnerable Male in Film Postmodern VillainsEthnicity in Die HardThe Buddy FilmThe End of RedemptionNOTES AND REFERENCES
Chapter Eight: The Stories Told By Film I
MASTER NARRATIVES AND DOMINANT FICTIONS
ClosureThe Master and the DominantNarrative ConstraintsCensorship
GENRE
SubgenresGenre and GestureGeneric OriginsGeneric Patterns: The Gangster FilmGenre and Narrative Economy
DOCUMENTARY
Newsreels and TelevisionEarly Masters of the DocumentaryDziga Vertov and Esther Shub Robert Flaherty Pare Lorentz Leni Riefenstahl John Grierson and the British Documentary MovementWorld War IICinéma Vérité Television Documentary
THE GENRES OF FICTION FILMS
MelodramaBroken Blossoms Now, Voyager CasablancaFilm NoirExpressionist Roots of Noir Hard-Boiled Fiction The Maltese Falcon Murder, My Sweet; Double Indemnity; Scarlet Street Anthony MannNoirs Climax In A Lonely PlaceThe Wrong Man Kiss Me Deadly Touch of Evil Noirs Rebirth NOTES AND REFERENCES
Chapter Nine: The Stories Told By Film II
OTHER GENRES: THE WESTERN
The LandscapeThe Obstacles to Westward ExpansionThe Western Star and the Western DirectorThe Western After the Fifties
SCIENCE FICTION
Fritz Langs Metropolis Alien and Blade RunnerScience Fiction in the Fifties2001: A Space Odyssey
GENRE RESILIENCE
EUROPEAN AND OTHER CINEMAS
Italian Neorealism Bicycle Thieves Neorealism in America The French New Wave Jean-Luc Godard Michelangelo Antonioni Yasujiro Ozu
DOUGLAS SIRK, RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER, AND TODD HAYNES: ONE GENRE, THREE WAYS
The FilmmakersThe Common ThreadThat Heaven Allows and Far From HeavenRaceGender FassbinderAli: Fear Eats the SoulThe Influence of Bertolt Brecht The GazeFassbinders NarrativeHappiness is Not Always FunBRIEF CONCLUSIONS NOTES AND REFERENCESGlossaryIndexDVD-ROM Contents