Synopses & Reviews
Even though essay films have been a key practice since the 1950s, there is scant analysis about this form in English. Part of this is likely due to the inherent difficulty of definition. The films, which foreground subjectivity and adopt an explicit, personal approach to their subject matter, can look and feel very different from one another. Their coherence as a group, however, comes into focus when contextualized as part of the larger tradition from which they draw. By looking to the literary and philosophical lineage of the essay form, Corrigan brings new clarity to a practice that, arguably, is one of the most common and successful in contemporary film culture. The Essay Film situates its investigation in the literary tradition of essayists such as Montaigne, Barthes, and Huxley before moving to an expansive discussion of filmmakers such as Derek Jarman, Alan Clarke, Werner Herzog, Harun Farocki, Chantal Akerman, Chris Marker, Errol Morris, Nanni Moretti, Agnès Varda, Ross McElwee, Abbas Kiarostami, Raoul Ruiz, Lynne Sachs, and Trinh T. Minh-ha.
Review
"For media artists, scholars and students of cinema, Corrigan's reflections offer a passionate and convincing testimony to the transformative power of the essay film. Not since I read Roland Barthes' Mythologies have I come across a book that provides such a strong articulation of the visual thinking process."--Lynne Sachs, filmmaker
Review
"The Essay Film is the most compelling and spirited monograph to surface yet on the topic."--Rick Warner, Critical Quarterly
"For media artists, scholars and students of cinema, Corrigan's reflections offer a passionate and convincing testimony to the transformative power of the essay film. Not since I read Roland Barthes' Mythologies have I come across a book that provides such a strong articulation of the visual thinking process."--Lynne Sachs, filmmaker
"Timothy Corrigan writes persuasively and vividly in offering up this coherent overview of the sprawling international phenomenon of the essay film. By providing a concise historical context, which ranges from Michel Montaigne to Michael Moore, he allows us to see the continuum and value of this idiosyncratic and vital form of expression."--Ross McElwee, Director, Sherman's March
"Inventively and insightfully, Timothy Corrigan establishes the essay film as a cinematic form of 'thinking out loud.' His eloquent book provides something similar: it is a richly productive meditation on meanings that interweaves voices, subjectivities, and resonant reflection. This essential volume now determines future consideration of this key genre."--Dana Polan, author of Scenes of Instruction: The Beginnings of the U.S. Study of Film
Synopsis
Why have certain kinds of documentary and non-narrative films emerged as the most interesting, exciting, and provocative movies made in the last twenty years? Ranging from the films of Ross McElwee (Bright Leaves) and Agnès Varda (The Gleaners and I) to those of Abbas Kiarostami (Close Up) and Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir), such films have intrigued viewers who at the same time have struggled to categorize them. Sometimes described as personal documentaries or diary films, these eclectic works are, rather, best understood as cinematic variations on the essay. So argues Tim Corrigan in this stimulating and necessary new book. Since Michel de Montaigne, essays have been seen as a lively literary category, and yet--despite the work of pioneers like Chris Marker--seldom discussed as a cinematic tradition. The Essay Film, offering a thoughtful account of the long rapport between literature and film as well as novel interpretations and theoretical models, provides the ideas that will change this.
About the Author
Timothy Corrigan is Professor of English, Cinema Studies, and History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include
The Films of Werner Herzog,
Writing About Film,
New German Film: The Displaced Image, and
A Cinema Without Walls.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Of Film and the Essayistic
Part I: Toward the Essay Film
Chapter One. "On Thoughts Occasioned by. . ." Montaigne to Marker
Chapter Two. Of the History of the Essay Film: from Vertov to Varda
Part II: Essayistic Modes
Chapter Three. About Portraying Expression: The Essay Film as Inter-view
Chapter Four. To Be Elsewhere: Cinematic Excursions as Essayistic Travel
Chapter Five. On Essayistic Diaries, or the Cinematic Velocities of Public Life
Chapter Six. Of the Currency of Events: The Essay Film as Editorial
Chapter Seven. About Refractive Cinema: When Films Interrogate Films
Works Cited
Index