How to Read a Film The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media

by Monaco, James

• ISBN13: 9780195028027
• ISBN10: 0195028023
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1981-06-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Now thoroughly revised and updated, the book discusses recent breakthroughs in media technology, including such exciting advances as video discs and cassettes, two-way television, satellites, cable and much more.

Table of Contents

Film as an Art	1	(47)
The Nature of Art	3	(4)
The Spectrum of Art: Modes of Discourse	7	(13)
Film, Recording, and the Other Arts	20	(23)
Film, Photography, and Painting
Film and the Novel
Film and Theater
Film and Music
Film and the Environmental Arts
The Structure of Art	43	(4)
Technology: Image and Sound	47	(72)
Art and Technology	49	(10)
Image Technology
Sound Technology
The Lens	59	(11)
The Camera	70	(11)
The Filmstock	81	(17)
Negatives, Prints, and Generations
Aspect Ratio
Grain, Gauge, and Speed
Contrast, Tone, and Color
The Soundtrack	98	(5)
Post-Production	103	(9)
Editing
Mixing and Looping
Special Effects
Opticals and the Laboratory
The Uses of Video	112	(3)
Projection	115	(4)
The Language of Film: Signs and Syntax	119	(74)
Signs	121	(19)
The Physiology of Perception
Denotative and Connotative Meaning
Reading the Image
Syntax	140	(53)
Codes
Mise en Scene (The Framed Image)
The Diachronic Shot
Sound
Montage
Reading the Narrative
The Shape of Film History	193	(114)
``The Movies'': Economics	199	(18)
The Birth of Film
The Silent Business
Sound: The Studios
Film versus Television
The Conglomerates and Independents
``The Film'': Politics	217	(18)
Ontological Level
Mimetic Level
Inherent Level
Psychopolitics
Sociopolitics
``The Cinema'': Esthetics	235	(72)
Creating an Art
Lumiere versus Melies
The Silent Feature: Realism versus Expressionism
Hollywood: Genre versus Auteur
Neorealism and After: Hollywood versus the World
The New Wave and the Third World: Entertainment versus Communication (The New Wave
Avant Garde, Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite
England
Italy
Sweden
Eastern Europe
The Third World
Japan and Asia
New French Cinema
Das Neue Kino
Swiss Cinema
American Film Now)
The Eighties and Beyond; Democracy and Technology: End of Cinema
Film Theory: Form and Function	307	(40)
The Poet and the Philosopher: Lindsay and Munsterberg	312	(3)
Expressionism and Realism: Arnheim and Kracauer	315	(7)
Montage: Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Balazs, and Formalism	322	(6)
Mise en Scene: Neorealism, Bazin, and Godard	328	(10)
Film Speaks and Acts: Metz and Contemporary Theory	338	(9)
Media	347	(70)
Print and Electronic Media	351	(10)
The Technology of Mechanical and Electronic Media	361	(13)
Radio and Records	374	(6)
Television and Video	380	(31)
A Concluding Note: Media Democracy	411	(6)
APPENDIX I: A STANDARD GLOSSARY FOR FILM AND MEDIA CRITICISM	417	(46)
APPENDIX II: READING ABOUT FILM AND MEDIA	463	(32)
Part One: A Basic Library	466	(22)
Part Two: Information	488	(7)
APPENDIX III: FILM AND MEDIA: A CHRONOLOGY	495	(18)
Index	513