Aesthetics of Film

by Neupert, Richard; Bergala, Alain; Marie, Michel; Vernet, Marc; Aumont, Jacques; Aumont, Jacques

• ISBN13: 9780292704374
• ISBN10: 0292704372
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

"The single most comprehensive survey of the subject yet written. This masterful book provides a critical and concise introduction to nearly 100 years of philosophic inquiry into the cinema. . . . Aesthetics of Film is likely to become an essential text for the classroom and will provid e an excellent backbone to the collegiate syllabus." -- Choice A concise, lively, and readable summary of classical and contemporary film theory, Aesthetics of Film is the work of experts who are defining the parameters of film criticism internationally. First published in French ( L'Esthetique du film ) in 1983, the book provides an essential introduction to all major areas of film study, including semiotics, narratology, psychoanalysis as a part of film theory, and the theory of spectatorship. Because current film criticism is part of a historical debate about the role of cinema in society, the authors probe the contributions of significant film theorists of the past. They consider the earliest writings of Munsterberg, Balazs, and Eisenstein, move on to Bazin, the Filmologists, and Mitry, and address the linguistic, semiotic, and psychoanalytic contributions offered by Barthes, Metz, and many of their contemporaries. The chapters include "Film as Audiovisual Representation," "Montage," "Cinema and Narration," "Cinema and Language," and "Film and its Spectator." With numerous references to specific films and many black-and-white stills, the book will be useful for both beginning film students and advanced scholars who need a summary of the major stages in the development of film theory and aesthetics.

Table of Contents

Translator' Note

Introduction

Typologies of Written Work on the Cinema

The Popular Press

Publications Directed at Cinephiles

Theoretical and Aesthetic Writings

Theories of the Cinema and Aesthetics of the Cinema

An Indigenous Theory

A Descriptive Theory

Film Theory and Aesthetics

Theory of the Cinema and Technical Practice

Film Theories

Film as Audiovisual Representation

Film Space

Techniques of Depth

Perspective

Depth of Field

The Concept of the Shot

The Cinema as Audio Representation

The Economic-Technical Factors and Their History

Aesthetic and Ideological Factors

Montage

The Principle of Editing

The Objects of Editing

Modes of Action in Editing

Montage: The Large Definition of Editing

The Functions of Montage

The Empirical Approach

Toward More Systematic Description

Ideologies of Montage

AndrT Bazin and the Cinema of Transparency

and the Dialectical Cinema

Cinema and Narration

Narrative Cinema

The Cinema Encounters Narration

Non-narrative Cinema: A Difficult Boundary

Narrative Cinema: Objects and Objectives of Film Study

The Fiction Film

Every Film Is a Fiction Film

The Problem of the Referent

Narrative, Narration, and Diegesis

Narrative Codes, Functions, and Characters

Realism in the Cinema

Realism and the Materials of Expression

The Realism of Film Subject Matter

The Plausible

The Genre Effect

The Impression of Reality

Cinema and Language

Film Language

An Ancient Notion

The First Theorists

The Film Grammars

The Classical Conception of Language

A Language without Signs

The Cinema: Language or Language System?

Film Language and Language System(s)

Film' Intelligibility

The Heterogeneity of Film Language

The Materials of Expression

The Concept of Code in Semiology

The Codes Specific to the Cinema

Nonspecific Codes

The Textual Analysis of Film

The Concept of Film Text in Language and Cinema

Case Study: The Textual System of

The Notion of Text in Literary Semiotics

The Originality and Consequence of Textual Analysis

Film and Its Spectator

The Film Spectator

The Conditions of the Representative Illusion

The "Working" of the Spectator

Filmology' Spectator

The Film Spectator as Imaginary Person

A New Approach to the Film Spectator

The Film Spectator and Identification in Film

The Role of Identification in the Formation of the Ego

Identification as Narcissistic Regression

Double Identification in the Cinema

Primary Identification in the Cinema

Secondary Identification in the Cinema

Identification and Structure

Identification and Enunciation

The Film Spectator and the Psychoanalytic Subject

Feminist Theory and the Spectator

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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