How to Read a Film The World of Movies, Media, Multimedia: Language, History, Theory

by Monaco, James

• ISBN13: 9780195038699
• ISBN10: 019503869X
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Richard Gilman referred to How to Read a Film as simply "the best singlework of its kind." Janet Maslin of The New York Times Book Review marveled atJames Monaco's ability to collect "an enormous amount of useful information andassemble it in an exhilaratingly simple and systematic way." And Richard Roud,Director of the New York Film Festival stated, "Anyone who writes about film,who is interested in film seriously, just has to have it." Clearly, few books onfilm have met with such critical acclaim as How to Read a Film. Since itsoriginal publication in 1977, this hugely popular book has become the definitivesource on film and media. Now, James Monaco offers a completely revised andrewritten third edition that brings every major aspect of this dynamic mediumright up to the present day.Looking at film from many vantage points, Monaco discusses the elementsnecessary to understand how a film conveys its meaning, and, more importantly,how the audience can best discern all that a film is attempting to communicate.He begins by setting movies in the context of the more traditional arts such asthe novel, painting, photography, theater--even music--demonstrating that filmas a narrative technique is directly comparable to these older mediums. Hepoints out that much of what we see and experience in film can be traceddirectly back to other art forms. Accordingly, as film is a technology as wellas an art, he examines the intriguing science of cinema and follows thedevelopment of the electronic media and its parallel growth with film duringthis century. A new chapter on multimedia brings media criticism into the late1990s with a thorough discussion of such topics as virtual reality andcyberspace and their relationship to film. Monaco goes on to show how filmoperates as a language, describing the various techniques and conceptsresponsible for the often visceral reactions that only film can elicit.Lavishly illustrated with over 350 halftones and seventy-four originaldiagrams, as well as discussions on the development of the art of movies and themajor theoretical developments of the last seventy-five years, How to Read aFilm is an exciting and definitive behind the scenes look at the complex worldof film.

Author Biography

James Monaco is a writer, publisher, and producer. His books include American Film Now, The New Wave, The Encyclopedia of Film, and The Connoisseur's Guide to the Movies.

Table of Contents

Introduction	12	(5)
Preface to the Second Edition	17	(5)
Film As An Art	22	(46)
The Nature of Art	22	(6)
Ways of Looking at Art	28	(10)
The Spectrum of Abstraction
The Modes of Discourse
The ``Rapports de Production''
Film, Recording, and the Other Arts	38	(24)
Film, Photography, and Painting
Film and the Novel
Film and Theater
Film and Music
Film and the Environmental Arts
The Structure of Art	62	(6)
Technology: Image And Sound	68	(84)
Art and Technology	68	(10)
Image Technology
Sound Technology
The Lens	78	(8)
The Camera	86	(14)
The Filmstock	100	(24)
Negatives, Prints, and Generations
Aspect Ratio
Grain, Gauge, and Speed
Color, Contrast, and Tone
The Soundtrack	124	(4)
Postproduction	128	(15)
Editing
Mixing and Looping
Special Effects
Opticals, the Lab, and the Post House
Video and Film	143	(2)
Projection	145	(7)
The Language Of Film: Signs And Syntax	152	(76)
Signs	152	(20)
The Physiology of Perception
Denotative and Connotative Meaning
Syntax	172	(56)
Codes
Mise-en-Scene
The Framed Image
The Diachronic Shot
Sound
Montage
The Shape of Film History	228	(160)
Movies/Film/Cinema	228	(4)
``Movies'': Economics	232	(29)
``Film'': Politics	261	(23)
``Cinema'': Esthetics	284	(104)
Creating an Art: Lumiere Versus Melies	285	(3)
The Silent Feature: Realism Versus Expressionism	288	(6)
Hollywood: Genre Versus Auteur	294	(7)
Neorealism and After: Hollywood Versus the World	301	(12)
The New Wave and the Third World: Entertainment Versus Communication	313	(45)
The Postmodern Sequel: Democracy, Technology, End of Cinema	358	(30)
Film Theory: Form And Function	388	(40)
The Critic	388	(3)
The Poet and the Philosopher: Lindsay and Munsterberg	391	(3)
Expressionism and Realism: Arnheim and Kracauer	394	(6)
Montage: Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Balazs, and Formalism	400	(6)
Mise en Scene: Neorealism, Bazin, and Godard	406	(11)
Film Speaks and Acts: Metz and Contemporary Theory	417	(11)
Media: In The Middle Of Things	428	(90)
Community	428	(2)
Print and Electronic Media	430	(10)
The Technology of Mechanical and Electronic Media	440	(20)
Radio and Records	460	(5)
Television and Video	465	(53)
``Broadcasting'': The Business	469	(11)
``Television'': The Art	480	(25)
``TV'': The Virtual Family	505	(13)
Multimedia: The Digital Revolution	518	(52)
The Digital Revolution	518	(16)
The Myth of Multimedia	534	(9)
The Myth of Virtual Reality	543	(7)
The Myth of Cyberspace	550	(8)
``What Is to be Done?''	558	(12)
I FILM AND MEDIA: A CHRONOLOGY	570	(34)
To 1895: Prehistory	570	(2)
1896--1915: The Birth of Film	572	(1)
1916--1930: Silent Film, The Births of Radio and Sound Film	573	(2)
1931--1945: The Great Age of Hollywood and Radio	575	(3)
1946--1960: The Growth of Television	578	(3)
1961--1980: The Media World	581	(7)
1981--Present: The Digital World	588	(16)
II READING ABOUT FILM AND MEDIA	604	(1)
Part One: A Basic Library	605	(32)
Part Two: Information	637	(7)
INDEX
Topics	644	(8)
People	652	(11)
Titles	663