FILM THEORY AND

CRITICISM Introductory Readings

F O U R T H E D I T I O N

GERALD MAST

MARSHALL COHEN

LEO BRAUDY

New York Oxford O X F O R D U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS

1992

CONTENTS

I • Film and Reality 3

SIEGFRIED KRACAUER From Theory of Film Basic Concepts, 9

SIEGFRIED KRACAUER From From Caligari to Hitler The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 21

ANDRE BAZIN From What Is Cinema? The Myth of Total Cinema, 34

ANDRE BAZIN From What Is Cinema? De Sica: Metteur-en-scene, 38

RUDOLF ARNHEIM From Film as Art The Complete Film, 48

V. F. PERKINS From Film as Film

Form and Discipline, 52

MAYA DEREN Cinematography: The Creative Use of Reality, 59

STAN BRA KH AGE From Metaphors on Vision, 71

xiv CONTENTS

COLIN MACCABE Theory and Film: Principles of Realism and Pleasure, 79

CHRISTINE GLEDHILL Recent Developments in Feminist Criticism, 93

II • Film Language 115

VSEVOLOD PUDOVKIN From Film Technique [On Editing], 121

SERGEI EISENSTEIN From Film Form The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram, 127 A Dialectic Approach to Film Form, 138

ANDRE BAZIN From What Is Cinema? The Evolution of the Language of Cinema, 155

CHRISTIAN METZ From Film Language

Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema, 168

DANIEL DAYAN The Tutor-Code of Classical Cinema, 179

WILLIAM ROTHM AN Against "The System of the Suture," 192

KAJA SILVERMAN From The Subject of Semiotics [On Suture], 199

NICK BROWNE The Spectator-in-the-Text: The Rhetoric of Stagecoach, 210

III • The Film Medium: Image and Sound 227

ERWIN PANOFSKY Style and Medium in the Motion Pictures, 233

SIEGFRIED KRACAUER From Theory of Film The Establishment of Physical Existence, 249

BELA BALÄZS From Theory of the Film The Close-up, 260 The Face of Man, 262

CONTENTS

RUDOLF ARNHEIM From Film as Art Film and Reality, 268 The Making of a Film, 272

NOEL CARROLL From Philosophical Problems of Classical Film Theory

The Specificity Thesis, 278

GERALD MAST From Film/Cinema/Movie Projection, 286

STANLEY CAVELL From The World Viewed Photograph and Screen, 291 Audience, Actor, and Star, 292 Types; Cycles as Genres, 294 Ideas of Origin, 299

JEAN-LOUIS BAUDR Y Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus, 302

CHRISTIAN METZ Aural Objects, 313

S. M. EISENSTEIN, V. I. PUDOVKIN, AND G. V. ALEXANDROV A Statement [On Sound], 317

JEAN-MARIE STRAUB and DANIELE HUILLET Direct Sound: An Interview, 320

JOHN BELTON Technology and Aesthetics of Film Sound, 323

CHARLES AFFRON From Cinema and Sentiment Voice and Space, 332

JOHN ELLIS From Visible Fictions Broadcast TV as Sound and Image, 341

IV • Film, Theater, and Literature 351

HUGO MÜNSTERBERG From The Film: A Psychological Study The Means of the Photoplay, 355

SUSAN SONTAG Film and Theatre, 362

XVI CONTENTS

ANDRE BAZIN From What Is Cinema? Theater and Cinema, 375

LEO BRAUDY From The World in a Frame Acting: Stage vs. Screen, 387

SERGEI EISENSTEIN From Film Form Dickens, Griffith, and the Film Today, 395

SEYMOUR CHATMAN What Novels Can Do That Films Can't (and Vice Versa), 403

DUDLEY ANDREW From Concepts in Film Theory Adaptation, 420

V • Film Genres 429

LEO BRAUDY From The World in a Frame Genre: The Conventions of Connection, 435

ROBERT WARSHOW Movie Chronicle: The Westerner, 45 3

JEAN-LOUP BOURGET Social Implications in the Hollywood Genres, 467

ROBIN WOOD Ideology, Genre, Auteur, 475

JANE FEUER The Self-Reflexive Musical and the Myth of Entertainment, 486

JOHN G. CAWELTl Chinatown and Generic Transformation in Recent American Films, 498

THOMAS ELSAESSER Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama, 512

TANIA MODLESK1 Time and Desire in the Woman's Film, 536

BRUCE K.AWIN The Mummy's Pool, 549

LINDA WILLIAMS When the Woman Looks, 561

CONTENTS xvii

VI • The Film Artist 579

ANDREW SARRIS Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962, 585

PETER WOLLEN From Signs and Meaning in the Cinema

The Auteur Theory, 589

RICHARD CORLISS The Hollywood Screenwriter, 606

JOHN ELLIS From Visible Fictions

Stars as a Cinematic Phenomenon, 614

RICHARD DYER From Stars, 622

ROLAND BARTHES The Face of Garbo, 628

MOLLY HASKELL From From Reverence to Rape Female Stars of the 1940s, 632

JOAN MELLEN From Women and Their Sexuality in the New Film The Mae West Nobody Knows, 646

THOMAS SCHATZ From The Genius of the System "The Whole Equation of Pictures," 654

VII • Film: Psychology, Society, and Ideology 659

WALTER BENJAMIN The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 665

JEAN-LUC COMOLLI and JEAN NARBONI Cinema/ Ideology/Criticism, 682

JEAN-LOUIS BAUDRY The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in Cinema, 690

NOEL CARROLL From Mystifying Movies Jean-Louis Baudry and "The Apparatus," 708

xviii CONTENTS

PARKER TYLER From Magic and Myth of the Movies Preface, 725

CHRISTIAN METZ From The Imaginary Signifier Identification, Mirror, 730 The Passion for Perceiving, 741

LAURA MULVEY Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, 746

MARY ANN DOANE Film and the Masquerade: Theorising the Female Spectator, 758

GAYLYN STUDLAR Masochism and the Perverse Pleasures of the Cinema, 773

Bibliography, 791