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| About the book |
Film is an art form with a language and an aesthetic all its own. Since 1979, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film Art has been the best-selling and widely respected introduction to the analysis of cinema. Taking a skills-centered approach supported by a wide range of examples from various periods and countries, the authors strive to help students develop a core set of analytical skills that will deepen their understanding of any film, in any genre. Frame enlargements throughout the text enable students to view images taken directly from completed films, while an optional, text-specific tutorial CD-ROM helps clarify and reinforce specific concepts addressed in the text with the use of film clips. Building on these strengths, the ninth edition adds coverage of new technologies, updated examples, and references to the authors' acclaimed weblog to provide unparalleled currency and connect students with the world of cinema today. |
| Key features |
Expanded coverage of digital filmmaking. A thoroughly revised Chapter 1, Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business, reflects the increasing merger of photochemically based cinema and digital cinema, with new discussions of how digital technologies are inserted into production, distribution, and exhibition, as well as a case study on the making of Michael Mann's film Collateral. Benefit : Provides students with current information on film. Proof : Chapter 1 Probe : How do you explain the impact of the digital era on film? Expose students to the dynamism and breadth of cinema today. Feature : Greater integration of the authors' acclaimed blog, "Observations on Film Art". In what Roger Ebert calls, "the most knowledgeable blog on the Web," David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson share their ideas and experiences with instructors and students. Throughout the text, added "Connect to the Blog" references point instructors and students to entries keyed to specific ideas, terms, and film examples, connecting ideas in Film Art to the current film scene in an accessible format. Benefit : Provides students with current information on film. Proof : http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/ Probe : How do you attune your students what happening today in cinema? Relevant, recognizable examples Feature : New, more current case study on sound. An analysis of Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, in Chapter 7, Sound in the Cinema, provides students with a current example of how our experience of a film's story can be shaped by sound. The prior edition's case study of Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped now appears on the authors' blog. Benefit : Provides a more current and accessible example of the role of sound in film. Past editions included an analysis of Robert Bresson¿s A Man Escaped, which is French film with subtitles. Using a film that is in English allows students to better concentrate on the soundtrack without being distracted by reading subtitles. Proof : Chapter 7, Sound in the Cinema Probe : How do your students respond to current examples of films that they are familiar with? Feature : Updated examples and film stills throughout the text. Discussions of and images from recent films such as Slumdog Millionaire, Waltz with Bashir, Across the Universe, Iron Man, Wendy and Lucy, Babel, Cloverfield, Persepolis, and The Golden Compass bring the text up to date and show students the concepts of film analysis applied to familiar and relatable content. Benefit : Provides students with current information on film. Show students the concepts of film analysis applied to familiar and relatable content. Proof : Specific page numbers to come Probe : How do your students respond to current examples of films that they are familiar with? Study tools. Time-saving instructor resources. Feature : Updated Online Learning Center. This site features a wealth of additional resources for students and instructors, including multiple choice quizzes, essay questions, Internet Exercises, an instructor's manual, test bank, a link to the authors' blog, and more. Benefit : Helps students study and prepare for exams. Helps instructors prepare for class. Proof : See 8/e OLC: http://www.mhhe.com/filmart8 Probe : How do your students prepare for exams? Develop skills that can apply to a wide variety of film and serve students over time. Feature : Skills-centered approach. The authors strive to help students develop a core set of analytical skills that will deepen their understanding of any film, in any genre. Benefit : Helps students develop a core set of analytical skills that will deepen their understanding of how any film, in any genre, is created and how it functions as a whole Proof : pp 258-260 - The extended examples at the end of each techniques chapter, plus the Sample Analyses, show how to analyze the functions of film technique and form. Preface pp xvii-xviii - The logical organization that stresses entire films (film form). Probe : How do you help your students think about films for themselves rather than just presenting them with facts? How do you help your students see the whole and film and not just the elements that make it up? |
| About the authors |
David Bordwell is Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate in film from the University of Iowa. His books include The Films of Carl Theodor Dreyer (University of California Press, 1981), Narration in the Fiction Film (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema (Princeton University Press, 1988), Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema (Harvard University Press, 1989), The Cinema of Eisenstein (Harvard University Press, 1993), On the History of Film Style (Harvard University Press, 1997), Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Harvard University Press, 2000), Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging (University of California Press, 2005), The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies (University of California Press, 2006), and The Poetics of Cinema (Routledge, 2008). He has won a University Distinguished Teaching Award and was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Copenhagen. His we site is www.davidbordwell.net.
Kristin Thompson is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a master's degree in film from the University of Iowa and a doctorate in film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has published Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible: A Neoformalist Analysis (Princeton University Press, 1981), Exporting Entertainment: America in the World Film Market 1907-1934 (British Film Institute, 1985), Breaking the Glass Armor: Neoformalist Film Analysis (Princeton University Press, 1988), Wooster Proposes, Jeeves Disposes, or, Le Mot Juste (James H. Heineman, 1992), Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique (Harvard University Press, 1999), Storytelling in Film and Television (Harvard University Press, 2003), Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood: German and American Film after World War I (Amsterdam University Press, 2005), and The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood (University of California Press, 2007). She blogs with David at www.davidbordwell.net/blog. She maintains her own blog, "The Frodo Franchise," at www.kristinthompson.net/blog. In her spare time she studies Egyptology.
The authors have also collaborated on Film History: An Introduction (McGraw-Hill, 3rd. ed., 2010) and, with Janet Staiger, on The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 (Columbia University Press, 1985).
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| Table of contents |
Part One: Film Art and Filmmaking Chapter 1. Putting Films on Screen Part Two: Film Form Chapter 2. The Significance of Film Form Chapter 3. Narrative as a Formal System Part Three: Film Style Chapter 4. The Shot: Mise-en-Scene Chapter 5. The Shot: Cinematography Chapter 6. The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing Chapter 7. Sound in the Cinema Chapter 8. Style as a Formal System Part Four: Types of Films Chapter 9. Film Genres Chapter 10. Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films Part Five: Critical Analysis of Films Introduction: Writing a Critical Analysis of a Film Chapter 11. Sample Analyses Part Six: Film Art and Film History Chapter 12. Film Art and Film History |
