Film Studies

Covers fundamental factors in filmmaking, including editing, composition, lighting, the use of color and sound, and narrative. His description of mise-en-scene helps readers grasp the significance of montage, which in turn reveals the of a director's use of camera movement. Film Studies is designed for courses on film history, film theory, and popular culture.

Contains new information on international cinema and updated discussions of works by major American directors.

Provides a complete but specific picture of visual narrative techniques that will increase readers' knowledge of the film medium. Supplies the analytic tools and background in film history and theory to enable filmgoers to see more in every film.

Offers cinema enthusiasts everything they need to know about the history of film; covers iconic films and directors from around the world, as well as how history, politics, and the cultural zeitgeist influenced cinema.

Through the detailed exploration of film scenes, Gibbs makes the case for the importance of a sensitive understanding of film style, and provides an introduction to the skills of close reading.

Analyzes such regulatory practices as the Hays Code and the government's scrutinizing of monopolistic practices; delves into the Paramount case, detailing the behind-the-scenes negotiations and public statements that ended with film industry leaders agreeing to self regulate. Hollywood's acquiescence and the government's retreat from action show that they had found a mutually beneficial way of preserving their own spheres of influence.

Examines how the typical film noir protagonist deliberates and plans, only to be confronted by the irrelevance of such deliberation and by results that contrast sharply, often tragically, with his or her intentions.

Covers the emergence of the realistic "verisimilar" style in Griffith's biograph films by showing how Griffith gradually abandoned the deliberately affected "histrionic" acting style derived from the nineteenth-century stage.

Presents a wide-ranging collection of essays that look at various forms of the Western genre; considers themes and subgenres, celebrities and authors and recent idiosyncratic engagements with the genre.

Focuses on the collaborations between directors and cinematographers, a partnership that has played a crucial role in American cinema since the early years of the silent era; draws upon oral histories, early industry trade journals, and other primary materials to examine key innovations like deep focus, color, and digital cinematography.

Seeks to redefine, re-contextualize, and reassess Italian neorealism - an artistic movement characterized by stories set among the poor and working class - through innovative close readings and comparative analysis.

Considers films in light of both Japanese cultural particularities and cinema as a worldwide art form.

Offers a fresh look at the social, economic, and aesthetic mechanisms that shaped French film, as well as detailed studies of the most important New Wave movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Contends that Bergman should be put at the center of European film history by examining his relationship to key European directors and film movements.

Uncovers the rich yet insufficiently explored dialogue between classical and modernist cinema, examining the work of three classical filmmakers--Hitchcock, Lang, and Minnelli--and the films they made during the decline of the traditional Hollywood studio system.