Film Art: An Introduction

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 masters 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.

Part 1 Film Art and Filmmaking

1. Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business

Part 2 Film Form

2. The Significance of Film Form

3. Narrative Form

Part 3 Film Style

4. The Shot: Mise-en-Scene

5. The Shot: Cinematography

6. The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing

7. Sound in the Cinema

8. Summary: Style as a Formal System

Part 4 Types of Films

9. Film Genres

10. Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films

Part 5 Critical Analysis of Films

11. Film Criticism: Sample Analyses

Appendix: Writing a Critical Analysis of a Film

Part 6 Film History

12. Historical Changes in Film Art: Conventions and Choices, Tradition and Trends

Glossary

Credits

Recommended DVD and Blu-Ray Supplements

Index