Poetics Of Cinema

by David Bordwell

Bringing together twenty-five years of work on what he has called the "historical poetics of cinema," David Bordwell presents an extended analysis of a key question for film studies: how are films made, in particular historical contexts, in order to achieve certain effects? For Bordwell, films are made things, existing within historical contexts, and aim to create determinate effects. Beginning with this central thesis, Bordwell works out a full understanding of how films channel and recast cultural influences for their cinematic purposes. With more than five hundred film stills, Poetics of Cinema is a must-have for any student of cinema.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Theory, Media Tie In

512 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2007

About the author

David Bordwell, Jacques Ledoux Professor at the University of Wisconsin, is arguably the most influential scholar of film in the United States. The author, with his wife Kristin Thompson, of the standard textbook Film Art and a series of influential studies of directors (Eisenstein, Ozu, Dreyer) as well as periods and styles (Hong Kong cinema, Classical Hollywood cinema, among others), he has also trained a generation of professors of cinema studies, extending his influence throughout the world. His books have been translated into fifteen languages.

Reviews

[Slow Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Section III - "Studies in Style" is the highlight of the text. Every chapter on that side, beginning with the amusing send up of Sarris vs. Kael, is sizzling hot

[Andrew Corsini · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book by Bordwell, especially in its consideration of silent cinema

[Sandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolutely invaluable book for my graduate film class. I would highly recommend it for serious and detailed study, while being approachable enough for newcomers to film study. If you aren't too interested in theory, skip the intro. Bordwell takes a rigourous stylistic/cognitive approach that I wish was employed more often in the study of literature.

[Kasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you care about film, you simply gotta read it. Bordwell is the man, and - apart from in his excellent and quite regular blogging - this is the where to find the most recent version of his theories.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2014...