Doing Film Studies

153 Pages·2012·1.465 MB·English

by  Sarah Casey Benyahia, Claire Mortimer

doing film
studies
a sUbJect gUide for stUdents
sarah casey benyahia
and claire mortimer
Doing Film Studies
Doing Film Studies examines what it really means to study (cid:2) lm, encouraging
the reader to question the dominant theories as well as understanding the key
approaches to cinema. This book provides an overview of the construction of
(cid:2) lm studies – including its history and evolution – and examines the
application of theories to (cid:2) lm texts. Important questions discussed include:
• Why does (cid:2) lm studies need a canon?
• What is the relationship between authorship and genre theory?
• What is screen theory?
• How do we read a (cid:2) lm text?
• Why is the concept of the spectator important to (cid:2) lm?
• How is (cid:2) lm involved in national identity?
• What is meant by a ‘(cid:2) lm industry’?
Aimed at students in their (cid:2) nal year of secondary education or beginning their
degrees, Doing Film Studies equips the reader with the tools needed in
approaching the study of (cid:2) lm.
Sarah Casey Benyahia is a teacher of Film and Media Studies. She is the
author of Crime (2011) and Teaching Contemporary British Cinema (2005),
and co-author of several (cid:2) lm and media studies text books.
Claire Mortimer is a teacher of Media and Film Studies. She is the author of
Romantic Comedy (2010) and co-author of AS Media Studies: The Essential
Introduction for WJEC (2011).
Also Available from Routledge
Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts
Susan Hayward
978-0-415-36782-0
Film Studies: The Basics
Amy Villarejo
978-0-415-36139-2
Film: The Essential Study Guide
Edited by Ruth Doughty and Deborah Shaw
978-0-415-43700-4
Doing Film Studies
A Subject Guide for Students
Sarah Casey Benyahia
and Claire Mortimer
First published 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2013 Sarah Casey Benyahia and Claire Mortimer
The right of Sarah Casey Benyahia and Claire Mortimer to be
identifi ed as authors of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Benyahia, Sarah Casey.
Doing fi lm studies : a subject guide for students / Sarah Casey
Benyahia and Claire Mortimer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Motion pictures. I. Mortimer, Claire, 1964- II. Title.
PN1994.B4337 2012
791.43 – dc23
2012020499
ISBN: 978-0-415-60269-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-60270-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-08086-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times NRMT
by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: About this Book ix
Part I
What We Watch and What We Study 1
1 The Canon in Practice 3
Part II
The History of Film Studies 11
2 The History of the Discipline, or How It Became
Possible to Study Film 13
3 The History of the Canon: The Development
(and Deconstruction) of the Film Studies Canon 27
4 Key Approaches: Genre Theory 41
5 Competing Approaches: Screen Theory 55
v
CONTENTS
Part III
Studying the Film Text 65
6 Reading a Film 67
7 Film Studies and Narrative Theories 79
8 Spectatorship and Audience Studies 93
Part IV
Film as a Contemporary Discipline 105
9 Creative Engagement 107
10 Film and Identity 115
11 Postmodernism and Cultural Studies 125
12 Film as Industry 137
Index 151
vi
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to Andy Humphries, their editor at Routledge,
for his constructive and good humoured guidance throughout this project.
Claire would like to thank Granville, Arthur and Flo, as always.
Sarah would like to thank her mother for her continued interest and
encouragement.
vii
Introduction
About this Book
What does it mean to be ‘doing fi lm studies’?
The experience of studying (cid:2) lm is diverse, covering a range of academic
levels as well as theoretical and practical approaches. You may be doing (cid:2) lm
studies as an A level or IB student, or have begun an undergraduate – even
postgraduate – course in (cid:2) lm. Whatever stage you are at, this book aims to
give an understanding of the evolution of the subject and to get you to think
analytically about why we study (cid:2) lm in the way we do. Doing Film Studies
does have aspects of a conventional textbook – it includes an overview of the
key theories and thinkers in the discipline – but can also be thought of as a
‘meta’ textbook, one which explains why (cid:2) lm studies takes the form it does.
For example, in addition to explaining what the auteur theory is and illustrat-
ing how it can be used to analyse (cid:2) lms, we are equally interested in asking
why this theory became so prominent in (cid:2) lm studies and what prompted later
arguments against it. Therefore, this is a book which asks why we study par-
ticular types of (cid:2) lms and not others (which you may think are equally worthy
of study), and why we use the particular approaches that we do.
As a student of (cid:2) lm studies, it is important to understand the background
of this relatively young subject, to consider how it became possible to study
(cid:2) lm. Many of the competing claims of the different theoretical approaches
and methodologies come from the discipline’s need to establish itself as a
subject that should be taken seriously, an obstacle that has faced all attempts
to study forms of popular culture. The development of the discipline itself
ix
INTRODUCTION: ABOUT THIS BOOK
forms the framework of this book, looking at the very (cid:2) rst attempts to ‘do (cid:2) lm
studies’ at the beginning of the twentieth century and considering how the
early de(cid:2) nition of (cid:2) lm as an art form belonging to high, not popular, culture
has shaped later developments.
How to use this book
The book is divided into four sections.
Part I: What we watch and what we study
This introductory section takes as its starting point the make-up of (cid:2) lm studies
courses today, examining the (cid:2) lm syllabus for A level and undergraduate
courses and asking why we study what we study – what are the shared
characteristics of contemporary (cid:2) lm studies courses? This analysis provides
the backdrop for the book’s investigation into how (cid:2) lm studies has developed
to this point.
Part II: The history of fi lm studies
This section addresses how the study of (cid:2) lm became institutionalized as
an academic subject, tracing its development from the work of (cid:2) lm fans and
enthusiasts (the role of ‘cinephilia’) to the emergence of (cid:2) lm theory,
the highly specialized range of approaches that reinforced (cid:2) lm studies’
position as a university subject. Part II provides a historical overview of
the subject in the UK and US, as well as considering the function of the canon
and the key theoretical approaches of the subject – auteur theory and genre
studies.
Part III: Studying the fi lm text
As will soon become apparent, one of the central concerns in debates about
how (cid:2) lm should be studied was the fear that theoretical approaches were in
danger of losing sight of the (cid:2) lm itself, particularly the way in which the
language of (cid:2) lm constructed meaning. This section examines the ways in
which (cid:2) lms have been ‘read’ through the emphasis on textual analysis and
narratology, and the way in which the interpretive relationship between the
(cid:2) lm and the spectator has been conceived.
x