Film Studies: The Basics (Film Studies)

182 Pages·2006·1.43 MB·English

by  Amy Villarejo

FILM STUDIES
THE BASICS
Whether it’s The Matrix or A Fistful of Dollars that’s brought you
to film studies,this is a lively and thorough introduction to exactly
what you will be studying during your course.
Film Studies:The Basicswill tell you all you need to know about:
• the movie industry,from Hollywood to Bollywood;
• who does what on a film set;
• thehistory,the technology and the art of cinema;
• theories of stardom,genre and film-making.
Including illustrations and examples from an international range of
films drawn from over a century of movie making and a glossary of
terms for ease of reference,Film Studies:The Basicsisamust-have
guide for any film student or fan.
Amy VVillarejo won the 2005 Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award
from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies for her book
Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire. She is
Associate Professor in Film at Cornell University,USA.
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM ROUTLEDGE
CCIINNEEMMAA SSTTUUDDIIEESS:: TTHHEE KKEEYY CCOONNCCEEPPTTSS ((TTHHIIRRDD EEDDIITTIIOONN))
SUSAN HAYWARD
0-415-36782-4
CCOOMMMMUUNNIICCAATTIIOONN,, CCUULLTTUURRAALL AANNDD MMEEDDIIAA SSTTUUDDIIEESS:: TTHHEE KKEEYY CCOONNCCEEPPTTSS ((TTHHIIRRDD
EEDDIITTIIOONN))
JOHN HARTLEY
0-415-26889-3
CCUULLTTUURRAALL TTHHEEOORRYY:: TTHHEE KKEEYY CCOONNCCEEPPTTSS
EDITED BY ANDREW EDGAR AND PETER SEDGWICK
0-415-28426-0
CCUULLTTUURRAALL TTHHEEOORRYY:: TTHHEE KKEEYY TTHHIINNKKEERRSS
ANDREW EDGAR AND PETER SEDGWICK
0-415-23281-3
TTEELLEEVVIISSIIOONN SSTTUUDDIIEESS:: TTHHEE KKEEYY CCOONNCCEEPPTTSS
NEIL CASEY, BERNADETTE CASEY, JUSTIN LEWIS, BEN CALVERT AND LIAM FRENCH
0-415-17237-3
FFIIFFTTYY CCOONNTTEEMMPPOORRAARRYY FFIILLMMMMAAKKEERRSS
EDITED BY YVONNE TASKER
0-415-18974-8
FFIIFFTTYY KKEEYY TTHHEEAATTRREE DDIIRREECCTTOORRSS
EDITED BY SHOMIT MITTER AND MARIA SHEVTSOVA
0-415-18732-X
TTHHEE RROOUUTTLLEEDDGGEE CCOOMMPPAANNIIOONN TTOO TTHHEEAATTRREE AANNDD PPEERRFFOORRMMAANNCCEE
PAUL ALLAIN AND JEN HARVIE
0-415-25721-2
FILM STUDIES
THE BASICS
Amy Villarejo
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor &Francis Group, an informa business
© 2007 Amy Villarejo
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
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 photo-
copying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
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
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN10: 0-415-36138-9 ISBN13: 978-0-415-36138-5 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-36139-7 ISBN13: 978-0-415-36139-2 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-01203-8 ISBN13: 978-0-203-01203-1 (ebk)
CONTENTS
List of figures vi
List of boxes vii
11 IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn ttoo ffiillmm ssttuuddiieess 11
22 TThhee llaanngguuaaggee ooff ffiillmm 2244
33 TThhee hhiissttoorryy ooff ffiillmm 5544
44 TThhee pprroodduuccttiioonn aanndd eexxhhiibbiittiioonn ooff ffiillmm 8811
55 TThhee rreecceeppttiioonn ooff ffiillmm 110099
66 TThhee ffuuttuurree ooff ffiillmm 113322
Glossary 152
Bibliography 160
Index 167
LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 Eadweard Muybridge.Source:The Kobal Collection. 3
1.2 Lumière Brothers.Source:The Kobal Collection. 5
1.3 Ousmane Sembene.Source:Films Terre Africaine,Les/
The Kobal Collection. 11
2.1 Do the Right Thing.Source:Universal/The Kobal
Collection. 30
2.2 Psycho.Source:Paramount/The Kobal Collection. 31
2.3 The Woman in the Window.Source:RKO/The Kobal
Collection. 40
3.1 The Brides of Dracula.Source:Hammer/Universal/
The Kobal Collection. 68
3.2 A Fistful of Dynamite.Source:Rafran/San Marco/
The Kobal Collection. 76
3.3 Bandit Queen.Source:Kaleidoscope/Arrow/The
Kobal Collection. 79
4.1 Barbarella.Source:Paramount/The Kobal Collection. 96
4.2 Nanook of the North.Source:Flaherty/The Kobal
Collection. 99
5.1 Alfred Hitchcock.Source:Universal/The Kobal
Collection. 122
5.2 Singin’ in the Rain.Source:MGM/The Kobal
Collection. 123
LIST OF BOXES
1.1 The United States’ Library of Congress 8
1.2 Summary 23
2.1 Citizen Kane(Welles,1941) 39
2.2 Compositing:bluescreen 42
2.3 Famous continuity errors 48
2.4 Making sound work 51
2.5 Summary 53
3.1 Summary 80
4.1 Grand Illusion(Renoir,1937) and Rules of the Game
(Renoir,1939) 85
4.2 Almost Famous(Crowe,2000) 88
4.3 Summary 108
5.1 The best films 111
5.2 Shot analysis 121
5.3 Summary 131
6.1 Summary 151

1
INTRODUCTION TO FILM
STUDIES
If you’ve picked up this book to learn something about what it
means to study film, you already know in large measure what
cinema is:you’ve been watching movies since you first toddled out
to the family television set,or since you braved your first excursion
to a multiplex matinee. If you’re old enough, you may have
witnessed formats come and go. Perhaps you thrilled in your first
chance to watch a beloved film at home on video, rewinding the
tape over and again to watch Gene Kelly singin’ in the rain or Greta
Garbo unleashing her famous first spoken line in Anna Christie
(Jacques Feyder, 1931):“Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side,
and don’t be stingy, baby.” DVDs, now repackaged with all of the
“extras”that persuade us to replace those VHS tapes,may soon go
the way of CDs, consigned right into the dustbin that receives the
detritus of digital culture. Who knows? You may be born into a
world in which cinema streams in bits onto our computer screens
more than it lights up the screens of our neighborhood theaters.
No matter your point of entry into the matrix,welcome.Cinema
lives and has always lived in multiple forms, some slowly dying,
some newly emerging.In the late nineteenth century,cinema itself
emerged from a diverse world of toys and machines that created the