Theorizing the Moving Image

by Noel Carroll

Overview

Theorizing the Moving Image brings together a selection of essays written by one of the leading critics of film over the past two decades. In this volume, Noël Carroll examines theoretical aspects of film and television through penetrating analyses of such genres as soap opera, documentary, and comedy, and such topics as sight gags, film metaphor, point-of-view editing, and movie music. Throughout, individual films are considered in depth. Carroll's essays, moreover, represent the cognitivist turn in film studies, containing in-depth criticism of existing approaches to film theory, and heralding a new approach to film theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521466073
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/31/1996
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Film
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	452
Product dimensions:	7.05(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.87(d)

Table of Contents

Part I. Questioning Media: 1. Medium specificity arguments and the self-consciously invented arts; 2. The specificity of media in the arts; 3. Concerning uniqueness claims for photographic and cinematographic representation; 4. Defining the moving image; Part II. Popular Film and TV: 5. The power of movies; 6. Toward a theory of film suspense; 7. As the dial turns: notes on soap operas; 8. Toward a theory of point of view editing; 9. Notes on movie music; 10. Notes on the sight gag; Part III. Avant-garde and Documentary Film: 11. Avant-garde film and film theory; 12. Causation, the amplification of movement and the avant-garde film; 13. Language and cinema: preliminary notes for a theory of verbal images; 14. A note on film metaphor; 15. From real to reel: entangled in non-fiction film; 16. Reply to Carol Browson and Jack C. Wolf; Part IV. Ideology: 17. The image of women in film: a defense of a paradigm; 18. Film, rhetoric and ideology; Part V. The History of Film Theory: 19. Film/mind analogies: the case of Hugo Munsterberg; 20. Hans Richter's Struggle for Film; 21. A brief note on Frampton's notion of metahistory; Part VI. Polemical Exchanges: 22. Cognitivism, contemporary film theory and method; 23. Cracks in the acoustic mirror; 24. A reply to Heath; 25. Replies to Jennifer Hammett and Richard Allen; Part VII. False Starts: 26. Film history and film theory; 27. Art, film and ideology; 28. Toward a theory of film editing.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Professor Carroll has, in one densely packed collection of thought-provoking essays, forever changed the past, present and future of film theory. His rationale reintroduces creativity to a genre burdened with well-intentioned, but ultimately binding and counter-productive rules imposed by an emerging pool of critics. Professor Carroll answers his own critics with clarity and objectivity, and gives logical arguments in favor of a new approach. This volume will, no doubt, perplex and provoke students of film theory for years to come." Midwest Book Review

"For its breadth of scholarship, its fecundity of ideas, and its rigor in argument, Theorizing the Moving Image deserves a place on the shelves of anyone interested in the study of film." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Editorial Reviews

"Professor Carroll has, in one densely packed collection of thought-provoking essays, forever changed the past, present and future of film theory. His rationale reintroduces creativity to a genre burdened with well-intentioned, but ultimately binding and counter-productive rules imposed by an emerging pool of critics. Professor Carroll answers his own critics with clarity and objectivity, and gives logical arguments in favor of a new approach. This volume will, no doubt, perplex and provoke students of film theory for years to come." Midwest Book Review

"For its breadth of scholarship, its fecundity of ideas, and its rigor in argument, Theorizing the Moving Image deserves a place on the shelves of anyone interested in the study of film." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

From the Publisher