Kristin Thompson

David Bordwell

Film is an art form with a language and an aesthetic all its own. In this new edition, the authors provide an introduction to the fundamentals of serious film study, with images throughout the text collected from actual film frames, not from production stills or advertising photos.

An Introduction

Film Art

Includes information on Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Asian films, Brian de Plama, European cinema, Alfred Hitchcock, Hong Kong films, Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn, Otto Preminger, Brett Ratner, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Orson Welles, American Graffiti, At Long Last Love, A Beautiful Mind, Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Jaws, Jerry Maguire, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Matrix trilogy, Memento, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Sixth Sense, Star Wars series, Two Weeks Notice, arcing shots, axis of action, black and white footage, camera movement, characterization, climax, close ups, comedies, complicating action, cutting, dialogue hook, directors, editing, energy, epilogue, establishing shots, fantasy, film noir, flashbacks, following shots, foreshadowing, four part structure, framing, handheld shots, heroes, horror, hyperclassical construction, independent films, innovation, intensified continuity, intercutting, long lens, long takes, low budget films, montage sequences, motifs, multiple camera shooting, narrative, over the shoulder shots, overt narration, plot, postclassical cinema, protagonists, puzzle films, rapid cutting, reverse order plotting, romantic comedy, science fiction, set up, shots, singles, soundtracks, special effects, Stedicam, story development, studio era, television, thrillers, time, tracking shots, video, violence, visceral effects, visual style, wide angle lens, wide screen, wipe by cuts, wipes, etc.

Story and Style in Modern Movies

The Way Hollywood Tells It

Poetics Of Cinema

First Published in 1987. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Narration in the Fiction Film

Professor David Bordwell

Bordwell scrutinizes the theories of style launched by various film historians and celebrates a century of cinema. The author examines the contributions of many directors and shows how film scholars have explained stylistic continuity and change.

On the History of Film Style

With this book, the author provides a history of film criticism and an analysis of how critics interpret film as well as a proposal for an alternative programme of film studies.

Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema

Making Meaning

Film Art An Introduction

Janet Staiger

An overview of American studio filmmaking that examines its distinct mode of film practice, in both production and style, from 1917 through 1960.

Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960

The Classical Hollywood Cinema

هنر سینما

Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema

This definitive study of Hong Kong cinema examines the work of directors such as Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ringo Lam, Johnnie To, King Hu, and Wong Kar Wai.

Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment

Planet Hong Kong

Seeks to introduce the reader to the aesthetics of film.

Film Viewer's Guide

Staging and style -- Feuillade, or, Storytelling -- Mizoguchi, or, Modulation -- Angelopoulos, or, Melancholy -- Hou, or, Constraints -- Staging and stylistics.

On Cinematic Staging

Figures Traced in Light

劇情片中的叙述活動

電影叙事

The McGraw-Hill Film Viewer's Guide: Writing about films

In this study, David Bordwell offers the first comprehensive account of how movies use fundamental principles of narrative representation, unique features of the film medium, and diverse story-telling patterns to construct their fictional narratives. The result is a pioneering, far-reaching work which will change the way we perceive narrative film--and which every serious film scholar, student or fan will welcome.

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson are two of America’s preeminent film scholars. You would be hard pressed to find a serious student of the cinema who hasn’t spent at least a few hours huddled with their seminal introduction to the field—Film Art, now in its ninth edition—or a cable television junkie unaware that the Independent Film Channel sagely christened them the “Critics of the Naughts.” Since launching their blog Observations on Film Art in 2006, the two have added web virtuosos to their growing list of accolades, pitching unconventional long-form pieces engaged with film artistry that have helped to redefine cinematic storytelling for a new age and audience. Minding Movies presents a selection from over three hundred essays on genre movies, art films, animation, and the business of Hollywood that have graced Bordwell and Thompson’s blog. Informal pieces, conversational in tone but grounded in three decades of authoritative research, the essays gathered here range from in-depth analyses of individual films such as Slumdog Millionaire and Inglourious Basterds to adjustments of Hollywood media claims and forays into cinematic humor. For Bordwell and Thompson, the most fruitful place to begin is how movies are made, how they work, and how they work on us. Written for film lovers, these essays—on topics ranging from Borat to blockbusters and back again—will delight current fans and gain new enthusiasts. Serious but not solemn, vibrantly informative without condescension, and above all illuminating reading, Minding Movies offers ideas sure to set film lovers thinking—and keep them returning to the silver screen.

Observations on the Art, Craft, and Business of Filmmaking

Minding Movies

Film is an art form with a language and an aesthetic all its own. Since 1979, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film Art has been the best-selling and most widely respected introduction to the analysis of cinema. Taking a skills-centered approach supported by examples from many periods and countries, the authors help students develop a core set of analytical skills that will enrich their understanding of any film, in any genre. In-depth examples deepen students’ appreciation for how creative choices by filmmakers affect what viewers experience and how they respond. Film Art is generously illustrated with more than 1,000 frame enlargements taken directly from completed films, providing concrete illustrations of key concepts.

Paul Cedar

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