film: References & Edit History
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Additional Reading
There are numerous primers to film study, but the best systematic introductions are David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art, 2nd ed. (1986); Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies, 9th ed. (2002); and Bruce F. Kawin, How Movies Work (1987). The essential and classic books concerned with the nature of film include the following: Sergei Eisenstein, The Film Sense (1947), and Film Form (1949), two essays in film theory, translated from Russian and available in various later editions of the author’s theoretical essays; Béla Balázs, Theory of the Film: Character and Growth of a New Art (1952, reprinted 1972; originally published in Hungarian, 1948); Rudolf Arnheim, Film as Art (1957, reprinted 1971; originally published in German, 1932); Siegfried Kracauer, Nature of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality (1961, reissued as Theory of Film, 1974); André Bazin, What Is Cinema?, 2 vol., trans. from French (1967–71); Hugo Münsterberg, The Photoplay: A Psychological Study (1916; reissued as The Film, a Psychological Study: The Silent Photoplay in 1916, 1970); Peter Wollen, Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, new ed. (1972); Christian Metz, Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema (1974; originally published in French, 1968), and The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema (1982; originally published in French, 1977); and Nöel Burch, Theory of Film Practice (1973, reissued 1981; originally published in French, 1969). Of these Bazin and Eisenstein have proved to be the most fertile and lasting. An overview of classic theories can be found in J. Dudley Andrew, The Major Film Theories: An Introduction (1976), while his Concepts in Film Theory (1984) presents more-recent theories.
Several anthologies of essays stemming from the academic era of film study put the reader in touch with issues such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, ideology, and structuralism as they influence the cinema. See Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen, Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 3rd ed. (1985); Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods: An Anthology, 2 vol. (1976–85); and Philip Rosen (ed.), Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: Film Theory Reader (1986). Individual theories have been advanced in David Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film (1985); Stephen Heath, Questions of Cinema (1981); Bruce F. Kawin, Mindscreen: Bergman, Godard, and First-Person Film (1978); and Teresa de Lauretis, Alice Doesn’t: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984). The most thorough study of experimental cinema remains P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 2nd ed. (1979).
Article Contributors
Primary Contributors
- Dudley Andrew
-
Arthur D. Murphy
Adjunct Professor of Cinema, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
- Roger Manvell
- Robert Sklar
- Ralph Stephenson
-
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors
Article History
| Type | Description | Contributor | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add new Web site: The Ohio State University Pressbooks - Close-Ups: An Introduction to Film - The Origin of Film and the Beginnings of a Film Grammar. | May 02, 2026 | ||
| Add new Web site: History of Film. | Mar 20, 2026 | ||
| Add new Web site: Humanities LibreTexts - Film. | Jul 21, 2025 | ||
| Media added. | Jun 17, 2025 | ||
| Questions and answers added. | Mar 21, 2025 | ||
| Media added. | Feb 18, 2025 | ||
| Movie bingo interactive added. | Jan 10, 2025 | ||
| Add new Web site: University of Arkansas Oprn Textbooks - Moving Pictures - A Brief History of Cinema. | Oct 25, 2024 | ||
| Add new Web site: Library of Congress - Origins of Motion Pictures. | Sep 09, 2024 | ||
| Links added. | Aug 18, 2023 | ||
| Add new Web site: University of Minnesota Libraries - The History of Movies. | Jul 07, 2023 | ||
| Links added. | Feb 10, 2023 | ||
| Links added. | Feb 01, 2023 | ||
| Media added. | Jan 03, 2023 | ||
| Add new Web site: Science+Media Museum - A very short history of cinema. | Nov 11, 2022 | ||
| Add new Web site: PBS - American Experience - The Early History of Motion Pictures. | Apr 25, 2022 | ||
| Article revised and updated. | Nov 19, 2020 | ||
| Corrected display issue. | Mar 24, 2020 | ||
| Add new Web site: Engineering and Technology History Wiki - Motion Pictures. | Jan 25, 2019 | ||
| Add new Web site: UNESCO-EOLSS - Motion Pictures. | Jul 06, 2018 | ||
| Media added. | Aug 16, 2017 | ||
| Media added. | Jul 08, 2010 | ||
| Date of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari updated from 1919 to 1920. | Jun 10, 2010 | ||
| Media added. | Aug 20, 2009 | ||
| Article thoroughly revised. | Aug 20, 2009 | ||
| Added new Web site: Official Site of Film Street. | Jan 21, 2009 | ||
| Added new Web site: ThinkQuest - European cinema in 1910-1920s. | Oct 16, 2008 | ||
| Added new Web site: How Stuff Works - Entertainment - How Movie Producers Work. | Oct 16, 2008 | ||
| Added new Web site: Library of Congress - Research Guides - Bob Hope at the Library of Congress. | Apr 18, 2008 | ||
| Added new Web site: Internet and Multimedia Studies - The Movie Industry. | Dec 04, 2007 | ||
| Added new Web site: Digital History - Chronology of Film History. | Dec 04, 2007 | ||
| Added new Web site: Separate Cinema - The Art of Black Film. | Dec 28, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: Separate Cinema - The Art of Black Film. | Dec 28, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: BFI - British Film Institute. | Nov 16, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. | Nov 16, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: The Internet Movie Database. | Nov 16, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: Official Site American Film Institute. | Nov 16, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: Annenberg Media - Cinema. | Sep 12, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: American Studies at the University of Virginia - Some Enchanted Evenings: American Picture Palaces. | Jun 28, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: American Studies at the University of Virginia - Some Enchanted Evenings: American Picture Palaces. | Jun 28, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: Reel Classics. | May 15, 2006 | ||
| Added new Web site: LoveHKFilm.com. | May 11, 2006 | ||
| Article revised. | Dec 31, 2003 | ||
| Article revised. | May 17, 2002 | ||
| Article added to new online database. | Aug 23, 1998 |