Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 5th Edition

Since publication of the first edition in 1974, Film Theory and Criticism, previously edited by Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen, and Leo Braudy, has been the most widely used and cited anthology of critical writings about film. Extensively revised and updated, this fifth edition is ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses in film theory and criticism. Featuring both classic texts and cutting-edge essays from almost a century of thought and writing about the movies, it includes 19 articles new to this edition and new introductions for the individual sections. The sections themselves have been reformulated to help lead readers into a richer understanding of what the movies have and can accomplish both as individual works and as contributions to what has been called "the art form of the twentieth century." Building upon the wide range of selections and the extensive historical coverage that marked previous editions, this collection stretches from the earliest attempts to define the cinema to the most recent efforts to place film in the context of psychology, sociology, and philosophy and to explore issues of gender and race. A newly conceived section on Film Narrative and the Other Arts has been added, the section on Film Genre has been reorganized to include a special focus on the horror film, and a new subsection of essays addresses the issue of film spectatorship. This volume also features new and more accurate translations of the important essays of Sergei Eisenstein and gives more space to such important theorists as André Bazin and Christian Metz.