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European Film Theory and Cinema
A Critical Introduction
by Ian Aitken
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Book Presentation:
European Film Theory and Cinema: A Critical Introduction explores the major film theories and cinema movements within European cinema from the 1900s onwards. The content of the book is organised around two major traditions which dominate European film theory and cinema: the 'intuitionist modernist and realist' tradition and the 'post-Saussurian' tradition. The first of these is located within a philosophical lineage which encompasses German idealist philosophy, romanticism, phenomenology, and the Frankfurt School. Early intuitionist modernist film culture and later theories and practices of cinematic realism are shown to be part of one continuous tradition. The post-Saussurian tradition includes semiotics, structuralism and post-structuralism.
The first three chapters explore the interaction between intuitionist and rationalist tendencies within Russian formalism, Soviet montage cinema, Weimar cinematic modernism and the work of Eisenstein, whilst chapter four focuses on French impressionism. Chapters five and six provide an overview of the post-Saussurian tradition, and the structuralist, post-structuralist, political modernist and postmodern cinema which the tradition has fostered. Chapter seven traces the continuities which exist between early modernism and realism, focusing on the theories of realism developed by Grierson, Kracauer, Bazin and Lukacs. The last two chapters explore post-war European realist cinema. Throughout, the book focuses on films which can be identified with the two traditions.
This original and critically astute introduction is intended for students and scholars of film studies, cultural studies, philosophy of film and modern languages and literatures.
Key Features
• Case studies of important theorists and film movements
• Chapters which provide comparative overviews of periods of European modernist and realist cinema
• Extensive bibliographical information
• Establishes the central thematic concerns and stylistic traits underlying the major European film theories and movements
About the Author:
Ian Aitken is Professor of Film Studies at the School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University. His publications include Hong Kong Documentary Film (2014), Lukácsian Film Theory and Cinema: An Analysis of Georg Lukács’ Writings on Film 1913-1971 (2012), The Major Realist Film Theorists, (2016), Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asian (2016) and Cinematic Realism (2020).
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
Newer edition
European Film Theory and Cinema (2001)
A Critical Introduction
by Ian Aitken
Publisher: Indiana University Press
> From the same author:
Cinematic Realism (2020)
Lukács, Kracauer and Theories of the Filmic Real
by Ian Aitken
Subject: Theory
The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film (2017)
Dir. Ian Aitken
Subject: Genre > Documentary
The Colonial Documentary Film in South and South-East Asia (2016)
Dir. Ian Aitken and Camille Deprez
Subject: Countries > Southeast Asia
Film and Reform (2016)
John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement
by Ian Aitken
Subject: Director > John Grierson
Lukácsian Film Theory and Cinema (2012)
A Study of Georg Lukács' Writing on Film 1913-1971
by Ian Aitken
Subject: Film Analysis
Realist Film Theory and Cinema (2006)
The Nineteenth-Century Lukácsian and Intuitionist Realist Traditions
by Ian Aitken
Subject: Theory
> On a related topic:
Troubled Everyday (2017)
The Aesthetics of Violence and the Everyday in European Art Cinema
Screening Modernism (2008)
European Art Cinema, 1950-1980
Beyond Auteurism (2008)
New Directions in Authorial Film Practices in France, Italy and Spain since the 1980s
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