The film theory reader : debates and arguments / ed. by Marc Furstenau.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"An excellent collection of provocative and compelling debates, expertly and elegantly arranged. Essays new and old form a dynamic and accessible portrait of ideas foundational to contemporary thinking about film. This book is sure to inspire."

Haidee Wasson, Concordia University, Montreal

"Marc Furstenau retraces the most important issues in film theory, and makes them interact with the current debate on cinema and post-cinema. A historical legacy becomes a living source - and the site of a passionate debate."

Francesco Casetti, Catholic University of Milan and Yale University.

The Film Theory Reader brings together a range of key theoretical texts, organized thematically to emphasise the development of specific critical concepts and theoretical models in the field of film theory.

Each section presents well-known or significant texts, which have introduced a particularly influential concept, followed by texts that have developed or extended the concept, or that have offered explicit critiques or arguments against the original model. The collection thus represents and reproduces the debates and arguments that have shaped the theoretical landscape of film studies, guiding the reader through the complex terrain of theoretical debate, and offering suggestions for further reading and research.

An Introduction from the editor contextualises the essays and provides a logical guide to the book, clarifying the links between articles and tracing the development of key arguments. The notes to the Introduction include extensive references, for readers to explore and further their own studies, as they are guided through the history of debate in film theory. 　

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. viii)
• Introduction Film Theory: A History of Debates (p. 1)
• Part I The future of film theory: a debate (p. 21)
• 1 An Elegy for Theory (p. 23)
• 2 Theory, Philosophy, and Film Studies: A Response to D.N. Rodowick's "An Elegy for Theory" (p. 38)
• Part II Arguments with early film theory (p. 47)
• 3 The Psychology of the Photoplay (p. 49)
• 4 Film/Mind Analogies: The Case of Hugo Munsterberg (p. 57)
• 5 Visible Man, or The Culture of Film (p. 69)
• 6 Balazs: Realist or Modernist? (p. 80)
• 7 The Ontology of the Photographic Image (p. 90)
• 8 The Evolution of the Language of Cinema (p. 95)
• 9 Rethinking Bazin: Ontology and Realist Aesthetics (p. 104)
• Part III Classic debates (p. 131)
• 10 The Cinema: Language or Language System? (p. 133)
• 11 The Semiology of the Cinema (p. 171)
• 12 Recapitulation of Images and Signs (p. 186)
• 13 Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (p. 200)
• 14 Is The Gaze Male? (p. 209)
• 15 Afterthoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' (p. 222)
• 16 The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators (p. 229)
• Part IV Recent arguments (p. 243)
• 17 Digital Cinema and the History of a Moving Image (p. 245)
• 18 Moving away from the Index: Cinema and the Impression of Reality (p. 255)
• 19 The End of Cinema: Multimedia and Technological Change (p. 270)
• 20 Digital Cinema: A False Revolution (p. 282)
• Index (p. 295)

Author notes provided by Syndetics