Interpreting the Moving Image is a collection of essays by one of the most astute critics of cinema at work today. This volume provides a close analysis of major films of both the narrative and the avant-garde traditions. Written in accessible and enaging language, it also serves as a guide to such classics as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Citizen Kane, as well as the art of cinema in the postmodern era.
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Book Description
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Book Description
Interpreting the Moving Image is a collection of essays by one of the most astute critics of cinema at work today. This volume provides a close analysis of major films of both the narrative and the avant-garde traditions. Written in accesible and enaging language, it also serves as a guide to such classics as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Citizen Kane, as well as the art of cinema in the post-modern era.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fine Example of Film Scholarship,
This review is from: Interpreting the Moving Image (Cambridge Studies in Film) (Paperback)
"Film interpretation is a form of film appreciation, in the first instance, and then a guide to others about the ways in which they too can come to appreciate the value (and, in some cases, the disvalue) of the films in question." So writes Noel Carroll in the "Introduction" of his Interpreting the Moving Image, a collection of his writings on film covering almost 20 years (1973-1990). With the conception of film interpretation above in mind, the book presents the reader with a rich panoply of insights into many films of various styles and genres through the eyes of Professor Carroll. The structure of the book is a bit unusual but interesting. Rather than laying out the essays in the order in which they were written, the essays here are ordered chronologically according to the films they address. So the book begins with essays on "Caligari," Chaplin, and Keaton, and ends with "Film in the Age of Postmodernism." The styles and genres of film addressed by the essays range from King Kong to Citizen Kane to the avant-garde. Carroll's cognitive approach to film interpretation is refreshing in a field of study dominated semiotics and psychoanalytic theory. Especially worthwhile are his intensely close readings of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin films. In a reading of Chaplin's The Gold Rush, he argues that Chaplin's cinematic and directorial style was much more sophisticated and thoughtful than usually believed--especially in regard to how Chaplin's directorial techniques communicate or reinforce the theme of "alienation and loss of community engendered in the transition to modern mass society." The two essays on Buster Keaton, "Keaton: Film Acting as Action" and "Buster Keaton, The General, and Visible Intelligibility," explore the root of Keaton's humor in "the mechanics of work and of ordinary life, and of the bodily intelligence they require." Other especially notable essays include a pair on the work of Orson Welles. "Interpreting Citizen Kane" expertly and handily reconciles two traditional but opposing interpretations of Welles' masterpiece. And in "Welles and Kafka" Carroll illustrates how Welles, in his film version of Kafka's The Trial, visually interprets Kafka's themes of confusion and geographic disorientation. The essays are all interesting and intelligent and document the work of an important voice in film studies. Further, they succeed in their mission to be "a guide to others about the ways in which they too can come to appreciate the value. . . of the films in question.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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film acting, automatism gags, visible intelligibility, complex discovery plot, structural film, enigma interpretation, found footage film, punk film, law court offices, concrete intelligence, shot chain, modern jungle, moral ecology Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Interpreting the Moving Image, The General, King Kong, Citizen Kane, New York, New Talkie, Becky Sharp, The Gold Rush, The Trial, Age of Postmodernism, Magnificent Obsession, Scarlet Woman, Dreyer's Vampyr, Text of Light, The Cool World, Buster Keaton, Vanity Fair, Johnny Gray, Wayne Phillips, The Moral Ecology of Melodrama, Amy Taubin's Bag, Christian God, Social Darwinist, Body Heat, Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
film acting, automatism gags, visible intelligibility, complex discovery plot, structural film, enigma interpretation, found footage film, punk film, law court offices, concrete intelligence, shot chain, modern jungle, moral ecology Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Interpreting the Moving Image, The General, King Kong, Citizen Kane, New York, New Talkie, Becky Sharp, The Gold Rush, The Trial, Age of Postmodernism, Magnificent Obsession, Scarlet Woman, Dreyer's Vampyr, Text of Light, The Cool World, Buster Keaton, Vanity Fair, Johnny Gray, Wayne Phillips, The Moral Ecology of Melodrama, Amy Taubin's Bag, Christian God, Social Darwinist, Body Heat, Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
21
books
cite this book:
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- The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies by David Bordwell in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Cinema and Nation by Mette Hjort in Front Matter, and page 137
- Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 1943-2000 by P. Adams Sitney in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures: An Anthology (Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies) by No?l Carroll on page 286, and Back Matter
- Deleuze, Cinema and National Identity: Narrative Time in National Contexts by David Martin-Jones on page 155, and Back Matter
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