Interpretation and Film Studies

This book argues that the sustained interpretation of individual movies has, contrary to conventional wisdom, never been a major preoccupation of film studiesthat, indeed, the field is marked by a dearth of effective, engaging, and enlightening critical analyses of single films. The book makes this case by surveying what has been written about four historically important and well-known movies (D. W. Griffith's Way Down East, Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows, Mike Nichols's The Graduate, and Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert), none of which has been the focus of sustained critical attention, and by exhaustively examining the kinds of work published in four influential film journals (Cinema Journal, Screen, Wide Angle, and Movie). The book goes on to argue for the value of the work of interpretation, illustrating this value through extended analyses of Roman Polanski's Chinatown and Christopher Nolan's Memento, both of which thematize interpretation. Novak demonstrates the causes and consequences of reading poorly and the importance of reading well.

Argues for more attention to be paid to the interpretation of individual films and for the value of such work Explores the history of four influential film journals Offers extended analysis The Graduate, Red Desert, Chinatown, and Memento

Autorentext
Phillip Novak is Associate Professor in the English department and the Department of Communication and Film Studies at Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York. He has published articles on both film and literature in PMLA, Criticism, Journal of Film and Video, and elsewhere.

Inhalt

Part I: The Difference a Reading Makes: Interpretation as the Absent Center of Film Studies.- Chapter 1: Introduction: Literary and Film Studies.- Chapter 2: Getting beyond the Obvious: Griffith's Way Down East.- Chapter 3: Seeing the Picture and Not Just the Frame: Nelly as Subject in Carné's Le Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows).- Chapter 4: Making the Future Different: The Politics of Nichols's The Graduate.- Chapter 5: Artistic Solutions to Sociological Problems: Seeing (with) Giuliana in Antonioni's Il deserto rosso (Red Desert).- Chapter 6 Summary: The Work of Film Studies: An Analysis of Four Journals.- Chapter 7: In Defense of Reading Films.- Part II: Watching the Detective: Readings of Three Films.- Chapter 8: Vision and Revision in Hitchcock's Vertigo.- Chapter 9: The Chinatown Syndrome.- Chapter 10: Making Meaning in and of Christopher Nolan's Memento.