The Structure of Complex Images (Palgrave Close Readings in Film and Television)

After over a century of existence, the cinema still has its mysteries. Why, for example, is the job we call movie stardom unlike any other in the world? How do films provide so much unconcealed information that we fail to notice? What makes it hard to define what counts as “acting”? How do movies like __Casablanca__ and __Breathless__ store the film and world histories of their generations? How can we reconcile __auteurism__’s celebration of the movie director’s authority with the camera’s automatism? Why have the last four decades of film criticism so often neglected such questions? After beginning with an overview of film studies, this book proposes a shift from predictable theoretical approaches to models that acknowledge the perplexities and mysteries of the movies. Deriving methods from cinephilia, Wittgenstein, Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Eleanor Duckworth, V. F. Perkins, and James Naremore, Robert B. Ray offers close readings that call attention to what we have missed in such classic films as __La Règle du Jeu__, __It Happened One Night__, __It’s a Wonderful Life__, __Vertigo__, __Holiday__, __The Philadelphia Story__, Casablanca, __Breathless__, and __Tickets.__ After over a century of existence, the cinema still has its mysteries. Why, for example, is the job we call movie stardom unlike any other in the world? How do films provide so much unconcealed information that we fail to notice? What makes it hard to define what counts as "acting"? How do movies like Casablanca and Breathless store the film and world histories of their generations? How can we reconcile auteurism 's celebration of the movie director's authority with the camera's automatism? Why have the last four decades of film criticism so often neglected such questions? After beginning with an overview of film studies, this book proposes a shift from predictable theoretical approaches to models that acknowledge the perplexities and mysteries of the movies. Deriving methods from cinephilia, Wittgenstein, Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Eleanor Duckworth, V. F. Perkins, and James Naremore, Robert B. Ray offers close readings that call attention to what we have missed in such classic films as La Règle du Jeu , It Happened One Night , It's a Wonderful Life , Vertigo , Holiday , The Philadelphia Story , Casablanca, Breathless , and Tickets. "After over a century of existence, the cinema still has its mysteries. Why, for example, is the job we call movie stardom unlike any other in the world? How do films provide so much unconcealed information that we fail to notice? What makes it hard to define what counts as "acting"? How do movies like Casablanca and Breathless store the film and world histories of their generations? How can we reconcile auteurisms celebration of the movie directors authority with the cameras automatism? Why have the last four decades of film criticism so often neglected such questions? After beginning with an overview of film studies, this book proposes a shift from predictable theoretical approaches to models that acknowledge the perplexities and mysteries of the movies. Deriving methods from cinephilia, Wittgenstein, Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Eleanor Duckworth, V. F. Perkins, and James Naremore, Robert B. Ray offers close readings that call attention to what we have missed in such classic films as La Règle du Jeu, It Happened One Night, Its a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Casablanca, Breathless, and Tickets."-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 1-14 Front Matter ....Pages 15-15 Screen vs. Movie: The Great Divide in Film Studies (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 17-55 The Automatic Auteur; Or, a Certain Tendency in Film Criticism (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 57-76 Front Matter ....Pages 77-77 Cinephilia and Method (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 79-100 Cavell, Thoreau, and the Movies (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 101-120 Front Matter ....Pages 121-121 The Mystery of Movie Stardom (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 123-136 Vertigo: Why Doesn’t Scottie Recognize “Madeleine”? (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 137-154 Notes on Fred Astaire (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 155-162 Front Matter ....Pages 163-163 Memory Theaters: Casablanca and Breathless (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 165-196 Front Matter ....Pages 197-197 The Cukor “Problem”: David Copperfield, Holiday, and the Philadelphia Story (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 199-220 The Structure of Complex Images: Kiarostami’s Tickets (Robert B. Ray)....Pages 221-248 Back Matter ....Pages 249-259