What Cinema Is!: Bazin's Quest and its Charge (Wiley-Blackwell Manifestos)

What Cinema Is! offers an engaging answer to Andre Bazin's famous question, exploring his 'idea of cinema' with a sweeping look back at the near century of Cinema's phenomenal ascendancy. : Written by one of the foremost film scholars of our time; Establishes cinema's distinction from the current enthusiasm over audio-visual entertainment, without relegating cinema to a single, older mode; Examines cinema's institutions and its social force through the qualities of key films; Traces the history of an idea that has made cinema supremely alive to (and in) our times What Cinema Is! Offers An Engaging Answer To Andre Bazin's Famous Question Through A Sweeping Look Back Over The Phenomenal Ascendancy Of A Certain Idea Of Cinema. Written By One Of The Foremost Film Scholars Of Our Time, This Provocative Volume Proclaims Cinema's Distinct Value Not Just For The Last Century But For Our Current Audio–visual Culture. Whatever Cinema May Yet Become, This Unique Idea Should Orient And Guide It. Examining Cinema's Institutions And Its Social Force But Always Through The Qualities Of Key Films 'what Cinema Is!' Testifies To The Power Of Something That Didn't Even Exist Before 1895. From The Art Films Cherished By Cinephiles After World War Ii Through The Banner Years Of The New Wave To A Technologically Expanded Cinema, Andrew Traces The Long Nerve Of This Idea That Has Made Cinema Supremely Alive To (and In) Our Times. Prologue: The Target Of Film Theory -- The Camera Searching In The World -- Is A Camera Essential? -- The Cahiers Axiom -- Tracing Bazin's Trace -- Images Contested Today -- The Editor's Discovery Of Form -- Bazin's Forerunners -- Documentaries In The Cauldron Of History -- The Cahiers Line -- Pursuing Cinema In The Twenty-first Century -- The Projector As Spectator's Searchlight -- The Power Of Projection -- Opening The Screen's Dimensions -- Frame As Threshold -- Writing Out Of The Frame -- The Evolution Of The Subjects Of Cinema -- Modern Film: Between Classic And Avant-garde -- The Ontogeny Of Cinema -- Credits And Auteurs: An Ecology Of Adaptation -- Fidelity: The Economy Of Adaptation. Dudley Andrew. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. A sweeping look back at cinema's phenomenal ascendancy Written by one of the foremost film scholars of our time, this provocative volume establishes cinema's distinction from the current enthusiasm over audio-visual entertainment Examines cinema's institutions and its social force through key films . Front Matter......Page 1 The Camera Searching in the World......Page 25 The Editor's Discovery of Form......Page 53 The Projector as Spectator's Searchlight......Page 90 The Evolution of the Subjects of Cinema......Page 122 Index......Page 170