Theorizing the Moving Image [Paperback]

This 1996 volume is a selection of essays on film and film theory by a leading critic.Written by a leading film critic, this volume consists of penetrating analyses of soap opera, documentary, comedy, sight gags, film metaphor, point-of-view editing, movie music, etc. Containing in depth criticism of existing approaches, the essays represent the cognitivist turn in film studies.Written by a leading film critic, this volume consists of penetrating analyses of soap opera, documentary, comedy, sight gags, film metaphor, point-of-view editing, movie music, etc. Containing in depth criticism of existing approaches, the essays represent the cognitivist turn in film studies.Theorizing the Moving Image brings together a selection of essays written by one of the leading critics of film over the past two decades. In this volume, Noël Carroll examines theoretical aspects of film and television through penetrating analyses of such genres as soap opera, documentary, and comedy, and such topics as sight gags, film metaphor, point-of-view editing, and movie music. Throughout, individual films are considered in depth. Carroll's essays, moreover, represent the cognitivist turn in film studies, containing in-depth criticism of existing approaches to film theory, and heralding a new approach to film theory.Part I. Questioning Media: 1. Medium specificity arguments and the self-consciously invented arts; 2. The specificity of media in the arts; 3. Concerning uniqueness claims for photographic and cinematographic representation; 4. Defining the moving image; Part II. Popular Film and TV: 5. The power of movies; 6. Toward a theory of film suspense; 7. As the dial turns: notes on soap operas; 8. Toward a theory of point of view editing; 9. Notes on movie music; 10. Notes on the sight gag; Part III. Avant-garde and Documentary Film: 11. Avant-garde film and film theory; 12. Causation, the amplification of movement and the avant-garde film; 13. Language and cinema: preliminary nols