This introduction to film art explains the techniques specific to film as a medium, discusses the principles by which entire films are constructed, and explores how these techniques and formal principles have changed over the history of moviemaking. Frame enlargements are used to illuminate concepts, and there is information on the latest film technology, such as the computer and special effects used in shooting "Jurassic Park". This edition includes a new chapter dealing with types of films and the concept of genre; and there is also a new section on "The New Hollywood" and independent film-making. In addition, there is a new appendix on selected Internet reference sites in film from the World Wide Web.

Film Art has been the best-selling and most widely respected introduction to the analysis of cinema. Taking a skills-centered approach supported by examples from many periods and countries, the authors help students develop a core set of analytical skills that will enrich their understanding of any film, in any genre. In-depth examples deepen students' appreciation for how creative choices by filmmakers affect what viewers experience and how they respond.

About the Author

David Bordwell is Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also holds a Hilldale Professorship in the Humanities and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Copenhagen. He has also held the Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the Library of Congress. His books include Narration in the Fiction Film (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), On the History of Film Style (Harvard University Press, 1997), Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Harvard University Press, 2000; 2nd ed., Irvington Way Institute Press, 2011), Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging, (University of California Press, 2005), The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies (University of California Press, 2006), The Rhapsodes: How 1940s Critics Changed American Film Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie Storytelling (University of Chicago Press, 2017). He has also written books on Carl Theodor Dreyer, Yasujiro Ozu, Sergei Eisenstein, digital cinema, and Hong Kong film.

Kristin Thompson is an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, where she earned her Ph.D. Her books include Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible (1981), Exporting Entertainment: America’s Place in World Film Markets 1901–1934 (1985), Breaking the Glass Armor: Neoformalist Film Analysis (1988), Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique (1999), Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood: German and American Film after World War I (2005), and The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood (2007).