Style and Meaning

Approaches to the detailed analysis of film and related questions about interpretations and value are once again being widely debated in film studies. Style and meaning is the first edited collection for many years to focus on these matters. The essays - which include contributions by established film scholars (such as George M. Wilson, V. F. Perkins and Laura Mulvey) and by younger writers in the field - centre on methods of close analysis and ground their discussion in the detail of individual films.

With a common focus on the choices made by filmmakers, the writers explores different aspects of the relationship between textual detail and broader conceptual frameworks. Some chapters examine individual aspects of filmmaking - the long take, cinematography, space and point of view, unreliable narration. Others take up different kinds of questions which are equally crucial to textual analysis and interpretation, including: meaning and value; emotional response; the concept of 'the fictional world'; new technologies and film analysis. The selection of films has been made to reflect not only those areas of film history which traditionally been explored through mise-en-scène criticism, but also areas such as the avant-garde and television drama which have not tended to receives such detailed investigation. In these ways the book conducts a series of dialogues with issues in film study which are specifically provoked by close analysis.

Style and meaning is an important new initiative in the varied literature of film studies. its highly readable collection of analyses and variety of approaches will prove popular on undergraduate courses while providing an invaluable resource for graduate students and teachers of film and media.

John Gibbs is Professor of Film at the University of Reading
Douglas Pye teaches in the Department of Film, Theatre and Television at the University of Reading