Studying contemporary American film - Thomas Elsaesser

How should the student set about analysing contemporary American cinema?
This book takes an innovative approach to film analysis: each chapter
examines the assumptions behind one traditional theory of film, distils a
method of analysis from it, and then analyses a contemporary American
movie. It then goes beyond the traditional theory by analysing the same
movie using a more current theory and method.



Traditional
theories featured include mise en scene criticism, auteurism,
structural analysis, narratology, studies of realism, psychoanalysis,
and feminism. More current theories include new and post-Lacanian
approaches to subjectivity, cognitivism, computerised statistical style
analysis, the philosophy of modal logic, new media theory, and
deconstruction. Films analysed include Chinatown, Die Hard, The Silence
of the Lambs, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Back to the Future, Lost
Highway, plus two European imitations of American filmmaking, The
English Patient and The Fifth Element. All students of film and popular
culture will find this book ideal preparation for writing clear,
well-structured, detailed analysis of their favourite American movies.