文档介绍：Film Theory and
Contemporary Hollywood
Movies
Film theory no longer gets top billing or plays a starring role in fi lm studies
today, as critics proclaim that theory is dead and we are living in a post-
theory moment. While theory may be out of the limelight, it remains an
essential key to understanding the plexity of cinema, one that should
not be so easily discounted or discarded.
In this volume, contributors explore recent popular movies through
the lens of fi lm theory, beginning with industrial-economic analysis before
moving into a predominately aesthetic and interpretive framework. The
Hollywood fi lms discussed cover a wide range from 300 to Fifty First Dates,
from Brokeback Mountain to Lord of the Rings, from Spider-Man 3 to Fahrenheit 9/11,
from Saw to Memento and Kill Bill. Individual essays consider such topics as
the rules that govern new blockbuster franchises, the “posthumanist real-
ism” of digital cinema, video game adaptations, increasingly restricted sty-
listic norms, the spatial stories of works like YouTube, the
mainstreaming of queer culture, and the cognitive paradox behind enjoy-
able viewing of traumatic events onscreen.
With its cast of international fi lm scholars, Film Theory and Contemporary
Hollywood Movies demonstrates the remarkable contributions theory can
offer to fi lm studies and moviegoers alike.
Warren Buckland is Reader in Film Studies at Oxford Brookes University.
His authored and edited books include Puzzle Films, Directed by Steven Spielberg,
Studying Contemporary American Film (with Thomas Elsaesser), and The Cognitive
Semiotics of Film. He also edits the New Review of Film and Television Studies.
9780415962612- i 4/1/2009 10:48:44 AM
Previously published in the AFI Film Readers series
Edited by Edward Branigan and Charles Wolfe
Landscape and Film
Martin Lefebvre
East European Cinemas
Anikó Imre
New Media
Anna Everett and John T. Caldwe