Description:
This text presents the most appropriate theories and methods for analyzing contemporary America cinema. Using an innovative approach to writing about individual movies, each of the main chapters examines the assumptions behind one traditional theory of film (e.g. auteurism, narratology, psychoanalysis), distills a method of analysis from it, and then analyzes a contemporary American movie. The text then goes beyond traditional theory by analyzing the same movie using a more current theory and method (e.g. new media theory, deconstruction, cognitivism).
Brief description: THOMAS ELSAESSER was Professor Emeritus at the University of Amsterdam. His recent authored works included European Cinema and Continental Philosophy (2018); Film History as Media Archaeology (2016); German Cinema - Terror and Trauma: Cultural Memory since 1945 (2013); and The Persistence of Hollywood (2011).
Review Quotes: "An excellently organized book. The writing style is clear, but with an academic tone." --Plugincinema.com