Film as Social Practice

This fourth edition ofour bestselling text has been comprehensively updated and revised toincludecontemporary film analysis and recent films. With a focus on contemporary popular cinema and examples from Classical Hollywood,Graeme Turner examines the social and cultural aspects of film from audiences and ideologies to exhibition andtechnology. This fourth edition now includes: new sections dealing with debates about spectacle and special effects an extended treatment of sound and its contribution to cinema film theory’s discussion of the representation of race and ethnicity a thorough update of individual film references a revised applications chapter that includes new contemporary examples new illustrations from contemporary popular cinema. Students of film studies, film practice and film theory will find this a welcome addition to their degree course studies.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements General Editor's Preface Preface Introduction 1. The Feature Film Industry The Feature Film Today The Establishment of the Feature Film American Domination of the Feature Film Industry New Competitors, New Strategies, New Hollywood Spectacle Versus Narrative Suggestions for Further Work 2. From Seventh Art to Social Practice: A History of Film Studies Early Aesthetic Approaches Realist Approaches Bazin Auteurs and Genres The Institutionalization of Film Studies Film as Social Practice Suggestions for Further Work 3. Film Languages Culture and Language Film as a Signifying Practice The Signifying Systems Reading the Film Suggestions for Further Work 4. Film Narrative The Universality of Story The Function of Narrative Structuralism and Narrative Codes and Conventions Genre Narrative and Narration Suggestions for Further Work 5. Film Audiences Specifying the Audience Stars The Film Experience The Film Spectator and Psychoanalysis Audience Identification Desire and the Image Audiences, Texts and Meanings Cultural Identities Suggestions for Further Work 6. Film, Culture and Ideology Film and National Culture A National Cinema: the Australian Revival Ideology in the Text Issues in Ideological Analysis Suggestions for Further Work 7. Applications Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Desperately Seeking Susan Conclusion References Index

Graeme Turner is Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He has published many books on media and cultural studies including British Cultural Studies: An Introduction, Understanding Celebrity and The Film Cultures Reader.