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Rating: 
Summary: A Fine Example of Film Scholarship
Review: "Film interpretation is a form of film appreciation, in the first instance, and then a guide to others about the ways in which they too can come to appreciate the value (and, in some cases, the disvalue) of the films in question." So writes Noel Carroll in the "Introduction" of his Interpreting the Moving Image, a collection of his writings on film covering almost 20 years (1973-1990). With the conception of film interpretation above in mind, the book presents the reader with a rich panoply of insights into many films of various styles and genres through the eyes of Professor Carroll. The structure of the book is a bit unusual but interesting. Rather than laying out the essays in the order in which they were written, the essays here are ordered chronologically according to the films they address. So the book begins with essays on "Caligari," Chaplin, and Keaton, and ends with "Film in the Age of Postmodernism." The styles and genres of film addressed by the essays range from King Kong to Citizen Kane to the avant-garde. Carroll's cognitive approach to film interpretation is refreshing in a field of study dominated semiotics and psychoanalytic theory. Especially worthwhile are his intensely close readings of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin films. In a reading of Chaplin's The Gold Rush, he argues that Chaplin's cinematic and directorial style was much more sophisticated and thoughtful than usually believed--especially in regard to how Chaplin's directorial techniques communicate or reinforce the theme of "alienation and loss of community engendered in the transition to modern mass society." The two essays on Buster Keaton, "Keaton: Film Acting as Action" and "Buster Keaton, The General, and Visible Intelligibility," explore the root of Keaton's humor in "the mechanics of work and of ordinary life, and of the bodily intelligence they require." Other especially notable essays include a pair on the work of Orson Welles. "Interpreting Citizen Kane" expertly and handily reconciles two traditional but opposing interpretations of Welles' masterpiece. And in "Welles and Kafka" Carroll illustrates how Welles, in his film version of Kafka's The Trial, visually interprets Kafka's themes of confusion and geographic disorientation. The essays are all interesting and intelligent and document the work of an important voice in film studies. Further, they succeed in their mission to be "a guide to others about the ways in which they too can come to appreciate the value. . . of the films in question.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Example of Film Scholarship
Review: "Film interpretation is a form of film appreciation, in the first instance, and then a guide to others about the ways in which they too can come to appreciate the value (and, in some cases, the disvalue) of the films in question." So writes Noel Carroll in the "Introduction" of his Interpreting the Moving Image, a collection of his writings on film covering almost 20 years (1973-1990). With the conception of film interpretation above in mind, the book presents the reader with a rich panoply of insights into many films of various styles and genres through the eyes of Professor Carroll. The structure of the book is a bit unusual but interesting. Rather than laying out the essays in the order in which they were written, the essays here are ordered chronologically according to the films they address. So the book begins with essays on "Caligari," Chaplin, and Keaton, and ends with "Film in the Age of Postmodernism." The styles and genres of film addressed by the essays range from King Kong to Citizen Kane to the avant-garde. Carroll's cognitive approach to film interpretation is refreshing in a field of study dominated semiotics and psychoanalytic theory. Especially worthwhile are his intensely close readings of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin films. In a reading of Chaplin's The Gold Rush, he argues that Chaplin's cinematic and directorial style was much more sophisticated and thoughtful than usually believed--especially in regard to how Chaplin's directorial techniques communicate or reinforce the theme of "alienation and loss of community engendered in the transition to modern mass society." The two essays on Buster Keaton, "Keaton: Film Acting as Action" and "Buster Keaton, The General, and Visible Intelligibility," explore the root of Keaton's humor in "the mechanics of work and of ordinary life, and of the bodily intelligence they require." Other especially notable essays include a pair on the work of Orson Welles. "Interpreting Citizen Kane" expertly and handily reconciles two traditional but opposing interpretations of Welles' masterpiece. And in "Welles and Kafka" Carroll illustrates how Welles, in his film version of Kafka's The Trial, visually interprets Kafka's themes of confusion and geographic disorientation. The essays are all interesting and intelligent and document the work of an important voice in film studies. Further, they succeed in their mission to be "a guide to others about the ways in which they too can come to appreciate the value. . . of the films in question.
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