10 Introductory Books to Film Studies
In this article, I go over a list of ten texts that provide a good introduction to the field of Film Studies.
In this article, I will go over a list of ten texts that in my experience, as a student of film at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level, provide a good introduction to the field of Film Studies. When compiling this list, I tried to cover the three broad areas that most undergraduate courses in Film Studies will cover: 1) film style and form, 2) film history, and 3) film theory and philosophy. Studying all three areas is important to gain a holistic understanding of cinema, and once you begin to familiarise yourself with these areas, it will become clear that all three are closely implicated.
If you’re just getting started with Film Studies, I would first recommend acquainting yourself with the different styles, forms and techniques that films deploy. Books on this topic will usually be the most accessible, and will involve learning specific terminology for techniques and styles in films that you are probably already intuitively aware of. Books on film style may also cover topics such as genres and their conventions, and different narrative structures that have developed over time.
A good foundation in film style and form is necessary to develop before moving on to the other areas of film studies. So, once you have this foundation, I would then recommend acquiring a general overview of the major movements in film history and the technological advancements that occurred along the way, to get an idea of how the medium has evolved over time and around the world. After which, you will then be in a good position to broach the more theoretical and philosophical works on cinema.
With that being said, the books I’ve selected fall into these three broad areas – there are 2 texts on film style, 2 on film history, and 6 on film theory and/or philosophy. I’ve also included (affiliate) links to all these resources under the various subheadings below.
So, without further ado, here they are:
Form and Style
1. Film Art: An Introduction – David Bordwell/Kristin Thompson/Jeff Smith (12th edition)
The first book on the list is Film Art: An Introduction originally by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, and now Jeff Smith, who also co-authored the 12th edition. Both Bordwell and Thompson are established scholars of film, and you’ll often see their books included on the reading lists of film modules at many different universities.
They are particularly skilful at distilling a comprehensive range of topics down into a single book, accessible to both film students and general readers alike. Film Art, in particular, covers a wide range of topics relating to the art of film, including film form, style, genres, production processes, and the historical changes in film art.
It’s quite a lengthy book so I wouldn’t worry about reading it cover to cover. A good place to start would be Part Two on Film Form, Part Three on Film Style, and Part Four on Types of Films.
2. The Film Analysis Guide – Yale University
Unaffiliated Link: https://filmanalysis.yale.edu/
Second on the list is the Film Analysis Guide developed by Yale University. Although, technically not a book, this website is a very useful resource for learning the technical terms required for film analysis, and was a resource I used as an undergraduate. The guide covers terms you’ll come across frequently in writing on cinema, and includes a breakdown of the different formal techniques in cinematography, editing, and sound.
Film History
3. Film History: An Introduction – Bordwell/Thompson/Smith (5th edition)
Affiliate Link (4th edition): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Film-History-by-Kristin-Thompson-author-David-Bordwell-author/9781260084856?a_aid=cinemascholar&a_cid=11111111
Affiliate Link (5th edition Pre-order): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/ISE-Film-History-An-Introduction-by-Kristin-Thompson-author-David-Bordwell-author/9781265924706?a_aid=cinemascholar&a_cid=11111111
Third on this list, and my first recommendation for those interested in film history, is another book by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, that is: Film History: An Introduction. Like Film Art, this is quite a lengthy book that offers one of the most comprehensive overviews of the history of film. Starting with the preconditions for motion pictures, the book is comprised of six parts charting the major eras of film, such as early cinema, the late silent era, the development of sound cinema, the postwar era, contemporary cinema since the 1960s, and finally cinema in the age of new media.
Within these broad divisions, there are several subdivisions to account for different national cinemas, trends and movements from around the world. The global reach of this endeavour is vast, with Bordwell and Thompson touching on cinema from countries within Eastern and Western Europe, North America, South America and Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, Africa, the Middle East, and several countries and regions in Asia, such as Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, mainland China and Hong Kong.
The fifth edition is due to be published in June 2021 and, like the latest edition of Film Art, has also been co-authored by Jeff Smith.
4. The Oxford History of World Cinema – Edited by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith
Fourth on the list is The Oxford History of World Cinema edited by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. Like Film History by Bordwell and Thompson, this is another comprehensive study of the history of cinema. However, this book differs in that it is divided into three broader areas: Silent Cinema 1895 – 1930, Sound Cinema 1930 – 1960, and the Modern Cinema 1960 – 1995. Although, the scope is not quite as broad as Bordwell and Thompson’s book, Nowell-Smith has arranged this study of film history with the help of various contributors, with most sub-divisions written by an expert in that particular field.
Theory and Philosophy
5. Film Theory: An Introduction – Robert Stam
Affiliate Link: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Film-Theory-by-Robert-Stam/9780631206545?a_aid=cinemascholar&a_cid=11111111
Fifth on the list, and my first recommendation for those getting started with film theory, is Film Theory: An Introduction by Robert Stam. This book provides an overview of many of the major theories that have been used to contemplate cinema, including montage theory, phenomenology, the Frankfurt school, auteur theory, structuralism and poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, postcolonialism, postmodernism, among many others.
Arguing against a conception of film theory that insists on a linear progression of movements, or one that exalts certain theories as having a greater claim to truth, Stam instead aspires to ‘show overall shifts and movements in terms of the questions asked, the concerns expressed, the problematics explored. In a sense, [his] hope is to “deprovincialize” theory in both space and time’ (4). In doing so, he views cinema as a medium that ‘requires multiple frameworks of understanding’, and refuses to pit approaches against each other (Stam, 4).
For this reason, it is a great place to start for those that are just getting started in film theory, or for existing students that want to explore other areas unfamiliar to them.
6. Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses – Thomas Elsaesser/Malte Hagener
Sixth on the list is Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses by Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener. Although the scope is not as wide as Stam’s study, this book also provides an overview of some of the major film theories from 1945 onwards.
Notably, Elsaesser and Hagener have divided the book into 7 distinct chapters that each explore a certain relationship between the mind and body of the spectator and the screen, grouping certain theories together according to their shared interest in a leading question underpinning each configuration.
In this way, Elsaesser and Hagener, like Stam, also resist the temptation to conceive of film theory as a linear progression of movements in competition for truth, presenting instead an equally ‘deprovincialized’ survey that demonstrates the many approaches to cinema.
7. Film as Film – V.F. Perkins
Affiliate Link: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Film-as-Film-by-V-F-Perkins/9780306805417?a_aid=cinemascholar&a_cid=11111111
Seventh on the list is Film as Film by V.F. Perkins. This book, as Perkins writes, “aims to present criteria for our judgements of movies. It is written in the belief that film criticism becomes rational, if not ‘objective’, when it displays and inspects the nature of its evidence and the bases of its arguments” (7).
Perkins writes in a style that is accessible and avoids unnecessary jargon where possible. As with the previous two books on this list, Perkins provides an introduction to film theory that resists a reductive chronology of theoretical movements and instead arranges chapters that confront the aspects of cinema that have inspired continual discussion. Using “common sense words like balance, coherence, significance, and satisfaction”, the book touches on topics that range from authorship to the relationship between form and content, and concludes with a chapter that discusses the limits of criticism (Back Cover).
8. On Film – Stephen Mulhall
Affiliate Link: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/On-Film-by-Stephen-Mulhall-author/9781138796850?a_aid=cinemascholar&a_cid=11111111
Eighth on the list is On Film by Stephen Mulhall. Departing from the previous three books mentioned on this list, this book does not provide an introduction to the history of film theory. Rather, Mulhall advances the notion that films themselves can philosophise. In doing so, he resists the temptation to subject films to a top-down theoretical analysis, and does not regard the films he writes about as mere illustrations of philosophies previously developed. Instead, Mulhall believes films themselves have the ability to reflect on and evaluate philosophical arguments just as philosophers do (3 – 4). Films that are able to do this, he writes, ‘are not philosophy’s raw material, nor a source for its ornamentation; they are philosophical exercises, philosophy in action – film as philosophizing’ (Mulhall, 4).
In the first edition of the book, Mulhall focuses on asserting his argument through the analysis of the Alien series, and the later editions include analyses of the Mission Impossible films, the Bourne series, and the recent reboot of Star Trek. The main reason why I’ve included this book on this list is because it is an excellent example of film-philosophy, a discipline within Film Studies that started to gain traction in the 1990s and continues to do so today.
9. The Virtual Life of Film – D.N. Rodowick
Affiliate Link: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Virtual-Life-of-Film-by-David-Norman-Rodowick/9780674026988?a_aid=cinemascholar&a_cid=11111111
Ninth on this list is The Virtual Life of Film by D. N. Rodowick. I’ve included this book because it addresses head-on one of the most contested topics in Film Studies, especially now in the digital age, and that is: the constantly evolving ontology of film, and how this relates to the future of Film Studies as a discipline.
As Rodowick writes, “the Virtual Life of Film is organized into three parts, each of which proposes and examines different though related critical responses to the disappearance of film as a photographic and analogical medium for recording moving images” (vii). Altogether, this book provides an inlet into the ongoing debates that are concerned with the transition from analogue to digital technology, and the ontological implications this shift has for cinema and its study.
10. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen – Michel Chion
Affiliate Link: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Audio-Vision-by-Michel-Chion-Claudia-Gorbman-editor/9780231185899?a_aid=cinemascholar&a_cid=11111111
No study of cinema would be complete without considering the role of sound. As such, the final book on this list is Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen by Michel Chion. Sound is often overlooked in discussions on cinema, yet it is a vital dimension of the audio-visual image. Chion is a French film critic and composer who has written extensively on image-sound relations, and Audio-Vision is considered to be a one of the most influential books on this topic.
Expanding on the arguments presented in his other books, The Voice in Cinema and Sound in Cinema, Chion discusses the impact of evolving audiovisual technologies on the perception of time and space, and presents a model for audiovisual analysis. Chion also goes over one of his most notable contributions to the field, that is a lexicon that includes terms coined by Chion himself, such as acousmatic sound and acousmêtre, which impart a more precise understanding of image-sound relations.
Audio-Vision is an essential text for any student of film, and particularly those interested in sound and its relation to the image.
Video
Below you can find the video version of this article. Alternatively, you can also watch this video, along with others on similar topics, at the Cinema Scholar YouTube channel.
