Film Aesthetics: Key Figures and Texts

This article is part two of a two-part series that seeks to introduce what the academic study of film aesthetics entails. Part one sought to clarify what film aesthetics is, and can be found linked as an article here and as a video below. Whereas, in this article, I’ve compiled a list of some of the key figures and texts in the field of film aesthetics, each accompanied with a brief overview, for those wanting to research this area of film studies further.

Aesthetic accounts of film began to emerge shortly after the advent of the medium, and many figures would later add to these discussions as the 20^th unfolded. As such, it is beyond the scope of this article to provide an exhaustive survey of the field. Rather, the list I’ve compiled should be regarded as an introduction to some of the most significant works of film aesthetics.

1. The Photoplay: A Psychological Study (1916) by Hugo Münsterberg

Hugo Münsterberg (1863 – 1916) trained in the fields of medicine and experimental psychology in Germany, and later became a prominent psychologist and philosopher in America, where he published various books on applied psychology. The Photoplay: A Psychological Study was Münsterberg’s final book and, after being overlooked for almost a century, is now regarded as the first work of film theory.

In The Photoplay, Münsterberg championed the new medium of cinema, and argued for its validity as a serious artform. Of particular significance is Münsterberg’s identification of the resonance between cinematic techniques and psychological processes and perceptual experience, an observation that predates Jean Mitry’s psychological aesthetics of film by almost fifty years (Sinnerbrink, 21). In fact, upon discovering Münsterberg’s study, Mitry exclaimed: ‘How could we not have known him all these years? In 1916 this man understood cinema about as well as anyone ever will’ (qtd. in Sinnerbrink, 20). It is precisely the prescience of Münsterberg’s study that makes it a great place to start for those interested in film aesthetics.

2. Film Form: Essays in Film Theory (1949) by Sergei Eisenstein

3. The Film Sense (1942) by Sergei Eisenstein

Occupying the next two slots are two collections of essays by Sergei Eisenstein (1898 – 1948), The Film Sense and Film Form: Essays in Film Theory. One of the most renowned figures in film history, Eisenstein was a Soviet filmmaker and theorist who pioneered a praxis of montage. He was a vital component of the Soviet montage movement during the 1920s, which is when he directed such canonical films as: Battleship Potemkin(1925), Strike (1925), and October 1917 (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1928).

As with his films, Eisenstein’s legacy can also be seen in his theoretical influence and frequent assimilation (of both his films and writings) into film studies programmes worldwide. A common essay that draws attention is "The Montage of Film Attractions", which was one of Eisenstein’s earliest essays. However, Eisenstein wrote many other salient essays that also effectively articulate his dialectical aesthetics of film, and they do so in greater detail. These essays are contained within Film Form and The Film Sense.

With Film Form, a good place to start would be to read, “The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram”, “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form”, and “Methods of Montage”. In these essays, Eisenstein makes cogent that ‘montage is conflict’, and that conflict can manifest through montage in many different ways (Film Form, 38). Whereas, in “Synchronization of Senses”, which can be found in The Film Sense, yet another form of montage is identified, ‘vertical montage’, which extends from the conflict that occurs in the synchronization of image and sound (Eisenstein, 67-68, 71). This is an especially fascinating essay for those interested in image-sound relations.

Altogether, Eisenstein proposed a manifold theory of montage that illuminates the powerful mechanisms underpinning cinema and how they are able to generate meaning.

4. What is Cinema? Vol. 1 (1967) by André Bazin

5. What is Cinema? Vol. 2 (1971) by André Bazin

In slots four and five are two volumes of seminal essays by André Bazin (1918-1958). Perhaps the most influential figure in film criticism, Bazin was a prolific writer, and produced over 2,600 articles (Andrew). His reviews and essays appeared in publications such as Le Parisien libéré, Esprit, and Cahiers du Cinema, which he notably cofounded (Andrew). He was admired by many of the critics at Cahiers du Cinema who would later turn to filmmaking and instigate the French New Wave shortly after Bazin’s death (Andrew). Although his output was considerable, only a fraction of his essays is currently accessible. However, Bazin personally selected fifty-two essays he deemed most significant and collated them into the two volumes included on this list. These are the essays that most scholars refer to when they write of Bazin.

“The Ontology of the Photographic Image” contained within Volume 1 is perhaps Bazin’s most famous piece of writing. His views on cinema expressed in this essay, particularly the emphasis he places on the automatism of the camera, informs many others in these two volumes. Another vital essay in Volume 1 is “The Virtues and Limitations of Montage”. It establishes the grievances Bazin has with the techniques of montage and, together with several other essays, would set in motion a certain (and unnecessary) polarisation between these techniques and realism, which Bazin championed instead.

This fervour for realism is better displayed in Volume 2, wherein another significant essay is contained: “An Aesthetic of Reality: Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of Liberation”. In this essay, Bazin examines and exalts the aesthetics of Italian neorealist films, praising their ‘exceptionally documentary quality’, ‘[faithfulness] to everyday life in the scenario’ and ‘truth to his part in an actor’ (Volume 2, 20,25). Further to this, Bazin also included essays in this volume on key neorealist directors, such as Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. And, he also wrote pieces on canonical neorealist films, such as Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948), La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti, 1948), and Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica, 1952).

Overall, these two volumes of essays are essential to read for any film student, and most of all those specifically interested in film aesthetics. Bazin not only offers profound insights on cinema, but he also provides one of the earliest commentaries on Italian neorealism, a truly watershed moment in film history.

6. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image (1983) by Gilles Deleuze

7. Cinema 2: The Time-Image (1985) by Gilles Deleuze

The following two texts are Cinema 1: The Movement-Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image by French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze (1925 – 1995). One of the most significant philosophers of the 20^th century, Deleuze wrote on various topics, and notably self-identified as a 'pure metaphysician' (qtd. in Smith, Protevi). This is most discernible in the work that is largely considered his magnum opus, Difference and Repetition (Smith, Protevi). He also wrote extensively on the history of philosophy, co-authored several works with radical psychoanalyst and political activist, Félix Guattari, and wrote several studies on the arts including, most pertinently, two volumes on cinema that have since become and remain highly influential in the field of film studies.

Deleuze was an erudite cinephile, and held films and their makers in high regard, often comparing them to philosophical thinkers (Mullarkey, 179). His two-volume ontological study of cinema, Cinema 1 and Cinema 2, presents a radical, semiotic taxonomy of the medium. In this taxonomy, he sought to develop concepts that correlated directly to the mechanisms of cinema, and regarded his writing on this topic as 'pure philosophy' rather than criticism (Smith, Protevi). However, Deleuze also explicitly rejected the notion of applying philosophy to cinema, regarding it a futile exercise (Mullarkey, 179). Instead, as John Mullarkey writes, his Cinema books '[show] us film thinking for itself' (179).

Deleuze attempts this by proposing two distinct regimes by which cinema operates: the movement-image and the time-image. Indeed, movement and time are essential components of cinema in Deleuze’s view, and relay two different representations of time (Mullarkey, 179). In the movement-image, an indirect, and therefore abstract, representation of time is created via rational cuts between events that maintain a closed filmic whole. Whereas, in the time-image, a direct representation of time is created via irrational cuts between events that rupture the integrity of the filmic whole and open it up to the infinite outside or, as Ronald Bogue terms, a 'non-chronological, vertical present' (139). Explication of these two regimes, and the taxonomy of signs that constitute them, is the main focus of the two Cinema books.

Although his writing is notoriously difficult at times to decipher, Deleuze provides one of the most profound and rewarding ruminations on the medium. For the patient reader, I would recommend starting from the beginning of Cinema 1 and working your way through to the end of Cinema 2 chronologically.

8. Film as Film (1972) by V.F. Perkins

Next on the list is Film as Film by V.F. Perkins (1936 – 2016) who, together with Robin Wood, was one of the co-founders of the Film and Television Studies department at the University of Warwick, where he was Honorary Professor of Film Studies. Film as Film was Perkin’s most notable work, and remains a highly influential text in film aesthetics and, indeed, film studies more broadly. It epitomises his interest in film aesthetics and interpretation, as well as his succinct writing style.

Film as Film is structured around chapters that confront the aspects of cinema that have inspired continual discussion. As Perkins writes, 'This book 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. 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).

It is an essential read for anyone interested in film aesthetics, evaluation, and interpretation.

9. The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film (1971) by Stanley Cavell

The penultimate text on this list is The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film by Stanley Cavell, an American philosopher who worked in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, and ordinary language philosophy at Harvard University. He also wrote books on the arts, including several on cinema, with The World Viewed being perhaps his most seminal work on the medium. However, all of his scholarly interests are closely entwined and, as William Rothman writes, 'Cavell’s writings about film cannot fully be understood in isolation from the rest of his philosophical writings'.

As the subtitle suggests, this book collates Cavell’s reflections on the ontology of film. It is unlike any other text in the field. On the surface, it is written in deceptively plain English, but further consideration reveals complex ruminations on the medium that will take time to fully unpack. With a personal interest in Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s, Cavell touches on topics ranging from the photographic basis of cinema to the ontological significance of film stars. A good place to start would be with chapters two to five: “Sights and Sounds”, “Photograph and Screen”, “Audience, Actor, and Star” and “Types; Cycles as Genres” respectively. Although, I would recommend reading the entire book from cover to cover for those interested.

10. Aesthetic Evaluation and Film (2018) by Andrew Klevan

The final text I’ve included on this list is the most contemporary: Aesthetic Evaluation and Film by Andrew Klevan, one of the convenors of the MSt in Film Aesthetics program offered by the University of Oxford. Klevan is a Professor of Film whose research interests include film criticism; philosophy of criticism; film interpretation; the close analysis of film style; film performance; the methodology and pedagogy of film study; and, evaluation and appreciation, especially as it relates to aesthetics (Klevan, “Professor”).

Many of these research interests converge in Aesthetic Evaluation and Film, a monograph Klevan published in 2018. It examines aesthetic philosophy and evaluative criticism as it relates to film. As Klevan succinctly summarises, '[the] monograph advocates that aesthetic evaluation should be flexibly informed by a cluster of concerns including medium, convention, prominence, pattern and relation; and rather than privileging a particular theory or film style, it models a type of approach, attention, process and discourse' (“Professor”). In particular, Klevan’s evaluative aesthetics extends from the close analysis of specific film sequences, a methodology that is surprisingly rare in contemporary film studies. Further to this, it is written in a concise and lucid style that will appeal to anyone with an interest in the aesthetic evaluation of film.

This article is also available as a video essay, which you can view below:

References

· Andrew, Dudley. “André Bazin.” Oxford Bibliographies in “Cinema and Media Studies.” Oxford UP, last modified 25 Sep. 2018.
· Bazin, André. (2005). What is Cinema? Vol.1, edited and translated by Hugh Gray, University of California Press.
· Bazin, André. (2005). What is Cinema? Vol.2, Edited and translated by Hugh Gray, University of California Press.
·  Bogue, Ronald. (2003). Deleuze on Cinema. Routledge.
· Cavell, Stanley. (1979). The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film. Harvard University Press.
· Deleuze, Gilles. (2005). Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam, Continuum, 2005.
· Deleuze, Gilles. (2005). Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta, Continuum, 2005.
· Eisenstein, Sergei. (1949). Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, edited and translated by Jay Leyda, Harcourt, Inc.
· Eisenstein, Sergei. (1986). The Film Sense, edited and translated by Jay Leyda, Faber and Faber.
· Klevan, Andrew. (2018). Aesthetic Evaluation and Film. Manchester University Press.
· Klevan, Andrew. “Professor Andrew Klevan.” Faculty of English. University of Oxford.
· Mullarkey, John. (2009). “Gilles Deleuze.” Film, Theory and Philosophy: The Key Thinkers. (F. Colman, Ed.). McGill-Queen’s University Press, pp. 179 – 189.
· Münsterberg, Hugo. (1970). The Photoplay: A Psychological Study. Arno Press.
· Perkins, V.F. (1993). Film as Film: understanding and judging movies. Da Capo.
· Rothman, William. “Stanley Cavell.” Oxford Bibliographies in “Cinema and Media Studies”. Oxford UP, last modified 27 Nov. 2013.
· Sinnerbrink, Robert. (2009). “Hugo Münsterberg.” Film, Theory and Philosophy: The Key Thinkers. (F. Colman, Ed.). McGill-Queen’s University Press, pp. 20 – 30.
· Smith, Daniel and John Protevi, "Gilles Deleuze", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

Films Cited

Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)
La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti, 1948)
October 1917 (Ten Days that Shook the World) (Sergei Eisenstein, 1928)
Stike (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)