Overview

In this three-part book-length study of the work of Gregg Toland, Philip Cowan explores approaches to co-authorship in collaborative filmmaking to propose new ways of identifying, attributing, and evaluating the creative work of cinematographers. In the first part of the study, Cowan challenges the dominant, director-centered auteur approach to film studies, critiquing the historical development of authorship theory and providing a contemporary analysis of the cinematographer’s authorial role in creating images that communicate meaning through content and construction. By synthesizing and updating the work of previous film theorists to define the complexities of composition, movement, and lighting in the second part of the study, Cowan develops a new, comprehensive taxonomy of functional and aesthetic elements of the moving image. Finally, by using the co-author approach and the analytical tools developed in part two of the book, Cowan provides an in-depth re-examination of Toland’s work, highlighting the historical neglect of the cinematographer’s artistic contribution to filmmaking and developing a fresh approach to the analysis of contemporary cinematography in film.

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9781793638953

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Reviews

From broad reflection on authorship in narrative cinema as inevitably collaborative, to explication of the essential and irreducible role of the cinematographer in that collaboration, to precise and grounded exemplification through the filmmaking practice of the great and revered cinematographer Gregg Toland across his oeuvre, Philip Cowan's methodologically careful and rigorous study makes a welcome contribution to the theorization and empirical analysis of the aesthetics of the Hollywood studio system. A must-have volume for anyone interested in the expressive possibilities of American film as modern culture form. --Dana Polan, New York University

Author Information

Philip Cowan is senior lecturer in cinematography at the University of South Wales in the UK.

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