Overview

Montage, découpage, mise en scène: these three French terms are central to debates around film history and aesthetics in every language, yet the precise meaning of each and especially their relationship to one another remain a source of confusion for many. In this unique volume, film scholars Laurent Le Forestier, Timothy Barnard and Frank Kessler examine in lively, readable prose the history of these concepts in film theory and criticism and their genesis and development in practice during cinema's foundational first half-century and beyond—from early cinema to the modern mise en scène criticism of the 1950s and 60s by way of silent-era explorations of the theory and practice of montage and the early sound period's counter example of découpage. Each essay serves as an essential guide for students and specialists alike, combining historical overview with fresh ideas about film aesthetics today.

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9781927852071

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Reviews

This brilliant idea for an affordable text on film form has already demonstrated its worth in my classroom. Three scrupulous scholars - genuine philologists of film theory - have brought precision and nuance to the way we talk about the most powerful yet befuddling art of the twentieth century. 'Montage,' 'Decoupage,' 'Mise en scene': to grasp the complexities of such nearly mystical terms may be the swiftest, securest way for students - for anyone - to understand and articulate what counts in how early, classical and modernist films look and sound. An uncommon, and uncommonly useful book in the film studies discipline. -- Dudley Andrew - Yale University

This brilliant idea for an affordable text on film form has already demonstrated its worth in my classroom. Three scrupulous scholars - genuine philologists of film theory - have brought precision and nuance to the way we talk about the most powerful yet befuddling art of the twentieth century. 'Montage, ' 'Decoupage, ' 'Mise en scene': to grasp the complexities of such nearly mystical terms may be the swiftest, securest way for students - for anyone - to understand and articulate what counts in how early, classical and modernist films look and sound. An uncommon, and uncommonly useful book in the film studies discipline. --Dudley Andrew - Yale University

Author Information

Frank Kessler is professor of media history at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and one of the founders and editors of KINtop: Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des frühen Films. His research mainly concerns the period of the emergence of cinema and nineteenth-century visual culture, as well as the history of film theory. His publications include, as co-editor, A Million Pictures: Magic Lantern Slides in the History of Learning. Timothy Barnard is a Canadian translator and film historian. He is co-editor of the book South American Cinema: A Critical Filmography 1915–1994 and the author of studies of the French film critic Léon Moussinac and of the early film projectionist. Laurent Le Forestier is a professor in the film history and aesthetics section of the Université de Lausanne. He works on early cinema, the history of film criticism and the relations between découpage and montage. He has recently published La Transformation Bazin and is currently completing a book with André Gaudreault on editing practices in the silent era.

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