FILM STUDIES
Words on Screen MICHEL CHION
Edited and translated by Claudia Gorbman “A radical understanding of cinema. By concentrating on the written word in a variety of films, Chion turns what in the past has always been no more than a passing concern into a full-fledged reading strategy, applicable to films of all periods and types.” —Rick Altman, author of Silent Film Sound
In Words on Screen, Chion analyzes titles, credits, and intertitles, but also less obvious forms of writing that appear on screen, from the tear-stained letter in a character’s hand to reversed writing seen in mirrors. He shows how words can generate narrative, take on symbolic dimensions, and bear every possible relation to cinematic space. “Chion compiles an inventory of textual effects and shows us just how strange, powerful, and surprising words on screen can be.” —Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University MICHEL CHION
is an associate professor at the University
Essays on the Essay Film NORA M. ALTER AND
TIMOTHY CORRIGAN, EDITORS
Characteristics of the essay film include the blending of fact and fiction, the mixing of art- and documentary-film styles, the foregrounding of subjective points of view, a concentration on public life, a tension between acoustic and visual discourses, and a dialogic encounter with audiences. This anthology features critical articulations of the form as it evolved through the 1950s and 1960s, key contemporary scholarly essays, and a selection of writings by essay filmmakers. It features texts on the foundations of the essay film by such writers as Hans Richter and André Bazin, contemporary positions by Phillip Lopate and Michael Renov, and original essays by filmmakers including Laura Mulvey and Isaac Julien. NORA M. ALTER
is professor of film and media studies
at Temple University and the author of Projecting History: German Nonfiction Cinema, 1967–2000 (2002).
of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle. His Columbia University Press
TIMOTHY CORRIGAN
books are Film, a Sound Art (2009); The Voice in Cinema
English, and history of art at the University of Pennsylvania
(1999); and Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen (1994).
and the author of The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After
is professor of cinema studies,
Marker (2011). $30.00 / £22.00 paper 978-0-231-17499-2 $90.00 / £67.00 cloth 978-0-231-17498-5 $29.99 / £22.00 e-book 978-0-231-54345-3 M A R C H 240 pages / 6" x 9" / 256 b&w illustrations FILM F I L M A N D C U LT U R E S E R I E S
$35.00 / £26.00 paper 978-0-231-17267-7 $105.00 / £78.00 cloth 978-0-231-17266-0 $34.99 / £26.00 e-book 978-0-231-54399-6 M A R C H 352 pages / 6" x 9" FILM
World English-language Rights: Columbia University Press;
F I L M A N D C U LT U R E S E R I E S
All Other Rights: Dunod Editeur
All Rights: Columbia University Press C U P. C O L U M B I A . E D U | 75