Fully revised and updated to bring it in line with contemporary film analysis and new material published, this new edition now includes revised chapters, new illustrations, film theories and an expanded treatment of special effects and spectacle.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements General Editor's Preface Preface Introduction 1. The Feature Film Industry The Feature Film Today The Establishment of the Feature Film American Domination of the Feature Film Industry New Competitors, New Strategies, New Hollywood Spectacle Versus Narrative Suggestions for Further Work 2. From Seventh Art to Social Practice: A History of Film Studies Early Aesthetic Approaches Realist Approaches Bazin Auteurs and Genres The Institutionalization of Film Studies Film as Social Practice Suggestions for Further Work 3. Film Languages Culture and Language Film as a Signifying Practice The Signifying Systems Reading the Film Suggestions for Further Work 4. Film Narrative The Universality of Story The Function of Narrative Structuralism and Narrative Codes and Conventions Genre Narrative and Narration Suggestions for Further Work 5. Film Audiences Specifying the Audience Stars The Film Experience The Film Spectator and Psychoanalysis Audience Identification Desire and the Image Audiences, Texts and Meanings Cultural Identities Suggestions for Further Work 6. Film, Culture and Ideology Film and National Culture A National Cinema: the Australian Revival Ideology in the Text Issues in Ideological Analysis Suggestions for Further Work 7. Applications Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Desperately Seeking Susan Conclusion References Index