Thinking in the Dark

Cinema, Theory, Practice

Edited by Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer

Rutgers University Press

Today’s film scholars draw from a dizzying range of theoretical perspectives—they’re just as likely to cite philosopher Gilles Deleuze as they are to quote classic film theorist André Bazin. To students first encountering them, these theoretical lenses for viewing film can seem exhilarating, but also overwhelming.

Thinking in the Dark introduces readers to twenty-one key theorists whose work has made a great impact on film scholarship today, including Rudolf Arnheim, Sergei Eisenstein, Michel Foucault, Siegfried Kracauer, and Judith Butler. Rather than just discussing each theorist’s ideas in the abstract, the book shows how those concepts might be applied when interpreting specific films by including an analysis of both a classic film and a contemporary one. It thus demonstrates how theory can help us better appreciate films from all eras and genres: from Hugo to Vertigo, from City Lights to Sunset Blvd., and from Young Mr. Lincoln to A.I. and Wall-E.

The volume’s contributors are all experts on their chosen theorist’s work and, furthermore, are skilled at explaining that thinker’s key ideas and terms to readers who are not yet familiar with them. Thinking in the Dark is not only a valuable resource for teachers and students of film, it’s also a fun read, one that teaches us all how to view familiar films through new eyes.

Theorists examined in this volume are: Rudolf Arnheim, Béla Balázs, Roland Barthes, André Bazin, Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Stanley Cavell, Michel Chion, Gilles Deleuze, Jean Douchet, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Epstein, Michel Foucault, Siegfried Kracauer, Jacques Lacan, Vachel Lindsay, Christian Metz, Hugo Münsterberg, V. F. Perkins, Jacques Rancière, and Jean Rouch.

Offering twenty-one case studies devoted to individual theorists ranging from Walter Benjamin to Michel Chion, Thinking in the Dark is at once expansive in its scope while focused and specific in its application of each theorist’s works … Overall Thinking in the Dark offers a very strong collection of essays from top scholars in the field of film studies, and it should find its way to those seeking a reinvigorated reading of key film theorists. South Atlantic Review

In the continuously growing flow of anthologies, readers, textbooks, and handbooks on film theory, the collection edited by Pommerance and Palmer is one of the most original and refreshing ones that I have read in many years … Thinking in the Dark is a sound and solid contribution to film studies. Leonardo Reviews

In lucid and insightful essays, prominent film scholars discuss a major film or cultural theorist and apply the theory to cinematic texts. Refreshingly, the choice of films considered veers away from the most obvious to those that are excitingly offbeat. Lucy Fischer, Distinguished Professor, University of Pittsburgh

MURRAY POMERANCE is an independent film scholar in Toronto, Canada. Among his many books are The Eyes Have It: Cinema and the Reality Effect (Rutgers University Press), Marnie, and Alfred Hitchcock’s America.

R. BARTON PALMER is the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature and the director of film studies at Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina. The author, editor, or general editor of over sixty books, including Larger Than Life: Movie Stars of the 1950s and Shot on Location: Postwar Hollywood’s Exploration of Real Place (both Rutgers University Press).

Acknowledgments

Introduction

R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance

Chapter 1: Hugo Münsterberg: Psychologizing Spectatorship between Laboratory and Theater

Jeremy Blatter

Chapter 2: Vachel Lindsay: Theory of Movie Hieroglyphics

Tom Gunning

Chapter 3: Béla Balázs: Film Aesthetics and the Rituals of Romance

Steven Woodward

Chapter 4: Siegfried Kracauer: The Politics of Film Theory and Criticism

Johannes von Moltke

Chapter 5: Walter Benjamin: Afterimages of the Aura