Film Noir (13/11/10)

The University of Warwick Open Studies Certificate: ‘Introduction to Film and Cinema Studies’; Term 1 “1895-1950: The Birth and Development of Narrative Film"; Week 7 (13/11/10)


Film Noir: continued exploration of mood and atmosphere in black and white film

Flawed male protagonist, or the anti-hero, 'Walter Neff' (Fred MacMurray) and the femme  fatale 'Phyllis Dietrichson' (Barbara Stanwyck) in Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, USA, 1944)

This week as part of the Open Studies Certificate, we explored the American genre of Film Noir. We questioned the definition of Noir (is it a genre, a movement, visual style or a prevailing atmosphere?) and applied it to the films: The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) and Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947).  This was done over a 2 ½ hour illustration by Julia Larden.

The term, Film Noir, was coined in post-war France, with the flood of American crime film imports, by critic Nino Frank but we traced both its literary (the novel, detective fiction and ‘pulp’ fiction) and cinematic influences (German Expressionism, French Poetic Realism, Horror and Gangster films from 1930’s). We used David Bordwell’s definition of the genre to begin our investigation, though we mainly focused on the stylistic and thematic conventions and applied this to our previous study of German Expressionism. 

Prior to the session I had done some wider reading into the genre. Apart from usual sources (familiar books repeated throughout the bibliographies of this Certificate) I also had the chance to look through the sources posted on the module website:  ‘Noir’s Cars: Automobility and Amoral Space in American Film Noir’ (Osteen: 2008); ‘Border Crossings in Out of the Past and L.A. Confidential’ (Luhr: 1998); ‘X-Ray Visions: Radiography, Chiaroscuro, and the Fantasy of Unsuspicion in Film Noir’ (Manon: 2007); ‘Out of the Past, into the Supermarket: Consuming Film Noir’ (Dussere: 2006; ‘"The Birth of Venus" and The Death of Romantic Love in Out of the Past’ (Deutelbaum: 1987); ‘The Three Sam Spade’s: The Shifting Model of American Masculinity in the Three Films of The Maltese Falcon’ (Gates: 2008).  I may further invest in Andrew Spicer’s book, Film Noir (2002).


Interestingly, we briefly touched on how the male gaze (e.g. The Maltese Falcon, where Spade, Archer and the camera subjects ‘Miss Wunderly’) and the female masquerade (although this exact term was not used within the session) is evident in Film Noir. It was great to be able to able to have an initial reading of Laura Mulvey’s  ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ (1975) as I know I will be studied it in more depth with “Project 20: Gendering the Gaze”  (the Open College of the Arts – Visual Studies 1: Understanding Visual Culture).  I will definitely be exploring in more depth psychoanalysis’s role in the analysis of Film Noir.

I have previously engaged with this genre outside of this lecture through a BBC television season (which was both on BBC2 and BBC4: December 2009) and my study of German Expressionism and its influence on American Cinema in A2 Film Studies. Similar to the Open Studies Certificate, during A’ Level Film Studies we discussed Expressionism development into a stylistic trend and how its conventions were adopted for American genre filmmaking.

Rita Hayworth as the reluctant femme fatale, 'Gilda'. From Gilda (Charles Vidor, USA, 1946)

We discussed the conventions of Film Noir during AS Film Studies, applied to The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, USA, 1947), and then used this information, in light of our study of German Expressionism during our A2 year, and applied it to Gilda (Charles Vidor, USA, 1946).

The refraction of American in 1940’s evident through the social anxiety, especially the concept of threatened masculinity, (during and post the Second World War) that permeates onto the screen; I think an important area for further research is the influence of European émigrés on the genre. It would be a good to investigate key practitioners who would influence the visual and thematic design of the films (i.e. Directors, Cinematographers, Art Directors and even Composers). As a fan, I am obviously aware of Lang but it would be interesting to look into such individuals as Edgar Ulmer and Robert Siodmak. It would be also interesting to see the European influence on the American directors who contributed to the genre because of the hybrid nature of the medium.

An area that is also intriguing is the few films that what shot in the Noir style during the classic period (1940-1959) but instead of the conventionally using black and white, Technicolor was used instead.  For example: The Unholy Wife (John Farrow, RKO/Universal, USA, 1957) which stars Diana Dors (!).

Further Research to be conducted in relation to Film Noir:

• Sheri Chinen Biesen, “Hollywood in the Aftermath of Pearl Harbour,” in Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005), 59-95.
•  Marc Vernet, “Film Noir on the Edge of Doom,” in Shades of Noir: A Reader, ed. Joan Copjec (London: Verso, 1993), 1-32.
• Claire Johnston, “Double Indemnity,” in Women in Film Noir, ed. E. Ann Kaplan, new ed. (London: British Film Institute, 1998), 89-98.
• Biesen, “Censorship, Hard-Boiled Fiction, and Hollywood’s ‘Red Meat’ Crime Cycle,” in Blackout, 96-12.
• Frank Krutnik, “Film Noir and America in the 1940s,” in In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity (London: Routledge, 1991), 56-72.

Bibliography

Bordwell, D., Staiger, J., Thompson, K. 1988.  The Classical Hollywood Cinema. London:  Routledge. pp. 74-77.

Bordwell, David., Thompson, Kristin. 2006. Film Art: An Introduction. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. pp. 453-456.

Bordwell, David., Thompson, Kristin. 2009. Film History: An Introduction. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, pp. ‘Chapter 10: The Hollywood Studio System 1930-45’.

Copjec, Joan (ed.). 1993.  Shades of Noir: A Reader. Verso: London.

Deutelbaum, Marshall. 1987. “The Birth of Venus" and The Death of Romantic Love in Out of the Past. Literature/Film Quarterly, 15(3).

Dussere, Erik. 2006. Out of the Past, into the Supermarket: Consuming Film Noir. Film Quarterly, 60 (1).

Peterson, L.S., Place, J.A. 1974. Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir. In: B. Nichols ed. Movies and Methods, Volume 1. 1976. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 96-106, pp. 325-338.

Gates, Phillipa. 2008. The Three Sam Spade’s: The Shifting Model of American Masculinity in the Three Films of The Maltese Falcon. Framework: The Journal of Media and Film, 49(1).

Hayward, Susan. 1996. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 148-152.

Luhr, William. 1998. Border Crossings in Out of the Past and L.A.Confidential. Bilingual Review.

Luhr, William (ed.). 1955. The Maltese falcon: John Huston, director. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Manon, Herbert.S., 2007. X-Ray Visions: Radiography, Chiaroscuro, and the Fantasy of Unsuspicion in Film Noir. Film Criticism, 32( 2).

Mulvey, Laura. 1975. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16(3), pp. 6-18.

Osteen, Mark., 2008. The Noir’s Cars: Automobility and Amoral Space in American Film Noir. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 35(4).

Salt, Barry., 2009. Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis. 3rd ed. London: Starwood Press, ‘Chapter 17: Film Style and Technology in the 1940’s’ pp. 251-266.

Schatz, Thomas. 1988. The Genius of the System. London: Pantheon Books. pp. 308-11.

Wallis, Tom., Pramaggiore, Maria. 2007. Film: A Critical Introduction. London:Laurence King. pp. 382-386.


- Further films that I have viewed which may be said to belong to the Noir genre will be posted in the filmographies of ‘Cultural Activities’ posts.


Film Noir Filmography

The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, Security Pictures/Theodora Productions,  USA, 1955)

Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell, Columbia Pictures Corporation, USA, 1947)

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, Paramount Pictures, USA, 1944)

Farewell My Lovely (Edward Dmytryk, RKO Radio Pictures, USA, 1944)

Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, Enterprise Productions/Roberts Pictures Inc, USA, 1948)

Gilda (Charles Vidor, Columbia Pictures Corporation, USA, 1946)

The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles, Columbia Pictures Corporation, USA, 1947)

The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, Warner Bros. Pictures, USA,  1941)

Niagara (Henry Hathaway, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation,  USA, 1953)

On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, RKO Radio Pictures, USA, 1952)

Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, RKO Radio Pictures, USA 1947)

The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, Columbia Pictures Corporation, USA, 1949)

Stranger on the Third Floor (Boris Ingster,  RKO Radio Pictures, USA, 1940)

They Live By Night (Nicholas Ray, RKO Radio Pictures, USA, 1949)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, USA, 1946)


Billy Wilder Filmography

The Apartment (Billy Wilder, MGM, USA, 1960)

Avanti (Billy Wilder, Jalem Productions/Mirisch Corporation/ Phalanx Productions , Italy/USA, 1972)

A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder, Paramount Pictures, USA, 1948)

The Front Page (Billy Wilder, Universal Pictures, USA, 1974)

Irma La Douce (Billy Wilder, Mirisch Corporation/Phalanx Productions , USA, 1963)

One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, Mirisch Corporation/Pyramid Productions USA, 1961)

Sabrina (Billy Wilder, Paramount Pictures, USA, 1954)

The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, Charles K. Feldman Group/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, USA, 1955)

Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, Ashton Productions/Mirisch Corporation, USA, 1959)

Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, Paramount Pictures, USA, 1950)

Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, Edward Small Productions, USA, 1957)

Image Sources:

‘' Flawed male protagonist, or the anti-hero, 'Walter Neff' (Fred MacMurray) and the femme  fatale 'Phyllis Dietrichson' (Barbara Stanwyck) in Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, USA, 1944) ' [online] Available at: http://gracchii.blogspot.com/2007/04/double-indemnity.html> [Accessed 17 November 2010]

‘' Rita Hayworth as the reluctant femme fatale, 'Gilda'. From Gilda (Charles Vidor, USA, 1946) ' [online] Available at: http://closetmelbourne.blogspot.com/2010/07/iconic-dress-rita-hayworth-in-gilda.html > [Accessed 17 November 2010]

Selection of Cultural Activities (07/11/10 - 14/11/10)

Films

The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, Universal Pictures/Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions, USA, 1963)

Brazil (Terry Gilliam, Embassy International Pictures, UK, 1985)

Day of the Dead (George A. Romero, Dead Films Inc/Laurel Entertainment Inc/Laurel-Day Inc, USA, 1985)

Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, Mantle Clinic II/Morgan Creek Productions/Téléfilm Canada, Canada/USA, 1988)

Gaslight (Thorold Dickinson, British National Films, UK, 1940)

The Happy Ending (Richard Brooks, Pax Enterprises, USA, 1969)

Inherit The Wind (Stanley Kramer, Stanley Kramer Productions, USA, 1960)

Jet Pilot (Josef von Sternberg, RKO Radio Pictures, USA, 1957)

How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, USA, 1941)

Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, Universal International Pictures, USA, 1954)

Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, Michael Powell (Theatre), UK, 1960)

Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman, Alta Vista Productions, USA, 1961)

La sirène du Mississipi (‘Mississippi Mermaid’) (François Truffaut, Les Films du Carrosse/Les Productions Artistes Associés/Produzioni Associate Delphos , France/Italy, 1969)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, Charles K. Feldman Group/Warner Bros. Pictures, USA, 1951)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, Nero-Film AG, Germany, 1933)

Two Evil Eyes (Dario Argento/George A. Romero, ADC Films/Gruppo Bema, Italy/USA, 1990)

Whirlpool (Otto Preminger, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, USA, 1949)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, Warner Bros. Pictures/Chenault Productions. USA, 1966)

Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Tobis Filmkunst, France/Germany 1932)

Young at Heart (Gordon Douglas, Arwin Productions, USA, 1954)

Television

episode three, Getting On, second series, UK, BBC4, tx. 09.11.2010.

Joan Rivers: a Piece of Work (Ricki Sterne/Anne Sunderberg, Break Thru Films, USA, 2010)

‘Hands and Knees’, episode ten, Mad Men, fourth series, USA, BBCHD, tx. 10.11.2010.

Silent Britain (David Thompson, British Broadcasting Corporation, UK, 2006)


Radio

The Film Programme, 2010. [Radio programme] BBC, BBC Radio 4, 12 October 2010 16.30.

OCA: Project 9: Barbarous Taste – Pierre Bourdieu (16/11/10)

The Open College of the Arts – Visual Studies 1: Understanding Visual Culture  - Part 2: Ways of Seeing.


Since Walter Benjamin and his essay ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ the standard and methods of mechanical reproduction have changes enormously. For example, colour photography has become the norm and cinema has been superseded by television as the main means of mass visual communication.

 Maybe through the development digital technology, the internet will be become the successor of television? It has been suggested that it is in the process of democratising communication, though this was said of the previous successive means of mass visual communication which were in fact, despite of mass access, tightly controlled; concerning both production and distribution.

From photography onwards, new media has become both a significant part of contemporary visual art practice but also central to critical debate.

This week I read and made notes from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s (1930-1920) essay ‘The Social Definition of Photography’. Though this essay covers similar ground to previous essays studied (including those by Osip Birk, Walter Benjamin and John Berger) it does introduce a sociological element to the form of photograph (e.g the social function of ‘frontality’ in photographs).

First section of Bourdieu’s essay (the introduction and ‘Barbarous Taste’) comments as to the way in which photography is taken to be representing the ‘real’. He suggests that perhaps photography is seen as representing the real because society confers on photography the role of such representation, not because it is intrinsic to the medium.

The rest of the essay (‘Hierarchies of Legitimacy’) discusses photography’s position as an art in the minds of a general public and the relationship between the process and the subject. Some discussion of the way in which a subject is chosen and why, and finally he looks at what he calls “The hierarchy of legitimacies”. Could the concept of hegemony applied to Bourdieu’s hierarchy of legitimacies?

I think if you it would be difficult to apply Bourdieu’s argument about photography to contemporary forms of visual artistic expression and performance (e.g. the mediums of video or installation art) as it is specific to photography’s social use being inexplicably bound to social class, though you can apply the concept of hierarchy of legitimacies. As these new forms of visual artistic expression have been adopted by the established market they have also been institutionalised. They are removed from the popular aesthetic and culture and belong to the sphere of legitimacy, though there is an issue with the universal claims of this form of art. This could instead highlight the correlation between high-culture and the avant-garde, in reaction to popular culture.

An interesting point in Bourdieu’s argument:

“In conferring upon photography a guarantee of realism, society is merely confirming itself in the tautological certainty that an image of the real in which is a true to representation of objectivity is really objective”.

I am convinced by Bourdieu’s argument; I think the former quote conveys his concept that photography is predisposed to social functions.

I agree that a convention of photography is that, unlike other art form, it doesn’t interpret but only records; though objectivity then only captures an aspect of reality as only the visual qualities, and from one viewpoint (space is thus expressed through the dominant form of Western art perspective), remain.

Unlike traditional artistic mediums, photography (in its most ‘realistic’ form) is deemed not to reflect the personality of the creator; despite the systematic selection of possible photographic subjects. From its inception, photography is considered both realistic and objective due to it recording the visible world; so it assigned the social uses of being realistic and objective.

Photography seems ‘natural’ as its conventional use of perspective makes, for the spectator, the visible legible. This influences our social reading of photography as we refuse the reproduction of reality when it is omits the norm of the canonical aesthetic.

The canonical aesthetic dominates Western pictorial tradition, the use of perspective and thus our perception of our world, which an objective recording reinforces the conveyance of naturalness and truth. 

As Bourdieu proposes, this viewpoint is a naive realisation of realism as in fact a photograph is a realistic representation of the real.  The conformity to this convention defines photography’s social function to record objective visions of the world. 

An initial investigation into the situationist international group (1957-1972) will be helpful in my study of Guy Debord, who was once leader of this group, and the society of spectacle.

I understand that theoretically blended both Surrealism and Marxism to produce a practice of revolutionary art, through ‘situations’, and give a possible insight into the way in which an advanced capitalist society hides the degradation of the life and knowledge behind ‘spectacles’. Here is a quote that I find intriguing:

“The whole of life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. All that once was directly lived has become mere representation”.

Does this build on Bourdieu’s idea of that images are objective representations of objectivity? Would this statement also aide Post-Modern critique?

Further research to be conducted into relationship between culture, society and class distinctions:

• Cook, Jon (2000) ‘Culture, Class and Taste’, in Sally R. Munt (ed) Cultural Studies and the Working Class: Subject to Change, London: Cassell, pp97-112.

Bibliography

2010. Situationist International Online. [online] Available at: < www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/index > [Accessed 13 November 2010]

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1965. ‘The social definition of photography’. From: Photography: A Middleborw Art (Polity Press, 1990) pp.73-98.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge. pp.1-7.

Selection of Cultural Activities (24/10/10 - 06/11/10)

Films

Black Sunday (Mario Bava, Galatea Film/Jolly Film, Italy, 1960)

Bloody Mama (Roger Corman, American International Pictures (AIP), USA, 1970)

Cape Fear (Martin Scorsee, Amblin Entertainment/Cappa Films/Tribeca Productions, USA, 1991)

The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, Allarts Cook/ Elsevira/ Erato Films/ Erbograph Co./ Films Inc./Miramax Films/Vendex , France/UK, 1989)

Exodous (Otto Preminger, Otto Preminger Films,USA, 1960)

Fahrenheit 451 (François Truffaut, Anglo Enterprises/Vineyard Film Ltd., UK,1966)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Terrence Fisher, Hammer Film Productions, UK, 1959)

The House by the Cemetery (Lucio Fulci, Fulvia Film, Italy, 1981)

The Girl Can’t Help It (Frank Tashlin, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, USA,1956)

The Godless Girl (Cecil B. DeMille, C.B. DeMille Productions, USA, 1929)

Giulietta degli Spiriti (‘Juliet of the Spirits’)(Federico Fellini, Rizzoli Film/Francoriz Production, Italy/France, 1965)

Has Anybody Seen My Gal (Douglas Sirk, Universal International Pictures, USA, 1952)

His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, Columbia Pictures Corporation, USA, 1940)

Laura (Otto Preminger,  Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, USA, 1944)

Lola Montès (Max Ophuls, Gamma Films/Florida Films/Oska-Film GmbH/Union-Film GmbH, France/West Germany/Luxembourg, 1955)

Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, Universal Pictures, USA, 1964)

A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, The Archers/Independent Producers, UK, 1946)

Night and the City (Jules Dassin, Twentieth-Century Fox Productions, UK, 1950)

Phenomena (Dario Argento, DACFILM Rome, Italy, 1985)

Pocketful of Miracles (Frank Capra, Franton Productions, USA, 1961)

Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang, Fidelity Pictures Corporation, USA, 1952)

The Searchers (John Ford,C.V Whitney Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures, USA, 1956)

Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, Paramount Pictures, USA, 1934)

Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, Paramount Pictures, USA, 1932)

Soy Cuba (‘I Am Cuba”) (Mikhail Kalatozov, Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematográficos (ICAIC)/Mosfilm, Soviet Union/Cuba, 1964)

Stage Fright (Alfred Hitchcock, Warner Bros. Pictures, UK, 1950)

Le Temps qui Reste (‘Time to Leave’) (François Ozon, Fidélité Productions/France 2 Cinéma/Banque Populaire Images 5, France, 2005)

Todo Sobre Mi Madre (‘All About My Mother’) (Pedro Almodóvar, El Deseo S.A./Renn Productions/France 2 Cinéma, France/Spain, 1999)

Whiskey Galore (Alexander Mackendrick, Ealing Studios, UK, 1949)

• To consider a film for analysis I think you should at least screen it twice. These preliminary notes are brief ideas that I get from the initial screening that may be useful to take into consideration in a further screening of the film.

Preliminary Notes: Bloody Mama
Freudian interpretation. Implied incest. Shelley Winters performance. Links to American ‘New Wave’ (budget and film style).

Preliminary Notes: Cape Fear
Clear influence of Hitchcock. Freudian Interpretation.  Duality: ‘Max Cady’/’Sam Bowden’. Is ‘Cady’ ‘Bowden’s alter ego? Phallic imagery associated with ‘Cady’. Levels of the Bowden household could suggest exploration of psyche (ID, ego, super-ego). The river at Cape Fear could suggest the unconscious. Sadism and voyeurism evident when ‘Bowden’ watches ‘Cady’ beat his attackers (an action he intentionally organised).
 

Jayne Mansfield in The Girl Can’t Help It (Frank Tashlin, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, USA,1956)
as 'Jerri Jordan' (Top), the persona, and 'Georgiana' (Bottom), the aspiring housewife; two sides of the same woman.
Polarised stereotypical patriarchal views of  female sexuality?

Preliminary Notes: The Girl Can’t Help It
Tashlin and the influence of the cartoon on his live action work. The performance of Jayne Mansfield may be a parody of femininity both in look (over the top, a caricature almost bordering on the grotesque – links in with the conventions of cartoon characterisation) and in character of ‘Jerri’ (the blonde bombshell who wants to be a housewife). 



Preliminary Notes: Has Anybody Seen My Gal
Colour scheme of film is the palette (dominated by pastels) of contemporary illustrative advertising to the setting of the film. It suggest the new found opulence of the Blaisdell family. Is Sirk, through form, having a dig at consumerism?

Altar Keane (Marlene Dietrich) winning the "race" in the saloon. Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang, Fidelity Pictures Corporation, USA, 1952).

Preliminary: Rancho Notorious
Brecht. The Character of ‘Altar Keane’ and the saloon scene (domination suggested through the "race"; the Wheel of Fortune). The use of painted backdrops in a Western, although a budgetary constraint, is deliberately artificial (alienation?).


Television

‘The Summer Man’, episode seven, Mad Men, fourth series, USA, BBCHD, tx. 27.10.2010.

‘The Beautiful Girls’, episode eight, Mad Men, fourth series, USA, BBCHD, tx. 03.11.2010.

Preliminary Notes Mad Men
Narrative and theme’s exemplified in the last shot of ‘The Beautiful Girls’. The three main female protagonists (‘Peggy’, ‘Joan’ and ‘Faye’) catch the lift together and the doors close. Fade to black and then the credits.


Radio

The Film Programme, 2010. [Radio programme] BBC, BBC Radio 4, 29 October 2010 16.30.

The Film Programme, 2010. [Radio programme] BBC, BBC Radio 4, 05 November 2010 16.30.

Reading

Bazin, Andre. (1967) What is Cinema?: Volume 1. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press

Bordwell, David. 2005. The Cinema of Eisenstein. London: Routledge.

Eisenstein, Sergei. 1968. The Battleship Potemkin. London: Faber and Faber.

Eisenstein, Sergei. 1991. Towards a Theory of Montage (Selected Works, Volume 2). London: BFI.

Eisenstein, Sergei. 1988. Writings, 1922-34 (Selected Works, Volume 1). London: BFI.  

Gillespie, David (2000) Early Soviet Cinema: Innovation, Ideology and Propaganda. Short Cuts. London: Wallflower Press.

Leyda, Jay. 1960. Kino: History of Russian and Soviet Film. New York: George Allen & Unwin.

Nilsen, Vladimir. 1972. The Cinema as a Graphic Art. New York: Hill & Wang.

Nizhny, Vladimir. 1979. Lessons with Eisenstein. New York: Da Capo Press.

Taylor, Richard. 2007. The Battleship Potemkin. London: I.B. Tauris.

Wollen, Peter. 1969. ‘Eisenstein’s Aesthetics’. In: Signs and Meanings in the Cinema.1997.London: BFI.

Sight & Sound. 21. (12/December 2010).

My extended reading for the past two weeks has been inexplicably linked to the part-time courses I am doing (Check the relevant bibliographies). Though, I have began preparatory reading for my summative essay (2,000 words) for Warwick Open Studies: "Discuss the ways in which Battleship Potemkin demonstrates Eisenstein's theory of montage".