An Introduction to Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film

An Introduction to Film Analysis combines an introduction to filmmaking technique with rigorous and comprehensive training in film interpretation. Composed in an accessible style yet conversant with the latest, most advanced critical theories and methods, this innovative textbook can be reliably used on both the undergraduate and the graduate level.
The book begins with chapters that familiarize students with the basic components of film technique. It connects technique to meaning and demonstrates, through numerous examples, how particular uses of film technique generate different meanings. Students will learn how films are made and how values are promoted, ideas communicated, and rhetorical arguments advanced through film technique. The second part of the book covers a range of interpretive methods, theories, and concerns. In each section, the author offers a sample reading of a film, followed by an "interpretive exercise" with suggestions for students to use in performing their own film interpretation.


Carefully structured, beautifully written, and illustrated throughout, An Introduction to Film Analysis provides a thorough grounding in the subject for students around the world.

Michael Ryan is Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs in the School of Communications and Theater at Temple University, USA. He has taught film for thirty years at Northeastern University, Miami, University, and the University of Virginia. His books include Camera Politica: The Politics and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film, Politics and Culture, Cultural Studies: An Anthology, and American Film: A Short History. He is editor of Politics and Culture: An International Review of Books. He is writing a book on American film and American literature entitled Make Believe: Political Argument in American Culture.

Melissa Lenos is a tenure-track Professor of Communication Media at Brookdale Community College, USA. Her primary research areas are narratology and Hollywood with a focus on film remakes. Her current project is an extension of her dissertation: Déjà View: Cultural Functions of Hollywood Remakes.