FILM 2P99 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Citizen Kane, Jidaigeki, Roberto Rossellini
Document Summary
Film studies as a discipline needs to continuously redefine its object of study, goals, scope, and methods. Perspective and gaols for film history are historical. The goal of film history, unlike film theory and criticism, is to explain change (and stasis) over time. Collector: finds intrinsic value (and fascination) in old things. Historian: seeks to explain why a particular set of circumstances came about and with what consequences. For historian: a vital source of information about the past. Historians cannot directly observe the phenomenon they try to explain. History cannot be replicated or the same experimental conditions created. Film history: study of cinema as art form. The subject matter is the individual work of film art: the film itself or the personal vision of the artist. Only films considered great works of art are part of aesthetic history: most films fall outside that category. The primary task of film historian is to critically evaluate films.
