A Grammar of the Film: An Analysis of Film Technique

A Grammar of the Film is a 1935 book that attempts to isolate the fundamental principles of film art and teach how they are applied in production. It traces the history of the medium, analyzes aesthetic factors, and examines how films produce their special effects. Despite some predictions that have been belied, the book's analytic perspective remains sound and useful.

Format: Hardback
Length: 334 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2022
Publisher: University of California Press

Originally published in England in 1935, this book is an ambitious attempt to isolate the fundamental principles of film art and to teach in concrete detail how these principles are applied in the production of films. This essential task, which is often neglected or ridiculed by most film critics today, was skillfully and perceptively executed by Spottiswoode. He traced the history of the new medium, analyzed the aesthetic factors governing the proper use of camera angle and movement, cuts, dissolves, sound, and other elements of film construction. He also examined the process by which films produce their special effects on audiences.

A Grammar of the Film contains some predictions that history has proven false, and as the author notes in his preface, parts of it abound in distinctions without differences. Yet its analytical perspective remains sound and useful, as the passage of years has brought little significant experimentation and little change in the basic aesthetic problems of the medium.

This title is part of UC Press' Voices Revived program, which commemorates the University of California Press' mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1950.

Weight: 454g
Dimension: 190 x 120 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520358270