Film Theory

Abstract This article reviews the year’s work in film theory publications from the perspective of ‘film theory without theory’, especially considering the so-called ‘material’ or ‘cinephiliac’ turns in film studies. It specifically reviews five recent publications and is thus divided into five sections. The first section covers Jiří Anger’s monograph Film Theory from Below, which analyses the digital archive of Czech early cinema pioneer Jan Kříženecký and argues for a film theory based on the materiality of the image. The second section considers Timothy Corrigan’s Describing Cinema, which argues for a commitment to ‘close reading’ of films based on detailed written description. In the third section, mood and suspense are considered in Rick Warner’s The Rebirth of Suspense, which argues that the ‘atmospheric turn’ of slow cinema offers its own form of suspense contra what is often termed traditional ‘Hitchcockian’ suspense. Section 4 reviews Marina Hassapopoulou’s Interactive Cinema, which considers the formal and ethical implications of films that involve more than just the senses of sight and sound. Finally, Section 5 covers Textiles on Film, Becky Peterson’s look at the material turn through its exploration of literal fabric.