Is a film watched on a video screen still cinema? Have digital compositing, motion capture, and other advanced technologies remade or obliterated the craft? Rooted in their hypothesis of the "double birth of media," Andre Gaudreault and Philippe Marion take a positive look at cinema's ongoing digital revolution and reaffirm its central place in a rapidly expanding media landscape. The authors begin with an overview of the extreme positions held by opposing camps in the debate over cinema: the "digitalphobes" who lament the implosion of cinema and the "digitalphiles" who celebrate its new, vital incarnation. Throughout, they remind readers that cinema has never been a static medium but a series of processes and transformations powering a dynamic art. From their perspective, the digital revolution is the eighth major crisis in the history of motion pictures, with more disruptions to come. Brokering a peace among all sides, Gaudreault and Marion emphasize the cultural practice of cinema over rigid claims on its identity, moving toward a common conception of cinema to better understand where it is headed next.

Is a film watched on a video screen still cinema? Have digital compositing, motion capture, and other advanced technologies remade or obliterated the craft? Rooted in their hypothesis of the "double birth of media," Andre Gaudreault and Philippe Marion support cinema's ongoing digital revolution and reaffirm its central place in a rapidly expanding media landscape. They engage with the major arguments of the "digitalphobes" who lament the implosion of cinema and the "digitalphiles" who celebrate its new incarnation. Throughout, Gaudreault and Marion show how cinema has always been a fast-evolving, dynamic art and that the digital revolution is just another disruption in the history of motion pictures, with more to come. Emphasizing the cultural practice of cinema over rigid claims on its identity, Gaudreault and Marion advance a fresh conception of cinema that better reflects its essential vitality.

About the Author
Andre Gaudreault is a professor in the department of art history and cinema studies at the Universite de Montreal, where he is director of GRAFICS and director of the journal Cinemas. His books include From Plato to Lumiere: Narration and Monstration in Literature and Cinema; Film and Attraction: From Kinematography to Cinema; American Cinema, 1890-1909: Themes and Variations; and A Companion to Early Cinema. Philippe Marion is a professor at the Universite catholique de Louvain. His research focuses on the fields of media narratology and the comparative analysis of media and media discourses. His books include Traces en cases: travail graphique, figuration narrative et participation du lecteur; L'Annee des medias 1996, L'Annee des medias 1997 and L'Annee des medias 1998; and Schuiten filiation.

Reviews
Anyone involved in the debates surrounding the shift from 35mm film stock to digital production practices and exhibition formats will need to confront Andre Gaudreault and Philippe Marion's arguments. A provocative and timely book, the authors remind viewers that the 'cinema' has never been a static technology. -- Richard Neupert, University of Georgia Gaudreault and Marion make a nuanced argument for rethinking the very nature and impact of the digital revolution on cinema. Their book is an unusually thorough and balanced analysis. It should be required reading. -- Richard Abel, University of Michigan Readable and refreshingly entertaining.Times Higher Education -- Philip Kemp Times Higher Education This thought-provoking volume... will appeal mostly to scholars and serious students of film. Choice


Awards
Winner of French Voices Award 2015.



Book Information
ISBN 9780231173575
Author Andre Gaudreault
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press