By David Parkinson (Laurence King Publishing, February 2012). 216 pages. ISBN: 978-1856697934 (paperback). £19.95
About the Author: Lucy Bolton is Teaching Fellow in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London and the author of Film and Female Consciousness: Irigaray, Cinema and Thinking Women (Palgrave, 2011) and co-editor (with Christina Siggers Manson) of Italy On Screen: National Identity and Italian Imaginary (Peter Lang, 2010)
E-mail: l.c.bolton@qmul.ac.uk
This thought provoking journey through a hundred of cinema’s step-changes is refreshing and informative
In the introduction, David Parkinson describes his book as an alternative history of cinema. This bold claim is based on the proposal that there is a core set of ideas that lies behind the production, distribution, exhibition, consumption and appreciation of film from its beginnings to the present day. Adopting a perspective that challenges the centrality of Hollywood, this thought provoking journey through a hundred of cinema’s step-changes is refreshing and informative. Even for those well versed in the historical origins of cinema and the development of the film industry in America, Parkinson offers numerous fresh perspectives on familiar cinematic concepts and brings them together usefully in an original collection.
The selection includes significant leaps forward such as the kinetoscope and 3D, but also major theoretical approaches including auteur theory and feminist theory. The book also highlights industrial developments in production and distribution, and discusses the seminal genres of film noir and heritage films. It is clear that in this conceptual compilation there is not the breadth or depth of coverage that a dictionary or encyclopaedia could provide, and the basis for inclusion and exclusion is never accounted for: simply that the theories, techniques and strategies therein are considered by the author to be key in the progression of film ‘from sideshow to institution’. Beginning with magic lanterns and ending with computer-generated imagery, the double-page entries contain short textual accounts and well-chosen photographic illustrations. The book is well produced and a pleasure to read, with each topic succinctly discussed in broad but informative terms.
This is not a textbook for an ‘Introduction to Film’ course. It lacks a rationale for any particular theoretical, industrial or historical approach, so it is difficult to see how it could match the outline of any specific film studies module. What it does offer, however, is an overview of events and concepts that goes some way to conveying the richness and breadth of approaches to thinking about film. In this way, it serves as a complement to more conventional textbooks: not designed to be read cover to cover, but rather to be surveyed or dipped into.
One of the book’s strengths is that it includes topics such as the Oscars, child stars, and teenpics, alongside surrealism, monochrome and mise-en-scène. It covers mainstream film and filmmaking, whilst also including less populist topics such as Free Cinema and Cinéma Vérité. This gives the volume variety and interest, and makes it a really engaging read. In line with the book’s title, these topics are indeed ideas: aspects of cinema that are chosen to stimulate a film-lover’s thirst for knowledge.
It is clearly written by a passionate and dedicated film-lover, whose respect for these key ideas and themes infuses the entire book
Having said it is not a textbook, there is pedagogical potential in this ideas-based approach. One of the most productive areas of film studies over the past few years has been the relationship between film and philosophy: how the two disciplines relate to each other, and what it means for film to be philosophical. Although Parkinson makes no specific mention of film philosophy, arguably his whole endeavour is a philosophical one. The notion that it is ideas that have progressed, shaped and stimulated cinema calls into question all the elements of film and how they work. As Parkinson says, ‘films continue to play on universal emotions’ – and this book reads like quite an emotional journey. It is clearly written by a passionate and dedicated film-lover, whose respect for these key ideas and themes infuses the entire book. His meta-critique (the author discusses the merits of numerous opinions and approaches, including the central tenets of academic film studies) offers a reflective, independent stance that would be beneficial to undergraduate film students when they are building links between the disparate topics of their programmes and modules. It enables a considered viewpoint, informed by the field of academic film studies and industrial analysis, but a more contemplative assessment of what gave new impetus to various stages of cinematic progress and how certain concepts, such as genre, off-screen space or flashbacks, have perpetuated the world’s fascination with the moving image on-screen. In this way, 100 Ideas That Changed Film insightfully probes the relationship between film viewer and cinematic experience in a deceptively straightforward publication.
Lucy Bolton E-mail: l.c.bolton@qmul.ac.uk