History of Film Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering basic approaches, key concepts, and historical perspectives in the study of film.

Film history

Traces the development of moving images from early experiments with image reproduction and photography through the invention of the movies in the early 1890s and subsequent stylistic, financial, technological, and social developments in cinema.

Aesthetic Approach

An approach to studying film history, also called the 'masterpiece approach' or 'great man approach,' that evaluates individual movies and/or directors using criteria assessing their artistic significance and influence.

Auteur theory

A theory within aesthetic film studies holding that great movies are the work of a single creative mind.

Technological Approach

An approach to film history that records advancements in materials and techniques, focusing on the interaction of technology with aesthetics, modes of production, and economic factors.

Economic Approach

An approach to film history that studies the motion-picture industry as part of the global economy, including studio policies regarding production, distribution, exhibition, marketing practices, censorship, and the rating system.

Film as Social History

An approach to film history that uses movies as primary sources to study society and examines the complex interaction between cinema and other social institutions such as government, religion, and labor.

Ian Jarvie

A historian who suggested basic questions for studying film as social history concerning who made movies, what was seen, and how movies were evaluated.

Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan

The authors of the third edition textbook 'Looking at the Movies: An Introduction to Film,' from which the lecture notes were partially adapted.