Signs and Meaning in the Cinema

Published as part of the BFI Silver series, this is the third edition of Peter Wollen's seminal work of film theory. First published in 1969, Signs and Meaning in the Cinema helped to transform the discipline of film studies by incorporating the methodology of structuralism and semiotics. Featuring a new foreword by David Rodowick, this text explores the way in which a new approach to the cinema can be combined with a new approach to aesthetics. The book is divided into three main sections: the first deals with the work of S.M. Eisenstein, both as a director and theorist of his art. The second concerns the auteur theory and investigates the recurrence of themes and images throughout a director's career. The third section shows how the study of cinema can be considered as a province of the general study of signs.

Peter Wollen is a film theorist and writer. Wollen's first film credit was as co-writer of Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975) and he made his debut as a director with Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974), the first of six films co-written and co-directed with his wife, Laura Mulvey. Other such collaborative films include Riddles of the Sphinx (1977), AMY! (1980), Crystal Gazing (1982), Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti (1982), and The Bad Sister (1982). Wollen has also created a solo feature, Friendship's Death (1987). Wollen has taught film at a number of universities and is currently chair of the Department of Film, Television and New Media at the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

D.N. RODOWICK is William R. Kenan, Jr Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, and Director, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University.

The Devil is a Woman: Marlene Dietrich
Foreword; D.N. Rodowick
Introduction
Eisenstein's Aesthetics
The Auteur Theory
The Semiology of Cinema
Conclusion (1972)
Booklist
Acknowledgements