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Martine Beugnet, Film Theory: an Introduction Through the Senses, Screen, Volume 53, Issue 2, Summer 2012, Pages 192–194, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjs011
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For a field whose original object of study – cinema – is allegedly fast becoming obsolete, film theory has never been more alive and creative. Indeed, what fascinated the early analysts of the moving image is proving equally valuable to today's theorists. At the beginning of the twentieth century, film appeared as modernity's emblematic form of expression of, and one of its foremost loci for, perceptual and conceptual experimentation. That film largely retains this status and pertinence even as the digital era is now in full swing is one of the convictions underpinning Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener's remarkable new introduction to film theory. In the effort to tease new paradigms out of established theories and to elaborate conceptual models that are relevant to the contemporary analysis of film (in all its forms, old and new) and the rapidly evolving range of cinematic experiences ensuing from the advent of the digital, differing schools of thought branch out, hybridize and multiply. At the same time, the pace of publishing on this topic has increased to the point where keeping abreast of developments has become a challenging undertaking. Amongst an ever-growing number of textbooks and more advanced critical surveys of film theory, Film Theory: an Introduction Through the Senses stands out as an inspired and ingenious addition to the literature, offering a contained yet wide-ranging and reader-friendly overview based on a genuinely stimulating and original approach.
