WHAT IT IS: Film theory or cinema studies is an academic discipline that aims to explore the essence of cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, other arts (such as literature, music, dance, theater, painting, sculpture, and media applications), and their symbiotic relationship to individual viewers, and society at large. Film theory is how film speaks to class, race and gender. The goal of film theory is to systematize film as a medium and as a collection of interpretative frameworks developed over time in order to understand better the way films are made and received.
WHAT IT IS NOT: Film theory is not a self-contained field, in that it borrows from the disciplines of philosophy, art theory, social science, cultural theory, psychology, literary theory, linguistics, economics, and political science. Before the advent of theory, cinema study was, for the most part, historical, formalist, and evaluative. For this reason, it must be noted that film theory is not a kind of general film criticism, nor is it meant to form a chronological film history -- even though there are cinematic patterns that may demonstrate some crossover between the three disciplines.
This list is by no means comprehensive. Its intent is provocation and suggestion offered in the hope that students will not only learn from it, but that it will also inspire further investigation.
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Apparatus theory
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Auteur theory
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Avant-Garde theory
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Cognitive film theory
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Feminist film theory
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Formalist film theory
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Genre theory
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Horror theory
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Marxist film theory
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Philosophy of language film analysis
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Post-Colonial Theory
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Postmodern theory
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Psychoanalytical film theory
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Screen theory
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Spectator theory
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Structuralist film theory
WHY WE'RE HERE: The intent of this site is to offer a student's-eye view of a range of different theoretical tools that can be used to explain how film, narrative, and spectatorship work. Students will also be able to note and connect theoretical notions as a way of approaching film study. This site should be viewed solely as a study aid, with the primary goal of providing a quick and simple look at the thoughts, ideologies, and notions of several film theorists whose base investigative and organizational philosophies help to ground our ability to understand both historical and contemporary film narrative, language, production, exhibition, and spectatorship.