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Cinematographic Discourse: Opacity and Transparency is the masterpiece in which renowned film researcher and theorist Ismail Xavier reveals some of the secrets of the seventh art.
Does cinema reproduce reality? Or is it a discourse about reality? If cinema is a discourse, do filmmakers seek to mask this fact? Or, on the contrary, do they seek to clearly reveal to viewers the nature of cinematic discourse?
Since the early 20th century, these questions have been the subject of theoretical reflections that have shaped aesthetic thinking about cinema, with implications for the thinking of new audiovisual media. A thorough understanding of the image in the contemporary world is impossible without some knowledge of the reflections motivated by cinematic practice. *Cinematic Discourse *, by Ismail Xavier, a renowned film researcher and theorist, presents theories developed based on these questions, with an emphasis on the opposition between transparency and opacity.
In a thought-provoking, controversial, and defining look at the performing arts, Xavier, who has a vast reading background, covers practically a large part of what has been thought and written in the field of film studies, from its origins to the most recent discussions on the current reorganization of audiovisual media, especially considering the French, Soviet, and North American schools.
With an enviable capacity for condensing and synthesizing, the author extracts the most relevant conceptual background from the debates between different theoretical trends, using clear and accessible language, yet without compromising the complexity of the issues discussed or sacrificing the necessary conceptual density in the name of any simplistic didacticism. Furthermore, Ismail Xavier reveals his opinion, as he not only objectively presents the various theories but also takes a position on them.
Cinematographic Discourse: Opacity and Transparency is an essential title for anyone curious, interested, or researching cinematographic art today.
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