Joint Lecture by
Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK
Centre for Media and Communication Research, Hong Kong Baptist University

How Motion Pictures Became the Movies

Professor David Bordwell
Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies
Emeritus in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

30 March 2010 (Tuesday) / 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.

Venue: Esther Lee Lecture Theatre 1, Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong

What was the most important period of filmmaking? This talk proposes that as the popular art we know, film emerged in the United States, Europe, and Asia in the years 1908-1920. Culturally, industrially, and artistically, these dozen years created our modern institution of cinema. The talk traces the diversity of artistic trends of the period, notes the rapid changes in filmmaking methods, and analyzes techniques of visual storytelling that remain in force today. Professor Bordwell is the Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies, Emeritus in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and one of the foundational figures in the field of film studies. He is author of many books and co-author (with Kristin Thompson) of the widely used textbook, Film Art: An Introduction. His books include French Impressionist Cinema: Film Culture, Film Theory, and Film Style (1974) The Films of Carl-Theodor Dreyer (1981) Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema (1988) The Cinema of Eisenstein (1993) Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (2000) His book, The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies (University of California Press, 2006) has recently been translated into Chinese and published by Nanjing University Press http://www.davidbordwell.net