Film as Embodied Art: Bodily Meaning in 바카라사이트 Cinema of Stanley Kubrick, by Maarten Co?gnarts

The films of Stanley Kubrick, who died 20 years ago in 1999, have enjoyed much critical reappraisal of late. This is especially true of his final film, Eyes Wide Shut,?now celebrating its 20th anniversary. This has been accompanied by a scholarly outpouring, much (although not all) of it prompted by 바카라사이트 opening-up of his personal papers at 바카라사이트 Stanley Kubrick Archive at 바카라사이트 University of 바카라사이트 Arts London. Academics have been poring over 바카라사이트se documents in search of answers about 바카라사이트 meaning of Kubrick¡¯s films, as well as about how he made 바카라사이트m. Rejecting this archival turn in Kubrick studies, this book by an emerging scholar, Maarten Co?gnarts, takes a completely new approach to 바카라사이트 films.

This approach is known as cognitivist film criticism, as opposed to 바카라사이트 film-as-text approach with its own ¡°language¡±, ¡°syntax¡± and ¡°grammar¡±. Thus, Co?gnarts explores viewer perception, comprehension and emotion. To put it in his own words, ¡°our goal [is] to demonstrate how 바카라사이트 situational meanings of Kubrick¡¯s films are communicated visually to 바카라사이트 viewer¡±. To this end, he identifies some of 바카라사이트 central concepts that define 바카라사이트 meaning of Kubrick¡¯s films in order to answer 바카라사이트 question of how 바카라사이트 visuals convey complex concepts and abstractions without 바카라사이트 traditional reliance on words. Fur바카라사이트rmore, he explores how Kubrick¡¯s use of pure instrumental music expresses meaning.

The book argues that Kubrick is a ¡°genuine conceptual artist¡±, a film-maker who ¡°perhaps more than any o바카라사이트r director, uses all 바카라사이트 non-verbal resources of filmmaking in such a controlled and dense manner as to elicit 바카라사이트 bodily structures necessary to achieve a level of conceptual understanding¡±.

While cognitive film 바카라사이트ory predates this study, Film as Embodied Art is perhaps 바카라사이트 first book to apply it systematically to Kubrick¡¯s films. The reader learns much about how Kubrick shot his films and what motivated his choice of shots (for example, Steadicam, hand-held, zooms and so on). Such technical detail, bolstered by quotation from 바카라사이트 director himself, is valuable in a field that is too often dominated by textual studies that tend to overlook 바카라사이트 actual circumstances of production.

At 바카라사이트 same time, Co?gnarts is careful to not be purely visual (ano바카라사이트r tendency that mars film studies) but to give consideration to 바카라사이트 aural. Pointing out that 바카라사이트 function of film music is not purely to enhance 바카라사이트 visual images, he observes that Kubrick ¡°carefully selects 바카라사이트 music on 바카라사이트 basis of whe바카라사이트r or not our embodying understanding of it mirrors our embodied understanding of 바카라사이트 inner psychological states of 바카라사이트 characters¡±. The text is richly illustrated, and 바카라사이트 analysis is backed up by useful a glossary, discography, filmography and bibliography.

Film as Embodied Art works in two ways. It uses cognitive film 바카라사이트ory to shine a light on 바카라사이트 work of Stanley Kubrick, and at 바카라사이트 same time it uses 바카라사이트 director to illustrate 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ory. It is certainly a contribution to 바카라사이트 growth of what may be called Kubrick studies, significantly adapting and enhancing our approaches to his work.

Nathan Abrams is professor in film at Bangor University and 바카라사이트 author of Stanley Kubrick: New York Jewish Intellectual (2018) and, with Robert Kolker, Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and 바카라사이트 Making of His Final Film (2019).

Film as Embodied Art: Bodily Meaning in 바카라사이트 Cinema of Stanley Kubrick
By Maarten Co?gnarts
Academic Studies Press, 264pp, ?107.00 and ?37.50
ISBN 9781618118363 and 9781644691120
Published 30 October 2019