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The Permanent Seminar on History of Film Theories is an open network of film scholars interested in re-discovering and re-reading historical contributions and debates on film. A special attention is devoted to the early writings on cinema, as well as on the more recent reconsiderations of film's role in the new media landscape. The research will gather film scholars from different countries on topics such as: Film/literature/art/theatre; film acting and film staging; spectatorship; the role of memory; psychology and pedagogy of film; gender studies; etc. A great attention will be also put on national debates, according geographical areas such as Europe, North America, East Asia, etc.
This website will host original documents (often translated in English), papers, proceedings, etc.
The Permanent Seminar will also support symposia and seminars on the topic.
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Focus
Second International Colloquium of the Permanent Seminar on the History of Film Theory
The Impact of Technological Innovations on the Theory and Historiography of Cinema, November
01, 2011
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It is often repeated that before being an art, before being an
industry, cinema was initially a technology. At the beginning,
moreover, the camera was as intriguing as the illusion that
it managed to recreate. And if the initial fascination with the
cinematographic mechanism waned quickly, it resurfaces at regular
intervals following the emergence of each new technology that
changes the way films are produced, distributed or exhibited, and
even, more fundamentally, the way we think about cinema. Over
the past thirty years, several studies have traced the development
and socioeconomic consequences of new technologies which, year
after year, shape and redefine what cinema is. But what exactly is
the significance of all these kinds of machines and devices for the
theory and historiography of cinema? Have they helped open new
avenues of thinking and new methodologies or break down some
misconceptions at the heart of Film Studies? This colloquium seeks
to question the impact of technological innovations on the development
of the critical discourse and historiography of cinema.
The pervasiveness of the “technological” in the history and
theory of cinema demands its further investigation. The aim of
this colloquium is to evaluate the importance of technological
innovation in the articulation of a critical discourse in film studies.
More specifically, it seeks to comment on the impact caused by the
introduction of new technologies on the theory and historiography
of cinema, that is to say, to investigate how these technologies have
altered the way we think about cinema, its fundamental properties,
and its potential uses. Film scholars all know of the “four legendary
moments” of the technological history of film evoked by Peter
Wollen – the invention of the Lumière Cinematograph, the arrival
of sound, that of color, and finally the introduction of “widescreen”
formats – but how exactly have these shaped the discourse of
theorists, historians and other film critics? And what about other,
lesser known or forgotten innovations that have emerged at
various times in film history? We could not, moreover, neglect the
advent of digital technologies and CGI (computer generated images),
whose countless cinematographic applications caused major
upheavals in the course of reflection on cinema, upheavals whose
full extent has not yet been measured. The history of film theory is
punctuated with reflections that, occasioned by these technological
upheavals, manage to escape the extreme positions that are often
used to summarize the debate (technology as a “panacea” or as
a “scourge” of the modern world) and instead propose a more
nuanced and stimulating perspective on the fundamental properties of cinema.
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