Abstract

ESPINOSA MIJARES, Óscar. Film's infancy, a revision of Siegfried Kracauer's film theory. Hist. graf [online]. 2011, n.36, pp.39-73. ISSN 1405-0927.

The present essay explores the film theory of Siegfried Kracauer, specifically as it develops in one of his principal works Theory of Film. It revises what I consider his most significant contributions. In first place some considerations about the birth of cinema as it is contested by the theoretical spectrum or formative and realist theories of film. Second, some considerations on film realism according to Kracauer, and the aesthetical and political implications of his theory. Third, his intention of creating a materialist film theory which returns to the particularity and specificity of the filmic medium. Fourth, the task assigned to cinema of redeeming physical reality and broadening our sensitive spectrum. Finally, the essayist tradition of Kracauer and the form in which he relates, even in his systematic treatise, a writing on cinema to an experience of it.

Keywords : Siegfried Kracauer; aesthetics; film; film theory; realism.

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