Abstract

As work on the subject proliferates, it becomes increasingly apparent that little of theoretical value will be produced until cineastes abandon their defensive posture over this “bastard child” of the arts. Despite the expectations of early film theorists, film has retained much of its early stigma. Yet, attempts to legitimate the medium are prone to assert its status for serious consideration by claiming for it qualities and powers that no technical medium nor art form can have. Consequently, we are left with too little understanding of the film and its relation to those enchanted by it. The seventies produced much theory in the “guilty pleasures” category