Understanding Film: Marxist Perspectives

by Mike Wayne (Editor)

Film remains one of the most dominant cultural forms in the world today. Crossing classes and cultures, it permeates many aspects of our consciousness. In film, perhaps more than any other medium, we can read the politics of time and place, past and present.

The history of Marxism has intersected with film in many ways and this book is a timely reminder of the fruits of that intersection, in film theory and film practice. Marxist film theory returns to film studies some of the key concepts which make possible a truly radical, political understanding of the medium and its place both within capitalism and against it. This book shows how questions of ideology, technology and industry must be situated in relation to class - a category which academia is distinctly uncomfortable with.

Exploring the work of some of the key theorists who have influenced our understanding of film, such as Adorno, Althusser, Benjamin, Brecht, Gramsci, Jameson and others. It shows how films must be situated in their social and historical contexts, whether Hollywood, Russian, Cuban, Chinese or North Korean cinema. The authors explore the political contradictions and tensions within dominant cinema and discuss how Marxist filmmakers have pushed the medium in new and exciting directions.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Mike Wayne is Professor of Film and Television Studies at Brunel University, London. He is the author of England's Discontents: History, Politics, Culture and Identities (Pluto, 2018), Understanding Film (Pluto, 2005) and Marxism and Media Studies (Pluto, 2003).

Reviews

[Andrew Hathaway · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its worst, the book is less a Marxist look into film and more a primer on Marxism that happens to have some commentary on film within it. For those who have a basic familiarity with the school of Adorno, ideological and repressive state apparatuses, and interpolation - amongst others - some sections will be painful to get through. But those moments are worth slogging through for the heights, my favorites being the way paranoia in film is a symptomatic of late-period Capitalism (which is growing valuable for video game studies), the true postmodern horror presented in films without a meta-narrative, and the many instances in which the American film industry has more authoritative sway in international diplomacy than I suspected.

[Selçuk Atalay · Rating 4 out of 5]

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