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  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Film Studies
  5. Film criticism

Film Studies

This guide is an introduction to the resources for Film Studies at Dartmouth. If you are interested in Television, see the separate research guide for Television.
  • Introduction
  • Basic information on film
  • Finding a specific film title
  • Streaming film services
    • Readings on streaming video
  • National cinemas This link opens in a new window
  • Course guides for Film & Media Studies
  • Starting your research ...
  • Researching early films
  • Film history through the decades
    • 1960's film history
    • 1970's film history
  • Books about film
  • Film reviews
  • Journals & magazines about film
  • Film theory
    • Feminist film theory
    • Auteur theory
  • Film criticism
    • Feminist film criticism
  • Box office information
  • Film audiences
  • Mass media Industry
  • Primary sources for historical film research
    • Cinema Pressbooks from the Original Studio Collections
    • Congressional Hearings & Communism
    • Film Daily
    • Herrick Library Digital Collections
    • Hollywood and the Production Code
    • Media History Digital Library
    • Moving Picture World
  • Themes
  • Acting
  • Racial & ethnic representation on film
    • African American diaspora
    • Asian American diaspora
    • Hispanic American diaspora
    • Native American & Indigenous peoples diasporas
    • Examples on film
  • LGBTQIA+
    • Examples on film
  • Women on/in/creating Film
    • Examples on film
  • Film genres This link opens in a new window
  • Film & society
  • Screenwriting
  • Film adaptations
    • Shakespeare on film
    • Television to Film adaptations
  • Color in film
  • Film music
  • Film festivals
    • A short list of film festivals
  • Film awards
  • Disney
  • Hitchcock
  • Internet resources
  • Future of Media
  • Back to Film & Media
  • Scholarly communication This link opens in a new window
  • Video Help

Subject Librarian

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Lucinda M. Hall
Email Me
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Social: LinkedIn Page LibraryThing Page
Subjects: Film and Media Studies, Geography, Polar Studies

Other library resource(s)

  • Movie poster artFor the love of movies: the story of American film criticism by Gerald Peary
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #10962
    From the raw beginnings of criticism before D.W. Griffith's 'The Birth of a Nation' to the incendiary Pauline Kael-Andrew Sarris debates of the 1960s and 70s, to the battle today between youthful on-liners and the print establishment, this documentary tells all through the insights and expertise of a diverse group of passionate film critics. Those who hear them may gain new respect for the profession of film criticism.

Reviews

For online movie reviews, see the Basic Information on Film page. To find other reviews, use Film Reviews or Journals & Magazines on Film.

Internet resource(s)

  • Women Film Critics Circle
    • Link
    The Women Film Critics Circle is an association of women film critics and scholars from around the country and internationally, who are involved in print, newswire, radio, online and TV broadcast media. They came together in 2004 to form the first women critics organization in the United States, in the belief that women’s perspectives and voices in film criticism need to be recognized fully.

A short definition for film criticism

Film criticism

A form of writing that examines the achievement, distinctiveness, and quality of a film (or lack of it). The term is used to refer to a wide range of writing on film, ranging from reviews of the latest releases to certain types of scholarly/film-theoretical inquiry, such as genre criticism. Generally, however, film criticism is considered a separate activity from film reviewing. A film review will usually be produced after one viewing and is primarily designed to help potential viewers decide whether or not to watch the film; and a review will usually not contain spoilers—crucial information relating to the film’s plot, especially its ending. In contrast, film criticism will tend to discuss the film in its entirety and seek to deepen, reveal, expand, sharpen, and/or confront, a potential viewer’s understanding in a way that goes beyond simply deciding whether or not the film is worth seeing. Unlike academic writing, which usually adopts a neutral, objective style, film criticism may adopt freer, more rhetorical, language in an attempt to capture a sense of the film and to engage or entertain the reader. Whereas a scholarly, disciplined approach would be suspicious of personal involvement, subjective opinion, and serendipitous reflection, film criticism is at liberty to embrace these dimensions. However, this is not to say that film criticism is subjective and ill thought out: a key aspect of film criticism that makes it distinct from reviewing is the critic’s knowledge and erudition. Film criticism will usually also register, explicitly or implicitly, potential counterclaims about the film under description: as such, the work of film criticism embodies an element of judgement and advocacy.   ...

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Film criticism. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 Apr. 2023

Searching the catalog for film criticism

When searching the online catalog for film criticism, there are 3 subject headings used in this catalog and they are listed below. The subject heading film criticism has the largest collection of resources.

The books are scattered throughout the range PN 1994 through PN 1998 on Baker Level 4.

Film theory as a subject is not used in the online catalog. However, as a keyword search, you will get lots of results.

  • film criticism
    Use this heading for scholarly critiques of film.
  • film criticism [insert country name] history
    Insert the name of a country and you find the history of film criticism for that country.
  • motion picture evaluation
  • "film theory"
    This is a title keyword search in the library's online catalog.

Introductory reading(s)

  • Cover artCritical dictionary of film and television theory by Philip Simpson; Roberta Pearson, eds.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.45 .C75 2001
    ISBN: 9780415162180
    The Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory clearly and accessibly explains the major theoretical approaches now deployed in the study of the moving image, as well as defining key theoretical terms. This dictionary provides readers with the conceptual apparatus to understand the often daunting language and terminology of screen studies. ...
  • Cover ArtIntroduction to film criticism: major critical approaches to narrative film by Tim Bywater; Thomas Sobchack
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995 .B9 1989
    ISBN: 9780582286061
    This text introduces students to the principal critical techniques used since film became a major art form.
  • Cover ArtPlacing movies: the practice of film criticism by Jonathan Rosenbaum
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9780520086333
    Jonathan Rosenbaum, longtime contributor to such publications as Film Quarterly, Sight and Sound, and The Village Voice, is arguably the most eloquent, insightful film critic writing in America today. Placing Movies, the first collection of his work, gathers together thirty of his most distinctive and illuminating pieces. Written over a span of twenty-one years, these essays cover an extraordinarily broad range of films--from Hollywood blockbusters to foreign art movies to experimental cinema. They include not just reviews but perceptive commentary on directors, actors, and trends; and thoughtful analysis of the practice of film criticism. ...

Selected book title(s)

  • The art of watching films: a guide to film analysis by Joseph M. Boggs
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995 .B525
    ISBN: 9780805309706
  • Cover artThe body's perilous pleasures: dangerous desires and contemporary culture by Michele Aaron, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9.B62 B63 1999
    ISBN: 9780748609611
    Focusing on contemporary film and fiction, this book examines the construction of the body, both within cultural production and as a cultural product itself, and provides a provocative engagement with the cultural representation of the body and its 'dangerous desires'. Transgressive interpretations of conventional imagery merge with critical considerations of subcultural forms. ...
  • Cover artCinema and spectatorship by Judith Mayne
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .A8 M28 1993
    ISBN: 9780415034166
    Cinema and Spectatorship is the first book to focus entirely on the history and role of the spectator in contemporary film studies. While 1970s film theory insisted on a distinction betweeen the cinematic subject and film-goers, Judith Mayne suggests that a very real friction between "subjects" and "viewers" is in fact central to the study of spectatorship. In the book's first section Mayne examines three theoretical models of spectatorship: the perceptual, the institutional and the historical, while the second section focuses on case studies which crystallize many of the issues already discussed, concentrating on textual analysis, the `disrupting genre', `star-gazing' and finally the audience itself. ...
  • Cover artThe cinematic text: methods and approaches by Barton Palmer, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995 .C535 1989
    ISBN: 9780404632038
    Essays on film criticism ranging from current issues and problems in feminist film criticism, to film music and a study of narrative in westerns.
  • Cover artCountervisions: Asian American film criticism by Darrell Hamamoto; Sandra Liu, eds.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .A78 C68 2000
    ISBN: 9781566397766
    Spotlighting Asian Americans on both sides of the motion picture camera, Countervisions examines the aesthetics, material circumstances, and politics of a broad spectrum of films released in the last thirty years. This anthology focuses in particular on the growing presence of Asian Americans as makers of independent films and cross-over successes. Essays of film criticism and interviews with film makers emphasize matters of cultural agency -- that is, the practices through which Asian American actors, directors, and audience members have shaped their own cinematic images. ...
  • Cover artCritical cinema: beyond the theory of practice by Clive Myer, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995 .C75 2011
    ISBN: 9781906660376
    Critical Cinema: Beyond the Theory of Practice purges the obstructive line between the making of and the theorising on film, uniting theory and practice in order to move beyond the commercial confines of Hollywood. ...
  • Cover artFilm and video: alternative views by Richard Kostelanetz
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995 .K669 2005
    ISBN: 9781570271663
    American anarchist critic Richard Kostelanetz remains a prolific force and a unique independent voice. This book presents a selections of his writings on film and video. Representing radical alternatives, he writes with uncommon perception not only about familiar issues but also about films customarily forgotten -- and always with his customary clarity. Also included are prefaces and transcripts from his own films and videos.
  • Cover artThe terministic screen: rhetorical perspectives on film by David Blakesley, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1994 .T47 2003
    ISBN: 9780809324880
    The Terministic Screen: Rhetorical Perspectives on Film examines the importance of rhetoric in the study of film and film theory. Rhetorical approaches to film studies have been widely practiced, but rarely discussed until now. Taking on such issues as Hollywood blacklisting, fascistic aesthetics, and postmodern dialogics, editor David Blakesley presents fifteen critical essays that examine rhetoric's role in such popular films as The Fifth Element, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Usual Suspects, Deliverance, The English Patient, Pulp Fiction, The Music Man, Copycat, Hoop Dreams and A Time to Kill. ...
  • Cover artWatching by Tom Sutcliffe
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995 .S835 2000
    ISBN: 9780571190362
    In this collection of essays, Thomas Sutcliffe looks past the dazzling surface of the movies at the ways in which they work their magic: be they Hollywood blockbusters or European 'arthouse' films. Watching is about how the simplest pleasures of cinema (from the satisfying impact of a well-filmed punch to the dreamlike wonder of a perfect close-up) have been crucial to the way in which the medium has evolved from a fairground novelty into the twentieth century's dominant form of cultural expression. ...
  • Cover artThe world in a frame: what we see in films by Leo Braudy
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995 .B72
    ISBN: 9780385035927

Finding scholarly articles and selected journal title(s)

  • Issue cover artCamera obscura
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    Camera Obscura provides a forum for scholarship and debate on feminism, culture, and media studies. The journal encourages contributions in areas such as the conjunctions of gender, race, class, and sexuality with audiovisual culture; new histories and theories of film, television, video, and digital media; and politically engaged approaches to a range of media practices.
  • Journal logoCineaction! by CineAction
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Open Access Icon
    Call Number: Electronic journal
    CineAction began in 1985 as a response to the rejection of the practice of film criticism in the heyday of privileging theory in academic study. The magazine was intended to illustrate the value of criticism through a close reading of a film’s style and content. It was a process of evaluation that provided insights into the construction and meaning of a work.
    Their last print issue appeared in 2016 and now they are continuing with online issues, freely available on their website.
  • Issue cover artJournal of popular film & television by Bowling Green State University
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic journal
    The primary purpose of the Journal of Popular Film and Television is to provide a representative cross section of critical-cultural perspectives and to broaden the existing literature to include the “public visions” of popular filmmakers and television showrunners, economic and industrial factors, and an emphasis on the complex role of audiences in the development of film and television as art forms and wide-reaching socio-cultural forces.
  • Journal logoJump cut: a review of contemporary media
    • Open Access Icon
    Call Number: Electronic journal
    Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media is an Open Access journal run on a nonprofit basis by its staff and is not affiliated with or supported by any institution. It analyzes media in relation to class, race, and gender.
  • Issue cover artNew review of film and television studies by Routledge
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    New Review of Film and Television Studies publishes peer-reviewed research on the theory, history, aesthetics, and politics of expressive screen culture. NRFTS welcomes articles on digital, sound, video, and web-based media.
  • Issue cover artScreen (London, England) by Society for Education in Film and Television
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic journal
    Screen is the leading international journal of academic film and television studies. From video art to popular television, from Hollywood to Hong Kong, from art cinema to British film finance, Screen authors cover a wide range of issues, both contemporary and historical, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. ...
  • << Previous: Auteur theory
  • Next: Feminist film criticism >>
  • Last Updated: May 15, 2025 12:13 PM
  • URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/filmstudies
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Subjects: Film and Media Studies
Tags: Arts, box office, festivals, FILM, film aesthetics, film color, film criticism, film music, film reviews, film studies, future of media, genres, LGBTQIA+, media industry, primary resources, queer cinema, representation in film, screenwriting, streaming film services, themes, women in film

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