Cover; Image and Influence; Title Page; Copyright Page; Original Title Page; Original Copyright Page; Preface; Table of Contents; Figures; 1 Forthcoming Attractions; 2 Patterns of Communication; How do we communicate?; Processes of mass communication; Only connect ... ; 3 Movie Communicators; Hollywood: basic structure; control structure; cultural controls; The last picture show; The communicator; 4 Movie Audiences; 'Let the supporting cast do the drinking'; Going to themovies; The blunted needle; 5 Movie Languages; Languages of film; Elements of film; A temporary Paradigm
6 Patterns of CultureMass Culture to McLuhan; Analytic perspectives; 7 Cinema and Society: Film Movements; The famous case of 'German expressionism'; Film movements; 8 Cinema and Society: Popular Genres; The western; Gangster movies; Horror movies; Pattems of meaning; 9 Patterns of Change; A model of change; Underlying images; Selected Bibliography; Index
Summary
This text outlines what sociologists need to know of the nature of communication and of mass culture, while also looking in some empirical detail at the workings of the Hollywood community and the psychology of the star system. It explores trends such as attempts to adapt semiology and psycholinguistics to our understanding of film 'language', using them to develop a paradigm for film analysis. The book goes on to offer a guide to comprehension of the relation between cinema and society through detailed analysis of the relation between the German silent cinema and its social context and ext
