Film theory: Some current problems and issues

Abstract

Traditional film theorists, in their attempt to identify intrinsic cinematic qualities, have often had a limiting effect on the potentialities of cinema by confining it to an aspect of its development, practice, or function. Film theorists have also underestimated the importance of cultural and psychological contexts, and the impact of audience on the evolving and recurrent patterns of film cycles, conventions, and styles as a time‐space phenomenon. Problems of film theory should be treated within a context of film as a hybrid and evolving cultural product existing in a symbiotic relationship with other art forms, and the culture in which it is created.