Making Meaning

Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema

David Bordwell

    It's hard to avoid superlatives when talking about David Bordwell's work. Let me simply say that here is a book which, for lucidity, breadth, erudition, and rigor, only he could have written. It addresses and analyzes interpretive practice in a way that only the most self-absorbed critic can ignore, and then only at his or her own risk.
       --Seymour Chatman, Film Quarterly

    [Bordwell] approaches the issue with his characteristically refreshing candor, clarity, and wit, proceeding from the direct question, 'How do film interpreters actually come up with the meanings at which they arrive?'...The controversies sure to be ignited by Making Meaning, in the short run, will be anything but dull; in the long run, its contributions to the development of film poetics will be of even greater import.
       --Herb Eagle, Wide Angle

    An A-list historian and theorist himself, Bordwell is the unchallenged capo di tutti capi of academic film studies...His industrial-strength overview is a streamlined and steady Eurail pass through the Continental modes of thought that have dominated the American university since the late 60s.
       --Thomas Doherty, Boston Phoenix Literary Supplement

    Making Meaning is a startling and important book.
       --Barry Salt, Sight & Sound

    A new book by David Bordwell is always an event. The wealth of examples, the sharp prose and vividness of his presentation give his writing force and persuasiveness.
       --Thomas Elsaesser

  • Cover: Making Meaning

David Bordwell is Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.