ABSTRACT

The masters of the screen have given the world a sizable stockpile of material containing beauty, entertainment, food for thought, and occasionally even a new slant on life, but they have not passed on any rules for duplicating their virtuosities. In a continuing effort to correct the oversight, film scholars have made it a practice to analyze selected sequences from classical films made by noted directors. Unfortunately, this leads only to “rules” for the sequences analyzed; rules laid down by the analysts, not by the films’ creators.