ABSTRACT
In a textbook which has been required reading on virtually every Film Studies undergraduate programme for a generation, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson present a section entitled ‘Film Criticism: Sample Analyses’ offering a series of ‘model’ essays which purport to ‘exemplify a sort of writing characteristic of film criticism’ (Bordwell and Thompson 1997: 431). This is quite a claim, and, given the widespread influence of Film Art and its manifest pertinence to the concerns of the current volume, it seems important to assess here. What ‘sort of writing’ is offered as exemplary? What are students being called upon to emulate under the banner of film criticism? The short essay on His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940, US), commencing the series, begins as follows:
The dominant impression left by His Girl Friday is that of speed: It is often said to be the fastest sound comedy ever made. Let us therefore slow it down analytically. By breaking the film into parts and seeing how the parts relate to one another logically, temporally, and spatially, we can suggest how classical narrative form and specific film techniques are used to create this whirlwind experience.
(Bordwell and Thompson 1997: 384)