Cinema: Concept & Practice

Edward Dmytryk (1908-1999) was an Oscar-nominated American filmmaker, educator, and writer. Over an acclaimed forty-year filmmaking career, Dmytryk directed over fifty award-winning films, including Crossfire (1947), The Caine Mutiny (1954), Raintree County (1957), and The Young Lions (1958). Entering academic in the 1970s, Dmytryk lectured on both film and directing, first at the University of Texas at Austin and later at the University of Southern California. He is the author of several classic books on the art of filmmaking, including On Film Editing, On Screen Directing, On Screen Writing, On Screen Acting, and Cinema: Concept & Practice, all published by Focal Press/Routledge. Joe McElhaney (contributor) is the author of The Death of Classical Cinema: Hitchcock, Lang, Minnelli (2006) and Albert Maysles (2009), and the editor of Vincente Minnelli: The Art of Entertainment (2009) and A Companion to Fritz Lang (2015). His numerous publications in major film journals and edited volumes include essays on the work of Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges, Roman Polanski, Chris Marker, and R.W. Fassbinder. He is Professor of Film Studies at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Edward Dmytryk: A Short Biography

Introduction by Joe McElhaney






The Collective Noun



The Indispensible Viewer



You’d Better Believe It



The Power of the Set-Up



Invisibility



Moving and Molding



Look at Him, Look at Her



The Art of Separation



Rules and Rule Breaking



The Modification of the Reality



Symbols, Metaphors, and Messages



Auteurs, Actors, and Metaphors



Time and Illusion



The Force of Filmic Reality



About a Forgotten Art

Postscript

Filmography of Edward Dmytryk

Index