Words & Moving Images: Essays on Verbal and Visual Expression in Film and Television

David Mattison is a librarian with the B.C. Provincial Archives and
Records Services Library.

The first of a projected series on film and television studies published by the Film Studies Association of Canada/Association Canadienne des Etudes Cinematographiques, Words and Moving Images addresses the often controversial and frequently overlooked topic of how filmmakers combine text and visuals, both intentionally and accidentally, to achieve the cinematic look. Such a broad theme has resulted in an intellectually diverse collection written largely by academics and filmmakers, some of whom presented their arguments and views at a 1983 conference on “Words and Moving Images.” Some of the essays are in French with English abstracts, while the English papers begin with a French abstract. Most of the essays deal with Canadian experimental cinema and thus are of limited value to the student of film who may not have seen the film(s) under discussion. A few of the essays appear to be inaccessible and untranslatable (e.g., Brenda Longfellow’s “Feminist Language in Journal Inachevé and Strass Café”) without experiencing the film itself. At least two of the essays deal with non-Canadian film topics, these being discussions of the films of Carlos Sauna and François Truffaut. Paul Tiessen’s analysis of how novelist Wyndham Lewis digressed on film in his books is most unusual.

As with the majority of essay collections, there is no index. The binding is atrocious and libraries can expect to have to rebind after one loan of this book. As there is so little material available on film criticism and the history of cinema in Canada, this volume is highly recommended.