Film Matters Magazine

I had the opportunity to meet with Professor Tom Gunning—author of The Cinema of Attractions and the forthcoming anthology The Attractions of the Moving Image: Essays on History, Theory, and the Avant-Garde—over Zoom. We had an intriguing conversation on his new anthology, the impact of the famous “Cinema of Attractions” essay, and the rise of short-form content and social media in the field of film studies. Professor Gunning is very passionate about his writing; that care is evident as he discusses his thoughts on films and filmmakers, alike, throughout the years, and the love he has for early cinema. This was a delightful, insightful, and fulfilling conversation about film with one of its most renowned scholars.

Dason Fuller: So, question one, getting into it: In your own view, how would you say that film studies has been impacted by your writing, and specifically, your popular theories about the cinema of attractions?

Tom Gunning: Well, it’s hard for me to comment on that authoritatively without—you know, I haven’t made a survey of how my work has been received. But from the feedback that I do get, I know that the “Cinema of Attractions” essay is read in a lot of either Film History or Intro to Film courses, and I’m very glad that’s true. One of the main purposes when I first wrote it was to try to get a different view of film history. That there was a tendency—and still is, I think—to see in terms of progress. We start with very primitive things, and we get better and better, and film is always improving in terms of technology, and so on. And although there’s some ways that that’s true, I don’t view that history of any art form is ever simply one of progress. There’s always a way that the cave paintings are as great of paintings as any that were ever made in the twenty-first century. And likewise, I wanted to indicate how important, entertaining, and satisfying the very earliest cinema was—and not just look at it as something primitive and something that had to be surpassed. And I think that my feeling is that message has gotten across—that a lot of people look at films by George Méliès and other early filmmakers and really enjoy them, and don’t just think of them as a stepping stone.

The other thing is that I wanted very much—and I think this has happened, although I’m not sure—to emphasize that what movies deliver to us isn’t just storytelling. Now, storytelling is extremely important and maybe the primary task of filmmaking, and it’s probably not absent from . . . almost any films that are made, certainly commercially. But at the same time, I would say even in the most commercial and, kind of, “hip” movies, there’s this interest in the visual; interest in the kind of experience of just watching a movie, and everything that cinema can do, that other storytelling forms can’t do.

And as I say, I don’t want to deny that this is partly true, but I want to emphasize that it’s partly true. You’ll hear this idea that, well, “the point of a movie is to tell a story,” and, certainly, if you’re writing scripts, that’s a point. But if you’re a cinematographer, if you’re a set designer—even, I would say, if you’re an actor—there are other things than just the story. That’s the message that I partly wanted to convey. So I hope both of those aspects have been absorbed.

Film Matters: What research and/or methodologies do you incorporate in your article?

Yixuan Ma: In my article, I employ a combination of qualitative research methods and critical analysis. I draw upon existing literature on hypercapitalism, South Korean society, and film studies to contextualize my analysis of Parasite (2019). Additionally, I utilize thematic analysis to examine the themes of economic inequality, social stratification, and power relations portrayed in the film.

Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.

Ciara Whelan: My article is analyzing and evaluating the ethnic whiteness represented in Rocky IV (1985). This film is selected as an apt example of a cinematic representation of Italian Americans in late-twentieth-century cinema, during a period in which discourse around whiteness in America was shifting to include hybridized ethnic and racial identity forms. The essay considers the significant juncture between hegemonic masculinity and whiteness in this film that is characteristic of Reagan-era somatic aesthetics.

Film Matters: Please tell us about your article that is being published in Film Matters.

Vanessa Anzola Castellanos: My article is about the Colombian documentarist Marta Rodríguez; she is one of the first documentary filmmakers in Colombia and her work focuses on advocating for human rights. In my article, I described how she uses ethnography to portray reality and the effect her documentaries have in the communities that she films.