Baudville graduated from 1969 with a bachelor of arts degree, and published his first academic article in FilmHeritage in the same year. After a short career as a high school teacher, Baudville chose the University of Iowa, which offered a master's degree in film at that time. Ricard Terman is his teacher. Master of Arts degree and Doctor of Arts degree were obtained from 197 1 and 1974 respectively.
Baudville and his wife became friends with Jacques Dore, director of the Royal Belgian Film Archive, and were greatly helped by Dore in academic research. Therefore, after Dore's death, Bodwell named his chair at the University of Wisconsin Jacques Dore.
Baudville's academic achievements were initially influenced by andrew sarris and Robin Wood's author theory. However, in the early 1970s, with the intervention of semiotics and other research methods, the academic circles made a profound and lasting reflection on the position of film criticism and film art in the academy, and Baudville began to accept structuralism and Soviet neo-formalism. During his school days, Baudville participated in a large number of film criticism writing of the school magazine (the most influential of which was his analysis of Hitchcock's film "Notorious"). 1973, he published his first monograph, Lapassiondejeaned' Arc, and in the same year he entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison to work until his retirement. Later, he married Christine Thompson, who was also a fan of new formalism. They jointly published several academic books, including the enduring textbook Film Art: Form and Style. According to the publisher, this book has published hundreds of thousands of copies in various versions and is the best-selling film research book in the United States.
David Bordwell Since the mid-1970s, Baudville, like other writers, has written many books and articles on the study of directors. However, his focus is not only to analyze the director's iconic style or the inner meaning of the film like andrew sarris and others, but also to study the style characteristics of the film in a broader background. "I began to realize that mainstream movies should be studied as a traditional system," Baudville said. So in 1985, he wrote the book NarrationintheFictionFilm.
1997, he and no&; EumlLCarroll co-authored Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, which caused great repercussions in American film circles. In his book, he criticized that the flat panel theory (namely Saussure semiotics, Lacan psychoanalysis, Althusser Marxism and Bassanism text theory) which dominated the film academic circles in 1970s and 1980s should be withdrawn from the historical stage.
Research direction Baudville's main research directions include:
Cognitivepsychology: Baudville took it as the starting point of film mechanism, and built a bridge between psychoanalysis and mainstream film research in 1970s and 1980s. The starting point of this school is mainly to study how the audience watches movies, how to understand the narrative mechanism of movies and generate interest, so as to expand the audience's in-depth understanding of the meaning of movies.
Narrative film: This school mainly studies the narrative forms of films, including story perspective, characterization and plot mode. There are many similarities between this argument and symbolic narratology that later appeared in Metz and France, but Baudville's research object mainly focuses on the narrative mode and its evolution of Hollywood movies.
David Bordwell's Neo-formalism: This is one of the most profound and controversial theories of Baudville in film academia. Influenced by the Russian formalism school, which his wife and co-author Christine Thompson majored in, he thinks there is a clear difference between art form and its content. Just like literary detective novels always follow this pattern, a murderer appears from the beginning, but explains the background at the end. It is believed that the purpose of art is to generate a certain sense of identity and affinity for society. Neo-formalism theory excludes most other theoretical schools and methodologies, especially hermeneutics, and also includes Lacan psychoanalysis and post-structuralism. After his discussion with Norvell Carroll (No &:euml；; In the book "Post-theory: Reconstructing Film Studies" co-authored by lCarroll, the two men lashed out at the above viewpoints. It is believed that most of these theories use movies within the established theoretical framework, while ignoring the middle-level research on the operation mechanism of movies. This view is influenced by some contemporary literary theorists, such as Slavoj Zizek? Me? Ek) and so on.
In addition, Baudville also made great contributions to the history of film, especially the history of film as a technology and industry. There are works and in-depth discussions on regional films, such as Hollywood films, Asian films including Japanese films, Taiwan Province films and Hong Kong films. But there are also special studies on some film schools and film writers, such as French impressionist films, Carl Dreyer, Yasujirō Ozu and Eisenstein.
As an influential theorist, Film Art: Form and Style is Baudville's most influential work, and it is also the film art: Introduction co-authored by him and his wife. After the book was published, it aroused strong repercussions in major film academies in the United States, was quickly adopted by many colleges and universities, and was selected as a classic textbook for film production (the book will be published in the eighth edition in 2008). The book adds its new formalism theory to the teaching of primary cognition of movies from a brand-new perspective, which is easy to understand and popular among movie readers.
Baudville, an Asian lover, has a strong interest in Asian movies. He made in-depth, sustained, extensive and original research on some important film writers in Japan, Taiwan Province Province, Hongkong and other countries or regions. He once wrote the book "Entertainment Kingdom: The Secret of Hong Kong Films" specially for Hong Kong films. In another book co-authored with his wife, Film History: Introduction, China's films are also elaborated in detail. In "Digital Light: Movie Stage", the film of Taiwan Province director Hou Xiaoxian is also taken as the main text of theoretical analysis. Most of his works have been included in the film series published by Taiwan Province Liu Yuan Publishing Company. At present, his four works have also appeared in Chinese mainland, namely: Film Art: Form and Style, World Film History (Peking University Publishing House, included in the Unnamed Library), Post-theory: Reconstructing Film Research (China Social Sciences Publishing House) and Entertainment Kingdom: The Secret of Hong Kong Films (Sanlian Publishing House).
David Bordwell Baudville likes to attend Hong Kong International Film Festival. He comes every year except SARS in 2003. In 2007, he was awarded a special honor award for his contribution to Asian film academic research.
Chronology of Works, Film Poetics, Bodwell, David (2007). Film poetics. Routledge, 2007 10.
Hollywood narrative style: stories and styles in contemporary movies.
thewayhollywood tellsit:storyandstylenmodernmovies。 Berkeley: University of California Press.
Focus: the scene arrangement of the film. Figure 1. nematic stage. Berkeley: African University Press.
Film Art: Form and Style (7th Edition) Baldwell, David and Christine Thompson (2003). Film Art: Introduction, 7th Edition, new york: McGraw-Hill Press. (The fifth edition is published by Peking University Publishing House)
Entertainment Kingdom: The Secret of Hong Kong Films. People's Liberation Army Hong Kong: Entertainment Popularization. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Published by Hong Kong Sanlian Bookstore Press and introduced by Hainan Publishing House)
History of Film Style, David Bodwell (1997). On the history of film style. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Post-theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, Bodwell, David Carroll, No&; Post-eumll( 1996) Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. (Published by China Social Sciences Press)
World Film History, Bodwell, David and Christine Thompson (1994 (2002)). Film history: an introduction. New york: McGraw-Hi. (Published by Peking University Publishing House)
Eisenstein's film, Bodwell, David (1993). ThecinemaFeisenstein。 Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Generation of meaning: film operation skills, Bodwell, David (1989). The influence and interpretation of movies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Yasujiro and Film Poetics, Bodwell, David (1988). Film art. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
The narrator of the feature film, Baldwell, David (1985). Narration of novels and movies. Madison University Novel Publishing House.
Classic Hollywood movies: film styles and production specifications before 1960. Bodwell, David, Justiger and Kristen Thompson (1985). Classic Hollywood movies: film style and production mode to 1960. New york: Columbia University Press.
Carl Dreyer's film, Bodwell, David (198 1). The film Sofkar-Theodore Reye. Berkeley: African University Press.
French Impressionist Movies: Culture, Theory and Form, David Bodwell (1974). French impressionist films: film culture, film theory and film style, reprinted in 2002, Stratford North, New Hampshire 03590: Ayers Company Press.