The choreography of cinematic creation is stunningly revealed in this learned and lively book. Finely historical with meticulous descriptions of directors, actors, and cameras in motion, Figures Traced In Light registers for the first time the abiding patterns of cinematic staging around the world and through the years. --Janet Walker, author of Trauma CinemaDavid Bordwell is undoubtedly the most productive and influential film historian at work today. His magisterial Figures Traced in Light combines incisive close analyses of compelling filmic artifacts with a painstaking attention to all pertinent research materials. Eschewing any abstract notion of Film, he stresses the labor, thought, and creativity which goes into the staging of individual films.--Eric Rentschler, Harvard University
