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Cinema is a cat : a cat lover's introduction to film studies / Daisuke Miyao.

by Miyao, Daisuke, author.

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Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, [2019]

Cats in motion pictures.

Motion pictures.

Cinematography.

9780824879709 paperback

0824879708 paperback

9780824879693 hardcover

0824879694 hardcover

ix, 185 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Part 1: The languages of cinema. Cats love small spaces: framing in Breakfast at Tiffany's -- Cats love dark places: lighting in Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1942) -- Cats love chases: editing in To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1955) -- Part 2: Theories and histories of cinema. Cats are prima donnas: Feminist film theory and auteurism in Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, USA, 1931) -- Cats, mixed and hybrid: genre and stardom in Shozo, a Cat and Two Women (Toyoda Shiro, Japan, 1956) -- Drawing pictures of cats: National cinema and anime in Jungle Emperor Leo (Takeuchi Yoshio, Japan, 1997) -- Moving like a cat: realism in Take Care of My Cat (Jeong Jae-eun, South Korea, 2001) -- Cats old and new: modernity in Samurai Cat (Yamaguchi Yoshitaka and Watanabe Takeshi, Japan, 2014) -- Epilogue: cats like watching: history in The Cats of Mirikitani (Linda Hattendorf, USA/Japan, 2006).

"Watching movies every night at home with his cats, film scholar and cat lover Daisuke Miyao noticed how frequently cats turned up on screen. In Cinema Is a Cat, Miyao uses the fascinating relationship between cats and cinema to offer a uniquely appealing introduction to film studies. Cats are representational subjects in the nine films explored in this book, and each chapter juxtaposes a feline characteristic--their love of dark places, their "star" quality--with discussion of the theories and histories of cinema. The opening chapters explore three basic elements of the language of cinema: framing, lighting, and editing. Subsequent chapters examine the contexts in which films are made, exhibited, and viewed. Miyao covers the major theoretical and methodological concepts of film studies--auteurism, realism, genre, feminist film theory, stardom, national cinema, and modernity theory--exploring fundamental questions. His focus on the innate qualities of cats--acting like prima donnas, born of mixed blood, devoted to the chase--offers a memorable and appealing approach to the study of film. How to read audio-visual materials aesthetically and culturally is of limitless value in a world where we are constantly surrounded by moving images--television, video, YouTube, streaming, GPS, and virtual reality. Cinema Is a Cat offers an accessible, user-friendly approach that will deepen viewers' appreciation of movies, from Hollywood classics like Breakfast at Tiffany's and To Catch a Thief, to Japanese period dramas like Samurai Cat. The book will be attractive to a wide audience of students and scholars, movie devotees, and cat lovers"--

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