Cinema in the Digital Age

"Does the digital era spell the death of cinema as we know it, or its rebirth? Or the emergence of something else entirely? Cinema in the Digital Age examines the fate of cinema in this new era, paying special attention not only to the technologies that are reshaping film, but to the cultural meaning of those technologies. Examining Festen (1998), The Blair Witch Project (1999), Timecode (2000), Russian Ark (2002), The Ring (2002) and others, this volume explores how such films are haunted by their own analogue pasts, and suggests that their signature element is not digital perfection but rather deliberate imperfections that take the form of blurry or pixilated images, shaky camera work and other elements that remind viewers that human beings made these films. Weaving together a rich variety of sources, Cinema in the Digital Age is a deeply humanistic look at the meaning of cinematic images in the era of digital perfection."--Book cover.