| Summary: | For some time now, cinema has stood on the threshold of extinction. The decline of theatrical exhibition, the rise of video and, later, digital technologies and the growing commercial pressures of an increasingly saturated media environment have all threatened to eclipse cinema in its most familiar form. Keenly aware of these circumstances, Dudley Andrew addresses cinema’s current state of peril with poise and a deliberate measure of aplomb in his new, emphatically-titled What Cinema Is!. Guiding readers through the dynamic developments of post-war French film culture, Andrew provides a fresh and elucidating account of the period’s greatest exegete, André Bazin. In so doing, Andrew effectively continues Bazin’s legacy, firstly, by reiterating the medium’s exemplary configuration and, secondly, by forcefully defending its continued social, aesthetic, and scholarly merit. Andrew’s claims throughout are skilful and compelling; not surprisingly, he proves most perceptive in navigating the critical debates that have shaped Film Studies since Bazin’s death.
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