A film tells its story not only through dialogue & actors' performances but also throughthe director's control of movement&shot design.Figures Traced in Lightis a detailed consideration of how cinematic staging carries the story, expresses emotion, & beguiles the audience through pictorial composition. Ranging over the entire history of cinema,David Bordwellfocuses on four filmmakers' unique contributions to the technique.In-depth chapters examineLouis Feuillade, master of the 1910s serial;Kenji Mizoguchi, the greatJapanesedirector who worked from the 1920s to the 1950s;Theo Angelopoulos, who began his career as a political modernist in the late 1960s; &Hou Hsiao-hsien, theTaiwanesefilmmaker who in the 1980s became the preeminentAsiandirector. For comparison,Bordwelldraws on films byHoward Hawks, Michelangelo Antonioni, Yasujiro Ozu, Takeshi Kitano, & many other directors.Superbly illustrated with more than 500 frame enlargements & 16 color illustrations,Figures Traced in Lightsituates its close analysis of model sequences in the context of the technological, industrial, & cultural trends that shaped the directors' approaches to staging.