This thesis argues for incorporating a radically increased awareness and understanding of the experiences and opinions of people who actually watch films into any film theory or criticism genuinely concerned to analyse, evaluate or otherwise interpret films and/or those who watch them. In particular, it suggests there is a need to re-think the status of film experiencers as informants who are participant in rather than objects of study, and that an ethnographic approach should be taken to narrow the gap between film studies and film experiencers. Initially, I investigate ways in which film "viewers" and "audiences" have been and continue to be theorized, analyzed and represented, with emphases both on how film theory and criticism have treated film experiencers, and on the impact of the recent "ethnographic turn" in film and cultural studies. I then investigate pertinent ethnographic theories and methods in the context of recent debates about knowledge production and reflexivity, looking particularly at postmodern and anti-patriarchal critiques. I also consider the relationship between ethnography and cultural studies, and how both these areas impact on the study of film experiencers. Ultimately I suggest particular ways in which ethnographic theories and methods might be used in film studies to inform investigations, understandings and therefore representations of film experiencers. I outline and consider how my case study uses such approaches before setting out the case study itself. The case study sets out what sixty-seven participant-informants had to say and write about martial arts action films, and is in large part intended to "give voice" to film experiencers. But while the emphasis is on citing participant-informants' own words, I recognize that there is no description without interpretation and reflect on this in the conclusions I draw from the case study "data" and my theoretical work.

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This thesis examines largely British and American approaches to Shakespeare on film from the silent era to 1996, while also referring to Japanese and European productions. By analysing key films where Shakespeare is used in an altered or unacknowledged way, Shakespeare's cultural position in cinema can be identified and assessed. The British cinematic approach tends to rely upon nostalgia and taps into a longstanding theatrical tradition of Shakespearean performance while, in the US, Shakespeare is usually subordinated to cinema by being redefined through cinematic genre. There is much overlap between these culturally defined approaches to Shakespeare on film. Above all, Shakespeare is employed as a key intertextual device within each film, providing narrative structure and a frame of reference which highlights or brings into question a sense of cultural identity. In addition to cultural ramifications, the evolution of Shakespeare on film is charted to demonstrate how the treatment of the playwright and his work changed to suit the development of film as an artform capable of sustaining its own dramatic lexicon. Ten case study films from the mid to late twentieth century are analysed from a cultural standpoint and to map the interplay between Shakespearean and cinema. Broadly speaking, Shakespeare may be manipulated in two main ways, so that plots or themes from the plays may be evident in an altered way in a film, or scenes or dialogue may be included in an otherwise contemporary cinematic setting. It is at the nexus of this interplay that the two elements coalesce, realigning Shakespeare from a cinematic perspective on one hand, while providing filmmakers with highly adaptable source material for their own productions on the other. By focusing on films which position Shakespeare outside of conventional or mainstream cinematic adaptation, this thesis advances prevailing critical interest, locating the playwright as a figure open to numerous and innovative cultural and cinematic reinterpretations. The thesis makes a significant contribution to Shakespeare on film studies as it serves to develop an understanding of the shifting relationship between Shakespeare and cinema in Britain and America during the twentieth century.

Critical interpretations of Dennis Potter's television drama serials have tended to take a writer-centred perspective, focusing on establishing links between the dramatist's life and work. In analysing the popular music content of these texts, critics have consistently postulated the existence of Brechtian distanciation effects on an implied viewer. Although, in order to contextualise Potter's relationship with popular music, authorial intention is discussed, this study shifts the focus towards empirical interpretations of the musical sequences in Pennies from Heaven, The Singing Detective and Lipstick on Your Col/ar, and, in doing so, problematises the application of Brechtian theory to those texts. Utilising theoretical framings drawn from television studies, film studies, literary studies, communication studies, and musicology, the thesis offers interpretation and analysis of empirical material generated in response to both quantitative and qualitative exercises, and sets out to identify, and investigate, the narratological, musicological, and psychological factors which come into play when actual viewers encounter the narratively foregrounded, lip-synched musical sequences in Potter's serials. The influence of respondent age and gender, of implied author discourse, and of genre expectation on emprirical readings are also investigated. The thesis identifies, and attempts to account for, a predisposition on the part of Potter's musically-infused period dramas to stimulate susceptible viewers to drift away from the performance, and into nostalgic memory excursions, or fabricated imaginings, experiences which often result in narrative amnesia, an inability to subsequently recall and/or recollect elements of narrative detail.

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Poetry is not a new phenomenon in film and television. It is consistently treated as such because its presence is not common; poetry is repeatedly viewed as a 'special element' in a production. However, visual poetry is becoming less and less of an oddity in modern-day films. This thesis, which surveys multiple intersections of poetry and cinema, places particular emphasis on the most specific and direct use of poetry within film: 'film-poems'. Numerous poets and filmmakers today have made film-poems, particularly poet Tony Harrison. These works are important because they are revolutionary in their combination and application of the two media: a film-poem is a simultaneous collaboration of writing, shooting and cutting, which makes for extraordinary, sense-inundating viewing. Their qualities, not to mention their evolution, have escaped formal study for the most part, and fully deserve critical exploration. The Harrisonian film-poem heavily involves both filmmaker and poet in most aspects of production. Yet there are discrepancies that emerge when using the term 'film poem'. Other classifications link the words to the arena of avant-garde cinema. Avant-garde films might contain some verse, but mainly they depict a theme or story through a cinematically metaphorical means, using images as those metaphors, using cinematic devices as poetic devices. A study of the avant-garde and a language of cinema that is called 'poetry'itself (by some)is another focus of this thesis. I also concentrate on the cinematic placement of poetry in feature films. When films cite poetry, they immediately take on a new dimension, a significant deeper layer to their own story lines. Similarly, the poem also gains a significance that will link it with a scene and theme in the film, and the film's specific images. I begin this thesis with a study of this kind of citation, discussing the prospect of poetic presence in film, and proceed to discuss the development of film and poetry, which inevitably leads to its most significant intersection: the film-poem.