filmology

F4I1L1M3O1L1O1G2Y4

proper noun

A 1950s–60s movement of theoretical study relating to film.

Scrabble 18

Meanings

proper noun
  1. broadcastingA 1950s–60s movement of theoretical study relating to film.

    [title]

    1950, Adolphe Pervy, “Filmology Applied to the Fields of Vocabulary Growth and Modern Language Methods”, in Modern Language Forum, v 35 (March–June), pp 42–53
    5 more examples

    [title] International Bureau of Filmology ¶ When the International Film Congress met in Paris in 1947 a plan was approved for the organization of a “Bureau International de Filmologie.”

    1949, Renée Jeanne Fulton, “Theatre, Film, and Radio Notes”, in The French Review, volume 22, number 3, American Association of Teachers of French, page 279

    Pervy's research in filmology may eventually open wider applications of films in modern languages.

    1949, Renée Jeanne Fulton, “Theatre, Film, and Radio Notes”, in The French Review, volume 23, number 2, American Association of Teachers of French, page 144

    So the University of Paris set out to study the science of filmology—after Cohen-Séat's important book had given rise to an institute, a review, and a whole series of investigations.

    1956, Jean Debrix, “Cinema and Poetry”, in Yale French Studies, number 17, Yale University Press, page 88

    The fourth approach is that of filmology—of the scientific study conducted from outside by psychologists, psychiatrists, aestheticians, sociologists, educators, and biologists. [contrasted with film criticism, the history of the cinema, and the “theory of cinema”]

    1991, Christian Metz, Michael Taylor, Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema, University of Chicago Press, page 90

    190: According to Marc Soriano, secretary editor of the institute's review, “Before filmology, one was restricted to verifying a basic truth, that the projection of a film affected the audience. As far as how and why, that was another question. It was thus this ‘how and why’ that the nascent filmology tackled.” 198: This problem of the film spectator, which we have just begun to address, was already at the center of the filmology movement's debates during the 1950s.

    1992, Jacques Aumont et al, Richand Neupert transl., Aesthetics of Film, University of Texas Press

Origin

  1. Frenchfilmologie
  2. Englishfilmology

1949, from French filmologie.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

filmology. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/filmology

MLA

“filmology.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/filmology. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “filmology,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/filmology.

Source: filmology on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.