From Doors to Screens

Cinematic Incorporations of Technology

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by Ido Lewit

Type

Essays

Subject

Theory

Keywords

objects, theory, symbolism

Publishing date

2026 (April 01, 2026)

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Collection

SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 274 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

979-8-8558-0640-3

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Book Presentation:
Reveals how objects and technologies function as discursive agents in film, with formal, narrative, and argumentative consequences.

From Doors to Screens treats filmic representations of non-filmic technologies as potentially meaningful intermedial encounters, wherein the objects and media represented interact with the basic characteristics of film in ways that affect cinematic expression, meaning-making, and argumentation. Focusing on doors, clocks, gramophones, and video screens in films by Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Werner Herzog, Michael Haneke, and others, the book reveals how these objects and technologies function as discursive agents, with formal, narrative, and argumentative consequences. Applying media theory to film analysis, the book proposes a novel methodology for the close reading of films, offering an alternative to more common symbolic and metaphorical interpretations.

About the Author:
Ido Lewit is Assistant Professor at the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel-Aviv University. He is the coeditor, with Shai Biderman, of Mediamorphosis: Kafka and the Moving Image and, with Brigitte Peucker, of New Approaches to Ernst Lubitsch: A Light Touch.

See the publisher website: State University of New York Press