Christian Metz

Christian Metz was a French film theorist, best known for pioneering film semiotics, the application of theories of signification to the cinema. He argued that cinema should be analyzed not as a strict language system (''langue''), but rather as a language (''langage'') organized by specific narrative codes. During the 1970s, his work had a major impact on film theory in France, Britain, Latin America, and the United States. As Constance Penley flatly stated in Camera Obscura, "Modern film theory begins with Metz."