Editor's Note:

Film Criticism has recently completed, quietly, thirty-six years of continuous, on-time publication, a fairly unique achievement among American academic journals in the humanities. Throughout our history, we have been primarily concerned with publishing the finest writing on film regardless of political ideology, critical methodology, or theoretical orientation. As our name suggests, we have required only that papers attend to matters of textual analysis and cinematic form. Aside from the quality of our articles and the steadiness of our publication, we are particularly proud of the significant professional response we have tried to provide to both authors and potential contributors. Very few of the essays we have published have not undergone some kind of revision; just as important, few of the manuscripts we return do not receive suggestions for improvement or re-submission elsewhere. Film Criticism began with the idealistic intention of serving what was, in 1976, a flourishing film culture. Despite the past decade's dire pronouncements of the death of cinephilia, we continue to pursue our original aspiration and are grateful to the readers and contributors who have sustained us in that mission.

L.M.