Abstract
After a guest lecture at NYU's Graduate Film School, film director Susan Seidelman (an alumna of the MFA program) was asked what her most carefully considered bit of advice would be for students then enrolled in NYU's graduate production program. Seidelman replied, Don't take any film theory classes. This anecdote reflects the attitude of many industry professionals, filmmakers, students, and even some film production professors, who do not recognize the valuable nexus between motion picture theory and practice. Although it is no doubt true that much of classical and (especially) contemporary film theory is rather abstruse, Lev Kuleshov's dictum (announced at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Moscow Institute of Cinema) still holds true today:
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