Introduction -- Stereotype theory: concepts, perspectives, and controversies. The stereotype in psychology and the humanities -- Some aspects and levels of stereotypization in film -- The intellectual viewpoint versus the stereotype in mass culture -- A discourse history: the topic of the "stereotype" throughout film theory -- Prelude : Walther Rathenau's cultural criticism, Hugo Munsterberg's Euphoric -- Concept of film as art, and the neglect of the stereotype -- Bela Balazs's new visual culture, the tradition of linguistic skepticism, and Robert Musil's notion of the "formulaic" -- The readymade products of the fantasy machine : Rudolf Arnheim, Rene Fulop-Miller, and the discourse on the "standardization" of film -- The stereotype as intelligible form : Cohen-Seat, Morin, and semiology -- Irony and transfiguration : the postmodern view of the stereotype -- Film analysis : critique and transfiguration-three case studies -- Enjoying the stereotype and intense double-play acting : the performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh in the Hudsucker proxy -- Epilogue.