Anybody have any film theory or film studies books they could recommend? I'm nearing the end of the book I am currently reading (Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted), and am looking for something new.
Thankya.
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Anybody have any film theory or film studies books they could recommend? I'm nearing the end of the book I am currently reading (Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted), and am looking for something new.
Thankya.
Shoot, I'll have to look through my books, but I have a huge textbook of Film History that's the best Film Book there is. It covers every country, genre, period, etc, and has lots of neat photos too.
I have several great texts for school.
For my film studies course last year I had a text called "Introducing Film" by Graham Roberts and Heather Wallis. It's pretty light, but good. Doesn't go into much obscure film - a lot of Hollywood classics, Hitchcock, etc. Pretty mainstream.
Are you looking for books about film (ie analyzing, critiquing, history, etc.) or books about making films?
how's about the classic deleuze's cinema?
Heh... I've been intermittently wading through that one. Not exactly recommended for light reading!Quote:
Originally Posted by lovejuice
Yes! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
I'll take a look at it before buying. I'm not necessarily looking for "light" reading, but if it seems too heavy-handed, I'll pass on it. Thanks for the recommendation, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by lovejuice
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spun Lepton
Well, if writing films is something you're interested in ,you can't go wrong with J. Michael Straczynski's The Complete Book of Scriptwriting.
It's the text book for one of my courses.
He uses a lot of samples from Murder, She Wrote - because he was a writer on there. Sure, it may not be the most exciting example material, but it works.
It reads really clearly, and has helped me along.
The only film books I have are a Kurosawa book and Giannetti's Understanding Movies. The Giannetti one is not bad, and you can get an older edition for cheap.
Anything by Bordwell's good if you want something in-depth but easy to crack; he tends to be a little humorless but his insight and readability easily compensate. Just look through his output and pick the subject that appeals to you most:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/
lumet's making movies is pretty good.
hitchcock/truffaut is indispensible but might not be what you're looking for.
bordwell's film art is pretty good as well.
Yep. His Planet Hong Kong is fascinating. One of the most in depth studies of HK filmmaking I've ever read.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boner M
Old thread, good topic. I'm curious if some of you have any other recommendations to offer. Let's stretch out the parameters to include any books on film, academic or otherwise.
Personally, the last book related to film that I read was the BFI monograph on Vertigo by Charles Barr. Given my enormous fondness for the film, I had to check this out. If you love the film (who doesn't?), it's certainly worth a read. There are a couple of other Vertigo books that I really want to check out, too: The San Francisco of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo: Place, Pilgrimage, and Commemoration (an anthology of essays edited by Douglas A. Cunningham) and Jeffrey Katz's Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco.
Other books I have my eye on include Michael Herr's Kubrick and James Naremore's well-known text on film noir, More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts.
I also picked up My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles through a bookstore sale. I've heard great things, but I'm holding off on that one until I get around to a few more of Welles' films (I'd like to revisit Citizen Kane, for example, and finally watch The Lady From Shanghai).
I'm gonna need a write up on Haunted as well. ;)
It's not quite a formal study of film, but Stephen Apkon's The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in the a World of Screens considers how we've moved onto being an image-based, not written-based, culture. Only 50 pages in so far, but there's a cute Scorsese intro, and it seems like Apkon will continue to explore how film and film culture have presided over changing literacy styles.
Are you talking about The Oxford History of World Cinema? That thing is amazing, but it's a fuckin' mammoth tome.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezee E
I can't vouch for these yet, but here's a few examples of some of the BFI books I'm interested in. Is anyone familiar with any of these?
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I recently listened to Christopher Frayling's commentary on The Innocents, which was superb, so I'm sure his writing on the film is well worth a look.