Polish Cinema Now! also hasn't been selling too well, which is presumably why it's going cheap.

Obviously I'm biased, but I found the chapters that I didn't write myself to be absolutely fascinating when I finally got a chance to read them - really detailed insider accounts of how Polish cinema coped with the post-1989 upheavals from multiple perspectives. I found it particularly valuable for the coverage of the traumatic 1990-2005 period between the fall of Communism and the pivotal creation of the Polish Film Institute, because it's surprisingly hard to get hold of films from then in English-friendly form, whereas almost any halfway decent Polish film made since then is easy to find.

And the quality threshold of the films on the DVDs is sky-high: Polish cinema is peculiarly well suited to short-film compilations like this because of its long and immensely distinguished track record in documentary and animation, both of which are well represented here.

Indiana UP has the normal price listed, but the sale price of $20 was a bargain. I wouldn't have purchased it if it weren't for Gregory's post reminding me and the earlier review link that Michael posted convincing me to buy it. Second Run's recent box set also awoke my dormant interest in Polish film history so this book sale arrived at the right time.

Columbia University Press has a 50% off all titles ("Spring Sale"). Code is SALE. For those interested in their film (or other books), that's surely a good deal.

They published new books from Michel Chion and Antoine de Baecque if anyone needs them.

Just from a cursory glance, they've published a number of interesting books on horror cinema, for those participating in the Horror List project (or just those interested in the genre).

Also, there are four Peter Hames books available during the Columbia sale: The Czechoslovak New Wave, Czech and Slovak Cinema: Theme and Tradition, The Cinema of Central Europe and The Cinema of Jan Svankmajer: Dark Alchemy. The first two he wrote (I'm not sure how much overlap is in either text, but both look quite good) and the second two he edited as collections of others' essays.

I have all four, and they're all warmly recommended.

As for the "overlap" question, there's unavoidably some, but both books have their own distinct identity. Basically, The Czechoslovak New Wave is an unmatchably exhaustive account of Czechoslovak cinema of the 1960s, accompanied by a sketchier history of Czech cinema as a whole, whereas Czech and Slovak Cinema attempts a wider-ranging historical overview of an entire century's worth of the region's cinema. Which means that although it's much less detailed when it comes to the 1960s (at least by comparison), it includes lots of material on subjects either barely touched on or ignored altogether by the older book - animation, for instance, or popular genre filmmaking, or specifically Slovak cinema.

As for the anthologies, the Švankmajer book is easily the best single-volume survey of his film work (there's no obvious rival that I can see), whereas The Cinema of Central Europe is a collection of academic essays about individual key titles in Czech, Slovak, Polish and Hungarian film history.

If I had to buy just one, it would be The Czechoslovak New Wave.

Thanks for commenting on the two books, Michael. I may just get Czech and Slovak Cinema now. Incidentally, there's a preview of the book's introduction and first four chapters on Google.

Booklength English-language study of Lukas Moodysson's Fucking Åmål coming out next week from University of Washington Press!

Has anyone read Hollywood Lighting from the Silent Era to Film Noir by Patrick Keating? I've wanted to pick up this one for awhile now.

The latest issue of Film Comment has an obituary for Amos Vogel, whose book Film as a Subversive Art is mentioned as an essential read. I've stalked around looking for a copy to peruse with no luck, and used copies go for more than I'm willing to spend at the moment (~$65 on amazon's marketplace). Could anyone on the board give some insight on the book and its contents -- on whether or not this is a book to seek out and add to the personal library?

Are there any good books written on the history of the action film, or history of action scenes in films? I'm specifically looking for something on American action cinema, but any sort would be welcome (though I already have quite a few on HK action cinema).

I just ordered Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie by Eric Lichtenfeld. As I haven't read it yet, I obviously don't know if it's any good, but I ordered it based on a recommendation.

I have the book and like it a lot. It's an impressive synthesis of a pretty vast array of films, and he obviously had good access to screenings of a lot of lesser-known works, including many from Latin America and Eastern Europe. Following some brief treatment of some silents, the book's main focus is on the global cinema of the 1960s and early '70s, much of it more familiar now in the era of BFI/Second Run/MoC/Edition Filmmuseum/Eclipse etc. but many still incredibly difficult to see or to find other writing in English about. It's excellent criticism, engaged with social and political themes that Vogel explores in short introductory essays on broader subjects (listed in the TOC below; the titles may make them sound drier than they are), which are then illustrated with hundreds of capsule reviews and bold b&w film stills.
Here, the table of contents and an index of films discussed will give you a good idea of what's in the book.
Oddly, checking Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca, I find a few U.S.-based sellers there that have it priced far lower on those sites than anyone at U.S. Amazon (now up to $100 there).

New improved edition of ”Muchas gracias senor lobo” book is almost ready. I have the old black and white one and I will buy the new one also. It looks really good.

The Renoir is sitting in bulk in the Leeds store for anyone local.

Any recommendations for books about cinematography/lighting?

John Alton's Painting with Light is an absolute classic, as is the interview collection Masters of Light: Conversations with Contemporary Cinematographers, which is coming out in a new edition. Mascelli's The Five C's of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques is a widely-adopted textbook on the subject if you want nuts and bolts.

A Man With A Camera by Nestor Almendros.

Alex Ballinger's New Cinematographers has wonderful interviews with someon the best DPs working today, getting into a lot of nut & bolt detail. Can't recommend it enough.

Thanks folks. Big fan of the Moral Tales, shame Nestor's book is oop but, looks like it's available at the library. Anticipating a challenging read as all the books appear to be expansive and rich with detail. Will start off with The Five C's & New Cinematographers as I wait for Painting With Light's new edition in February and Masters of Light's upcoming new edition.

On another note I managed to get to page nine of this thread before having to x out overwhelmed by all the books I was rapidly researching, placing in my wish list etc. Was reminded tho in the booklet of Vampyr it's written that Casper Tybjerg is working on a Dreyer biography, anybody have any news on that? I've rather enjoyed his commentaries.

Hello, fellow film fans. FIRST POST !!

Having spent the first part of 2012 working my way through the 3 box-sets, may I recommend the rather excellent: Theo Angelopoulos: Interviews

I really enjoy Understanding Movies by Louis Giannetti. It goes into very explicit detail about different aspects of movies as well as how and why movie techniques work.

About halfway through reading Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ordet: My Summer with the Danish Filmmaker by Jan Wahl and already feel compelled to recommend it. It's a good enough book that it should probably be added to the front page wall of resources. Wahl was a student lucky enough to befriend Dreyer and hang out on the set of one of his masterpieces. The memoir has an everydayness and immediacy -- lots of time sitting around having coffee while waiting on the weather, for instance -- about it that only serves to make the insights into Dreyer's process more compelling. I've already learned more about the changes Dreyer made to the play in his adaptation than I have from any other source. But it's nice to hear anecdotes unrelated to the film at hand too. Dreyer's own candid conversational opinions of other filmmakers, of working with nonactors, of being courted by Hollywood.

Need some advice from people who have more experience buying recent books about film.

I really want to get Stephen Teo's The Asian Cinema Experience: Styles, Spaces, Theory but the cheapest its going for now is $126. It was just released in October last year, so I was wondering if anyone knows if expensive hardcover film books usually get paperback or e-book releases after a year or two these days.

Additionally if anyone has read this book I'd love to hear any opinions on it.