The Best Books About Film

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The Doogster
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#901 Post by The Doogster » Tue May 05, 2015 3:57 am

Cold Bishop wrote:I'm curious: does anyone know of any good books about screenplays that aren't simply "how-to's"? Something that gets into it as it's own form? Certainly a really good how-to could cover such things, but I'm hard pressed to find anything like this.
The two best books I'v read on screenwriting are:

On Film-Making by Alexander Mackendrick
The Tools of Screenwriting by David Howard and Edward Mabley

The first is conceptual rather than how-to. The second is partly how-to, but it also examines many individual movies to see how the theory works. What I like about these books is that they are "pre-Field" in that they are old-school examples of the art of screenwriting. Syd Field changed everything in the late 70s when he turned everything into a formula.

The "industry standard" is Robert McKee's Story. However, be warned, it is very dense and can come across as preachy and dogmatic. Still, there's lots of good stuff in there. Just not for beginners.

For beginners who don't want to wade through McKee, there is Making A Good Script Great by Linda Seger. It covers all the bases on what a good modern screenplay should do.

From an insider's perspective, check out Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman.

Another good, although very technical, book is Linda Aaronson's The 21st Century Screenplay, which examines the trend in non-linear story-telling. Not for the faint-hearted.

Stay away from a book called Save The Cat by Blake Snyder, unless you want to understand why all modern Hollywood movies feel like the same movie.

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MichaelB
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#902 Post by MichaelB » Tue May 05, 2015 4:03 am

I'm very glad you brought up the Mackendrick book, because it's not an obvious choice when it comes to screenwriting how-tos (since Mackendrick was a director rather than a screenwriter), and yet it has some absolutely superb examples.

I'm particularly familiar with his notes on Clifford Odets' rewrite of The Sweet Smell of Success, as I edited them recently for the booklet accompanying Arrow's release, and they're a fascinating illustration of how a good script can be made great with the addition of a second screenwriter with decades of experience of dramatic construction. The scene in which J.J. Hunsecker and Tony Falco meet on screen for the first time, with dialogue constantly ricocheting between the two of them and the three people already at Hunsecker's table, is an absolute masterclass in how to convey reams of essential exposition without ever seeming as though you're spoonfeeding the audience. Crucially, all five characters, including the three who never appear again, have their own distinct personalities and motivations, and there are clear reasons over and above overarching narrative ones for them to say what they say at any given moment.

Mackendrick also vividly describes how long this process took, and how many discussions and rewrites were necessary before Odets professed himself satisfied with a scene that plays out utterly naturally and spontaneously in its final form.

The Doogster
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#903 Post by The Doogster » Tue May 05, 2015 4:47 am

MichaelB wrote:I'm very glad you brought up the Mackendrick book, because it's not an obvious choice when it comes to screenwriting how-tos (since Mackendrick was a director rather than a screenwriter), and yet it has some absolutely superb examples.
Yes, that example from The Sweet Smell of Success is one of the best examples of screenwriting. Seeing its genesis from beginning to final form constitutes a masterclass.

Mackendrick's analysis of The Third Man is also spectacular. So spectacular that I've got a photocopy of it stuck on the wall next to my computer.

I think the book is essential for anyone involved in story-telling, whether as a writer of novels or screenplays, a director, an actor, or even a film editor.

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Ann Harding
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#904 Post by Ann Harding » Thu Nov 05, 2015 5:06 am

I guess blowing my own horn is not forbidden. I translated in English my biography of Albert Capellani and University Press of Kentucky is releasing it next month. If you are interested in early film making in France and the US, you may want to read Albert Capellani - Pioneer of the Silent Screen.

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Tom Amolad
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#905 Post by Tom Amolad » Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:43 am

Congratulations on the book!

If promotion of books in which one had a hand isn't verboten, might I mention two I just midwifed?

One is a book by a very smart French philosopher named Peter Szendy, called Apocalypse-Cinema: 2012 and Other Ends of the World. Beyond a series of delightful readings of movies about the apocalypse, Szendy's central claim is that cinema enacts a theory of apocalypse in its claims about the film-world and its termination at the end of the movie. Those in the New York Area can catch Peter in a conversation with Emily Apter about the book at the Albertine Bookstore (a new French-language bookstore on the Upper East Side, which everyone should know about) on February 16, probably at 7.

The second, on Christensen's Haxan, is written by two anthropologists, Richard Baxstrom and Todd Meyers, and is called: Realizing the Witch: Science, Cinema, and the Mastery of the Invisible. The book offers a close readings of the ways this bizarre film undercuts its director's claims to a scientific analysis of female hysteria. In the process, Baxstrom and Meyers sketch a genealogy of modern anthropology as a problematic mediated by the tensions of documentary form's relation to truth and fiction. Those in New York can attend a book discussion at Book Culture (near Columbia) later this Month, on November 24, at 7.

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big ticket
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#906 Post by big ticket » Tue Dec 22, 2015 10:46 pm

ando wrote:Before I dive into Godard's two disc, Histoirie(s) du cinema, I thought I'd read Michael Witt's Jen-Luc Godard, Cinema Historian, which is apparently something of a companion piece to the film. Has anyone here read it? (The search feature didn't yield anything.)
I realize I'm quoting a fairly old post, so anyone else with any input may please feel free to chime in, but any recommendations on how to attack these projects? Should I watch Histoire(s) or read the book first? Concurrently? Does it even matter?

Obviously the film was produced well before the book existed, but I'm eager to get the most out of my media!

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thirtyframesasecond
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#907 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Sat Dec 26, 2015 5:41 am

One of my Christmas presents was Julie Salamon's 'The Devil's Candy', which as many of you will know is a close-up account of the making of Brian de Palma's film of 'The Bonfire of the Vanities'. It almost makes me want to watch it again, except that it's terrible. I don't think Bruce Willis comes out of it particularly well.

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lacritfan
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#908 Post by lacritfan » Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:11 pm

thirtyframesasecond wrote:One of my Christmas presents was Julie Salamon's 'The Devil's Candy', which as many of you will know is a close-up account of the making of Brian de Palma's film of 'The Bonfire of the Vanities'. It almost makes me want to watch it again, except that it's terrible. I don't think Bruce Willis comes out of it particularly well.
Recently read Devil's Candy and Final Cut back to back, Candy was more fun to read, Cut was pretty dry. Watched the CC Heaven's Gate Blu after and have to say I do see/feel much of the talent and money spent up on the screen. Was able to get through about 30 minutes of Bonfire and gave up; likewise I could see the studio meddling, overpriced talent and money spent up on the screen and didn't need to see the rest.

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Forrest Taft
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#909 Post by Forrest Taft » Sun Dec 27, 2015 12:31 pm

The book is lots of fun, but what I remember best about Devil's Candy is the section about second unit director Eric Schwab's quest to capture some of the film's more striking individual shots. I kind of like the movie too, for all it's faults.

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ianthemovie
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#910 Post by ianthemovie » Fri Mar 25, 2016 8:28 pm

Can anybody provide more detailed info about Naremore's book on Kubrick? (What is his approach, how is the book organized, how does it compare to, say, Thomas Allen Nelson's book, etc.) My library's copy is checked out and Amazon/Google Books doesn't offer a preview.

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ando
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#911 Post by ando » Sat Mar 26, 2016 9:55 am

Critic, Jonathan Rosenbaum, posted an exchange of letters with Naremore as well as short appraisal of the book on his site. There's also a write-up on palgrave.com.

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FakeBonanza
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#912 Post by FakeBonanza » Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:28 pm

ianthemovie wrote:Can anybody provide more detailed info about Naremore's book on Kubrick? (What is his approach, how is the book organized, how does it compare to, say, Thomas Allen Nelson's book, etc.) My library's copy is checked out and Amazon/Google Books doesn't offer a preview.
I have the book, but haven't read it yet, so I can't comment on Naremore's analysis. This is how the book is organized:

Part One: Prologue
I. The Last Modernist
II. Silence, Exile, and Cunning
III. Grotesque Aesthetics

Part Two: Early Kubrick
I. No Other Country but the Mind
II. Dream City

Part Three: Kubrick, Harris, Douglas
I. The Criminal and the Artist
II. Ant Hill
III. Dolores, Lady of Pain

Part Four: Stanley Kubrick Presents
I. Wargasm
II. Beyond the Stars
III. A Professional Piece of Sinny
IV. Duellist
V. Horrorshow

Part Five: Late Kubrick
I. Warriors
II. Lovers

Part Six: Epilogue
I. Afterthoughts
II. Love and Death in A. I. Artificial Intelligence

As I'm sure you can guess, parts one and six contain more general overviews and reflections. Parts two to five contain chapters dedicated to Kubrick's individual films, Spartacus excepted.

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Rayon Vert
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#913 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Mar 26, 2016 5:27 pm

I finished Naremore's book about a month ago, along with Ciment's book and a reread of Walker's book, in parallel to revisiting Kubrick's oeuvre again. On the whole, I was somewhat disappointed in Naremore's volume. The introduction explains how he intends to understand and view Kubrick's films through the concept of the grotesque, but the different chapters didn't really argue that and flesh that out. One of his recurring points is that Kubrick's films, in contrast to some superficial views of them, are emotional rather than cold/detached/intellectual, which is an important point but he isn't the first one mentioning it. Some good bits here and there, but not essential IMO, and definitely not of the caliber of his Welles book. (Walker's book is still the one for me.)

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Trees
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Re: Book Recommendation Request: A History of World Cinema

#914 Post by Trees » Thu May 26, 2016 8:03 pm

Just a little question, and perhaps a minor rant.

I am looking at buying jsteffe's book The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov at Amazon. Generally I like to read on my kindle these days, but when a book has a lot of nice illustrations, I might prefer to have a hard copy of the book.

The thing that bugs me is that I feel like if I pay for the hardack/softback at full price, I should get a kindle electronic copy free of charge, or at some discounted rate, for example. Is there anywhere I can buy hardback/paperback books and get the e-reader version tossed in or at a lower cost?

Any opinions on whether I should go for the hard copy of jsteffe's book or kindle version? Do you lose image quality on a kindle Voyager?

Is anyone here using a Kindle Oasis yet?

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Ribs
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#915 Post by Ribs » Thu May 26, 2016 10:07 pm

Amazon does offer such a service for some books, but it's up to the publisher. Just as an example I remember as I'm probably going to use it soon, the recent Raoul Walsh biography has a 'Matchbook' (the term for it) price of $0.00 (so free) with any purchase of a new copy from Amazon. The book mentioned above does not carry this functionality.

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Trees
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#916 Post by Trees » Thu May 26, 2016 10:33 pm

:cry: I wish more publishers and booksellers would offer this.

I also think it would be good for business. Imagine, you buy an e-book on your kindle and two days later a hard copy arrives. That could trigger a lot impulse buys. You get the instant gratification of reading right away, and then a keepsake that will last forever and always be around for perusing.

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Jean-Luc Garbo
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Re: Book Recommendation Request: A History of World Cinema

#917 Post by Jean-Luc Garbo » Tue May 31, 2016 1:32 pm

Trees wrote:Just a lit Is there anywhere I can buy hardback/paperback books and get the e-reader version tossed in or at a lower cost?
Aside from a number of titles in the Radical Thinkers series, Verso takes that approach for their books.

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Forrest Taft
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#918 Post by Forrest Taft » Tue Jul 12, 2016 4:57 am

Not necessarily a book about film, but I'll ask here anyway. Does anyone have a rec for a good book on Farce?

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ianthemovie
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#919 Post by ianthemovie » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:03 am

I have no idea what type of book you're looking for, but one notable academic title that comes to mind is Alenka Zupancic's The Odd One In: On Comedy. Zupancic is a disciple of Zizek and the book is pretty densely theoretical, so be aware of that going in. I seem to recall that her main reference point throughout the book is Tartuffe.

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Forrest Taft
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#920 Post by Forrest Taft » Tue Jul 12, 2016 11:20 am

Thank you. Not entirely sure what I'm looking for myself, made more of an historical look on the genre, rather than a "densely theoretal" one. But the Zupancic book looks interesting, so it's already been "auto-delivered wirelessly" to my Kindle :wink:

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YnEoS
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#921 Post by YnEoS » Sat Jul 23, 2016 9:53 am

Antoine de de Baecque and Noël Herpe's giant biography on Erich Rohmer translated to English. I'm surprised this was translated before Antoine de Baecque's Godard biography, I guess maybe no one wants to flood the market with another huge Godard biography so soon after Richard Brody's book.

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ianthemovie
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#922 Post by ianthemovie » Mon Apr 17, 2017 7:28 pm

Can anyone recommend a biography of Marlon Brando?

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dda1996a
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#923 Post by dda1996a » Tue Apr 18, 2017 12:04 am

These are well known books, but how worthy are Christian Metz's Film Language and Gilles Deleuze's Cinema and the three Eisenstein written notes?

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domino harvey
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#924 Post by domino harvey » Tue Apr 18, 2017 12:11 am

Film Language is essential if you are interested in film semiotics. However, be aware that if you don't have access to Rozier's Adieu Philippine, you will miss out on the book's unifying case study of the film using film semiotics

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knives
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#925 Post by knives » Tue Apr 18, 2017 12:54 am

The Deleuze is quite good, but is also clearly written by someone with no interest in previous film critique. The lack of association with film criticism (versus Deleuze's typical sources) and its overall 'wrongness' as Moullet phrased it (negatively in his case) is one of its best traits n my opinion as it gives a very fresh take on a lot of the material.

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