The Best Books About Film

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denti alligator
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1151 Post by denti alligator » Fri Aug 27, 2021 4:19 pm

I’m really digging this new series of short books on German films. Sort of like the BFI volumes, though these seem to me to be on the whole better.

https://boydellandbrewer.com/search-res ... m-classics

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1152 Post by Glowingwabbit » Tue Oct 26, 2021 11:41 am

I forgot to post this (not sure if it already has been) but Film Desk is releasing a revised edition of Film as a Subversive Art by Amos Vogel. It can be pre-ordered here still:

https://www.filmdeskbooks.com/shop/film ... er-edition

And this talks about the research done for the reprint and editorial changes done by the publisher (rescanning images, fixing inaccuracies, etc.):

https://www.screenslate.com/articles/su ... ersive-art

CJG
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:13 am

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1153 Post by CJG » Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:20 pm

Fantastic! Thank you for posting that.

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1154 Post by beamish14 » Tue Oct 26, 2021 3:01 pm

CJG wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:20 pm
Fantastic! Thank you for posting that.
I concur. The Film Desk is a great company-I've seen the gorgeous 35mm prints they commissioned for Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black and Mississippi Mermaid.

Film as a Subversive Art is so incredibly important to my maturation from casual film fan to all-out cinema buff. I cannot wait to see it given a new sheen.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1155 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Oct 26, 2021 4:05 pm

I've never read it, but this looks like a huge blind spot I'm compelled to remedy

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1156 Post by Glowingwabbit » Tue Oct 26, 2021 4:53 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 4:05 pm
I've never read it, but this looks like a huge blind spot I'm compelled to remedy
I've actually never read it either. I've looked at badly scanned PDFs but wanted to wait for a reprint (which happened once in 2005 but quickly sold out) to really dive in. I'm excited to get a copy

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domino harvey
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1157 Post by domino harvey » Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:05 pm

As I recall (haven’t looked at it since college), Vogel champions the new and emergent “freedoms” of depicting anything over moral or artistic weight on what should and shouldn’t be depicted. This tends to favor showing over elision as a default, which is absolutely not how I view or value films.

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soundchaser
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1158 Post by soundchaser » Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:12 pm

I've had it for a while but haven't really delved into it beyond a quick skim. It is...overt, I'll give it that.

beamish14
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1159 Post by beamish14 » Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:24 pm

In the pre-YouTube/file sharing era, it was amazing just to daydream about what some of these films with their unbelievable stills were actually like. Some of the mystery may be gone, but the book has been a remarkable totem that I keep referring to, and which acts as a hypertext that has turned me onto so many different movements and artists. Vogel seemed to be very far ahead of the curve when compared to his American contemporaries, and there was even a recent screening series in NYC that revolved around works he championed.

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ianthemovie
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1160 Post by ianthemovie » Tue Oct 26, 2021 6:50 pm

Out of curiosity I skimmed through a PDF of this online today, and yeah, "overt" is one word for it! My first thought is that it's like a more radical version of something like Michael Weldon's Psychotronic Encyclopedia, a kind of bible of transgressive cinema from around the globe, with capsule reviews of everything from pornographic cartoons and autopsy footage to slightly more mainstream art-house fare by Pasolini and Antonioni (the juxtaposition of certain titles is often jarring).

Lots of entries for underground and avant-garde films (Brakhage comes up a lot). I can see how this would be catnip for adventurous moviegoers seeking out stuff that is--or once was--truly obscure, shocking, and transgressive. But do I need a book that singles out a movie about people shitting on-screen (with accompanying still)? Definitely NSFW, in case that's not clear.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1161 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:37 pm

I bought a copy, and will certainly approach it with domino's word of warning in mind, but it feels like a valuable (literally and figuratively) book to own if only as a historical document to contextualize against the grain of additional resources formulating my own (and, I'd assume, many of our) eclectic conceptualizations of cinema's value

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1162 Post by Glowingwabbit » Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:49 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:37 pm
it feels like a valuable (literally and figuratively) book to own if only as a historical document to contextualize [....]
This sums up the main reason I'm purchasing it and why I brought it to the forum's attention. But I'm also more interested in the book as film guide than I am any theory of value.

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markpsf
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1163 Post by markpsf » Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:22 pm

The Definitive Jacques Tati. Is it worth the expense? How readable is it in this coffee table book format?

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senseabove
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 3:07 am

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1164 Post by senseabove » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:45 pm

The new translations of Bazin that were only available in Canada last time around are finally coming out in an expanded André Bazin Reader, available in the US this time:
The André Bazin Reader is the most comprehensive edition of French film critic André Bazin's work in English, with the most extensive commentary, the culmination of 13 years by the translator-publisher translating, annotating and commenting on his writings. Some 670 pages in length with 44 texts by Bazin totalling 200,000 words, this volume covers every period of his brief career, including his neglected later years, and all of his major interests. No other English-language edition has brought together all the major texts, found here in an acclaimed translation which has transformed our view of Bazin’s work. The 44 texts included here are all offered in their original version, in most cases for the first time, as they were written, published and discussed in Bazin’s day in post-war France – before Bazin and in some cases his posthumous editors revised and abridged them for republication.
And here's a contemporary review detailing the problems with the 1960s UC Press edition.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1165 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:59 pm

Seems like only libraries are supposed to be able to get it in the U.S., though I don't see anything stopping an individual ordering it from Indiana University Press so long as they're willing to part with $175. There's also a puzzling mention of a paperback edition (buried in the seventh paragraph) that can be ordered "directly from the publisher," yet clicking through to order from Caboose leads to the statement that it's "available in a hardcover edition only."

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senseabove
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1166 Post by senseabove » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:20 pm

Dangit. This edition is also not available for shipping to the U.S., and the copy about the paperback edition is apparently out of date; per an email from the publisher, there will be none. Looks like I need to find a Canadian mule.

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domino harvey
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1167 Post by domino harvey » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:46 pm

Previously you could email Caboose and they’d agree to send you titles if you were out of the licensing range if you paid via PayPal, but their agreement with the US publisher may now not allow that. I believe this is an expanded rerelease of an earlier OOP collection, which was in paperback (I think?)

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senseabove
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1168 Post by senseabove » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:51 pm

Yes, there was an edition in 2009 that was, I believe, just the What is Cinema? essays. I've confirmed they will not ship this new volume to the U.S. at all, though. They sent an invoice in reply to the link at the top of that page, then confirmed they couldn't ship it to the U.S. and cancelled the invoice.

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domino harvey
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1169 Post by domino harvey » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:00 pm

That sucks, I really want to read it too but can’t justify paying institutional prices for it here. Maybe we’ll see more reasonable copies pop up on AbeBooks et al

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swo17
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1170 Post by swo17 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:17 pm

If you just want to read it as opposed to owning it though, can you request that your local library system purchase a copy? I have that capability with mine

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senseabove
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1171 Post by senseabove » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:24 pm

This is America, swo. How dare you suggest we rely on institutions and not bootstrap our way to a copy by finding technical loopholes around legal restrictions.

BigMack3000
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:27 pm

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1172 Post by BigMack3000 » Tue Dec 07, 2021 3:21 am

Has anyone read Hitchcock: The First Forty-Four Films? Is it worth seeking out?

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1173 Post by Matt » Sat Dec 11, 2021 12:49 am

I’m reading (listening to audio versions of) Mel Brooks’ new autobiography and Robert Gottlieb’s new bio of Greta Garbo.

The Brooks, narrated by him, is an old-fashioned showbiz memoir. It’s full of amusing anecdotes but not a lot of historical or psychological depth, everyone he ever works with is great (except Jerry Lewis, who was still “a genius” but “difficult to work with”), and jumps around a lot in both subject and chronology. It’s enjoyable but not terribly gripping as a narrative. Hearing Brooks tell his own story is probably the best way to experience it, though.

The Garbo book is very interesting, though. I think it’s more a critical amalgam of previously published bios and profiles than a work of original research, but it takes great pains to separate fact from legend. I’m not even all that fond of Garbo and haven’t seen many of her films, but this is such a well-told story of an awkward girl with frizzy hair becoming an international glamour icon that I don’t feel like it demands a lot of additional knowledge. The audiobook narration, by Maria Tucci (a.k.a. Mrs. Gottlieb), is really good with a natural style and a hint of a Garbo accent (when quoting her) that is not a caricature but also not unironic. I often bail on audiobooks because listening to a single person talking for more than a few minutes is not my bag, but this one is actually a pleasure in both content and delivery.

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dustybooks
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:52 am
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Re: The Best Books About Film

#1174 Post by dustybooks » Sat Dec 11, 2021 10:56 am

Brooks’ book showed up in the library’s shipment on Friday and I was a little curious about it as I loved him a lot growing up, so I appreciate that summary. I was particularly interested in what stories he might tell about Anne Bancroft (and David Lynch).

I’m currently almost finished with Mark Harris’ bio of Mike Nichols, whose life was more complicated than I ever thought. Much like when I read a book on Hal Ashby I’m also rather startled by how few of his films I actually enjoy. (I had forgotten altogether that What Planet Are You From? existed.) The book is very engaging despite its length, but most of the best stuff is in the earlier chapters I feel.

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: The Best Books About Film

#1175 Post by beamish14 » Sat Dec 11, 2021 12:51 pm

Matt wrote:
Sat Dec 11, 2021 12:49 am
I’m reading (listening to audio versions of) Mel Brooks’ new autobiography and Robert Gottlieb’s new bio of Greta Garbo.

The Brooks, narrated by him, is an old-fashioned showbiz memoir. It’s full of amusing anecdotes but not a lot of historical or psychological depth, everyone he ever works with is great (except Jerry Lewis, who was still “a genius” but “difficult to work with”), and jumps around a lot in both subject and chronology. It’s enjoyable but not terribly gripping as a narrative. Hearing Brooks tell his own story is probably the best way to experience it, though.

Have you read Patrick McGilligan's bio of Brooks? I haven't yet, but his books on Robert Altman and Nicholas Ray are phenomenal.

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