The Best Books About Film

[Guest]

I got my Village Voice Film Guide a couple of days ago and have read most of it so far. Of course no book can completely do justice to decades of the finest film reviews of the Voice, but I think this volume comes close. There are of course sad omissions, but for a Hoberman-fan like me it's paradise. His reviews of SHOAH, MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, ROSE HOBART, FLAMING CREATURES, AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, JEANNE DIELMAN, VERTIGO and STAR SPANGLED TO DEATH really show him at the top of his game. There are some brilliant Sarris and Mekas pieces in there and also fine writing by Georgia Brown. I simply love this book!

I don't know whether it has been mentioned before, but Parker Tyler's UNDERGROUND FILM: A CRITICAL HISTORY is really a magnificent book. Truly essential stuff.

[ellipsis7]

Picked up a copy of Tullio Kezich's revised and updated edn of FEDERICO FELLINI in Borders @ Columbus circle NYC - ahead of Faber's February publication date... So far found it very well wriiten & interesting - lots of detailed context and information on his life and films...

[academyleader]

While it's not a script, an English translation of the The Draughtsman's Contract dialogue accompanies the French translation in the monthly magazine L'Avant scene cinema no. 333 (Oct., 1984). The magazine calls the film by its French title: Meurtre dans un jardin anglais.

[souvenir]

Does anyone have opinions on the merits of Geoff Andrew's The Films of Nicholas Ray: The Poet of Nightfall? A search of this forum turned up nothing and I haven't found very much information elsewhere either.

[foggy eyes]

It's great for dipping into, although not quite as exhaustive as you might expect. Certainly worth a read.

Bernard Eisenschitz's biography of Ray (translated by Tom Milne) is a killer, if long out of print (check your library, perhaps!).

[portnoy]

For those interested in the craft of narrative filmmaking, I know of no better book on the subject than the collected lecture notes of Alexander Mackendrick from his teaching at CalArts, ON FILMMAKING.

[Cobalt60]

advance apologies if this has already been brought up (but I am pretty sure it has not) but has anyone checked out anything from Creation Books. They have a pretty impressive looking series on cult and underground film. I have the Hammer horror volume and found it a pretty decent overview of the studios career. I was thinking of picking a few up more would and love any opinions/suggestions

[jt]

I recently picked up a second-hand copy of Film Art: An Introduction (7ed) by Thompson and Bordwell.

The book is very good but it didn't come with the 'Film Viewer's Guide', which from the description in the foreword sounds quite interesting.

Does anyone own this and can comment on it's usefulness?

Anyone got any idea where I can get hold of a copy?

[Steven H]

I've been reading Nogami Teruyo's book about her life in films, Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies With Akira Kurosawa (which is dominated by anecdotes about Kurosawa, since she worked with him most of her professional life), and can't suggest it highly enough.

Just added to my shopping list; working my way through Bock's Japanese Film Directors and Mellen's Voices From The Japanese Cinema...I've been spending too much $ already lately

I enjoyed both of those books, davida, but the latter, Mellen's, is fantastic. Voices From the Japanese Cinema has many rare and great interviews and you can find it online for practically nothing. The interview with Kurosawa touches on a comparison made between Luka in Dodes'ka'den and Tamba in Lower Depths (Mellen finds a link, Kurosawa disagrees.) He also goes on in length about High and Low, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo.

Mellen is very contentious, though, and her outright dismissal (in one and the same sentence no less) of two of my favorite Japanese directors, Okamoto Kihachi and Jissouji Akio, is extremely annoying. It is fantastic that Hani recieves so much attention, though much of the interview is lavished on his less interesting 70s work, and not enough late sixties. Also, her somewhat aggressive interview with Oshima, challenging him on his own rebellious ideas, is worth picking up the book alone.

Books on Japanese film can be very expensive. I've had my eye on a couple volumes lately: Word and Image in Japanese Cinema, which has one of the few english attempts to discuss Shimizu Hiroshi's work (particularly his Children's films), Classical Theater in Japanese Films, which has a great discussion and comparison of Yamanaka's Kochiyama Soshun and Shinoda's Buraikan to their same Kabuki origin (Kawatake's Early Cherry Blossoms at Ueno, made up of two plays, Kochiyama and Naozamurai).

On a side note, I asked when Ozu's memoirs were going to be translated on the KineJapan list, and noone responded. Is there something going on here that I'm unaware of? Doesn't it seem like an obvious thing to get his memoirs translated into english? I spoke with Joseph Anderson a while back, and just about every question I had for him about Ozu's work he referenced this seemingly invaluable material, still only available in Japanese.

[Poncho Punch]

Any recommendations for books on Thatcher era British cinema? I'm looking specifically for something that might comment on Jarman's The Last Of England

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Any recommendations for books on Thatcher era British cinema? I'm looking specifically for something that might comment on Jarman's The Last Of England

Visions of England by Paul Dave ,primarily a study of the handling of class in post war british cinema, has a chapter on the Thatcher era including Jarman,Keiller and Petit.

[Steven H]

Any recommendations for books on Thatcher era British cinema? I'm looking specifically for something that might comment on Jarman's The Last Of England

I did a Google Books search and came up with a number of titles that seem to add context to this film including: British National Cinema by Sarah Street, London from Punk to Blair by Kerr and Gibson, and Out Takes: Essays on Queer Theory and Film by Ellis Hanson. I'm sure there are far more informed fans of British film that can better answer this question, but that's my stab.

[Quirky77]

On a side note, I asked when Ozu's memoirs were going to be translated on the KineJapan list, and noone responded. Is there something going on here that I'm unaware of? Doesn't it seem like an obvious thing to get his memoirs translated into english? I spoke with Joseph Anderson a while back, and just about every question I had for him about Ozu's work he referenced this seemingly invaluable material, still only available in Japanese.

Sorry, Steven H, but I'm not used to the quoting function... But your mention of Ozu's memoirs was a surprise. Any info? I agree that a translation of this would be wonderful. I'm reading Nogami's Waiting on the Weather right now, after having finally read Kurosawa's Something Like an Autobiography and I had been thinking "Too bad we don't have a couple of books like these for Ozu..." I was very happy back in college to have Donald Richie's book, though Ozu's direct words, reflections, etc would have a prized place on my shelf.

Does anybody know anything about Japanese books on Kurosawa? I was in Tokyo last year, and in a bookstore I found several books that I believe were published by Kurosawa Productions- each book dedicated to a specific film- but knowing no Japanese, I couldn't tell what the content was (though I noticed that a few of his storyboard paintings were included). Also I believe there was a 1 or 2 volume bio. I read Stuart Galbraith's a few years ago, and while it was certainly valuable, another view couldn't hurt. Also, does anybody know if Kurosawa left an unpublished continuation of his autobiography post-Rashomon?

[King of Kong]

Seconded. I'd love an English translation of Ozu's own writings.

[Steven H]

Does anybody know anything about Japanese books on Kurosawa? I was in Tokyo last year, and in a bookstore I found several books that I believe were published by Kurosawa Productions- each book dedicated to a specific film- but knowing no Japanese, I couldn't tell what the content was (though I noticed that a few of his storyboard paintings were included). Also I believe there was a 1 or 2 volume bio. I read Stuart Galbraith's a few years ago, and while it was certainly valuable, another view couldn't hurt. Also, does anybody know if Kurosawa left an unpublished continuation of his autobiography post-Rashomon?

In regards to the first part of your question, I don't know much about what's available in Japanese about Kurosawa, but 40 entries pop up when you search for "akira kurosawa" at yesasia.com, and then narrow your search on the left panel to "books", so I imagine he's well represented. As for the second, I'm not sure if he ever wrote more of his autobiography, but I do recall him saying somewhere that he would prefer his films to be the place people go to learn about him.

[davida2]

Just added to my shopping list; working my way through Bock's Japanese Film Directors and Mellen's Voices From The Japanese Cinema...I've been spending too much $ already lately

I enjoyed both of those books, davida, but the latter, Mellen's, is fantastic. Voices From the Japanese Cinema has many rare and great interviews and you can find it online for practically nothing. The interview with Kurosawa touches on a comparison made between Luka in Dodes'ka'den and Tamba in Lower Depths (Mellen finds a link, Kurosawa disagrees.) He also goes on in length about High and Low, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo.

Mellen is very contentious, though, and her outright dismissal (in one and the same sentence no less) of two of my favorite Japanese directors, Okamoto Kihachi and Jissouji Akio, is extremely annoying. It is fantastic that Hani recieves so much attention, though much of the interview is lavished on his less interesting 70s work, and not enough late sixties. Also, her somewhat aggressive interview with Oshima, challenging him on his own rebellious ideas, is worth picking up the book alone.

On a side note, I asked when Ozu's memoirs were going to be translated on the KineJapan list, and noone responded. Is there something going on here that I'm unaware of? Doesn't it seem like an obvious thing to get his memoirs translated into english? I spoke with Joseph Anderson a while back, and just about every question I had for him about Ozu's work he referenced this seemingly invaluable material, still only available in Japanese.[/quote]
I agree on the Mellen book - though I think both are essential. Bock's summaries are great guides - I haven't been able to go film-by-film through most of the filmmakers, so it's a good general 'field guide' - her book includes the only synopses I've run across of several extremely hard-to-find Kobayashi films, for example (the post Samurai Rebellion films, which I'd love to see someone release).

I like Mellen's contentiousness, though I don't always agree with them - she's quite willing to offer interpretations and perspectives that may not necessarily line up with general critical consensus. I need to order the 60s Hani films, and the Teshigahara interview does have me looking forward to the eventual Criterion set. Ditto for Ichikawa, who gets more interesting with every interview or article I come across...

I've definitely noticed the expensiveness factor in ordering Japanese film books; having Bordwell's Ozu book online is a godsend, as three digits is a bit steep for me...

I'm on the KineJapan list, and I use it as an info resource, but I haven't posted anything yet. As a resource, it's extremely valuable. I could only speculate as to why we haven't seen greater availability of the Ozu memoir - I'm certain that some publisher would be interested, but academics probably also have some professional interest in maintaining some exclusive access, for a time at least.

[Steven H]

I agree on the Mellen book - though I think both are essential. Bock's summaries are great guides - I haven't been able to go film-by-film through most of the filmmakers, so it's a good general 'field guide' - her book includes the only synopses I've run across of several extremely hard-to-find Kobayashi films, for example (the post Samurai Rebellion films, which I'd love to see someone release).

Believe it or not, but you can buy Kobayashi Masaki's Tokyo Trial documentary here, though it's institutionally priced at $200 (for a dvdr, no less, but presumably subbed.) But hey, then you can show it in public at least (there's also an unsubbed DVD in Japan, but I think it's half in english, though I'm still working on tracking the film down). Also, his Inn of Evil is floating around ebay (home authored bootleg, I think, with removable subs.)

I like Mellen's contentiousness, though I don't always agree with them - she's quite willing to offer interpretations and perspectives that may not necessarily line up with general critical consensus. I need to order the 60s Hani films, and the Teshigahara interview does have me looking forward to the eventual Criterion set. Ditto for Ichikawa, who gets more interesting with every interview or article I come across...

Good luck looking for Hani's work. I've been looking *hard* for a couple years now, and the best I can come up with are awful VHS of Bad Boys and She and He, and a great looking bootleg of Inferno of First Love (all fantastic films.) If you come across A Full Life, Bride of the Andes, Bwana Toshi, or Aido, please let me know. I found a subbed 16mm print of Aido on ebay.au a while back, found it after it had closed, but it's the closest I've come to any of those four.

The Teshigahara/Abe set will be welcome, but I'm still holding out hope that Man Without A Map will be included (though I assume there are hurdles to jump, it has a differnt production company than the rest.) Have you had a chance to read The Delicate Thread: Teshigahara's Life in Art? In doing an amazon search I came across about a book about Glenn Gould where it says the pianist considered Woman in the Dunes "the greatest film ever made".

I've been discovering more and more Ichikawa lately, and I'm constantly amazed. The Quandt book about him is definitely worth picking up even if you've only seen a handful of his films, the essays are well written, and there's an awful lot from Ichikawa himself (interviews, diary entries, etc.)

I'm on the KineJapan list, and I use it as an info resource, but I haven't posted anything yet. As a resource, it's extremely valuable. I could only speculate as to why we haven't seen greater availability of the Ozu memoir - I'm certain that some publisher would be interested, but academics probably also have some professional interest in maintaining some exclusive access, for a time at least.

My God I hope that's not the reason. Scholars doing something like that could turn me into a Rush Limbaugh supporter.

[davida2]

Welll...I'm in a college town here, and a friend of mine is in the film program @ UNC, and just from hanging out with him I've gotten a great glimpse of academic egos even in a dept. as tiny as the one here, so it tends to bring out my inner cynic. And (another tangent) for all the great brains and hordes of film nuts in this metro area of 1.5 million, we still haven't been able to get a single Japanese film retrospective in North Carolina...

I've almost orderd those Hani VHS tapes from Facets (I believe is where I saw them), but I've seen the prints of Chikamatsu Monogatari, Taira Clan Saga and Inagaki's Rickshaw Man they were carrying, and that scared me away... If I run across the other Hani's I'll pass the info along.

I'll have to do some searching for the Kobayashi films as well. At one point New Yorker had the rights to The Fossil and (I believe) Inn Of Evil, but never released them. So I was holding out some vague hope that Criterion might have been able to get those, but Criterion/Eclipse already has plenty on thier plate.

[Steven H]

Regarding NC film showings, I've been trying to get something going in Greensboro for years, with no avail. I'd imagine Chapel Hill would be the best bet (however, there were some Ozu showings at Duke a couple years ago, and there's a lot of Japanese film scholarship coming out of that University, anyway.)

AnimEigo is out of Wilmington, maybe they could be talked into sponsoring some sort of jidaigeki retro?

[davida2]

Regarding NC film showings, I've been trying to get something going in Greensboro for years, with no avail. I'd imagine Chapel Hill would be the best bet (however, there were some Ozu showings at Duke a couple years ago, and there's a lot of Japanese film scholarship coming out of that University, anyway.)

AnimEigo is out of Wilmington, maybe they could be talked into sponsoring some sort of jidaigeki retro?

I made a few different kinds of attempts at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, as they've done a good job handling the NC G&L Film Fest and Full Frame, but I was unable to get responses from anyone, and when I tried to sign up to volunteer and get involved, I ran into e-mail bouncebacks and several broken links on the website. After that promising sign, I just resigned myself to small-screen in my house and/or the trek to DC. Which continues to frustrate me - given that the Ozu retro played (at least in part) in some similarly sized (or in a couple instances, smaller) cities/areas, and at least the urban areas in NC have a decent-sized Asian and/or film-fan population...

But hey, I can go see the Retrofantasm Fest (or whatever the hell it's called) of horror and sci-fi we've all seen before quite easily

I'll cease with my off-topic kvetching...grrr

[tryavna]

Regarding NC film showings, I've been trying to get something going in Greensboro for years, with no avail. I'd imagine Chapel Hill would be the best bet

You'd think so, but it's not the case. The Triangle area is far more pitiful when it comes to revivals than I'd ever imagined. (Louisville, where I lived for five years, had -- and still has -- a much better track record.) I did, however, manage to see Battle of Algiers in Cary when that film was making the rounds. And I think the art museum in Raleigh shows classic movies every so often -- I remember seeing Pepe Le Moko there on Valentines Day a few years ago.

[Steven H]

Yeah, the museum of art in Raleigh did have a number of classic french films showing. I had a family emergency and unfortunately had to miss Pickpocket, which played there. 35mm prints, I believe. Maybe I'll start emailing those folks and see if something can be put together. The museum in Raleigh seems like the best bet all around, now that I think about it. For one of the ten most populous states in the US, the actual urbanity is spread all over the place. No really big concentrations of people (and Charlotte is practically an "art free" zone, maybe if there's a foreign film about how great banking is it will play there.)

[Greathinker]

Has anyone had a chance to check out the fairly recent David Cronenberg: Interviews with Serge Grünberg? Looks interesting.

[Sekoya]

Is it already known that David Bordwell's "Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema" is free to download from this site?

[jguitar]

Is it already known that David Bordwell's "Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema" is free to download from this site?

So mentioned on page 11 of this very thread, by yours truly. The images are atrocious, but otherwise it's great to have this available again.