The Best Books About Film

[che-etienne]

I have very much enjoyed Deleuze's frustrating thesis on the cinema. So far, I've read parts of "Cinema 1" and nearly all of "Cinema 2". Although he clearly has more than one agenda here, which is often at odds with his investigation of the films themselves, his insights on individual films or bodies of work (especially his section on Welles in "Cinema 2" and Herzog in "Cinema 1") are very illuminating.

I'm also currently reading Kracauer's "Theory of Film", which is wonderful even when it tries to cover too much. Kracauer aims to comprehend and delineate the very nature of cinema itself at the expense of in depth analysis of specifics.

[foggy eyes]

Couldn't help recalling this: Moullet on Deleuze.

[Awesome Welles]

I don't know if this is the best place to ask but does anyone know of any good books on original Japanese posters particularly of Ozu/Mizoguchi. It's even very hard to find images online, I hope there is a book out there. Posters books I have seen seem to concentrate on American or European posters. When in fact posters from Cuba and Japan (the few I have seen) are stunning, I'd love to be able to see and read more.

Is anyone aware of any books on Masaki Kobayashi? I can't seem to find anything, there seems to be so little written about him, and the imdb is pretty useless for information on his unreleased films.

[Subbuteo]

Not sure if its been mentioned before but I heartily recommend Patrick McGilligan's Alfred Hitchcock: A life in Darkness and Light. A mighty tome and one helluva of an engrossing read.

If you love Hitchcock this is a must addition to the library.

[filmyfan]

Has anyone come across the FOCUS ON (1972) series of books..a set of books about genres/directors/films that contain essays by various writers-I have the Hitchcock one but was wondering if anyone could recommend any others..I see there is a Godard one and also Shoot the Piano Player...I may hunt for those.

Thanks

[ellipsis7]

Yes, I have FOCUS ON GODARD - OK, a bit dated but contemporaneously interesting in its range of texts, interviews, essays & reviews on a range films up to 1972... My other book in the series is FOCUS ON BLOW UP, which is much more interesting and useful IMHO, in that it places and examines this one 1966 film from the perspective of the time and culture in which it is set, which is so dramatically distinctive...

[Greathinker]

Has anyone read Sven Nykvist's book Vördnad för ljuset? I'm surprised there's no english translation of what I imagine is the autobiography of one of cinema's best photographers. I can hardly find anything on it.

[porquenegar]

Catherine Benamou's It's All True: Orson Welles's Pan-American Odyssey

I'll definitely pick this up. I hope at least the story of tossing furniture out onto the lawn is true. Too bad It's All True was never finished. The Bonito sequence is one of my favorite little pieces of film. So much energy and excitement.

[ellipsis7]

Also just published from the same UCal Press, DISCOVERING ORSON WELLES by Jonathan Rosenbaum, collection of some 35 years of writings & scholarship with new commentary...

[Awesome Welles]

Catherine Benamou's It's All True: Orson Welles's Pan-American Odyssey

This sounds great, I'll definitely be picking it up. I've always wondered about It's All True, I've not seen any footage from it at all, I must remedy that soon...

[MichaelB]

Tragically true story - the other week I ordered copies of DOUBLE VISION: MY LIFE IN FILM and WAJDA ON FILM, both by Andrzej Wajda, from Amazon...

...and they turned out to be the same damn book, right down to the typeface, page numbering and illustrations.

Still, at least they didn't cost very much - and I can thoroughly recommend the text itself: it's one of those "how-to" books that also doubles as a frank confessional of things he'd have done differently had he (a) thought about it at the time, or (b) been competent enough.

There's a lovely bit where he describes hearing about the first unmistakable sign that Poles were downing tools across the country in 1980, when someone noticed that the factories' demand for electricity suddenly plummeted - and he verbally kicks himself for not knowing about this at the time he made Man of Iron, as a dramatisation would have massively simplified what he admits was a convoluted and confusing opening. Rather like that sentence.

[Faeton]

Is anyone aware of any books on Masaki Kobayashi? I can't seem to find anything, there seems to be so little written about him, and the imdb is pretty useless for information on his unreleased films.

I think there aren't, at least in english language. There's a good article about him in Bock's Japanese Film Directors, though.

[ellipsis7]

Couple of new books, really recommended...

THE BUTCHER BOY by Colin MacCabe, insightful critical study of Neil Jordan's film of Pat McCabe's novel from Cork University Press & Irish Film Institute in monograph format similar to BFI Film Classics & Modern Classics.... Places the film as a key adaptation and turning point in Irish cinema and culture...

ERIC ROHMER by Derek Schilling, in Manchester University Press' French Film Director's series first English language study of Rohmer since Colin Crisp's 1988 book, is really excellent, well written, crammed with information, quotes and multiple sources, examining his entire oeuvre to date from a number of perspectives including critical reception and number of audience admissions for each film in Paris and France as a whole revealing the rare fact that he alone of the New Wave directors with his particular filmmaking model has been sufficiently and consistently commercially viable to continue to sustain his output on his own terms, while earning him a comfortable personal income...

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

You made my day, ellipsis! The softcover edition of the Rohmer book comes in September so I have a bit of a wait.
I was looking at the Manchester U Press website and they have a book on Jarman in the same series. Has anyone read it?

[codam]

Is The Oxford History of World Cinema good?

Are there any better books which offer an overview of the history of cinema?

[MichaelB]

Is The Oxford History of World Cinema good?

Are there any better books which offer an overview of the history of cinema?

Yes, it's very good - and I'm actually hard-pushed to think of an alternative single-volume history of world cinema that's quite as comprehensive (with the proviso that such a task is inherently impossible).

[colinr0380]

A general overview book I like is Gerald Mast and Bruce Kawin's A Short History of the Movies - website here - although the most recent seventh edition only runs to 2000.

I'm thinking of picking up a copy of Francois Tuffaut's translated letters. What is the opinion on this book, is it recommended?

Also I was given Lotte Eisner's book on Fritz Lang a few years ago (I was on work experience at the BBC in Manchester when they were having a clear out of their library) but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Has anyone else read this and what did they think of it?

[Popinjay]

[Kenji]

I'm a big admirer of David Bordwell's Figures Traced in Light, which studies closely the mise-en-scene of Feuillade, Mizoguchi, Hou and Angelopoulos, 4 directors who still need championing and more attention.

The Oxford History of World Cinema is excellent- don't know when the last update (if any) was. David Cook's History of Narrative Film is very impressive and wide-ranging.

I love Gilbert Adair's Flickers.

John Kobal's Top 100 Movies is the book that opened up a whole new world to discover in the late 80's, so i'll always have a soft spot for it.

[BrianInAtlanta]

Also just published from the same UCal Press, DISCOVERING ORSON WELLES by Jonathan Rosenbaum, collection of some 35 years of writings & scholarship with new commentary...

Just finished reading this. He certainly knows his Welles, of course, but he often writes like the "resident expert" in a chatroom dedicated to a particular topic. [paraphrasing and somewhat exaggerating] "I'm amazed Heylin says this about Don Quixote when everyone could see the footage was in great shape during its showing in Budapest in 2003."

[ellipsis7]

Occasionally he even takes issue with his own previous writings, to amusing effect....

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

After reading Eyman's book on Lubitsch, I wanted to get some more history of the Jews in Hollywood. I heard about Neal Gabler's book An Empire of Their Own. Can anyone recommend it? Are their any other books like it?

[Ste]

Are there any better books which offer an overview of the history of cinema?

...I'm actually hard-pushed to think of an alternative single-volume history of world cinema that's quite as comprehensive...

I just picked up Mark Cousins's The Story of Film from Borders for the bargain-basement price of $4.99. Not had a chance to go through it fully yet, but it certainly covers a lot of ground. And in typical Cousins style, it appears to be as readable as it is thoughtful. Definitely worth a look. I believe there is a U.S. edition, also, with a quite dreadful Pirates of the Caribbean cover, which is likely to turn-off the average cineaste browsing the shelves.

[ptmd]

What are the board's preferences with regard to books about Expressionism, either on a particular director (Murnau, Wiene) or on the movement as a whole?

There is an excellent book on Murnau in German: Murnau: Ein Melancholiker des Films, but nothing other than the very old Lotte Eisner book in English. The standard books on German Expressionism as a movement are still Lotte Eisner's "The Haunted Screen" and Siegfried Kracauer's "From Caligari to Hitler;" virtually everything else situates itself in between these two books. The best recent book on 1920s German cinema is Thomas Elsaesser's "Weimar Cinema and After." There are also some good essays in the recently published anthology "German Expressionism: New Perspective," but the anthology as a whole lacks focus and I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point.

[Cobalt60]

If anyone is thinking of getting Tim Lucas's landmark study of Mario Bava (All the Colors of the Dark) then you may want to know that there is a price change coming up. The book will arrive from the overseas printer on 08/21. All orders placed prior to that date will be at the $120 price and all orders placed after that date will be at the new, higher price of $250. This thing is HUGE (over 1000 pages) and has pictures are every spread (including the only colors pics from the set of Black Sunday) and so needless to say has become much more expensive then Tim originally thought, thus the price change. But it will be worth the $250 price and is a steal at $120. This is the most lavish and comprehensive book I've seen devoted to a single director and is the product of years of hard work. With such a high price and such a niche audience I would be surprised if we see a 2nd printing and can't imagine that a paperback will ever be made. Don't be surprised to see these trading on Ebay for several hundred dollars in a few years.