The Best Books About Film

[Matt]

I'm currently reading Lillian Ross' book, Picture, about the making of John Huston's The Red Badge of Courage. It's a fascinating and detailed account of movie-making in the studio system. Not only does she give you the kind of information you'd get in a standard history of a film such as budget figures, shooting locations and schedules, preview reactions, etc., but she gives you all the things you cannot get when someone writes a history from a removed perspective: accounts of the conversation at Dore Schary's house as they viewed rushes (Schary calling everyone "baby"), discussions between Huston and his producer, comments from extras working in the film, cocktail party chatter, and so forth. If I taught a film history class on the studio system or on classical Hollywood cinema, I'd definitely assign this. It almost makes you wish there were a book like this for every film.

[SheriffAmbrose]

I just picked up Mark Cousins's The Story of Film from Borders for the bargain-basement price of $4.99.

I have the U.S. hardcover edition of that. It was decent but had an infuriating amount of typos.

[Ste]

I just picked up Mark Cousins's The Story of Film from Borders for the bargain-basement price of $4.99.

I have the U.S. hardcover edition of that. It was decent but had an infuriating amount of typos.

That's true. I was flicking through it the other night and came across a reference to Jimmi Hendrix. Inexcusable.

Otherwise, a decent enough overview of cinema that goes beyond the usual boundaries of Hollywood.

[Floyd]

I recently watched all of Tsai Ming-Liang's work in order and wondered if anyone had read this book.

It appears to be the only one on Tsai but also seems to be very short at under 130 pages.

[ltfontaine]

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

Highly recommended. Because the letters derive from Truffaut's lifetime of voluminous correspondence--it's hard to imagine where he found the time to make movies--the reader gleans not only an intimate portrait of the artist and his films, but a vivid contemporary picture of French cinema in those days. And Truffaut is such a warm, erudite, passionate writer (especially on the topics of film and literature), that it is hard not to fall in love with the man and wish he were still among us. It certainly rekindled, when I read it, a desire to revisit his movies, even those in which my interest had faded.

[accatone]

I really like the foreword by Godard - especially because of its typography! The whole (foreword) is written in cursive letters, only the few filmtitels mentioned are typed regularly/upright! A wonderful illustration about the importance of cinema for the young turks - that in fact cinema was/is the "reality (as written upright)" and "life" was/is just a reference/quote (as written cursive)" - Great!*

And yes, the letters are mostly "warm" and "sentimental" and, imo, boring! There is to much ass kissing - but for a Truffaut fan it might be interesting.

*i am referring to a german translation of the book from the, i think, Hanser Verlag (i am not able to check at the moment, sorry) so i can't speak for the original edition nor any other translation.

[ltfontaine]

There is to much ass kissing - but for a Truffaut fan it might be interesting.

I don't recall any "ass-kissing," although Truffaut was certainly a cordial and empathetic correspondent even when addressing persons with whom he disagreed. (There is, as I recall, only a single return-letter printed, from Jonathan Rosenbaum, whom Truffaut engages regarding the critic's negative assessment of the filmmaker's later work. Both parties are friendly and mutually respectful even in this context.)

While persons interested in Truffaut will certainly be most interested in the letters, I would also recommend them to anyone seeking a birdseye view of French cinema in the fifties, sixties and seventies.

[ltfontaine]

While I'm in the neighborhood, I'll also recommend Seoul Stirring: 5 Korean Directors, by Tony Rayns, a 54-page paperback published by the Institute of Contemporary Arts, in London, in connection with a Festival of Korean Cinema hosted there in 1994. Features interviews with, and characteristically pithy insights into, the work of Im Kwon-taek, Jang Sun-woo, Kim Ui-seok, Lee Myung-se, and Park Kwang-su.

[accatone]

Ok - sorry for this rather dumb/personal opinon! Of course the book givessome insight in the film business - where "ass kissing" is part of the ame. (in conversation with critics, producers etc etc). But then those conversations and their content came all up pretty similar - imo. (The Godard correspondence is pretty fun!)

Nevertheless I read the whole thing so i didn't want to say its too bad,just kinda boring…

[oldsheperd]

I'm actually re-reading Sklar's Movie Made America and once again I think it is probably the best book about the history of American Film. Highly Recommended.

I used to have a book about Lucio Fulci but I can't remember the name.

I also owned a book called "Flickers" which was an interesting concept for a film book. The author took a still from a film released every year from film's birth until the present and wrote a short essay basically about the image captured and the films that year etc, etc.

[colinr0380]

Thanks for the Truffaut recommendations!

I used to have a book about Lucio Fulci but I can't remember the name.

Was it Stephen Thrower's book Beyond Terror?

[oldsheperd]

I think so. It was a British book.

[GringoTex]

Tag Gallagher had made the new revised edition of his John Ford book available for download for free.

I've just finished it and it's probably the best book on a single director I've read.

[ellipsis7]

Tag Gallagher had made the new revised edition of his John Ford book available for download for free.

I've just finished it and it's probably the best book on a single director I've read.

I've read the original edition - very good - how much has he revised it, do you know?...

[GringoTex]

I've read the original edition - very good - how much has he revised it, do you know?...

I'm not sure. I read the original (or parts of it) about 15 years ago and can't remember clearly enough. I do know I read a lot of stuff in the new edition for what seemed to be the first time, and that it has a load of color film stills which the original did not have.

[esl]

Available at the end of October is No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema by Mark Schilling, currently Japan correspondent for Variety. This looks to be an interesting glimpse of this genre of Japanese films.

According to the publisher this is from a monograph written for a 2005 European retrospective of Nikkatsu Action films. Book contains rare posters and stills, a detailed history of the Nikkatsu studio, profiles of and interviews with leading directors and stars and reviews of dozens of films.

[Steven H]

Available at the end of October is No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema by Mark Schilling, currently Japan correspondent for Variety. This looks to be an interesting glimpse of this genre of Japanese films.

Schilling is also a reviewer for The Japan Times (whom I consistently disagree with, but hey) and is touring a retrospective with the same title as his book, which looks pretty interesting (focusing on Hasebe, Masuda, and Kurahara). I haven't enjoyed much of the Hasebe Yasuhara I've seen, except for maybe the Stray Cat Rock Sex Hunter, which was pretty wild (though I doubt I'd sit for it again.) Don't know much about either of the other director's 60s work, but I do have the opinion that Masuda Toshio was responsible for some really bad stuff after the 70s. I've wanted to sit down with his Shadow Hunters for some time, though, as I keep hoping to see more good Tamba films, which are scarce.

[the dancing kid]

Schilling's other books are rather light on content. The description for this one makes it sound like it will be more of the same: capsule reviews that say very little and interviews that repeat what can be found elsewhere. It's nice to see someone covering a topic like this, but Schilling's approach doesn't do anything for me.

[ievenlostmycat]

I've browsed through the 14 pages of this thread and saw no mention of these, so anyone read all or some of the entries in the History of American Cinema series (pub. by Scribner)? I have the first entry, the Charles Musser, but have not read it yet. It looks like a great series (and quite long).

[Ovader]

Anyone read Making Waves: New Wave, Neorealism, and the New Cinemas of the 1960s by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith? I wonder if the book is an improvement over Peter Cowie's similarly themed book Revolution!: The Explosion of World Cinema in the Sixties?

Screening Modernism: European Art Cinema, 1950-1980 by András Bálint Kovács looks promising as well.

[Dylan]

Any recommendations here regarding books on Francis Ford Coppola's life and films?

[Zumpano]

Dylan,

I believe that I read "Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life" by Michael Schumacher a few years ago. It is a very long book covering Coppola's whole life (I think up to Godfather III; I don't remember it covering "Jack" and "Rainmaker") Although it goes into things about the films like characterization and themes, I don't think it's long in the way of critical analysis. I don't remember it being a very gossipy book either.

That said, it does offer some interesting insight into his many different phases. Some good stuff concerning American Zoetrope and its many incarnations and his Tulsa/"Silverfish" period (my favorite; I'm biased as I grew up in Tulsa). What I remember most though, is some stories regarding his late son Gio. I remember tearing up at two points during the book; once when they recount Gio writing his father a letter requesting that he become his apprentice (at a relatively young age) in the Italian tradition, and then during the story of his horrible death.

[Dylan]

Hey,

Thank you for the recommendation! I just picked up the revised 1999 edition (which covers his career up to The Rainmaker) at the library and I've treaded a little bit into it and it's utterly magnificent, exactly the kind of book I was hoping to find on the man. Should be an excellent read. Thanks again.

[MichaelB]

I've yet to finish it, but I can already thoroughly recommend Terence Dobson's The Film Work of Norman McLaren, an exhaustive study of the life and work that is also a perfect companion-piece to the marvellous seven-disc collection of just about every surviving scrap of footage he ever shot. (It's a wonderful luxury to be able to read about, say, a home movie that McLaren shot in 1941 and then actually have that very same film to hand!)

And like all the best film books, its immediate effect was to make me want to watch the films over again - which is why I'm savouring it slowly and working my way through the discs at a rate of about half an hour a day. (At 15 hours total, it's still going to take me a month!)

[Dr Amicus]

I'd just like to recommend Kristin Thompson's The Frodo Franchise, an entertaining look at the financing and marketing of the LOTR films. Very little actual making of or analysis of the films themselves, but there is much of interest. It covers how the films went from Miramax to New Line, how they were financed, marketing, official and fan websites, video games, and the effect the films had on New Zealand and independent film distributors.