Film Art: An Introduction

Rating:
Summary: An exciting revision of the classic film text.
Review: Film is an art with a language and an aesthetic all its own, and since 1979 David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film Art has been the most respected introduction to the form and analysis of cinema. In the new sixth edition, Film Art continues its commitment to providing the best introduction to the fundamentals of serious film study - images throughout the book are collected from actual film frames, not from production stills or advertising photos - but the book has been extensively re-designed to improve readability and to include such recent innovative films as The Matrix and The Blair Witch Project.

Rating:
Summary: question about the 1999 edition
Review: I borrowed the first edition in order to give myself a crash course on film, when I wanted to teach my high school 11th grade honors class a mini-lesson on film and film analysis. It was an excellent book. What I'd like to know is: How do the 1996 and 1999 editions differ from older editions, and how do they differ from one another?

Rating:
Summary: question about the 1999 edition
Review: I borrowed the first edition in order to give myself a crash course on film, when I wanted to teach my high school 11th grade honors class a mini-lesson on film and film analysis. It was an excellent book. What I'd like to know is: How do the 1996 and 1999 editions differ from older editions, and how do they differ from one another?

Rating:
Summary: This book covers the basics with a lot of pictures
Review: I found this book to be a an interesting and
informative look at the history of films.
Well, to be honest, it has lots of pictures
and makes good use of them. If you love film,
you'll love this book.

Rating:
Summary: The preeminent introductory textbook book on the art of film
Review: Teaching film requires you to look at film. The second week of my film course (they are always night classes that meet once a week so that you have enough time to actually screen something) I always drag in about 50 videotapes to work through the basic vocabulary of the cinema, covering everything from the close-up ("Queen Christina") to the crane-shot ("Gone With the Wind"), from tracking shots ("Touch of Evil") to the jump cut ("2001: A Space Odyssey"). Film textbooks face an inherent limitation in turns of what they can present on the printed page. However, "Film Art: An Introduction" by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson is the proverbial exception to the rule. This is the preeminent introductory film textbook because it has literally hundreds of frames from classic and lesser known films, used to illustrate the key concepts of mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing.

"Film Art" is divided into five main sections: (I) Types of Filmmaking, Types of Films" covers how films are produced and the basic types/genres of films. (II) "Film Form" examines both narrative and nonnarrative formal systems in film, using "Citizen Kane" as a case study for narrative form. (III) "Film Style" is the main section of the textbook, dealing with the shot in terms of both mise-en-scene and cinematography, how editing relates shot to shot, and the function of sound. This section concludes with an analysis of film style in five diverse films. (IV) "Critical Analysis of Film" provides four distinct critical frames of reference and analysis of various films: Classical Narrative Cinema in "His Girl Friday," "North by Northwest" and "Do The Right Thing"; Narrative Alternatives to Classical Filmmaking in "Breathless" and "Tokyo Story"; Documentary Form in "High School" and "Man with a Movie Camera"; and From, Style and Ideology in "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "Raging Bull" (and if that last combination does not give you an indication of the breadth of the examples used by Bordwell and Thompson, nothing will). The textbook concludes with a bibliography, glossary and list of helpful websites.

There are two major strengths to this textbook. First, its complete coverage of cinematic concepts. I think that everyone learns how to "read" a film, but the vast majority of people would not know that the baptism sequence in "The Godfather" is a prime example of "American montage." You read this textbook and you will become aware of things you already understood on a more abstract level. Additionally, they do not stop at first or second level terms, but get into the absolute nuts and bolts of cinema. Second, the use of specific examples from numerous films to demonstrate these concepts. Unless you have a film textbook that has a CD-Rom with miniature film clips, you cannot find one superior to what Bordwell and Thompson offer up here. Furthermore, their use of examples clearly demonstrates their formidable knowledge of the field. The only downside to using this textbook in your film class is that you might have a problem convincing your students you know half as much as this pair.

Rating:
Summary: The preeminent introductory textbook book on the art of film
Review: Teaching film requires you to look at film. The second week of my film course (they are always night classes that meet once a week so that you have enough time to actually screen something) I always drag in about 50 videotapes to work through the basic vocabulary of the cinema, covering everything from the close-up ("Queen Christina") to the crane-shot ("Gone With the Wind"), from tracking shots ("Touch of Evil") to the jump cut ("2001: A Space Odyssey"). Film textbooks face an inherent limitation in turns of what they can present on the printed page. However, "Film Art: An Introduction" by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson is the proverbial exception to the rule. This is the preeminent introductory film textbook because it has literally hundreds of frames from classic and lesser known films, used to illustrate the key concepts of mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing.

"Film Art" is divided into five main sections: (I) Types of Filmmaking, Types of Films" covers how films are produced and the basic types/genres of films. (II) "Film Form" examines both narrative and nonnarrative formal systems in film, using "Citizen Kane" as a case study for narrative form. (III) "Film Style" is the main section of the textbook, dealing with the shot in terms of both mise-en-scene and cinematography, how editing relates shot to shot, and the function of sound. This section concludes with an analysis of film style in five diverse films. (IV) "Critical Analysis of Film" provides four distinct critical frames of reference and analysis of various films: Classical Narrative Cinema in "His Girl Friday," "North by Northwest" and "Do The Right Thing"; Narrative Alternatives to Classical Filmmaking in "Breathless" and "Tokyo Story"; Documentary Form in "High School" and "Man with a Movie Camera"; and From, Style and Ideology in "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "Raging Bull" (and if that last combination does not give you an indication of the breadth of the examples used by Bordwell and Thompson, nothing will). The textbook concludes with a bibliography, glossary and list of helpful websites.

There are two major strengths to this textbook. First, its complete coverage of cinematic concepts. I think that everyone learns how to "read" a film, but the vast majority of people would not know that the baptism sequence in "The Godfather" is a prime example of "American montage." You read this textbook and you will become aware of things you already understood on a more abstract level. Additionally, they do not stop at first or second level terms, but get into the absolute nuts and bolts of cinema. Second, the use of specific examples from numerous films to demonstrate these concepts. Unless you have a film textbook that has a CD-Rom with miniature film clips, you cannot find one superior to what Bordwell and Thompson offer up here. Furthermore, their use of examples clearly demonstrates their formidable knowledge of the field. The only downside to using this textbook in your film class is that you might have a problem convincing your students you know half as much as this pair.

Rating:
Summary: A better book than this on the art of film?? Naaa!!!!!
Review: This book is useful as a university textbook, but is also excellent for filmgoers who would like to understand a bit more than the average audience.

Rating:
Summary: There are other choices!!
Review: This book serves as only a general intro. to film, but even at the level of general intro., Bruce Kawin's How Movies Work or Louis Giannetti's Understanding Movies is better than this one in many respects, particularly Kawin's.

Bordwell is often hailed as the giant of cinema studies. Yes, the guy has watched literally a lot of movies, but apart from his Narration in Fiction Film, which is a respectable work in its deployment of Russian Formalism, his other stuff is just commonsensical view. I personally don't find his books argumentative enough. Planet Hong Kong, for instance, although well-researched, is an extremely limited view of Hong Kong cinema and pays no attention to understand the philosophical complexities of Wong Kar-wai's movies, not to mention his ignorance of some truly innovative directors such as Fruit Chan, whose postcolonial sensibility has yet to be acknowledged.

His recent book Post-theory is anti-psychoanalytic, a move that is a disgrace to students/lovers of film theory. I am not saying that only psychoanalysis (if you read Joan Copjec's essay Orthopsychic Subject in Read My Desire, you will know that a lot of people thinking they use psychoanalysis properly to "do" film studies are wrong) and other structural / poststructural discourses are the only ways to understand films, but they are more academic and serious ways to make an argument that would expand our horizons. The film world is now more interested in Deleuze and perhaps other Lacanian concepts such as the real, Bordwell's work is really dated and anti-intellectual.

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Introduction to Film Theory and Criticism
Review: This is a terrific intro to film theory and criticism. I first read it as a freshman at NYU Film School and it was by far the best text I read in my 4 years there. Recently I re-read the book after completing my first feature film as a writer/director and I realized how truly great the book is. I now consider it my filmmaking bible.
Great section of note - the section on expiremental filmmaking techniques and the discussions of a handful of feature films from "Tokyo Story" to "Do the Right Thing."
A MUST HAVE for filmmakers and a great read for anyone else.

Rating:
Summary: How to get a Degree by not working.
Review: Way back when I went to University in dear old Blighty. My degree was Film,Tv and Radio Studies, and despite my total lack of application, or to be frank attendance, I graduated with honours and a unhealthy infatuation with Wine, Women and Song. There are two reasons why I graduated, 1 I have the ability to retain information, 2 Film Art by Boardwell and Thompson. Quite frankly the best text book in the history of further education. It is simple enough for the most inexperienced of students, but also it's depth and coverage is enough to give a basic foundation in the most complex of film theory. God bless you Boardwell & Thompsen, and if anyone out there wants both a degree and liver problems as a result of University, BUY THIS BOOK