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Recommended Text
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Reason |
Buy @ Barnes&Noble |
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Film Studies/ Textbooks
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Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film by Richard
M. Barsam
ISBN: 0393974367
Pub. Date: August 2003
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company,
Inc. |
I used this textbook when I taught Intro to Film
at DeAnza College. Susan Tavernetti recommended it to me. It is an easy
read and informative. The author is another USC CNTV grad, so maybe I
am biased. |
 Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film
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Short Guide to Writing about Film by Timothy J. Corrigan
ISBN: 0321412281
Pub. Date: January 2006
Publisher: Pearson Education |
This is a good pocket book for those who are new to writing
about film at the college level. There are tricks to citing and writing
about film that varies from literature, and this book helps clarify
which tense to use when, etc. |
 Short Guide to Writing about Film
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| Theory
& Aesthetics- Academic |
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Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings
by Gerald Mast (Editor), Marshall Cohen (Editor)
ISBN: 0195018176
Pub. Date: March 1985
Publisher: Oxford University Press |
Next to Bordwell/Thompson, Gerald Mast is one of the most
read names for Film Studies (however, he is an editor more often than a
writer). This book is very academic, but a must if you are serious
about critical studies. I cannot emphasis enough that critical studies
of film is not just film as lit. |
 Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings
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What Is Cinema?, Vol. 1
by Andre Bazin (Translator), Jean Renoir (Foreword by)
ISBN: 0520242270
Pub. Date: October 2004
Publisher: University of California Press |
Andre Bazin is a famous film theory writer/ critic. He is one
of the people who made others take film seriously as an art form. He
also directed one of my favorite childhood films, The Red Balloon. (Le Ballon Rouge) |
 What Is Cinema?
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| Criticism/
Reviews |
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Taking It All In by Pauline Kael
ISBN: 0030693616
Pub. Date: April 1984
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated |
Pauline Kael has published a lot of film criticism both for
academic types and the general public. She is one of the few famous
female critics, so it goes without saying that she often has different
things to say than some of her male counterparts. She also was
blackballed for her outspoken and honest reviews of some of the big
Hollywood releases. |
 Taking It All In
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Halliwell's Film, Video and DVD Guide 2006 by John
Walker
ISBN: 0007205503
Pub. Date: October 2005
Publisher: HarperCollins UK |
The Halliwell Guide to Film is a book that every pre internet film student read because he had every film title in it (before www.imdb.com).
It is a great reference book to have offline. However, I must
admit that I am still looking for a good cross reference guide and
tried to create one back when I was in grad school- if only the human
brain were easier to replicate. |
 
Halliwell's Film, Video and DVD Guide 2006
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| Film
& Its Sibling: Photography |
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How the Other Half Lives by Jacob A. Riis, C. A.
Madison (Designed by)
ISBN: 0486220125
Pub. Date: June 1971
Publisher: Dover Publications
*(photojournalism: version with photos not just text) |
A narrative history/textbook about photojournalism may seem
unrelated to film history or studies, however, I would recommend this
book to anyone who has an interest in documentary filmmaking and
American history (especially Afro-American history). |
 
How the Other Half Lives
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Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
by Roland Barthes, Richard Howard (Translator)
ISBN: 0374521344
Pub. Date: May 1982
Publisher: Hill and Wang |
Barthes is best known for his very dry essays and books about
semiotic (film as a language) studies of film like S/Z. However,
this book is remarkably emotional for an academic text and was written
shortly after his mother's death, and they were very close. |
 
Camera Lucida : Reflections on Photography
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| Historical
& National Cinema |
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Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of
Production to 1960
by David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, Janet Staiger,
ISBN: 0231060556
Pub. Date: January 1987
Publisher: Columbia University Press |
In my opinion, one cannot study or truly appreciate film as
an art form or commercial product without learning about the Golden Age
of Hollywood when Hollywood Classical Cinema was the dominant style.
Film has become hybrized by different national styles and
categories: documentary style camera work like handheld in narrative
films, discontinuous editing in non art films. However, before
you can appreciate what it means to break the rules, you must learn the
rules. I think Bordwell/Thompson/Staiger are the authorities on
Hollywood Classical Cinema. |
 Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960
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Third World Film Making and the West by Roy Armes
ISBN: 0520056906
Pub. Date: January 1987
Format: Textbook Paperback, pp. 381 |
Armes responds to capitalism and Hollywood in this book. As
an American, I didn't realize how conditioned I have been by mainstream
movies until I read this book and others along with watching some films
created by filmmakers from nations that were colonized by imperialist
nations. |
 Third World Film Making and the West
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Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898-1928 by Donald
Crafton
ISBN: 0226116670
Pub. Date: December 1993
Publisher: University of Chicago Press |
I love animation, and have a great appreciation for the labor
and artwork involved pre-computers. This book chronicles the early days
of the popular film category. |
 
Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898-1928
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| Niche
(Genre & Category) |
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The Documentary Tradition by Lewis Jacobs
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Edition Description: 2d ed
ISBN: 0393950425
Pub. Date: September 1979 (1st 1971) |
Although documentary filmmaking has been turned on its head by new journalist filmmakers like Michael Moore (see interview),
the cinema verite tradition was dominant for decades and is still
prevalent. Read more about the traditional style by an absolute
authority. |
 Documentary Tradition
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Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film
by Vivian Carol Sobchack, Vivian Carol Sobchack
ISBN: 081352492X
Pub. Date: January 1987
Publisher: Rutgers University Press |
I read this book when I was an undergrad at Yale and enjoyed
it. It is a little abstract, but increased my appreciation of the depth
of science fiction as a cinematic genre. My professor, Scott Bukatman
was a classmate of Sobchack (I think at Brown or NYU). This book will
let you still enjoy the thrill of SciFi but with a more pensive eye. |
 Screening Space : The American Science Fiction Film
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| AFFINITY
GROUPS- Fight the Power! |
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Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film
by Ed Guerrero
ISBN: 1566391261
Pub. Date: November 1993
Publisher: Temple University Press |
As someone who is Black, I understood from an early age how
many stereotypes exist in film and television. However, after reading
this book, I came to a deeper understanding of how deep the racist
tradition is. This book will open the eyes of anyone (any race) and it
is very accessible- not dry or preachy. |
 
Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film
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Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks, William Shawn
ISBN: 0879101253
Pub. Date: April 1989
Publisher: Amadeus Press, LLC
*(may be hard to find, new editions available with different authors) |
Anyone who wants to learn more about the female experience in Hollywood, should read this book. |
 
Lulu in Hollywood
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Popcorn Venus by Marjorie Rosen
ISBN: 0380001772
Pub. Date: April 1985
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers |
A lot of famous feminist theorists wrote essays for this book
that appear in other compilations; however, this is one of a kind.
Theories likeMulvey's voyeurism may seem commonplace today, but they were new arguments at the time. |
 Popcorn Venus
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