Books about movies - film criticism, biography, history, etc

[Suture Self]

Any recommendations? I just realized I haven't read a book related to movie-making or movies, so if any of you guys have any recommendations that'd be great. I have no preferences. I heard Kim Jong-Il wrote a great one...

[djross]

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[KGB]

For myself, I have found that I have disliked the great bulk of writing that belongs to the canon of so-called film theory, finding it ill-argued, philosophically weak, and, worst of all, tedious.

I agree with this. And I would put Cavell's book on top of the list for tedious, ill-argued film essays.

There not much of film theory that can really be recommended; perhaps with the notorious exceptions of André Bazin and the neorrealists, that wrote in exceptional times when film theory and practice could actually go together. But other than Bazin's What Is Cinema?, which I have not read entirely, I can't think of many full books that I would actually recommend, other than different essays. Guido Aristarco, a marxist philosopher who was very important in the neorrealist movement, also wrote a great book (Storia delle teoriche del film) in 1951 that sums up pretty nicely different stands in film theory up to that time (through its most radical years, in the silent era), though I'm not sure you'll be able to find it.
Nöel Burch has written great stuff about the origins of film as a language, and it's transformation from a mechanical register aparatus to an articulate storytelling form, though reading La lucarne de L’Infini from beggining to end can be quite a chore. If you're interested in film as a language the author I find most readable is David Bordwell, Wikipedia has lots of links to essays of his.

The field of film theory I enjoy the most is definitely genre theory. If I had to recommend one book to start in this area, as oppose to selected articles or essays, I'd go with Steve Neale's 'Genre and Hollywood' that is pretty straightforward and very informative.

Film theory aside, André Bazin's writings on Orson Welles were a great read for me. I also have on my bookshelf the essential Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut which, if you enjoy Hitchcock's films, is probably the first book you should get, as well as The Conquest of the Useless, which is Werner Herzog's somewhat-incoherent film diary of Fitzcarraldo, and, of course, Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, sort of a pulp-fiction portrait of the Hollywood star system and it's scandals up to the 1950s, mostly made up of urban legends and Anger's imagination. A great read nevertheless.

[Dunder74]

Even if you're not looking to write one yourself, Screenplay by Syd Field is a great read.

[Anomaly]

Making Movies by Sidney Lumet is essential, especially if you're interested in the technical aspects of film.

[ShogunRua]

Making Movies by Sidney Lumet is essential, especially if you're interested in the technical aspects of film.

Huh, hadn't even realized Lumet ever wrote a book. Thanks, I will check it out.

[Suture Self]

Louise Krasniewicz, "Cinematic Gifts: The Moral and Social Exchange of Bodies in Horror Films," in Frances E. Mascia-Lees and Patricia Sharpe (eds.), Tattoo, Torture, Mutilation, and Adornment: The Denaturalization of the Body in Culture and Text (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), pp. 30–47. The anthropological grounding of film as gift offered here is expertly done, but can also be taken further and deeper than the author was able to do within a few pages, pages that nevertheless offer, I suggest, a surer foundation for the study of film than does 98% of film theory.

This looks wonderful so I've acquired a PDF. I'll read it soon, hopefully sometime this week.

[Suture Self]

Making Movies by Sidney Lumet is essential, especially if you're interested in the technical aspects of film.

This also looks badass, thanks!

[Suture Self]

I guess I do have a specific request. Are there any biographies or writings on Ingmar Bergman that are worth reading?

I'm aware of and want this: http://www.amazon.com/Ingmar-Bergman-Ar ... ar+bergman

But I never have it in myself to spend $160 on it.

[Svengali]

I guess I do have a specific request. Are there any biographies or writings on Ingmar Bergman that are worth reading?

I'm aware of and want this: http://www.amazon.com/Ingmar-Bergman-Ar ... ar+bergman

But I never have it in myself to spend $160 on it.

I have that Bergman book, it's pretty huge. Try Bergman's autobiography Laterna Magica, it's a fine read and he explains a lot of things from his working methods, his childhood and so on.

Also, the book I'd recommend anyone to read that is interested in cinema is Tarkovsky's Sculpting in Time. It completely changed the way I look at cinema, fantastic. It's recommended that you watch his movies first though even if it isn't completely necessary.

I think Satyajit Ray also wrote a book about cinema which I haven't read but it sure looks interesting.