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Matt wrote:

tajmahal wrote:I ordered Georges Bernanos' book it is based on.

I hope it works out better for you than it did me. I read the Bernanos in preparation for this review and it was so good that it absolutely ruined the film for me (which I had never had much fondness for anyway). Same with The Leopard. The book is so good, I've had no desire to watch the film again after reading it.

domino harvey wrote:Can anyone recommend any books/articles (even documentaries?) that address Sidney Poitier's popularity in the fifties and sixties with concern to the subsequent effect on or parallelism with race relations, both with whites and within the black community?

matrixschmatrix wrote:Does anyone know of a good, comprehensive book on Murnau? The only one I've been able to find is Lotte Eisner's, and while I love her dearly the library will get upset if I keep their copy checked out any longer.

nostalghic wrote:I went through Kieslowski on Kieslowski which was a tad disappointing, mostly production-related memories and facts, some interesting, others not. I was hoping to hear more of his ideas on film/literature/etc. but can see value in him letting his films do the talking.

matrixschmatrix wrote:Does anyone know of a good, comprehensive book on Murnau? The only one I've been able to find is Lotte Eisner's, and while I love her dearly the library will get upset if I keep their copy checked out any longer.

perkizitore wrote:The Murnau book is expensive even for used copies.

Felix in 2006 wrote:More recent works are the three volumes of the DVD Delirium Guides. These are not highbrow though they do feature, for example, virtually all the Criterions and plenty of other highbrow stuff. What they do cover, better than any of the competition, is the world of cult movies, Asian new wave, Euro trash, the lot (if your name is Lino, then these are essential). The reviews are comprehensive, about two pages each, and small type at that, and more importantly for folk here, they cover all different versions worldwide and advise on aspect ratios, extras, print quality and more. If you want to know which version of Argento's Opera or Tsukamoto's Tetsuo to go for, look no further. A Beaver for the cultist and one you can hold in your hand. (Make sure you go for the Redux volume 1 though). A word of warning, or two. These books will lead to you spending large sums of money on films you possibly never heard of before, and the authors are very enthusiastic about their subject so blind buying is a little dodgy... For all that, the highest recommendation possible.

matrixschmatrix wrote:Does anyone know of a good, comprehensive book on Murnau? The only one I've been able to find is Lotte Eisner's, and while I love her dearly the library will get upset if I keep their copy checked out any longer.

colinr0380 wrote:

Felix in 2006 wrote:More recent works are the three volumes of the DVD Delirium Guides. These are not highbrow though they do feature, for example, virtually all the Criterions and plenty of other highbrow stuff. What they do cover, better than any of the competition, is the world of cult movies, Asian new wave, Euro trash, the lot (if your name is Lino, then these are essential). The reviews are comprehensive, about two pages each, and small type at that, and more importantly for folk here, they cover all different versions worldwide and advise on aspect ratios, extras, print quality and more. If you want to know which version of Argento's Opera or Tsukamoto's Tetsuo to go for, look no further. A Beaver for the cultist and one you can hold in your hand. (Make sure you go for the Redux volume 1 though). A word of warning, or two. These books will lead to you spending large sums of money on films you possibly never heard of before, and the authors are very enthusiastic about their subject so blind buying is a little dodgy... For all that, the highest recommendation possible.

Just a quick heads up to let everyone know that Volume 4 of the series is just out. On a quick flick through of my copy I note that most of the BFI Blu-Rays are reviewed in there (the Jane Arden and Jack Bond films; all the Flipsides up to and including Permissive; Winstanley; the Pasolinis), and a couple of the Warners Archive releases, though not many Criterions this time (update: only a Salo version comparison - I'd have hoped that maybe the Monsters and Madmen set, Equinox or Robinson Crusoe On Mars would have been shoe-ins to feature, but perhaps they'll turn up in the next volume). However there's still a wonderfully huge range of exploitation-on-disc reviews in there!

Silent screen siren and cinema scholar Louise Brooks has been dead for a quarter century, but some of her thoughts on movies are only now being revealed.

Brooks kept private journals from 1956 until her death in 1985, and bequeathed them to the George Eastman House with instructions they remain sealed for 25 years.

That date passed in August, and Eastman staffers have been poring over the journals before making them available to the public.

The journals include cutting analysis of performances by her contemporaries.

Seeing Greta Garbo in "Anna Christie" in a 1957 screening, she wrote: "She strains terribly... Is made to read line on top of line without pauses for mental transitions."

Of Marlene Dietrich in "The Lady Is Willing," which she saw on TV, she wrote "Dietrich's lids, drooped by the heavy false eye-lashes give her eyes the expression of a puzzled bloodhound... still fascinating as a personality, extravagantly healthy, happy, amoral and consciousless (sic)."

"Dark Passage," she wrote, was a "perfect picture for Hump (sic) and Lauren Bacall ... His appeal lay in the fact that beyond any man I know, he loved women."

She was even critical of her own perf in 1936's "Empty Saddles": "wide range, dynamic, rich, 'cultured,' " she said of her voice, but added "purity of movement excellent -- Bad sway back from dancing with Dario."

Dario was her ballroom dancing partner.

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Can anyone recommend some good film noir reference sources? I've tried Overlook's Film Noir Encyclopedia, but it only offered plot summaries. I'm looking for dictionaries or encyclopedias that focus on the stylistic traits and define them in cinematographic terms. Naremore's book was just a history and not the type of source I wanted either.

Ovader wrote:

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Can anyone recommend some good film noir reference sources? I've tried Overlook's Film Noir Encyclopedia, but it only offered plot summaries. I'm looking for dictionaries or encyclopedias that focus on the stylistic traits and define them in cinematographic terms. Naremore's book was just a history and not the type of source I wanted either.

Quite late in replying and I know psufootball07 responded with the Film Noir Reader since its specific chapter "Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir" may be what you need. The Noir Style is also recommended for those same needs.