criterionforum.org

You should PM user bamwc2 (don't know if he reads this thread), I think he's teaching or preparing to teach a class (maybe it was write a book?) on the subject

domino harvey wrote:You should PM user bamwc2 (don't know if he reads this thread), I think he's teaching or preparing to teach a class (maybe it was write a book?) on the subject

Was going to create a course on it for a cross over listing between film/human sexuality minors on sex/sexuality on film. It was never going to be a class on pornography though, and the sample syllabi that I drafted only contained a screening of one film with real sex. However, that was before my university received their official enrollment numbers and realized that some poor recruitment choices resulted in an overall 20% drop in attendance from last year. Consequently, almost all hiring has been frozen, some faculty have consented to go into early retirement, and (what effects me) all non-TT faculty whose contracts were up for renewal this year are getting let go. So, I'm back on the job market now, there will be no human sexuality minor (which I was to oversee), and the course ain't happening either.

As for the books, I'm afraid that I can't recommend anything without further research.

Well, that's not the kind of getting screwed news I was hoping to hear... Good luck out there!

Before I dive into Godard's two disc, Histoirie(s) du cinema, I thought I'd read Michael Witt's Jen-Luc Godard, Cinema Historian, which is apparently something of a companion piece to the film. Has anyone here read it? (The search feature didn't yield anything.)

ando wrote:Before I dive into Godard's two disc, Historie(s) du cinema, I thought I'd read Michael Witt's Jen-Luc Godard, Cinema Historian, which is apparently something of a companion piece to the film. Has anyone here read it? (The search feature didn't yield anything.)

It's supposed to be quite good and just your luck the publisher has copies for half off until April 7th. I still need to order my copy.

Thanks. Just downloaded an ebook edition which includes very small color plate reproductions (you'd think they'd have designed a more sophisticated epub script by now) but the text's the thing with me, anyway. The paperback edition is handsome (perused a copy at B&N) and a likely keeper.

Two exciting new English-language tomes in the Austrian Film Museum's excellent series of publications: Hou Hsiao-hsien and Joe Dante. A nice article on the latter here.

University of California Press holds a two day 40% off sale (today & tomorrow). The discount code is 14W8436.

Taschen gives 2001: A Space Odyssey the Deluxe treatment.

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalog ... dyssey.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

greggster59 wrote:Taschen gives 2001: A Space Odyssey the Deluxe treatment.

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalog ... dyssey.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I got a catalog from them that showed that; the actual box looked nicer there than the website makes it out to be. It is kind of like the Napoleon box, where it opens up and has a couple different-sized books situated inside. Once they release the inevitable "cheap" edition, I'll probably snag it on Amazon.

Also, the Napoleon book came with an invitation to a party at the Kubrick estate for anyone who bought the expensive limited edition; I'm kind of suprised they didn't do something similar with this release to help justify the cost.

Also, the Napoleon book came with an invitation to a party at the Kubrick estate for anyone who bought the expensive limited edition; I'm kind of suprised they didn't do something similar with this release to help justify the cost.

They did in fact send out an invitation. It's for Thursday, June 5 at the Kubrick estate.

Any opinions on Duncan Reekie's "Subversion: The Definitive History of Underground Cinema"? Definitive is a big word - and if it lives up to that, is it readable, too?

"HOLLYWOOD UK" by Alexander Walker and its sequel, "NATIONAL HEROES" are essential reading for anyone looking to understand the intersection between art and commerce in post-war British Cinema.

"MY INDECISION IS FINAL" by Jake Eberts, for both its candid and lucid explication of the Rise and Fall of Goldcrest Film, but also for having one of the all-time great titles.

Can anyone recommend any books or essays that discuss international film distribution and film festivals in the 40s-60s, like distinguishing films made primarily for local audiences and then picking up international attention as opposed to films made specifically for international audiences?

I plan on reading "The International Film Industry, Western Europe and America Since 1945" by Thomas Guback, which Bordwell cites in his "The Art Cinema as Mode of Film Practice" essay, but that was written in 1969 and I'm wondering if any new work has been written on the topic since.

Adrian Turner's "ROBERT BOLT: SCENES FROM TWO LIVES" is a very richly observed account of the great screenwriter and playwright and makes an ideal companion to Kevin Brownlow's "DAVID LEAN". Adrian Turner served as Brownlow's editor on the Lean bio, so it all fits together as a whole.

I'm about to finish up the large Film Theory & Criticism anthology, and I'm wondering what's the best course of action for following it up and getting up to date with the current state of film theory. Any big gaps that need filling, more modern key texts that update the main questions, or alternative anthologies that would complement the material discussed here?


I do plan on reading full versions of the key texts and the works of the authors I most enjoyed to try and get a better understanding of their positions.

A new title from Wallflower Press that looks quite promising: The Struggle for Form: Perspectives on Polish Avant-Garde Film 1916–1989 (Edited by Kamila Kuc and Michael O'Pray). Has anyone here read it? Michael Brooke?

For those into tokusatsu, Steve Ryfle's Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big-G" and Stuart Galbriath IV's Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo are two wonderful resources, packed full of information, historical data, and tales about both the films themselves and the Japanese film industry at the time. Both OOP now, sadly, but wonderful and highly recommended.

It doesn't have to be limited to books, but I'm curious if anyone here knows any good sources on screwballs particularly those similar to the Altman musicals book? I'd also love anything specific to off the beaten path films such as Casanova Brown. As aways thanks ahead of time for any and all suggestions.

Off the top of my head, my top two suggestions would be (1) Deborah Thomas's Beyond Genre, which has superb chapters on Monkey Business and Palm Beach Story; and (2) though it's not just about screwball comedies (its scope goes up through 1965 and the Doris Day–Rock Hudson sex comedies), Kathrina Glitre's Hollywood Romantic Comedy: States of the Union is great.
Beyond that, one of the earliest books is Stanley Cavell's Pursuits of Happiness, which uses a somewhat narrow critical focus on seven of the best-known films to argue that there is a genre which he calls the "comedy of remarriage." Not a major favorite of mine, but worth reading.
There's not enough on Leo McCarey, and so it's worth seeking out vol. 7 of The Hollywood Professionals by Leland A. Poague, which covers Wilder and McCarey.
Robin Wood's Sexual Politics and Narrative Film has a great chapter on McCarey.
Material on Hawks's comedies is more plentiful and easier to find. McBride's interview book contains disappointingly little about Bringing up Baby.

I think Cavell's Pursuits of Happiness is still seen as a foundational theory of screwball/romantic comedy. It's pretty densely theoretical though, so be prepared.

When I wrote an undergrad thesis on screwball comedy a while back I also found Maria DiBattista's Fast-Talking Dames to be good. She mostly focuses on the actresses (Rosalind Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, et al.). Classical Hollywood Comedy is a good anthology of academic essays. James Harvey's Romantic Comedy in Hollywood is more of a history/appreciation, with lots of b&w pictures. He tends to group movies by star or by director (Lubitsch, Sturges, etc.). Harvey discusses a broader range of films and many lesser-known titles, where DiBattista and Cavell tend to stick to the classics.

There is also a good chapter on Rock Hudson and Pillow Talk in Steven Cohan's Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies of the Fifties.

I know people have complained about Marian Keane's audio commentaries, but I found them extremely useful as an introduction to thinking about screwball comedy. Her commentary for The Lady Eve is what made me want to write that thesis. Bob Gilpin's commentary for My Man Godfrey is also pretty good. He may also have a book about screwball comedy and social class.

Exciting news from Austrian Film Museum (who also published that recent book on Hou Hsiao-hsien): Be Sand, Not Oil: The Life and Work of Amos Vogel.

I'm sure a lot of you guys read this when it first came out-

Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age at the American Film Institute by George Stevens, Jr. Easily one of the most impressive interview book I've ever come across. I was especially struck with how self-aware many of them were with the type of films the studios were constantly trying to foist on them. Vidor especially stood out in that regard here. And it's not just for a general audience- there's quite a bit of useful advice that budding filmmakers can get from it.

And the list-
Harold Lloyd, Raoul Walsh, King Vidor, Fritz Lang, Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Mamoulian, William Wyler, Hitchcock, Cukor, Wilder, Huston, Kazan, Zinneman, Lean, Wise, Lehman, Gene Kelly, Richard Brooks, Renoir, Fellini, Bergman, Satyajit Ray, James Wong Howe, Mervyn Leroy, William Clothier, Ray Bradbury, Stanley Cortez, Hal Wallis

Just outstanding.

I've just finished reading Elizabeth Sussex's The Rise and Fall of British Documentary: The Story of the Film Movement Founded by John Grierson. Apart from the obvious problem with the first part of the title, this is a really interesting and entertaining oral history of the Grierson group being an edited transcription of interviews that Elizabeth Sussex carried out with Grierson, Elton, Anstey, Cavalcanti and others in the early 1970s with occasional commentary (both factual and critical) interspersed. It has all the pleasures of an Oral History (some amusing anecdotes, grumpiness galore as Grierson describes the later COI films as shabby) as well as the limitations. With the proviso that the BFI's DVD releases over the past few years have shown that there was life after Grierson et al, this is still pretty much a must read for those interested in the subject - it's just a shame it seems long out of print (my copy, bought via Amazon last year, is an old library copy).

I'm curious: does anyone know of any good books about screenplays that aren't simply "how-to's"? Something that gets into it as it's own form? Certainly a really good how-to could cover such things, but I'm hard pressed to find anything like this.