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Lost Highway wrote:When it comes to You Must Remember This it's worth checking out the early non-serialised episodes as a start. Her Frances Farmer episode is fantastic, doing the exact opposite of Hollywood Babylon, stripping away the gossip and mythology to arrive at something far less garish and more plausible than the familiar tale of the ultimate Hollywood martyr. The ones of Raquel Welch and Isabella Rossellini are also great, they all are. The Charles Manson series is what got her the most attention, but it's my least favourite stretch, maybe due to over familiarity with the subject matter. It's still more thoughtful than most on the matter.

Even stuff like the Manson series which I didn't think would keep my attention was good. The Seberg Fonda series was cleverly done and excellent.

Talking of podcasts, has anybody checked out The Secret History of Hollywood ? I read it's in the same vein and it too received some praise, but I tried to listen to the series on Val Lewton and it seemed incredibly drawn out with two hours an episode. I also was put off by the style of it and never returned to it. Does anybody like this and should I stick with it ?

Yes the Warner Brothers/Cagney ones are something like 20 hours long over two episodes. It's a great listen but it's far more dramatized than Longworth's straight reporting which may not be everyone's bag.

Black Hat wrote:Yes the Warner Brothers/Cagney ones are something like 20 hours long over two episodes. It's a great listen but it's far more dramatized than Longworth's straight reporting which may not be everyone's bag.

OK thanks, I'll probably just stick with You Must Remember This. The length I could cope with, it was the dramatization which put me off.

Apologies as this is only tangentially related to film, but there doesn't appear to be an Abbas Kiaorstami thread in the directors subforum and I thought this might be the best place to ask. Has anyone any experience with any of Kiarostami's poetry books available here? I'd like to purchase one for a friend and mentor for whom it seems like a great gift, but I haven't been able to find a whole lot of testimonials. Are the poems/presentation of the books any good? Do they enrich his films? Any specific volume recommended?

For me, the best book about film is Bordwell et al's The Classical Hollywood Cinema, despite the fact that reading anything by Janet Staiger is a chore.

Just imagine, instead of completely speculative and evidence-free Grand Theorizing, the authors actually did original research, analyzed the results, and explained them clearly, rather than as obfuscating nonsense. Pretty shocking for the film criticism industry.

-R

Jonathan Rosenbaum's write-up of the experimental "montage" book PASSAGE DU CINÉMA, 4992, which Godard called “the only book to tell the history of cinema”, has me very excited to read it once my French is good enough. It's apparently also a multimedia project that includes a website, videos, and an "encrypted" version that looks intriguingly incomprehensible. Has anyone read any version of this?

Superswede11 wrote:Jonathan Rosenbaum's write-up of the experimental "montage" book PASSAGE DU CINÉMA, 4992, which Godard called “the only book to tell the history of cinema”, has me very excited to read it once my French is good enough. It's apparently also a multimedia project that includes a website, videos, and an "encrypted" version that looks intriguingly incomprehensible. Has anyone read any version of this?

Hello, it's me who composed and edited Passage du cinéma, 4992. I can quite admit that you are intrigued by this book that Jonathan Rosenbaum described as part of a multimedia project.
Here are some lines to contribute to an understanding of this project which is in constant becoming.
The decision not to publish the book in digital form, in French we say "digital version" made me think about the possible ways to interpret this word: "version". Later, I called "version" all the works I had imagined from the book: so, I piled up in my little garden all the paper copies of the work in progress of the book and I called it : « totem version »; so, I started long ago to make a ribbon from the numbers of the maintenance fragments composing the book according to the definite assembly order, assigning them a color (from the prism of light ), and I called it « number version » (not « encrypted version »); then there was the "filmed" version, which already has 4 films, the "exposed" version, and others are in preparation. It's never an idea at first sight, but once the work is done, I think it can become a "version" of Passage du cinéma, 4992.
You see how from a difficulty to find a good solution for a digital version it made me to move,transport, transfer to go to other forms of expression, go to the unknown.
All these versions, current and future, are therefore not copies (it is not a question of "resemblance"); they do not work in the same way (it's not about isomorphism), but it seems to me that they form a network, a constellation and act on each other.
This seems to me quite in agreement with my general approach to cinema (the site I created is called "Opening cinema").
all this is very succinct. I'm sorry I can’t translate the pages of the site into English! Maybe with automatic translation software you will have access to this work in progress!

Thanks for the information!

Ansedonia wrote:

Superswede11 wrote:Jonathan Rosenbaum's write-up of the experimental "montage" book PASSAGE DU CINÉMA, 4992, which Godard called “the only book to tell the history of cinema”, has me very excited to read it once my French is good enough. It's apparently also a multimedia project that includes a website, videos, and an "encrypted" version that looks intriguingly incomprehensible. Has anyone read any version of this?

Hello, it's me who composed and edited Passage du cinéma, 4992. I can quite admit that you are intrigued by this book that Jonathan Rosenbaum described as part of a multimedia project.
Here are some lines to contribute to an understanding of this project which is in constant becoming.
The decision not to publish the book in digital form, in French we say "digital version" made me think about the possible ways to interpret this word: "version". Later, I called "version" all the works I had imagined from the book: so, I piled up in my little garden all the paper copies of the work in progress of the book and I called it : « totem version »; so, I started long ago to make a ribbon from the numbers of the maintenance fragments composing the book according to the definite assembly order, assigning them a color (from the prism of light ), and I called it « number version » (not « encrypted version »); then there was the "filmed" version, which already has 4 films, the "exposed" version, and others are in preparation. It's never an idea at first sight, but once the work is done, I think it can become a "version" of Passage du cinéma, 4992.
You see how from a difficulty to find a good solution for a digital version it made me to move,transport, transfer to go to other forms of expression, go to the unknown.
All these versions, current and future, are therefore not copies (it is not a question of "resemblance"); they do not work in the same way (it's not about isomorphism), but it seems to me that they form a network, a constellation and act on each other.
This seems to me quite in agreement with my general approach to cinema (the site I created is called "Opening cinema").
all this is very succinct. I'm sorry I can’t translate the pages of the site into English! Maybe with automatic translation software you will have access to this work in progress!

Is translating it into English nigh impossible? This seems fascinating but I don't know a word of French

dda1996a wrote: Is translating it into English nigh impossible? This seems fascinating but I don't know a word of French

Given that it is 992 pages long it would be faster to learn French than have it properly translated.

That's what I though but there have been longer books being translated into less used languages

Hello, thank you for your interest in this book. Its length is not the main reason that makes a translation almost impossible. I think I was clear in the response message to Superswade11.
Often you learn a language by starting to read a novel. This book is also a bit like a novel. It can be an opportunity to learn French!
It is composed of fragments of interviews published in French magazines. So it's always a very simple French.
Just decide ...

Nope.

How are Godard on Godard and Truffuat's Films in my Life?

Don't want to bump but I do want an answer before I get them.

Godard on Godard is essential, but if you haven't seen many of the often relatively obscure films he discusses, it may not be rewarding. I've found it fun to revisit the compilation the more and more I've seen, though-- it's kind of a living study in my own film viewing over the last dozen years since I first read it

I like them both, for what that's worth. The Truffaut one includes many articles and reviews from his days as a Cahiers et al. critic in the 50s, but also later articles (some presentations during festivals devoted to a director, for example) during the 60s and early 70s.

dda1996a wrote:It's actually $300 new or $85 used now

Three sellers now have it listed for under $32 used in good condition. That's $0.60 per monograph. I highly recommend that for tenia and anyone else who wants to pick up a large number of these wonderful books at a low price.

domino harvey wrote:Godard on Godard is essential, but if you haven't seen many of the often relatively obscure films he discusses, it may not be rewarding. I've found it fun to revisit the compilation the more and more I've seen, though-- it's kind of a living study in my own film viewing over the last dozen years since I first read it

Sadly I can't find an online list for the film's Godard mentions, but I can for the Truffaut. Domino I also recommend A True History of Cinema and Television, it's a great translations of his Canadian talks and precursors to Historie(s)

Yep, I've been meaning to pick it up. It's like $50 though, so one day!

You can access the index for Godard on Godard by visiting the Amazon listing on a non-mobile device and choosing Look Inside. It's the last index ("Index of Films"), so you have to scroll through some other indexes.

I know, I bit the bullet but it's very worth it. I don't know how it stands up to other Godard books, but this has completely transformed my opinion on Godard

Godot wrote:

dda1996a wrote:It's actually $300 new or $85 used now

Three sellers now have it listed for under $32 used in good condition. That's $0.60 per monograph. I highly recommend that for tenia and anyone else who wants to pick up a large number of these wonderful books at a low price.

Ordered one, and just had them cancel on me. Rest of the $30 are also gone. Seems weird and fishy

domino harvey wrote:Yep, I've been meaning to pick it up. It's like $50 though, so one day!

Introduction to a True History of Cinema and Television is $25 plus shipping until April 11th. https://www.caboosebooks.net/true-history-of-the-cinema" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Whoa, nice! Thanks for the heads-up