Understanding Movies

This was the first textbook I ever had for a film class. Intro to Film, I believe. And, since it's been a while, I decided to go back and read it from start to finish (instead of piecemeal like you normally do with college textbooks). It was a nice overall view of the art of movie making.

The book

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is divided into sections, each one building on the last and focusing on one specific feature of movies. The sections are Photography, Mise en Scene, Movement, Editing, Sound, Acting, Drama, Story, Writing, Ideology, and Theory. Each chapter is loaded with screen shots of movies that provide examples of what the author is talking about. There are also some storyboards from specific film scenes used to give the reader a better understanding of how films are made.

The final chapter, Synthesis, is an in-depth analysis of Citizen Kane from the perspective of each of the above sections. Since I was planning to watch Kane again for another movie list, I decided to time my viewing with the reading of this last chapter so it was fresh in my mind.

This book is definitely a good introductory read on the style and substance of film. Examples of both good and bad movies are used with explanations as to why some things work in a film, yet others don't.

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