The Cinema Book: A Complete Guide to Understanding the Movies [Paperback]

Pam Cook (Editor)

Book Description

This much-anticipated new edition builds upon the achievements of the first, taking stock of the many recent exciting developments in the field while retaining the historical coverage and depth of the original. The text is supported by over 250 illustrations, selected reading guides, and full bibliographies. Another unique feature of The Cinema Book is its fifty-five sidebars that support the text with in-depth analysis and relevant information on over 350 films. This new edition will consolidate The Cinema Book's position as the leading teaching aid in the field.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This guide, prepared by the British Film Institute and published in Britain in 1985, has much to recommend it. Chapters on film history and theory, stars, and "authorship" offer intelligent discussion and analysis. Stills are carefully chosen and an extensive filmography includes detailed plot synopses, lacking in many film reference books. However, the audience for this book may prove small. In its discussion of film theory (in which an inordinate amount of space is given to structuralism), The Cinema Book delves far more deeply than most texts and will likely leave many students (and teachers) in the dark. Recommended as a supplemental text for larger collections. Thomas Wiener, formerly with " American Film, " Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"It is a joy of a book, visually and textually, and it will delight all who care about film, whether makers, critics, students or plain ticket-buying cinema-goers."--"Multimedia Information & Technology --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 377 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (October 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394749863
• ISBN-13: 978-0394749860
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,417,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pam Cook (born 6 January 1943, Farnborough, Hampshire, UK) is Professor Emerita in Film at the University of Southampton. Along with Laura Mulvey and Claire Johnston, she was a pioneer of 1970s Anglo-American feminist film theory. In the mid-1980s, Cook co-authored and edited the leading film studies text book The Cinema Book for the British Film Institute. From 1985 to 1994 she was Associate Editor and contributor on the BFI magazines Monthly Film Bulletin and Sight and Sound, before becoming a lecturer at the University of East Anglia. In 1998 she was appointed the first Professor of European Film and Media at the University of Southampton. Since her retirement in 2005, she continues to publish books and articles on film.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for cinema studies, September 20, 2000

By 

Lorraine Paul (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cinema Book (Paperback)

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it has an incredible wealth of information for any student of Film or Multi-media studies, but it is written so well that an understanding of academic jargon is not necessary. After much research I found this book in the University Library, if I was allowed only one reference in formulating my essays I would unhesitatingly use this book and no other. Considering the breath it covers it still manages to give more than a surface analysis. Starting from the early beginnings of film it then moves on to an informative and succinct explanation of Classical Hollywood cinema; it then has a chapter on technology; followed by an analysis of the national cinemas & film movements of Germany, the Soviet Union, Italian Neo-realism etc etc; it then gives cinematic alternatives to classic Hollywood narration, such as the New Hollywood and avante guarde; there is a lengthy section on film genre which starts with "The History of Genre Criticism; the "auteur" film is another lengthy section full of interesting bits, for example "auteur theory and British cinema"; it then concludes with a chapter on Theoretical Frameworks. At the end there is an extensive Bibliography and an Index. What this book doesn't say about cinema, isn't worth saying! I desperately want this book! Borrowing it from the Library just isn't the same!