Customer Reviews

Film Art with free Film Viewer's Guide

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a *great* book. I am former student of David Bordwell's MA program in Film at the Univ of Wisconsin-Madison. This is a wonderful introduction to and keen analysis of the whole of cinema, not a mean feat for any book on film! A bit pricey, you might think, but it's jam-packed, ranging from the broad strokes to the minutiae of film. I can remember back to the first edition, decades ago, that I think sold for something like a then-whopping $15 in paper. Yes, it's designed mainly for textbook use for "film appreciation," but I don't think any serious student or film enthusiast can speak inteligently about film without this book. David Bordwell is one of the most respected voices in film studies today -- who would have thought he used to be a door-to-door vacuum salesman back in Iowa in the early early 1970's! Devoid of the jargony style [read: post-structuralist, semiotic, etc] analyses of so many other film books. [And, this from a guy who can sling the jargon with the best of them! Just read some of his scholarly essays in the film studies journals.] Seriously, though -- what a expansive writing career -- from general film studies textbook to scholarly works on Asian cinema, individual film artists like Eisenstein and Dreyer, to more recent works on Hong Kong action films. What a treat to see a great mind at work. Highly recommended for all! Studying at UW-Madison with people like Bordwell was one of several factors in my going into film preservation archive work.

this is a wonderful textbook! it was completely revised and actually redesigned for the 6th edition. it includes an online learning center available to all owners of the book, and includes a "how to watch films and write an effective essay" guide. this is not to mention the hundreds of b+w and full color photos, and the clear easy to understand text. film art is fully indexed with a bibliography and glossary. it even features an internet resources section with selected reference sites from the web. i suggest the other reviewer get a cinemagraphic education, and review this again. their ignorance shows!

I never bought this item because you were out of it.

This is perhaps THE WORST TEXTBOOK I have EVER had to use. If you eliminate Bordwell and Thompson's constant derivations discussing the most tedious unrelated, obscure film references; then there would be about FIVE pages of text. In those five pages, you would see several paragraphs of horribly akward phrasing and lack of definitions for their 'coined terms.' Do youself a favour and petition your Film Department to get a text that is actually readable and not this horrible.