The Film : The Front Line volumes treat approximately 20 filmmakers who are changing the shape of the movies shown in our neighborhood theaters, though their work will likely never be seen there. Jonathan Rosenbaum makes accessible the work of such neglected experimental and personal filmmakers as Chantal Akerman, Jon Jost, Ulrike Ottinger, Yvonne Rainer, and Mark Rappaport. These and others included here have been treated before only in media that are not readily available to the student of film, and yet they form an important part of film's front line.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more |
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A laudable step toward re-establishing a critical dialogue on the avant-garde cinema." -- Film Quarterly, 1984
"I have optimistically cleared off some space on my shelf for the volumes to come." -- On Film, 1985
"Those unfamiliar with this area of cinema coud not ask for a better introduction to the themes, perplexities, and history of the contemporary independent cinema...an exceptional text for the times." -- Undercut, 1984
"I have optimistically cleared off some space on my shelf for the volumes to come." -- On Film, 1985
"Those unfamiliar with this area of cinema coud not ask for a better introduction to the themes, perplexities, and history of the contemporary independent cinema...an exceptional text for the times." -- Undercut, 1984
About the Author
Jonathan Rosenbaum is a contributor to Cahiers Du Cinema, Sight & Sound, and Omni and is the author of Moving Places : A Life At The Movies. He is also co-author with J. Hoberman of Midnight Movies.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential, very personal look at some key avant-garde filmmmakers circa 1960-1980,
By
This review is from: Film: The Front Line 1983 (Paperback)
I remember having a hard time finding this book some years ago, but apparently some remaindered copies have found there way out of a warehouse and back into print. One would think that the market for a book covering an idiosyncratic slice of an idiosyncratic area in film - the avant-garde narrative - would be pretty tiny, and I suppose it is, but to those few out there reading this I can heartily recommend it. Many of you probably already know Rosenbaum's work as a critic, most notably for 20 years at the "Chicago Reader" and if you do you'll probably need no pushing from me; this is as passionate and provocative as most of his other published work.
For those who want a few more specifics, I can tell you that this is a rundown of 20 filmmakers who were active in the avant garde/experimental world in the early 1980s. Typically each piece begins with a filmography and then an analysis of the filmmaker(s)' aims and achievements thus far. Sometimes there are interviews with the subjects. Directors covered: Chantal Akerman Beth and Scott B. James Benning Robert Breer Manuel de Landa Sara Driver Peter Gidal Louis Hock Jon Jost Jonas Mekas Ulrike Ottinger Yvonne Rainer Mark Rappaport Jackie Raynal Jacques Rivette Michael Snow Jean-Marie Straub and Danielle Huillet Leslie Thornton JR usually does an excellent job of giving even the novice a real idea of what kind of filmmaking s/he might be getting into when exploring any of these interesting mavericks - I found his analysis of cranky Amercian ultra-low-budget provacateur Jon Jost spot-on, for example and Jost has since become one of my favorite directors. Not that there are many relatively as or more famous filmmakers that are excluded - Jean-Luc Godard, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Ken Jacobs, etc. This wasn't an attempt to be comprehensive, merely a quick overview, and some figures don't appear either because they are in fact already well-covered elsewhere, or because their work was just too hard to see at the time. There's a last chapter that does give brief rundowns on the careers/recent works by 22 other other filmmakers including some of those I just mentioned. Essential for the avant-garde devotee.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
