Film History: An Introduction [Paperback]

Kristin Thompson (Author), David Bordwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0073386138 | ISBN-13: 978-0073386133 | Edition: 3rd

Written by two of the leading scholars in film studies, Film History: An Introduction is a comprehensive, global survey of the medium that covers the development of every genre in film, from drama and comedy to documentary and experimental. As with the authors' bestselling Film Art: An Introduction (now in its eighth edition), concepts and events are illustrated with frame enlargements taken from the original sources, giving students more realistic points of reference than competing books that rely on publicity stills.

The third edition of Film History is thoroughly updated and includes the first comprehensive overviews of the impact of globalization and digital technology on the cinema. Any serious film scholar--professor, undergraduate, or graduate student--will want to read and keep Film History.

Visit the authorss blog at http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kristin Thompson is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a master’s degree in film from the University of Iowa and a doctorate in film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has published Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible: A Neoformalist Analysis (Princeton University Press, 1981), Exporting Entertainment: America in the World Film Market 1907-1934 (British Film Institute, 1985), Breaking the Glass Armor: Neoformalist Film Analysis (Princeton University Press, 1988), Wooster Proposes, Jeeves Disposes, or, Le Mot Juste (James H. Heineman, 1992), Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique (Harvard University Press, 1999), Storytelling in Film and Television (Harvard University Press, 2003), Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood: German and American Film after World War I (Amsterdam University Press, 2005), and The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood (University of California Press, 2007). She blogs with David at www.davidbordwell.net/blog. She maintains her own blog, "The Frodo Franchise," at www.kristinthompson.net/blog. In her spare time she studies Egyptology.

David Bordwell is Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate in film from the University of Iowa. His books include The Films of Carl Theodor Dreyer (University of California Press, 1981), Narration in the Fiction Film (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema (Princeton University Press, 1988), Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema (Harvard University Press, 1989), The Cinema of Eisenstein (Harvard University Press, 1993), On the History of Film Style (Harvard University Press, 1997), Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Harvard University Press, 2000), Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging (University of California Press, 2005), The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies (University of California Press, 2006), and The Poetics of Cinema (Routledge, 2008). He has won a University Distinguished Teaching Award and was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Copenhagen. His we site is www.davidbordwell.net.

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 3rd edition (February 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0073386138
• ISBN-13: 978-0073386133
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 1.1 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best single-volume book on film history April 30, 2006

By Luke

Format:Paperback

If you are interested in film history on the whole, please, give yourself a treat by purchasing this book. It is not cheap but it is worth every penny. I had it after a course in film history and despite being someone who usually sell or dump away my texts after graduation, I find it very hard to give this one away. Boy, am I glad I did not. As one's scope and experience in world cinema grows, so too does one's interest in this book. Bordwell and Thomas's style is academic but always enthusiastic, and theirs is the most comprehensive account of world cinema in English (pre-war Japanese cinema, anyone?). I have not found another general film book on world cinema history to match, and I will certainly be purchasing its third edition (what I have is the first) if that ever comes by.

51 of 69 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars comparison January 25, 2006

By Charles Loyola

Format:Paperback

here's a short comparison I made between the following 3 film history books:

A History of the Cinema from Its Origins to 1970 (Eric Rhode)

A Short History of the Movies (Gerald Mast)

Film History: An Introduction, (Thompson-Bordwell)

I was looking for a technical/historical overview of the development of cinema, without idiosyncratic criticism and with emphasis on the origins of film techniques, genealogy of influences of filmmakers, relevant references to history, literature and other arts, and impartial accounts of filmmakers' careers.

Instead of a verdict, I will simply quote passages about two greats:

Rhode: [about Fellini] "Fellini's greatest works are inevitably works of laughter and tears. [...] Fellini gets into trouble when he deserts feeling for thought. La Dolce vita (1959) is a sterile thematic exercise [...] In the film's first sequence, a helicopter [...] The film, intellectualy, is over. Christ has been petrified into wood; he is the tool of modern machinery [...] Although the film has nothing more to say, Fellini continues for two hours, contrasting sensual things [...] Juliet of the Spirits [...] suffers from a similar over-schematization."

Mast: [about Antonioni] "Antonioni sometimes has trouble in allowing his images to accrete meaning [...] His failure to generalize experience was to be total in La notte (1960). Lacking any understanding of how writers think and feel, his portrait of the author, [...] is so unconvincing that the spectator may be tempted to think that Giovanni's crisis of conscience is no more than a rationalization of his inability to escape from his wife's purse-strings...."

Thompson-Bordwell: [about Antonioni] "From the start of his career Antonioni demonstrated a mastery of deep focus (Fig. 19.30) and the long take with camera movement (pp. 427-429). The early works also pioneered [...] Antonioni's muted dramatization of shallow or paralyzed characters found a sympathetic response in an era that also welcomed Existentialism. [...] Juan Bardem, Miklos Jansco, and Theo Angelopoulos learned from his distinctive style. Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and Brian De Palma's Blow-Out (1981) derive directly from Blow-Up."

nuff said... Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars When a Text Book Is Worth Reading April 7, 2012

By James W. Cortada

Format:Paperback

It's hard to get excited about a textbook, but this one is the exception. Written as if for a trade audience, it tells the fascinating story of film from its beginnings to the present. Covers just about everything you would want to know, but as an engaging story. This is an example of what an authoritative study of a subject should look like: balanced, well written, exciting, and beautifully illustrated.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Film History Review August 10, 2012

By [Insert Pen Name]

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I had to buy this for a class and wouldn't have brought it if I didn't have the class. My prof says the second and third editions are relatively the same so even though the third edition was required I followed everything with this edition. Also the chapters I read were easy to read and very informative.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars well written January 3, 2012

By BladeZ

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I enjoyed reading this book. It was not a hard read but it was full of useful information and well written. It covers both international cinema and hollywood cinema.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very fun film book October 3, 2010

By gothica0904

Format:Paperback

Being a lover of film, I found this book to be incredibly fun to read. It truly shows how far the film industry has evolved and how much cinematography has improved since the beginning. I highly recommend to film enthusiasts.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read April 28, 2008

By Rachel Unger

Format:Paperback

I had this book for a Film History class, and it was great. I've used it every semester since and plan to keep it forever and sleep with it under my pillow.

Even though it isn't aimed at teaching film theory or basics, it's better at explaining the basics than Film Art by miles. It also makes theory more interesting and topical to learn since it goes chronologically and highlights films that were actually influential, instead of the ones that Film Art just happened to get the rights to print pictures of.

Highly recommend.

1.0 out of 5 stars College book May 31, 2013

By Justin B.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I had to get this as a required book for a college course, and it was incredibly boring and frustrating to read.