Helps readers understand how the many languages of film work together to create meaning. Louis Giannetti organizes Understanding Movies around the key elements of filmmaking, including cintematography, Mise en Scène, movement, editing, sound, acting, drama, casting, story, screenwriting, ideology, and theory. He synthesizes every element through a complete case study: Citizen Kane. This book's ideas are illuminated with hundreds of high-quality still photos, more than 70 in full color, taken from movies such as The Matrix, Almost Famous, jackass the movie, Chicago, Lord of the Rings, Mystic River, and Traffic. New in this edition: a full section on contemporary special effects and computer generated imagery (CGI); up-to-the-minute information on new developments in film technology; more coverage of recent films and filmmakers; more ethnic diversity (including new material on the Islamic cinema); and more lavish use of color and high-quality paper. An updated Companion Website contains animations, video clips from interviews with movie professionals, and Research Navigator access to New York Times film reviews. For everyone who wants to understand the artistry and meaning of the movies.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||||||||
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Book Description
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
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great guide to film analysis,
By Q (Q Continuum) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Understanding Movies, 11th Edition (Paperback)
This is an essential book for students of cinema. It does one thing and it does it quite well: it introduces you to the language of film analysis, the categories that critics use to analyze a film. It doesn't try to cover film technology or history.
I totally agree with the other reviewer that the new editions are completely unnecessary, and serve only to destroy the market for used copies. Buy one of the older editions unless it's for a college class and you need the same edition as the class.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best and most clear introduction to the analysis of film,
This review is from: Understanding Movies, 11th Edition (Paperback)
Gianetti's classic textbook has been around for a long time, and gone through several printings and new editions. There's a reason for that: it is one of the best introductions to the analysis and appreciation of film that is around. This is the book I was assigned when I took my first film class ("Film as Humanities") in college, and it opened up my eyes to a whole range of elements that contribute to the making of film meaning. Now, a few editions later, I am still assigning the book for my introduction to film studies classes.
What makes it so useful is that Gianetti focuses a chapter each on all of the different components that contribute to the significance of the final film product. He has a chapter on photography -- that introduces vocabulary for describing the images of film, the lighting, the framing, and the way in which the arrangement of elements on screen can direct the eye of the viewer. He has other chapters on movement, composition, editing, acting, story, drama, sound, and ideology, among others. A refreshing feature of the book, especially for an introductory level text, is that it does not make a sharp distinction between "art" films and "entertainment" flicks -- all of the elements he discusses apply to any films, and he illustrates them with copious examples from both the history of cinema and also from popular and accessible films of the last decade and even last year. At the same time, he is not timid about making judgments about films -- and giving his readers several tools for making critical judgments about what makes some films better than others. A guiding theme of the book, that lends continuity to each of the chapters and to the book as a whole, is Gianetti's emphasis on a distinction between the "realist" and the "classicist" and the "formalist" tendencies in film. In his chapter on story, among other helpful analyses of narrative styles and the formation and development of genres of film storytelling, he also explains what one would expect from a realist approach to storytelling versus a classicist (i.e. mainstream Hollywood) style versus a formalist approach. He similarly discusses realist and formalist approaches to editing and composition and acting and sound. This basic distinction turns out to be the key to understanding a wide range of differences between approaches to film. While he doesn't go into film theory directly, he points out where some of the critical ideas he raises have provoked controversy among film theorists, and he is able to capture clearly the key ideas that are debated by film theorists without in any way bogging the text down in jargon. He maintains througout an emphasis on what might be called first-level film analysis -- before we can apply theory to films, before we can reflect on the nature of film, or on the deeper meanings of films, we really do need to learn how to get clear about what is on the surface: what is happening on the screen and in the sound and in the story, and why. While there are other good introductory film books out there that focus on different aspects of film (like Bordwell's Film Art), I really can't imagine a better guide than Gianetti's to getting clear about what is there on the surface. Highly recommended for those interested in the nature of film.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent resource for would-be filmmakers,
By Tim Huffner (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Understanding Movies, 11th Edition (Paperback)
Giannetti's book is an excellent and very comprehensive resource for anyone interested in the art of filmmaking. Countless films (both classic and modern) from around the globe are dissected and illustrated throughout the book alongside each chapter's content, and I found the material as entertaining and interesting as it was informative. As a novice in the field, I learned plenty about the art of creating films and I gained a newfound respect for many popular and obscure titles. I applaud Giannetti for writing such a detailed, yet readable textbook and would recommend this book to all students, teachers, and general film enthusiasts.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
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
|
So You'd Like to...
|
|
