Customer Reviews

Understanding Movies

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This excellent and easy-to-understand book describes how to analyze and interpret movies in much the same way that we have been taught to analyze and critique literature. Spanning the whole of the 20th century and every conceivable genre, it is a must for anyone seriously interested in understanding movies thoroughly. Includes both theoretical and practical aspects of filmmaking.

"Understanding Movies" is one of those rare works that so thoroughly conquers its domain it makes any other book on the same subject matter seem utterly pointless. This is remarkable enough in itself. What makes this book even more extraordinary is the broadness of the domain it manages to conquer. Read this book and you WIIL understand the film-making process. As such it is useful to both directors, actors, screenwriters, critics and even the casual film consumer.

The book is organized analytically, starting with the most basic elements of film (photography, composition) and working its way up to the most complex (theory, criticism). Actual films are used to illustrate the points, and the book is wonderfully free of the theoretical jargon that deadens so much of contemporary criticism.

Giannetti deserves high praise for putting together this wonderful book and I'm only glad I manged to stumble across it at the tail-end of my college career (in a non-film class, ironically enough).