Customer Reviews

World on Film: An Introduction

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I was assigned this book for an undergraduate Cinema Studies class. I haven't taken the class yet, so I don't know how much it will be used, but I have already read it to be prepared. I found it to be interesting, informative and easy to read. I think it was a great introduction to World Cinema. It never gave too much away about the films it discussed, so you can still watch them and not know every plot point, but still be aware of some aspects of the filmmaking that make studying the film easier. The book is divided by country (six I believe) with their history around the start of film and then sections on films and directors the writer feels are canons of film in that country. Then there is a section in the back with a closer look at five influential filmmakers. I think the history section of each country is the best part. It really helps you understand what was going on at the time and what influenced the filmmakers. I was already very interested in world cinema, so a lot of it was a review, but I still learned a lot too. It is easy to understand which is a plus. Many of the academic writings on cinema are very hard to understand; very cryptic. I would encourage anyone that is not already well versed in world cinema to start with this book; it maybe a little too simple for a graduate level class... but maybe not, I'm not there yet!

The class that this book was for really opened my eyes to the cinematic techniques that are used by directors all around the world. I found the book informative. At least, enough to skim over it in the 10 minutes before class and form an idea worthy of rambling about for weekly timed writings. The class itself was enjoyable. If your are taking CMLT280 at UMD, I recommend buying this book if you want to do well.

The book was in brand new condition. The book is great quality, sadly the class its for isn't as much. :)