Comments on Out 1 Film Journal: Reading Movies Meme

James and Chuck - thanks, and I will add those ent...

2009-07-17T01:47:17.515-04:00

James and Chuck - thanks, and I will add those entries to the list. I eagerly await the possibility of that Lynch piece, James - thanks!

MovieMan- Thanks for the comments. I've added ...

2009-07-16T17:27:38.273-04:00

MovieMan- Thanks for the comments. I've added Chuck's list at last!

I'll look for the Ebert book. It was a book my stepmom had and I remember pouring over the Lynch entry after I started getting into him. If I can find it, I'll type it up or something of the sort. I guess I probably have the title wrong since no one else can seem to find it. Such is memory...

James and Brandon, thanks for participating (and s...

2009-07-12T22:10:39.747-04:00

James and Brandon, thanks for participating (and sorry I'm only writing a response now!).

Two great lists - and I'm especially enticed with that "The Case Against David Lynch" essay which I tried to google without any luck. Perhaps it could be an Out 1 featured text in the future, assuming it's not too long and James still has it on hand? (Sort of like I did for the Truffaut essays?) That would be awesome...

The discussion on auteurism is interesting. I still find it useful even as in my writing I've moved away from it (and formalism in general) - probably just because it's easier to write about film from a thematic and sociological point of view.

Chuck,

Your list made me realize I have not seen What is Cinema? on a single one of the 40 lists! What an oversight!

If you put up your list as a blog post (no such thing as "too late" as I've proved...) I will definitely link up to it as part of the "canon."

Sure, auteur-centric criticism might no longer be ...

2009-06-10T21:23:50.096-04:00

Sure, auteur-centric criticism might no longer be de rigeur in academia, but I definitely find much of it useful--particularly when I go through binges with particular directors.

Some might say auteur theory is dead... but I've also heard many make that argument about the discipline of film studies itself. I've read a few premature declarations stating that traditional film studies is dead, or at least folded into cultural studies as a smaller subset of a more all-consuming interdisciplinary heading. Not sure if I'm buying the "death" of film studies yet--but, hey, I've heard people chatter about it.

With that said, great books, guys. I'm 3 and 2, it seems. Brandon and I both seem to refer to Braudy and Cohen's anthology as our personal bibles--and I still need to read that Jonas Mekas book, damn it (but it's out-of-print and VERY hard to find). And James--loved the shout-out to Morin. I love CINEMA, OR THE OTHER MAN, and am actually in the middle of THE STARS right now (which, by the way, is fantastic).

And though nobody asked--here's my list.

THE PARADE'S GONE BY by Kevin Brownlow
MOVIE-MADE AMERICA by Robert Sklar
WHAT IS CINEMA? by Andre Bazin
BABEL AND BABYLON: SPECTATORSHIP IN AMERICAN SILENT FILM by Miriam Bratu Hansen
VISUAL AND OTHER PLEASURES by Laura Mulvey
CINEMA AND SPECTATORSHIP by Judith Mayne
CINEMA, OR THE OTHER MAN by Edgar Morrin
A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH NEW WAVE CINEMA by Richard Neupert
POST-THEORY: RECONSTRUCTING FILM STUDIES by David Bordwell
EARLY CINEMA: SPACE, FRAME, NARRATIVE ed. by Thomas Eisaesser and Adam Barker
FILM COMMENT

But auteur-centric criticism is a little behind th...

2009-06-09T18:09:33.079-04:00

But auteur-centric criticism is a little behind the times in a way. I didn't say it wasn't popular, just not fashionable. I feel like a lot of prominent film scholars/critics/etc. frown upon auteurism in the name of diversifying the discipline, which I wholeheartedly support. I was mostly just admitting that I'm aware that focusing on particular directors isn't really the cutting edge of film studies.

Jacob and Jeremy- Thanks for the kind comments. Ho...

2009-06-09T09:55:48.282-04:00

Jacob and Jeremy- Thanks for the kind comments. Hope you guys check out some of the books at some point. If theres' one thing this meme has shown, however, its that its quite hard to get to everything.

Brandon- Not sure auteur-centric books (or writing, certainly) is unfashionable. I'm usually the grumpy one trying to fight the fight and take that down a notch, or at least make people reconsider ways of thinking. Seems like most of the book lists I've seen are director-centric books, which isn't a big surprise. Even I'd rather read a book about Godard than a bunch of, say, Marxist theory. They are totally good stuff. Just, of late, my interest has skewed a different direction. But whatever direction people take in their cinephilia, and whatever they use the books for, is awesome by me. You've got a great list there.

The Armes book is solid, but it's nowhere near...

2009-06-09T05:06:17.512-04:00

The Armes book is solid, but it's nowhere near those other ones. I was just shocked at how overlooked it is, mostly.

As for explaining my choices, I would have to agree with James in that this is a mixture of formative works and things I've become very interested in recently or that I think are particularly insightful. My list is a little more auteur-centered, which is somewhat unfashionable, but I still get a lot out of books about/by specific directors, probably because my cinematic interest is a little more linked to my creative endeavors than purely academic analysis.

Thanks guys for submitting your lists. I enjoyed ...

2009-06-08T18:39:21.725-04:00

Thanks guys for submitting your lists. I enjoyed reading both of them and got some great ideas for some books I need to check out asap.

I've read somewhere in the neighborhood of fou...

2009-06-08T00:19:11.444-04:00

I've read somewhere in the neighborhood of four from Brandon's list and somewhere in the neighborhood of one from yours (assuming a readership of James). My "to wait for cheap copies of on ebay" list just got longer.

Brandon - I'm surprised that Roy Armes book you told me about didn't make the cut. You seemed pretty pumped about it. Were these all just so much better or were you wanting to give Armes more time to be absorbed/applied or some third option?