Essential Books on Film/Film History

[Positive A]

Thinking about purchasing "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film" by David Thomson and "Hitchcock" by Truffault after reading some largely positive things about the pair.

Can anyone weigh on these two?

Or, perhaps some recommendations?

If there is a preexisting thread, please point me in the direction and delete this one.

Thanks.

[aleph]

Only skimmed thru the Thomson book and I haven't read many but for a comprehensive history of film "A History of Narrative Film" by David A. Cook has to be one of the best. My copy is in tatters from referring to it so often

http://www.amazon.com/History-Narrative ... 0393968197

Also, interviews with directors always wins with me. Hitchcock/Truffaut is indeed essential.

[drizzle]

Also, interviews with directors always wins with me. Hitchcock/Truffaut is indeed essential.

so is Herzog on Herzog

[battlecatmeowstab212]

Sidney Lumet's Making Movies really opened my eyes a lot and, even having read it in my fourth year of getting a BA in cinema studies, really made me appreciate more each and every role that the act of film making brings to the final product.

Roger Corman's How I Made 1,000 Movies and Never Lost a Dime and Lloyd Kaufman's Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger are both great glimpses into building an independent film empire.

[Positive A]

Thanks guys.

I was looking at that lumet book, too. I'll grab that one. Love some herzog too, so I'll look for that one.

[Positive A]

Only skimmed thru the Thomson book and I haven't read many but for a comprehensive history of film "A History of Narrative Film" by David A. Cook has to be one of the best. My copy is in tatters from referring to it so often

http://www.amazon.com/History-Narrative ... 0393968197

Fack. This looks really good too. Thanks man.

[PopeyeJones]

Are you looking for serious "film history" stuff or entertaining "film industry" stuff?

If the latter, The Kid Stays in the Picture >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Positive A]

"Sculpting in Time" by Tarkovski?

[Positive A]

Are you looking for serious "film history" stuff or entertaining "film industry" stuff?

If the latter, The Kid Stays in the Picture >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Either to be honest, man. Thanks for the rec. I'll check that one out.

[Tommy Bunz]

Co-sign the Corman, Lumet and Herzog books. All great.


Not entirely about the film industry but one of my favorite books ever.

Both the My First Movie books are fun reads, basically just interviews with famous directors about how they broke into the industry.
Likewise, Robert Rodriguez's Rebel Without A Crew is essential.
The Stanley Kubrick Archives is great if you're a fan.

I'm reading this right now

[Larry2times]

Kid Stays In The Picture doc is a classic too, its basically the audiobook with pictures

[PopeyeJones]

Kid Stays In The Picture doc is a classic too, its basically the audiobook with pictures

True. IIRC Patton has an old bit about how fucking awesome the actual audio book for it is, and how it's really the only way to consume it.

[Spartan]

Best movie book I read last year.

[drizzle]

Kid Stays In The Picture doc is a classic too, its basically the audiobook with pictures

True. IIRC Patton has an old bit about how fucking awesome the actual audio book for it is, and how it's really the only way to consume it.

why not just watch the movie then, which is basically a slide show with narration

bizarrely, his short lived cartoon on comedy central was the shit too

[Larry2times]

his short lived cartoon on comedy central was the shit too

holup mang are you talking about Evans???

[drizzle]

yea, kid notorious

[Larry2times]

Nuts. Im on it.

[Positive A]

Best movie book I read last year.

Ordered about 7 or 8 books based on recommendations made by you fine people, but this one, which came a couple of days ago, looks really fucking exceptional.

Thanks again. So much great reading to be done.

[Spartan]

Co-signing Nightmare Movies by Kim Newman, even though he shits on a lot of movies that are dear to me.

[unbelievable dickhead]

Best movie book I read last year.

this was referenced in Xerox Ferox and i put down XF and read this in its entirety. Definitely my read of the year. I recommend XF too but i definitely needed a break from it to appreciate it. Its all interviews and some of the information becomes redundant so it starts to drag if you're reading it all in one shot.

[unbelievable dickhead]

also if you're into that type of stuff, Nightmare USA is dope.

[Spartan]

Stephen Thrower definitely went in there for Nightmare USA, that's for sure.

On a related note, there are a lot of great film related books published by FAB Press, even the very crude Cinema Sewer trade paperbacks are very insightful.

[Career Over Like Mike(NJJ)]

Co-sign the Thomson and Newman choices.

Would also recommend:

Andrew Sarris - The American Cinema
Pauline Kael - For Keeps
David Thomson - Have You Seen?
Armond White - Resistance
Bill Landis & Michelle Clifford - Sleazoid Express
Legs McNeil & Jennifer Osborne - The Other Hollywood

Best movie book I've read in the past couple of years would be My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles by Peter Biskind. Basically, Orson holding court in Ma Maison talking shit about everyone in Hollywood and going into intimate detail about his career as Jaglom tries to secure funding for him.

[Trademark]

Moviemakers Master Class
Laurent Tirard

Sculpting in Time
Andrei Tarkovsky

Godard on Godard
Jean Luc Godard

Story
Robert Mckee

Making Movies
Sidney Lumet

Something Like An Autobiography (this one isn't too terribly interesting as it deals more with life than film)
Akira Kurosawa

The Films in My Life
Francois Truffaut

Truffaut/Hitchcock
Francois Truffaut


That right there is film school, you really wouldn't need anything else. It would cost you about 450,000 less than film school too.

[Tommy Bunz]

Just got the new Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey book



Shits so beautiful its got me all like

[Spartan]

Copped these books this year.





Haven't sunk my teeth into the new Cinema Sewer trade paperback since I'm still picking through Howarth's book. Hope the publishers use better paper stock for Volume 2.

Tempted to pick up Thrower's Jess Franco book, but I'm in no hurry for that one.

[Spartan]

Refn has a book out on exploitation movie posters:



Embarrassed to say I've never watched an Andy Milligan film.

[Tommy Bunz]

Yeah I read about that book but its kinda deceptive in that Refn didn't do any of the write-ups and isn't really a rare movie poster collector, almost all of the posters in the book he bought in one large purchase from another collector and he hasn't seen most of the movies either.
So while its probably a cool book, calling it his book is a bit disingenuous.

[Spartan]

https://www.fabpress.com/books/nwr-act-of-seeing.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Too expensive for my liking anyway. Better off scooping a couple of quality FAB books instead.