Movies That Mattered

Movies That Mattered PDF Author: Dave Kehr
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022649568X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Why is Dave Kehr "one of the best writers on film the country has produced"? Jonathan Rosenbaum, his highly regarded successor as movie critic at the "Chicago Reader" from 1987 through 2008, has a good answer in his Foreword to this volume: "For the range of films and filmmakers treated, the analytical tools employed, and the intellectual confidence and lucidity of his arguments, Kehr's prose really has no parallels." In this "sequel" to "When Movies Mattered" (published in 2011), Kehr deploys those gifts in 50 brilliant pieces, ranging from a thoughtful discussion of the sobering Holocaust documentary "Shoah" to an irresistible celebration of the raucous American comedy "Used Cars." Although that first book featured pieces only from the "Reader," this volume also contains essays from "Chicago" magazine, where Kehr's column on movies appeared from August 1979 through September 1986 (his work in the "Reader" appeared from late 1974 through late summer in 1986). As with "When Movies Mattered," most of this material (and all of it from "Chicago" magazine) has not been reprinted or available online since its original publication. Readers will now have the opportunity to know more of what Rosenbaum calls "a body of work that . . . strikes me as being the most remarkable extended stretch of auteurist [director centered] criticism in American journalism." Although Kehr ended his career as a critic toward the end of 2013 when he stopped writing his weekly DVD column for the "New York Times" to become an adjunct curator in the film department of the Museum of Modern Art, his reputation will be further enhanced by this second collection of his outstanding work--definitely must reading for cinephiles.

Movies That Mattered

Movies That Mattered PDF Author: Dave Kehr
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022649568X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why is Dave Kehr "one of the best writers on film the country has produced"? Jonathan Rosenbaum, his highly regarded successor as movie critic at the "Chicago Reader" from 1987 through 2008, has a good answer in his Foreword to this volume: "For the range of films and filmmakers treated, the analytical tools employed, and the intellectual confidence and lucidity of his arguments, Kehr's prose really has no parallels." In this "sequel" to "When Movies Mattered" (published in 2011), Kehr deploys those gifts in 50 brilliant pieces, ranging from a thoughtful discussion of the sobering Holocaust documentary "Shoah" to an irresistible celebration of the raucous American comedy "Used Cars." Although that first book featured pieces only from the "Reader," this volume also contains essays from "Chicago" magazine, where Kehr's column on movies appeared from August 1979 through September 1986 (his work in the "Reader" appeared from late 1974 through late summer in 1986). As with "When Movies Mattered," most of this material (and all of it from "Chicago" magazine) has not been reprinted or available online since its original publication. Readers will now have the opportunity to know more of what Rosenbaum calls "a body of work that . . . strikes me as being the most remarkable extended stretch of auteurist [director centered] criticism in American journalism." Although Kehr ended his career as a critic toward the end of 2013 when he stopped writing his weekly DVD column for the "New York Times" to become an adjunct curator in the film department of the Museum of Modern Art, his reputation will be further enhanced by this second collection of his outstanding work--definitely must reading for cinephiles.

When the Movies Mattered

When the Movies Mattered PDF Author: Jonathan Kirshner
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501736116
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
In When the Movies Mattered Jonathan Kirshner and Jon Lewis gather a remarkable collection of authors to revisit the unique era in American cinema that was New Hollywood. Ten eminent contributors, some of whom wrote about the New Hollywood movement as it unfolded across the 1960s and 1970s, assess the convergence of film-industry developments and momentous social and political changes that created a new type of commercial film that reflected those revolutionary influences in American life. Even as New Hollywood first took shape, film industry insiders and commentators alike realized its significance. At the time, Pauline Kael compared the New Hollywood to the "tangled, bitter flowering of American letters in the 1850s" and David Thomson dubbed the era "the decade when movies mattered." Thomson's words provide the impetus for this volume in which a cohort of seasoned film critics and scholars who came of age watching the movies of this era reflect upon and reconsider this golden age in American filmmaking. Contributors: Molly Haskell, Heather Hendershot, J. Hoberman, George Kouvaros, Phillip Lopate, Robert Pippin, David Sterritt, David Thomson

The Essentials

The Essentials PDF Author: Jeremy Arnold
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762459476
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Showcasing 52 Essential films from the silent era through the 1980s, Turner Classic Movies invites you into a world filled with stirring performances, dazzling musical numbers, and bold directorial visions that mark the greatest moments in film history. Since its inception on Turner Classic Movies in 2001, The Essentials has become the ultimate series for movie lovers to expand their knowledge of must-see cinema and discover or revisit landmark films that have had a lasting impact on audiences everywhere. Based on the TCM series, The Essentials book showcases fifty-two must-see movies from the silent era through the early 1980s. Readers can enjoy one film per week, for a year of stellar viewing, or indulge in their own classic movie festival. Some long-championed classics appear within these pages; other selections may surprise you. Each film is profiled with insightful notes on why it's an Essential, a guide to must-see moments, and running commentary from TCM's Robert Osborne and Essentials guest hosts past and present, including Sally Field, Drew Barrymore, Alec Baldwin, Rose McGowan, Carrie Fisher, Molly Haskell, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, and Rob Reiner. Featuring full-color and black-and-white photography of the greatest stars in movie history, The Essentials is your curated guide to fifty-two films that define the meaning of the word "classic."

The Rhapsodes

The Rhapsodes PDF Author: David Bordwell
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022635220X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, and Roger Ebert were three of America's most revered and widely read film critics, more famous than many of the movies they wrote about. But their remarkable contributions to the burgeoning American film criticism of the 1960s and beyond were deeply influenced by four earlier critics: Otis Ferguson, James Agee, Manny Farber, and Parker Tyler. Film scholar and critic David Bordwell restores to a wider audience the work of Ferguson, Agee, Farber, and Tyler, critics he calls the 'Rhapsodes' for the passionate and deliberately offbeat nature of their vernacular prose.

The Films in My Life

The Films in My Life PDF Author: François Truffaut
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1626813965
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
From a cinematic grand master, “one of the most readable books of movie criticism, and one of the most instructive” (American Film Institute). An icon. A rebel. A legend. The films of François Truffaut defined an exhilarating new form of cinema for moviegoers the world over. But before Truffaut became a great director, he was a critic who stood at the vanguard, pioneering an innovative way to view movies and to write about the cinematic arts. Now, for the first time in eBook, the legendary director shares his own words, as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time examines the art of movie-making through engaging and deeply personal reviews about the movies he loves. Truffaut writes extensively about his heroes, from Hitchcock to Welles, Chaplin to Renoir, Buñuel to Bergman, Clouzot to Cocteau, Capra to Hawks, Guitry to Fellini, sharing analysis and insight as to what made them film legends, and how their work led Truffaut and his fellow directors into classics like The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim, and the French New Wave movement. Articulate and candid, The Films in My Life is for everyone who has sat in a dark movie theater and dreamed. “Truffaut brings the same intelligence and grace to the printed page that he projects onto the screen. The Films in My Life provides a rare knowledgeable look at movies and moviemaking.” —Newsday

The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael

The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael PDF Author: Pauline Kael
Publisher: Library of America
ISBN: 1598531719
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 1186

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Book Description
A master film critic is at her witty, exhilarating, and opinionated best in this career-spanning collection featuring pieces on Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, and other modern movie classics “Film criticism is exciting just because there is no formula to apply,” Pauline Kael once observed, “just because you must use everything you are and everything you know.” Between 1968 and 1991, as regular film reviewer for The New Yorker, Kael used those formidable tools to shape the tastes of a generation. She had a gift for capturing, with force and fluency, the essence of an actor’s gesture or the full implication of a cinematic image. Kael called movies “the most total and encompassing art form we have,” and her reviews became a platform for considering both film and the worlds it engages, crafting in the process a prose style of extraordinary wit, precision, and improvisatory grace. Her ability to evoke the essence of a great artist—an Orson Welles or a Robert Altman—or to celebrate the way even seeming trash could tap deeply into our emotions was matched by her unwavering eye for the scams and self-deceptions of a corrupt movie industry. Here are her appraisals of era-defining films such as Breathless, Bonnie and Clyde, The Leopard, The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris, Nashville, along with many others, some awaiting rediscovery—all providing the occasion for masterpieces of observation and insight, alive on every page.

The Great Movies III

The Great Movies III PDF Author: Roger Ebert
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226182118
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
Roger Ebert has been writing film reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times for over four decades now and his biweekly essays on great movies have been appearing there since 1996. As Ebert noted in the introduction to the first collection of those pieces, “They are not the greatest films of all time, because all lists of great movies are a foolish attempt to codify works which must stand alone. But it’s fair to say: If you want to take a tour of the landmarks of the first century of cinema, start here. Enter The Great Movies III, Ebert’s third collection of essays on the crème de la crème of the silver screen, each one a model of critical appreciation and a blend of love and analysis that will send readers back to the films with a fresh set of eyes and renewed enthusiasm—or maybe even lead to a first-time viewing. From The Godfather: Part II to Groundhog Day, from The Last Picture Show to Last Tango in Paris, the hundred pieces gathered here display a welcome balance between the familiar and the esoteric, spanning Hollywood blockbusters and hidden gems, independent works and foreign language films alike. Each essay draws on Ebert’s vast knowledge of the cinema, its fascinating history, and its breadth of techniques, introducing newcomers to some of the most exceptional movies ever made, while revealing new insights to connoisseurs as well. Named the most powerful pundit in America by Forbes magazine, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Roger Ebert is inarguably the most prominent and influential authority on the cinema today. The Great Movies III is sure to please his many fans and further enhance his reputation as America’s most respected—and trusted—film critic.

Infectious Greed

Infectious Greed PDF Author: Frank Partnoy
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847651372
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
First published in 2003, Infectious Greed examined how our greed-driven culture led to the generation of massive profits, but also to unprecedented levels of risk, widespread deception, and high profile disasters like Enron and Worldcom. In the wake of the 2008-9 financial crisis, Partnoy's analysis of how major companies obscured the reality from shareholders by disguising risk and side-stepping regulations, is more pertinent than ever. Beginning in the mid-1980s with the introduction of the first proto-derivatives, Partnoy gives an intelligent and thorough account of the dangerous manipulations that have and continue to come to light.

What They Don't Teach You at Film School

What They Don't Teach You at Film School PDF Author: Camille Landau
Publisher: Hyperion
ISBN: 9780786884773
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Two filmmakers who've beaten the system give the real dope on what it takes to get your movie made Do you have to go to film school to get your movies made No, say two young entrepreneurs who survived the grind. Here they offer 140 strategies for making movies no matter what. Amateurs as well as seasoned veterans can pick up this entertaining and incredibly useful guide in any place--at any point of crisis--and find tactics that work. Whether it's raising money or cutting your budget; dealing with angry landlords or angry cops; or jump-starting the production or stalling it while you finish the script, these strategies are delivered with funny, illustrative anecdotes from the authors' experiences and from veteran filmmakers eager to share their stories. Irreverent, invaluable, and a lot cheaper than a year's tuition, this friendly guide is the smartest investment any future filmmaker could make. Strategies from the book include: Love your friends for criticizing your work--especially at the script stage Shyness won't get you the donuts Duct tape miracles Don't fall in love with cast or crew (but if you do...)

Shooting to Kill

Shooting to Kill PDF Author: Christine Vachon
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061873683
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 485

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Book Description
Complete with behind-the-scenes diary entries from the set of Vachon's best-known fillms, Shooting to Kill offers all the satisfaction of an intimate memoir from the frontlines of independent filmmakins, from one of its most successful agent provocateurs -- and survivors. Hailed by the New York Times as the "godmother to the politically committed film" and by Interview as a true "auteur producer," Christine Vachon has made her name with such bold, controversial, and commercially successful films as "Poison," "Swoon," Kids," "Safe," "I Shot Andy Warhol," and "Velvet Goldmine."Over the last decade, she has become a driving force behind the most daring and strikingly original independent filmmakers-from Todd Haynes to Tom Kalin and Mary Harron-and helped put them on the map. So what do producers do? "What don't they do?" she responds. In this savagely witty and straight-shooting guide, Vachon reveals trheguts of the filmmaking process--rom developing a script, nurturing a director's vision, getting financed, and drafting talent to holding hands, stoking egos, stretching every resource to the limit and pushing that limit. Along the way, she offers shrewd practical insights and troubleshooting tips on handling everything from hysterical actors and disgruntled teamsters to obtuse marketing executives. Complete with behind-the-scenes diary entries from the sets of Vachon's best-known films, Shooting To Kill offers all the satisfactions of an intimate memoir from the frontlines of independent filmmaking, from one of its most successful agent provocateurs-and survivors.