On the History of Film Style

Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners
Review: From the title, I expected the work to be a history of stylistic evolution. Instead, it's a history of how film theory evolved. As such, it seems aimed at experts in film criticism . Given this focus, I found long stretches of it to be loaded with jargon and incomprehensible to a layman like myself. For that reason, I feel unqualified to judge it fairly. Consequently, the reader should take the three-star rating with a large grain of salt.

Nevertheless, I found much of value in this book. I especially enjoyed Bordwell's reconsideration of stylistic innovation as a creative response to practical problems rather than an outgrowth of theory. What's more, his analyses of editing techniques and movies such as "The Best Years of Our Lives" gave me a glimpse of what it might be like to really "see" a movie.

That aside, I suspect others like myself would find his "Film Art" to be a more accessible alternative to this title.

Rating:
Summary: The way movies really look
Review: Have you ever actually looked at a film? David Bordwell answers the tendency of recent film criticism and analysis to concentrate on the ideological and cultural motivations and manifestations of cinema. His interest is in really looking at the films themselves. Such a 'novel' standpoint has of course a very long tradition, but Bordwell uses the examination of mise-en-scene, framing, focus, control of colour and contrast values to uncover a great deal that is missed in other readings of cinema. Here is a history of film that a practitioner of cinematography (or plain old photography) will appreciate. He does not underestimate or oversimplify the sublety of a filmaker's intentions and gives credit to the ability of the director/cinematographer team to invent and develop a sophisticated visual language. Brodwells commentary is reinforced by 'photograms' (actual frames) selected from a authoratative familiarity with film that is not restricted to American cinema but includes Soviet, Japanese, Indian and European film. It is only the eyestraining size of their (monochrome) reproduction that is disappointing - but then, we can always go and see the films for ourselves!