Understanding Movies FROM THE PUBLISHER
Designed to help movie watchers analyze films with precision and technical sophistication, this book focuses on formalism—how the forms of the film (e.g., camera work, editing, photography, etc.) create meaning. It sheds light on how television and movies communicate, and the complex network of language systems they use. Chapter topics cover recent developments from all aspects of cinema, contemporary films, personalities in the field, photography, movement, editing, sound, acting, drama, story writing, and theory. For movie critics and fans alike.
SYNOPSIS
A text for an introductory film and television criticism course at the undergraduate level, published frequently since 1972 and most recently in 1999. The chapters are structured around the dichotomy between realism and formalism, and rather than prescribe how viewers should react to moving images, they explain why people react as they do.
Annotation © Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
A popular, unpretentious, thoroughly illustrated (b&w) college-level textbook on how movies communicate, organized around the realism- formalism dichotomy. This edition (sixth was 1993) is updated to reflect recent developments in the field, and adds many new photos and captions, most from recently released movies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
ACCREDITATION
Louis Giannetti is a Professor of English and Film at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Educated at Boston University and the University of Iowa. He has published many articles, both popular and scholarly, on political subjects, literature, and drama. In addition to being a professional film critic for several years, he has written about movies for such scholarly journals as Literature/Film Quarterly, The Western Humanities Review, and Film Criticism. Dr. Giannetti is also the author of a book on cinema theory, Godard And Others: Essays On Film Form, published in both Great Britain and the United States. Dr. Giannetti's other books include Masters Of The American Cinema (Prentice Hall ,1981), a survey of American fiction films from the perspective of eighteen key figures. Flashback: A Brief History Of Film, Fourth Edition, written with Scott Eyman, is a history organized by decade, outlining the major events, trends, and important filmmakers and their work, with emphasis on the American cinema. Both books are copiously illustrated. UNDERSTANDING MOVIES has been a best-selling text in all its previous editions, widely used in the United States and in such countries as Australia, Great Britain, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and Japan. It has been translated into Chinese, Korean ,and Hebrew. Dr. Giannetti is the father of two daughters, Christina and Francesca.
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