114 reviews 22 followers
I've been using Barsam's book for several years now in my film class, having chosen it to replace Giannetti's "Understanding Movies," and before that, Bordwell/Thompson's "Film Art: An Introduction." My current students like it and so do I (and my students who have used Giannetti's text and Pramaggiore's "Film: A Critical Introduction" in other classes say they prefer the Barsam to both of those). Barsam covers all the requisite formal elements (narrative, cinematography, mise-en-scene, acting, editing, etc.), usually devoting a chapter to each topic--as do almost all film books of this type. But Barsam's book is better organized than most. Giannetti, by contrast, has a entire chapter on movement, whereas Barsam handles camera movement in his cinematography chapter and movement within the image in his chapter on mise-en-scene--which I think makes much more sense. And Barsam strikes a nice balance between academic rigor and accessibility (I stopped using the Bordwell/Thompson, which is often considered the standard, because undergraduate students found the tone too scholarly and the discussions too obtuse). The new 3rd edition of "Looking at Movies" adds a valuable and much-needed chapter on film history and expands the discussion of film technology, production and marketing. And of course, Barsam's book (like most others) is copiously illustrated, with helpful captions (and the layout and design is better in Barsam's than in most other texts of this sort). The writing is engaging, readable and informative. In short, a great text. The new edition does have a few weaknesses, however--at least, in my opinion. Firstly, the book now takes an awfully long time to get going: Barsam has added and re-arranged material into three long wind-up chapters introducing film appreciation, film forms and film types. The better solution--I think--would have been simply to revise the old material and include the new material (as well as some of the original material) in other other chapters where it topically belongs (moving the discussion of genres, for example, into the chapter on narrative). As is, the reader (or teacher and student) either has to wade through all that preliminary discussion prior to getting to the really meaty material, or she has to jump around in the book and split up the reading so as to address everything that is topically related in one read. Secondly, Barsam now pays almost no attention at all to film theory and theorists, even in the film history chapter (Giannetti, by contrast, has an entire chapter on theory, while other authors cover theory piecemeal throughout their respective texts). The 2nd edition had an entire chapter on film theory and criticism. It was admittedly a bit clunky, but the better solution would have been to rewrite it, not remove it entirely--which leaves a gaping hole in what is otherwise admirable coverage of all the important topics. Lastly, Barsam has a quirky understanding of mise-en-scene, broadening the concept so much that it becomes almost synonymous with the movie per se, rather than restricting mise-en-scene to a focus on the image and its composition and constituent components--although, to his credit, Barsam admits as much to the reader and then proceeds to handle his actual analyses much as everyone else does. It is possible to buy the text bundled with a small booklet on writing about movies (which is a pretty good treatment) and a truly excellent dvd with film shorts and some of the best tutorials (by David Monahan) available anywhere. The dvd alone is almost worth the purchase price of the book, and is an invaluable student resource. All things considered, then, (despite the puzzling loss of the theory chapter), Barsam's "Looking at Movies" is the best all-around choice for an introduction to film text, and I highly recommend it.
1,283 reviews 64 followers
This is designed to be a textbook for an undergraduate film course. As such, it covers a very wide range of topics such as film criticism, film production, and film history. If you're looking for a broad overview of the subject, this is a good place to get started. Regarding how up-to-date this book is, I have have the fifth edition and the latest films mentioned were released around 2014-2015, so be aware that if you are interested in films after that, they won't be covered in this book.
- film
26 reviews 55 followers
It's a good text for Aesthetics of Film, the course I teach with my husband, but the book seems obsessed with Johnny Depp, which, with all due respect, we don't get.?
9 reviews 3 followers
If one has to read an entire textbook cover to cover in lieu of any meaningful instruction from one's film studies teacher, this particular text book is a probably among your best bets.
126 reviews 10 followers
Overall good, don't want it to affect my algorithm though because it was a textbook for a class, but at times the authors were very biased towards film being vastly superior to any other mode of art even to the point of putting all other art forms down, which I didn't particularly like
264 reviews 21 followers
After reading this book cover to cover I can say that overall this is not a bad text to read. Some sections are a little too extensive in their review of particular films and forms. This is a great guide to use when taking a basic college course on film and explains technical terms and theories for investigating film very well. Richard Barsam does provide a wide array of examples from nearly all genres of film which makes identifying the properties easier. At the end of the text be sure to note the list of Academy Award Winners for Best Picture, Sight and Sound's top ten movies list, and top one hundred films lists of The Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, and American Film Institute for some further film viewing and analysis. The Appendix also provides some useful information on Hollywood production systems, studios, unions, the ratings system, and producers and directors.
- nonfic
Author 2 books 11 followers
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December 31, 2012I learned a lot, but this book, like most textbooks, has awful writing. Grammar mistakes on every page, lots of redundancy etc. Not a bad first look at film, and all the stills printed in the chapters have their original aspect ratio.
Author 4 books 23 followers
Chapter 1 – Looking at Movies p.7 – Recognizing a spectator's tendency (especially when sitting in a dark theatre, staring at a large screen) to identify subconsciously with the camera's viewpoint, early filmmaking pioneers created a film grammar (or cinematic language) that draws upon the way we automatically interpret visual information in our real lives, thus allowing audiences to absorb movie meaning intuitively… and instantly. p.10 – Cultural Invisibility – because so much of this occurs on an unconscious, emotional level, the casual viewer may be blind to the implied political, cultural, and ideological messages that help make the movie so appealing. p.11 – Implicit and Explicit Meaning – implicit meaning is an association, connection, or inference that a viewer makes on the basis of the explicit meanings available on the surface of the movie. Chapter 2 – Principles of Film Form p.36 – Form and Content – we can define content as the subject of an artwork (what the work is about), and form as the means by which that subject is expressed and experienced. p.60 – Cinematic Language – Instead of arranging words into sentences, cinematic language combines and composes a variety of elements – for example, lighting, movement, sound, acting, and a number of camera effects – into single shots. Chapter 3 – Types of Movies p.67 – narrative structure – which includes exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement – helps filmmakers manipulate the viewer's cinematic experience by selectively conforming to or diverging from audience expectations of storytelling. Chapter 4 – Elements of Narrative p.122 – What is Narrative? p.131 – Narrative Structure – basic formula that has evolved is calculated to engage and satisfy the receiver of the story. p.132 – The inciting incident (also known as the catalyst) presents the character with the goal that will drive the rest of the narrative. p.133 – Narrative depends on obstacles to block, or at least impede, or protagonist's quest for the goal. The person, people, creature, or force responsible for obstructing our protagonist is known as the antagonist. p.134 – Then the stakes rise. In other words, the deeper we get into the story, the greater the risk to our protagonist. p.135 – Eventually, our protagonist must face a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, and our story must reach a turning point and work its way toward resolution and the third and final act. This narrative peak is called the crisis. The goal is in its greatest jeopardy, and an affirmative answer to the central question seems all but impossible. p.136 – Once the goal is either gained or lost, it's time for the resolution – the third act of falling action, in which the narrative wraps up loose ends and moves toward a conclusion. p.137 – Narrative theory (sometimes called narratology) has a long history, starting with Aristotle and continuing with great vigor today. Aristotle said that a good story should have three sequential parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end – a concept that has influenced the history of playwriting and screenwriting. p.140 – This discussion of narrative theory adapts material from and indebted to, Seymore Chatman, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (1978) and Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film (1990)
• Fade-out/fade-in
• Long-angle shot
• Cutting on action
In the world of movies, form is cinematic language: the tools and techniques that filmmakers use to convey meaning and mood to the viewer, including lighting, mise-en-scene, cinematography, performance, editing, and sound.
• A story
• Fiction films (as opposed to documentary or experimental films)
• Cinematic structure that arranges events in a cause-and-effect sequence
• It infuses culture and our lives whenever we're describing a sporting event, relating a dream, recalling a memory, or telling a joke, we humans tend to order events to convey meaning and engage the recipient
The setup in the first act has to tell us what kind of a story we're about to experience by establishing the normal world. A movie's first few minutes lay out the rules of the universe that we will inhabit (or at least witness) for the next couple of hours.
The stakes are rising because the obstacles are becoming increasingly difficult for our protagonist to navigate. Over the course of the second act, narrative typically builds toward a peak, a breaking point of sorts, as the conflict intensifies and goal remains out of reach. This rising action, and the tension it provokes, enhances our engagement with the ongoing narrative.
The climax comes when the protagonist faces this major obstacle. In the process, usually the protagonist must take a great risk, make a significant sacrifice, or overcome a personal flaw. As the term implies, the climax tends to be the most impressive event in the movie.
316 reviews 12 followers
read this cover-to-cover, excluding the glossary and index. i enjoyed it, but i will confess that a good part of that comes from pre-existing interest in the content. for a textbook? not bad. strengths: some of the examples used are interesting, particularly when the authors reference popular cinema. additionally, the interactive and online supplements are often good, especially the Cinematography chapter, where the co-author and his students demonstrate lighting, lenses, etc. it was genuinely fun, amusing, and interesting. it's too bad the other supplements don't show the same degree of involvement. weaknesses: this is probably true for many textbooks, but there are many paragraphs here that do not feel necessary. this is especially annoying when the authors point out esoteric foreign films to use as examples. given that this is an intro text, I appreciate that the authors want to introduce their audience to UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, but when they use the film to illustrate techniques of cinema, it's lost on me. (and i assume the majority of introductory / core-curriculum readers).
4 reviews
I read it for film class. Incredible read and helped me on letterboxed to understand film deeper. I had a lovely teacher for it to give us examples. It's beneficial since mine is the loose-leaf copy. I will probably keep it forever. I truly love cinema, and the work mostly into cinematography, film stock, the stream of consciousness, and breaking the 4th wall. Learning about the difference of camera work etc., the addition to silent and talkies. Even though the work was thought and doing a directorial final essay benefit me with an A, I loved my teacher. A lovely book to keep for film critics and lovers. Culturally, this one was spot on.
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Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1104010.Looking_at_Movies
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