Film as Film: Understanding and Judging Movies

By V.F. Perkins

Book Overview

"Without fuss, this stimulating book enlarges the ways in which we can look at and listen to the screen."--Foster Hirsch, from his introduction

Here at last is an introduction to film theory and its history without the jargon. Noted film scholar V. F. Perkins presents criteria for expanding our understanding and enjoyment of movies. He employs commonsense words like balance, coherence, significance, and satisfaction to develop his insightful support of the subtle approach and of the unobtrusive director. Readers will learn why a scene from the humbler movie Carmen Jones is a deeper realization of filmmaking than the bravura lion sequence in the classic Battleship Potemkin. Along the way Perkins invites readers to re-experience with clarity, directness, and simplicity other famous scenes by directors like Hitchcock, Eisenstein, and Chaplin. Perkins examines the origins of movies and embraces their use of both realism and magic, their ability to record as well as to create. In the process he seeks to discover the synthesis between these opposing elements. With the delight of the fan and the perception of the critic, Perkins advances a film theory, based on the work of Bazin and other early film theorists, that is rich with suggestion for debate and further pursuit. Sit beside Perkins as he reacquaints you with cinema, heightens your awareness, deepens your pleasure, and increases your return every time you invest in a movie ticket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306805413
• ISBN13: 9780306805417
• Release Date: August 1993
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Huh?

I am scraching my head...at the previous reviewer, Perkins is one of the most brilliant and repected film critics alive. He is difficult...but so is most anything worth doing in life. Perkins doesn't introduce concepts with astheticly pleasing headings, and entertaing pictures, then explain what each one means, and why its important...I am sure the "dummy's" guide books have done that already along with a 1000 others. Perkins is one of a few critics who have transformed films for me and many others. I am so surprized and sad that so few have reviewed this important work.