Product Description

Richard Gilman referred to How to Read a Film as simply "the best single work of its kind." And Janet Maslin in The New York Times Book Review marveled at James Monaco's ability to collect "an enormous amount of useful information and assemble it in an exhilaratingly simple and systematic way." Indeed, since its original publication in 1977, this hugely popular book has become the definitive source on film and media. Now, James Monaco offers a special anniversary edition of his classic work, featuring a new preface and several new sections, including an "Essential Library: One Hundred Books About Film and Media You Should Read" and "One Hundred Films You Should See." As in previous editions, Monaco once again looks at film from many vantage points, as both art and craft, sensibility and science, tradition and technology. After examining film's close relation to other narrative media such as the novel, painting, photography, television, and even music, the book discusses the elements necessary to understand how films convey meaning, and, more importantly, how we can best discern all that a film is attempting to communicate. In addition, Monaco stresses the still-evolving digital context of film throughout--one of the new sections looks at the untrustworthy nature of digital images and sound--and his chapter on multimedia brings media criticism into the twenty-first century with a thorough discussion of topics like virtual reality, cyberspace, and the proximity of both to film. With hundreds of illustrative black-and-white film stills and diagrams, How to Read a Film is an indispensable addition to the library of everyone who loves the cinema and wants to understand it better.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34125 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

About the Author
James Monaco is a writer, publisher, and producer. His books include American Film Now, The New Wave, The Encyclopedia of Film, and The Connoisseur's Guide to the Movies.

Customer Reviews

This is a great book!

I am just writing this to 'adjust' the rating and earlier review written for this book, as I find it can be quite misleading.

This is indeed a great read on film analysis, full of interesting examples and insightful comments. The chapter on Film Language is very well articulated and has been used as reference text in many film seminars, not only by myself.

Describing a book that addresses constructing meaning in cinematic language as "too dense", like another reviewer has done, is missing the point altogether.

The product description is spot on.
If you like cinema, you will like this book!
If want to know more about "How to Read Films" this is an excellent book and you will like it!

A useful guideline for those having to do critical analysis
I would consider this book a good enough guideline on how to critically analise films. It is a bit dense at times, but it is a good quick-reference guide about what to look for when analysing a film.