The complete guide to watching a film and knowing how to talk about it.
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Understanding the language of film, then its history: silent cinema, the golden age of Hollywood, neorealism, the French New Wave, New Hollywood and the great cinemas of Asia. Profiles of the great directors, the genres, and cinema as an art of living: Cannes, Venice, the style icons of the screen.
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Learning to watch a film
From the Lumière brothers to the golden age
The modern revolutions
Recognising a great director
Legendary actors
Cult films taken apart
The great genres
Cinema and the art of living
« I loved this guide. I learned so much about cinema that I’ll never watch a film the same way again. I’ve already given it twice. »
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J’ai adoré ce guide. Je regarde maintenant les films en remarquant la lumière, les cadrages, la musique.
I’m a film student in New York and I still learned a lot. The Nouvelle Vague chapter is honestly better than half my lecture notes.
The sixty films broken down one by one have become my watchlist for the year. Three down, fifty-seven to go.
Offert à mon père, cinéphile depuis toujours. Il a quand même découvert une dizaine de réalisateurs.
Got it for my husband, a massive Bond fan. Now he won’t stop talking about Hitchcock and Kubrick at dinner. Not complaining.
Enfin un guide qui donne envie de retourner en salle. Les fiches réalisateurs sont parfaites.
Finally something on Fellini and Kubrick that isn’t pretentious. Read it in two sittings.
À 70 ans, je redécouvre les films de ma jeunesse avec un autre œil.
The chapter on how to actually watch a film, framing, light, sound, changed how I watch everything. Even TV.
Le chapitre sur les cinémas d’Asie m’a fait découvrir Ozu et Wong Kar-wai. Merci pour ça.
Suspense is knowing what the hero doesn’t.
Every chapter slips in a story from the set or a lesson from a master.
This is how Hitchcock explained suspense. If a bomb hidden under a table goes off without warning, the audience gets fifteen seconds of surprise.
If they know it is there and the characters don’t, they live through fifteen minutes of suspense.
Part 4, Recognising a great director
No. The guide starts with the language of images, then gives you the films to begin with.
Yes: sixty cult films taken apart one by one, and the ones to start with.
By email, within a minute: a PDF you can read on your phone, tablet and computer.
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The complete guide to looking at a work of art and knowing how to talk about it
The complete guide to watching a film and knowing how to talk about it
