Criticism, Theory and History

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Film Art: An Introduction
Ninth Edition
David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson
Ever since the first edition was published in 1979, Film Art has been the most widely read and respected introduction to film study. Emphasizing how artistic purposes guide form and technique, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson help students develop analytical skills that will enrich their understanding of any film. This ninth edition is generously illustrated with frame enlargements from hundreds of films and it includes a tutorial CD-ROM with film clips, commentaries, and quizes. Softcover, 519 pp. $109.00.

The YouTube Reader
Pelle Snickars & Patrick Vonderau
YouTube is the very epitome of today's digital media culture. The platform has rapidly developed into the world's largest archive of moving images, promising endless opportunities for amateur video, entertainment formats and viral marketing. This is the first comprehensive book to study YouTube as an industry, an archive and a cultural form. Bringing together original contributions by renowned scholars from the US and Europe, The YouTube Reader critically discusses the potentials and pitfalls of "broadcasting yourself." Hardcover, 511 pp. $31.50.

Casablanca Movies and Memory
Marc Auge
Marc Auge was eleven or twelve years old when he first saw Casablanca. The film -- with its recurring scenes of waiting, menace, and flight -- occupies a significant place in Auge's own memory of his uprooted childhood and the wartime exploits of his family. Seamlessly weaving together film criticism and memoir, this book moves between Auge's insights into the filmgoing experience and his reflections on his own life. Softcover, 104 pp. $23.95.

American Cinema of the 1920s: Themes and Variations
Lucy Fischer
The 1920s was the era in which cinema came into its own as a form of mass entertainment. It was during this period that film studios were transformed into major corporations and the star system was established. In then original essays, this anthology examines the film industry's continued growth and prosperity in the context of important themes of the 1920s. Softcover, 291 pp. $34.95.

Film Studies: An Introduction
Ed Sikov
Ed Sikov builds a step-by-step curriculum for the appreciation of all types of narrative cinema, detailing the essential elements of film form and systematically training the spectator to be an active reader and critic. This book can be utilized alongside any screening list and can be used within courses on film history, film theory, or popular culture. Softcover, 212 pp. $34.95.

Bad Bitches and Sassy Supermamas
Stephane Dunn
This lively study explores the sexualized, subordinate positioning of women in low-budget blaxploitation action films as well as more seriously radical films, in which black women are typically portrayed as trifling "bitches" compared to the supermacho black male heroes. This is a close examination of a distinct moment in the history of African American representation in popular cinema, tracing its emergence out of a radical political era, influenced especially by the Black Power movement and feminism. Softcover, 166 pp. $29.95.

Britton on Film: The Complete Film Criticism of Andrew Britton
Andrew Britton
When Andrew Britton focused his intelligence and erudition on the subject of film, the resulting criticism was fresh, stimulating, and always highly serious. Collected here for the first time are his complete works. The subjects that he tackles run the gamut -- from Hitchcock, postmodernism, and Godard, to horror films, feminism, and Cary Grant, just to name a few. This collection is a treasure trove of insights by a critic of formidable power. Softcover, 533 pp. $55.95.

Crime Films: Investigating the Scene
Kirsten Moana Thompson
Part of the Short Cuts series, this volume analyses the wide body of films that fall under the rubric of crime, from the gangster film to the film noir, and from the classic whodunnit to TV series like CSI. The criminal underworld takes on many forms, and this volume delves into recent developments in the erotic thriller such as Basic Instinct and neo-noirs such as LA Confidential and Body Heat. There are also a number of close readings of some of the most enduring crime films, from G-Men to Se7en as well as of TV series such as Homicide and Hill Street Blues. Softcover, 142 pp. $25.00.

100 American Independent Films
Second Edition
Jason Wood
In this revised and updated new edition, Jason Wood provides a guide to one hundred of the most interesting and influential American independent films, featuring indie classics such as Shadow, Blood Simple and Reservoir Dogs, with twenty-five brand new entries, including recent releases such as Old Joy, Junebug and Me and You and Everyone We Know. Each entry includes a plot synopsis, a commentary on the film's significance, production and exhibition history and cross-references to other films. Softcover, 279 pp. $21.95.

Fifty Key American Films
John White
Fifty Key American Films explores and contextualizes some of the most important films ever made in the United States. With case studies from the early years of cinema to the present day, this comprehensive Key Guide provides accessible analyses from a range of theoretical perspectives. Softcover, 262 pp. $35.50.

Farber on Film: The Complete Writings of Manny Farber
Robert Polito
This volume contains Manny Farber's extraordinary body of work in its entirety for the first time, from his early and previously uncollected weekly reviews for The New Republic and The Nation to his brilliant later essays on Godard, Fassbinder, Herzog, Scorsese, Altman, and others. Featuring an introduction by editor Robert Polito that examines in detail the stages of Farber's career and his enduring significance as a writer and thinker, Farber on Film is a landmark publication that is destined to become a classic in the field. Hardcover, 824 pp. $50.00.

Reinventing Cinema: Movies in the Age of Media Convergence
Chuck Tyron
Reinventing Cinema examines film culture at the turn of the century, at the precise moment when digital media are altering our historical relationship with the movies. In an eye-opening analysis that spans multiple disciplines, Chuck Tryon addresses the interaction between production, distribution, and reception of films, television, and other new and emerging media. Softcover, 215 pp. $33.95.

Indiewood, USA
Geoff King
"Indiewood" is the place where Hollywood and the American independent sector meet, where lines blur and two very different kinds of cinema come together in a striking blend of creativity and commerce. This book is the first to provide objective analysis of this distinctive region of the contemporary American film landscape. Softcover, 294 pp. $30.50.

The History on Film Reader
Marnie Hughes-Warrington
Historical film studies is a burgeoning field, with a large and ever growing number of publications from across the globe. This reader distills the mass of work, offering readers an introduction to just under 30 of the most critical and representative writings on the relationship between film and history. Softcover, 326 pp. $53.95.

Adventures of Perception: Cinema as Exploration: Essays/Interviews
Scott MacDonald
Over the past twenty-five years, Scott MacDonald's kaleidoscopic explorations of independent cinema have become the most important chronicle of avant-garde and experimental film in the United States. In this collection of thematically related personal essays and conversations, MacDonald takes us on a fascinating journey into many underexplored territories of cinema. Softcover, $35.95.

Hollywood Independents: The Postwar Talent Takeover
Denise Mann
This book explores the crucial period from 1948 to 1962 when independent film producers first became key components of the modern corporate entertainment industry. Denise Mann examines the impact of the radically changed filmmaking climate -- the decline of the studios, the rise of television, and the rise of potent talent agencies like MCA -- on a group of prominent talent-turned-producers, including Burt Lancaster, Joseph Mankiewicz, Elia Kazan, and Billy Wilder. Softcover, $31.95.

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Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective
Marguerite H. Rippy
This book provides the first in-depth examination of early film and radio projects shelved by RKO or by Welles himself. While previous studies of Welles largely fall into the categories of biography or modernist film studies, this book extends the understanding of Welles via postmodern narrative theory and performance analysis, weaving his work into the cultural and commercial background of its production. Softcover, $48.95.

What is Cinema?
Andre Bazin
Originally published in the 1940s and 50s, Andre Bazin's revelatory essays on film aesthetics appeared in a variety of journals of the day. When they were finally compiled in 1958, Qu'est que le cinema? became an immediate classic and would go on to become one of the most enduring volumes in the canon of post-war film theory. In this stunning new translation -- which corrects, for the first time, various ambiguities and inaccuracies -- all of the major essays from Bazin's magnum opus (including one in English for the first time!) have been collection in a beautiful, hard-bound volume. Hardcover, 338 pp. $65.00.

Dekalog 3: On Film Festivals
Edited by Richard Porton
The Dekalog series is a new list of bi-annual publications dedicated to presenting insightful criticism on a wide range of subjects across the full spectrum of contemporary global cinema. Edited by Richard Porton and featuring contributions from an array of international scholars, this edition focuses on Film Festivals. Softcover, 188 pp. $25.00.

Film History: An Introduction
Third Edition
David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson
Written by two of the leading scholars in film studies, Film History: An Introduction is a comprehensive, global survey of the medium and its many genres -- from drama and comedy to documentary and experimental. This third edition has been thoroughly updated to include recent films, new examples, and the first comprehensive overviews of the impact of globalization and digital technology on the cinema. Any serious film scholar -- professor, undergraduate, or graduate student -- will want to have a copy of this essential volume on their shelf. Softcover, 780 pp. $126.95.

Out at the Movies: A History of Gay Cinema
Steven Paul Davies
Out at the Movies looks back, decade by decade, at the history of gay cinema, celebrating films which have defined the genre. Indie films, the avant-garde, sex on screen, bad guys, lesbian lovers, transgender films, camp comedies, musicals and gay rom-coms -- all are featured here. As well as highlighting key movements and triumphs in gay cinema, the author includes information on gay filmmakers and actors, and their influence within the industry. Softcover, 208 pp. $33.95.

Filming Difference: Actors, Directors, Producers, and Writers on Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Film
Daniel Bernardi
Addressing representation and identity in a variety of production styles and genres, including experimental film and documentary, independent and mainstream film, and television drama, Filming Difference poses fundamental questions about the ways in which the art and craft of filmmaking force creative people to confront stereotypes and examine their own identities while representing the complexities of their subjects. Softcover, 378 pp. $34.95.

Future Imperfect: Philip K. Dick at the Movies
Jason P. Vest
Responsible for the literary sources of Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and several other films, Philip K. Dick is undoubtably one of the major figures in science-fiction cinema. In this fascinating book, Jason P. Vest explores how the diverse group of filmmakers who have adapted Dick's work have each, in their turn, expanded, extrapolated, and diverged from Dick's fiction. Softcover, 223 pp. $23.50.

He Was Some Kind of Man: Masculinities in the B Western
Roderick McGillis
He Was Some Kind of a Man explores the construction and representation of masculinity in low-budget western movies. These films contained some of the mid-twentieth century's most familiar cowboy names: Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, and Red Ryder. The first serious study of a body of films that was central to the youth of two generations, this book combines the author's childhood fascination with this genre with an interdisciplinary scholarly exploration of the films' influence on modern views of masculinity. Softcover, 208 pp. $29.95.

Film Studies: The Basics
Amy Villarejo
Film Studies: The Basics gives necessary information about the movie industry; who does what on a film set; the history, the technology and the art of cinema, and theories of stardom, genre and film-making. Including illustrations and examples from an international range of films drawn from a century of movie making and a glossary of terms for ease of reference, this book is a suitable guide for film students or fans. Softcover, 171 pp. $22.50.

Widescreen
Mark Cousins
Cinema has undergone huge changes in the last decade. Writing from Britain, Europe, Iran, India, China and Mexico, Mark Cousins has looked at the social trends and aesthetic implications of modern cinema's shifting sands. This volume is the result; a sceptical, passionate, eye-witness account of film today, argued originally and written with panache. Softcover, 232 pp. $31.95.

Cinema in the Digital Age
Nicholas Rhombes
Cinema in the Digital Age examines the fate of cinema in this new era, paying special attention not only to the technologies that are reshaping film, but to the cultural meaning of those technologies. Weaving together a rich variety of sources, Cinema in the Digital Age is a deeply humanistic look at the meaning of cinematic images in the era of digital perfection. Softcover, 171 pp. $32.95.

A Theory of Narrative
Rick Altman
In order to understand human interaction, award-winning scholar Rick Altman launches a close study of narrative's nature, its variation in different contexts, and the method through which it makes meaning. He employs inventive terminology and precise analytical methods throughout his groundbreaking work, making this volume ideal for teaching literary and film theory and for exploring the anatomy of narrative on a more general level. Softcover, 377 pp. $33.95.

Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World
S. Brent Plate
This book brings together religious studies and film studies, asking how the world of film affects religious attitudes, and how millennia-old myths and rituals alter the ways films are made, viewed and interpreted. The films discussed range from Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars and The Matrix to cult films such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and avant-garde and experimental films like Man With a Movie Camera and Stan Brakhage's The Act of Seeing with Ones Own Eyes. Softcover, 112 pp. $27.50.

How to Read a Film
Fourth Edition
James Monaco
This hugely popular book became an instant classic when it was first published in 1977. Now, James Monaco offers the fourth edition of How to Read a Film, completely revised and expanded, featuring new sections on movies and media in the 21st century. With nearly 500 illustrative film stills and more than sixty diagrams, this book is an indispensable addition to the library of everyone who loves the cinema and wants to understand it better. Softcover, 729 pp. $31.95.

Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood
Graydon Carter
This is an insider's look at big-studio moviemaking, revealing what really happened on the locations and back lots of 13 of the most iconic films and biggest box-office bombs in cinema history. Featuring stories packed with exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes anecdotes, courtesy of Vanity Fair's roster of marquee-name writers, this great collection explores the cultural impact of such films as Cleopatra, Sweet Smell of Success, Saturday Night Fever, and many more. Softcover, 338 pp. $17.50.

From Plato to Lumiere: Narration and Monstration in Literature
Andre Gaudreault
Building a theory of narrative on sources as diverse as Plato, The Arabian Nights, and Proust, From Plato to Lumiere challenges narratological orthodoxy by positing that all forms of narrative are mediated by an underlying who exists between the author and narrative text. Softcover, 225 pp. $27.95.

Aesthetics & Film
Katherine Thomson-Jones
Aesthetics and Film is a philosophical study of the art of film. Its motivation is the recent surge of interest among analytic philosophers in the philosophical implications of central issues in film theory and the application of general issues in aesthetics to the specific case of film. Of particular interest are questions concerning the distinctive representational capacities of film art, particularly in relation to realism and narration, the influence of the literary paradigm in understanding film authorship and interpretation, and our imaginative and affective engagement with film. Softcover, 148 pp. $30.95.

Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood's Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers
Derek Hill
Young filmmakers like Spike Jonze, Wes Anderson, Michel Gondry, David O. Russell, Richard Linklater, and Sofia Coppola have managed to wage an aesthetic campaign against imaginative cowardice of all persuasions. This book analyses and traces the origins and pivotal films and directors in this undeclared war on the mundane. Softcover, 190 pp. $19.95.

"Have You Seen...?"
David Thomson
This new book is a generous history of film and an enticing critical appraisal written with as much humor and passion as historical knowledge. Not content to choose his own top films (though they are here), Thomson has created a list that will surprise and delight you. He also probes the question: after one hundred years of film, which ones are the best, and why? Hardcover, 1007 pages. $ 45.00.

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story
Richard Schickel
You must remember this is the companion to Richard Schickel's five-hour television documentary commemorating the 85th anniversary of Warner Bros. Studios. The story of Warner Bros. is entwined with America's place in the 20th century, and here, for the first time, that story is told with incisive depth and candor. Hardcover, 480 pp. $53.50.

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Last modified February 4, 2010.
Please note that all prices are in Canadian dollars. All prices are subject to change without notice.