Film Isms...: Understanding Cinema

by Ronald Bergan

Overview

The perfect small-format, one-stop resource to appreciating and understanding films from Hollywood to Bollywood. Following the success of Isms: Understanding Art and Isms: Understanding Architectural Styles, this guide sorts the great classic films and directors according to the significant movements that have shaped the development of cinema. Beginning with the early silent era, it spans the entire range of movie history up to the present wave of indie films and the growing fascination with international cinema. Each spread is devoted to a distinct movement and explains when it first emerged, the principal directors, themes, and representative films, and is illustrated with film stills, posters, and photos. Important international cinematic breakthroughs are also highlighted, as well as the careers of international auteurs like Kurosawa, Fellini, and Almodóvar. From prewar Expressionism to twenty-first-century Dystopianism, Film Isms… offers an engaging, new way of understanding movie history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789322142
Publisher:	Rizzoli
Publication date:	03/15/2011
Series:	Understanding...
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Ronald Bergan is a regular contributor on film to The Guardian and The Independent.

Editorial Reviews

For your favorite film buff: a handy little resource guide about movie history.” ~LAmag

From the Publisher

Universe Publishing's "Isms" series includes small-format books on understanding art, fashion, religion, and, now, cinema. In this attractive volume, Bergan, who writes on film for the UK's Guardian and Independent, gives brief descriptions of various categories of cinema, with an accompanying list of the films and filmmakers that fit each ism. Most films defy pigeonholing, and the application of too many catchy labels can diminish the merit of the films in question, especially as many could fall under multiple categories. In the introduction, Bergan writes that none of the isms should be considered "hard and fast categories," but this begs the question of why he's employing this forced pattern. Many categories are clearly invented to fit the theme of the book—e.g., "Musicalism" and "Teenagism"—which undermines its credibility. VERDICT Books like The Rough Guide to Film are much better primers, though not as handy or inexpensive. A valiant but flawed effort, possibly useful for a true novice, but not a necessary purchase.—Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

Library Journal