Observations On Film Art - David Bordwell

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    Perplexing Plots

    Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder

    New York: Columbia University Press, 2023. 512 pages. [go to Amazon]

    On the History of Film Style

    On the History of Film Style

    Second edition, 2018. 353 pages (pdf online)

    Reinventing Hollywood

    Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie Storytelling

    Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. 592 pages. [go to Amazon]

    The Rhapsodes

    The Rhapsodes: How 1940s Critics Changed American Film Culture

    Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. 176 pages. [go to Amazon]

    Christopher Nolan: A Labyrinth of Linkages

    Christopher Nolan: A Labyrinth of Linkages

    Second edition, 2019. 71 pages (pdf online)

    Pandora's Digital Box

    Pandora’s Digital Box: Films, Files, and the Future of Movies

    First edition, 2012. 237 pages (pdf online)

    Planet Hong Kong

    Planet Hong Kong

    Second edition, 2011. 299 pages, 441 color illustrations (pdf online)

    The Frodo Franchise

    The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood

    by Kristin Thompson. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. 400 pages, 6 × 9 inches, 12 color illustrations; 36 b/w illustrations. [go to Amazon | go to The Frodo Franchise blog]

    Film Art

    Film Art: An Introduction

    Textbook written with Kristin Thompson and Jeff Smith. Twelfth edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2019.[go to Amazon]

    Film History

    Film History: An Introduction

    Textbook written with Kristin Thompson (first-named author). Fourth edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2018. [go to Amazon]

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  • PANDORA’S DIGITAL BOX: The Blog Series
    • ASTEROID CITY adrift in the cosmos
    • Calm that camera!
    • Streaming media: All you can eat, until it eats you
    • Thompson/Bordwell online books now available for free
    • Historical film colors: A guest entry from Barbara Flueckiger
    • Repost: Our daily barbarisms: Leo Hurwitz's STRANGE VICTORY (1948)
    • When worlds collide: Mixing the show-biz tale with true crime in ONCE UPON A TIME . . . IN HOLLYWOOD
    • Kindest, E.: A memoir of Edward Branigan
    • The Criterion Channel: The best news for film culture you will hear today (and probably all year)
    • Nolan book 2.0: Cerebral blockbusters meet blunt-force cinephilia
    • The ten best films of ... 1928
    • Venice 2018: Welles and THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND
    • LA LA LAND: Singin' in the sun
    • How LA LA LAND is made
    • ARRIVAL: When is Now?
    • It's all over, until the next time
    • A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY: Yang and his gangs
    • FILM ART: The eleventh edition arrives!
    • Open secrets of classical storytelling: Narrative analysis 101
    • The waning thrills of CGI
    • Harry Potter and the Twelve-Year Boyhood
    • BIRDMAN: Following Riggan's orders
    • Say hello to GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE
    • Gone Grrrl
    • ADIEU AU LANGAGE: 2 + 2 x 3D
    • MOONRISE KINGDOM: Wes in Wonderland
    • THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL: Wes Anderson takes the 4:3 challenge
    • Understanding film narrative: The trailer
    • GRAVITY, Part 2: Thinking inside the Box
    • GRAVITY, Part 1: Two characters adrift in an experimental film
    • THE GRANDMASTER: Moving forward, turning back
    • Mixing business with pleasure: Johnnie To's DRUG WAR
    • David Koepp: Making the world movie-sized
    • Pandora's digital box: End times
    • Scoping things out: A new video lecture
    • All play and no work? ROOM 237
    • Roger Ebert
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    • A hobbit is chubby, but is he off-balance?
    • What next? A video lecture, I suppose. Well, actually, yeah....
    • News! A video essay on constructive editing
    • The wayward charms of Cinerama
    • Nolan vs. Nolan
    • TINKER TAILOR: A guide for the perplexed
    • HUGO: Scorsese's birthday present to Georges Méliès
    • Down in front! Notes from the Raccoon Lodge
    • You are my density
    • A variation on a sunbeam: Exploring a Griffith Biograph film
    • Do not forget to return your 3D glasses
    • Capellani trionfante

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    • also visit:

      • Arts & Letters Daily
      • Bourne Cinema Conspiracy
      • Butterflies and Wheels
      • Chicago Reader on Film
      • Christoph Huber's FOLLOWING FILM
      • Cine-Files
      • Cinemawriter (Jay Antani)
      • Cinemetrics
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      • Continuity Boy
      • Critic after Dark: Noel Vera
      • DaveKehr.com
      • David Poland: The Hot Blog
      • Fandor Keyframe (David Hudson)
      • Film Studies at UW–Madison
      • Film Studies for Free
      • Filmmaker Magazine
      • FilmStruck/Criterion Channel
      • FredCamper.com
      • Gary Giddins’ website
      • Girish Shambu
      • Glenn Kenny's Some Came Running
      • Greenbriar Picture Shows
      • Harvard Film Archive
      • Harvey Deneroff’s site
      • Henry Jenkins’ Blog
      • Hong Kong Hustle
      • Ivo Blom on film and painting
      • James Naremore: News and Writings
      • Jan-Christopher Horak's "Archival Spaces" blog
      • JJ Murphy on independent cinema
      • Jonathan Rosenbaum
      • JustTV (Jason Mittell)
      • Mark Schilling on Japanese film
      • Michael Barrier on animation
      • Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Film
      • Mike Grost’s Classic Film and Television
      • More than Meets the Mogwai
      • Movie City News
      • MUBI Notebook
      • Nick Redfern on empirical film research
      • Only the cinema
      • Oswald Iten on color in animation
      • Parallax View: Sean Axmaker & co.
      • Paul Ramaeker's blog: The Third Meaning
      • Random Pictures
      • Reid Rosefelt on Social Media for Filmmakers
      • Robert Horton on film
      • RogerEbert.com
      • Screen Slate
      • Self-Styled siren
      • The Bioscope
      • The Golden Rock on Asian movies and popular culture
      • Thomas Elsaesser site
      • Timeline: Visual Effects, Computer Graphics, Computer Animation
      • VFX World
      • Virginia Wright Wexman on enjoying film festivals
      • Yvonne Teh
      • Zigzigger: On the Audiovisual and Beyond

    • Tag » Art History For Filmmakers Pdf