Looking at Movies
Looking at Movies book cover

Looking at Movies

Fifth Edition

Price
$14.89
Format
Paperback
Pages
576
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0393265194
Dimensions
8.6 x 1 x 10.9 inches
Weight
2.91 pounds

Description

Book Description with Ebook and Student Website Access Registration Richard Barsam (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York. He is the author of Nonfiction Film: A Critical History (rev., exp. ed. 1992), The Vision of Robert Flaherty: The Artist as Myth and Filmmaker (1988), In the Dark: A Primer for the Movies (1977), and Filmguide to "Triumph of the Will" (1975); editor of Nonfiction Film Theory and Criticism (1976); and contributing author to Paul Monaco’s The Sixties: 1960–1969 (Vol. 8, History of the American Cinema, 2001) and Filming Robert Flaherty’s "Louisiana Story": The Helen Van Dongen Diary (ed. Eva Orbanz, 1998). His articles and book reviews have appeared in Cinema Journal , Quarterly Review of Film Studies , Film Comment , Studies in Visual Communication , and Harper’s . He has been a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the Editorial Board of Cinema Journal , and the Board of Advisers of the History of American Cinema series, and he cofounded the journal Persistence of Vision . Dave Monahan (M.F.A., Columbia University) is a Professor of Film Studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. His filmmaking work as a writer, director, and editor has been screened internationally in over seventy film festivals and has earned numerous awards, including the New Line Cinema Award for Most Original Film and the Seattle International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short Film.

Features & Highlights

  • Film analysis starts here.
  • Looking at Movies
  • is the most effective, engaging, and widely adopted introduction to film analysis available. From its very first chapter,
  • Looking at Movies
  • provides students with all the tools they need to become perceptive viewers of film, including the most sophisticated and seamlessly integrated media resources that are rich with comprehensive analysis and assessment tools ever produced for a textbook in this market. Authoritative, accessible, and of superior value,
  • Looking at Movies
  • offers instructors with abundant teachable resources to help students analyze movies critically and effectively.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(161)
★★★★
25%
(134)
★★★
15%
(80)
★★
7%
(38)
23%
(123)

Most Helpful Reviews

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The book is helpful for my cinema class but there's ...

The book is helpful for my cinema class but there's a problem with the book, and I just notice it. I was in class a few days ago, and we were reading the book and chapter's 7 & 8 are both mess up in the book. Half of each chapters pages are right side up and upside down. Chapter 7 upside pages are put inside chapter 8, and the beginning of chapter 8 is upside down along with some of chapter 7 upside pages. Would I be able to get my refund back when return I the book its a rental and because the book was messed up. It was difficult to read those chapters for class because of the pages being flip and put in the wrong sections.
10 people found this helpful
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Who wrote this?

The textbook serves its purpose. However, the page layout is messy. If a term of concept is written on one page, an example of it was placed five pages after rather than on the same page. The writers also do the thing I despise the most: they use the word in the definition of the word. For a book required for an English credit, this book's wording is shoddy at best. The final nail in the coffin is the fact that the text is unreliable and inconsistent. On page 264, in the cinematography chapter, one can find the following on the topic of CG films: "Second are the fully animated features, often released in 3-D. These include Hiyo Miyazaki's /anime/ features such as Toy Story, Frozen, or Ice Age series." I'm not sure if whoever wrote this was having a laugh or just got lazy. This is also an example of how sometimes film titles are not italicized and followed up with the release year. Bottom line: it's a hot mess. If your professor assigns this textbook, please politely question them as to why this one.
9 people found this helpful
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Pretty Good Deal

I needed this book for a college film class, obviously. It was properly packed, shipped very fast, and arrived in excellent condition, before it was expected to do so. So, overall, I can't complain. The digital code for the online version of the book works, too. The only thing I don't like about the book is the author's snobby attitude. Though, it's not the worst I've had to read. It's just extremely vexing that the author intentionally uses she/her, instead of the normal dominant masculine, even when discussing male directors and/or actors. He goes out of the way to do so. Other than that, the book is a good source of information about movies. So, only buy it if it's needed for a class.
2 people found this helpful
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Four Stars

It was so good I'll never be able to enjoy a movie again.
2 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

Exactly what the doctor order.
2 people found this helpful
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Four Stars

Excellent anatomy of film. Perhaps a little "too much info," but very interesting, just the same.
2 people found this helpful
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The book was very helpful. It also includes the ...

The book was very helpful. It also includes the access code for the online book too. It's definitely worth the buy!
2 people found this helpful
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Just What I Needed

Textbook came earlier than the intended date. It arrived in great condition, containing all the pages. I highly recommend renting the book if you need it for a class because it saves you ALOT of money and it contains all the necessary content that will help you through a film class or for self-teaching.
1 people found this helpful
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Perfect for film

Great read
1 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

came exactly as stated
1 people found this helpful