Becoming Film Literate The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures

Subjects:

• Popular Culture » Film Studies

Reviews:

• To introduce students to the basic tools of cinema, LoBrutto (editing, production design and cinema studies, School of Visual Arts) uses 50 landmark films as illustrations of concepts such as production design, cinematography, sound, narrative structure and genres. Readers learn about film authorship, for example, in a discussion of "Citizen Kane" and multiplot narrative in a chapter on "Nashville." LoBrutto includes a glossary and suggestions for further viewing or reading.
  —Reference & Research Book News/Art Book News Annual August 2005
• This book has merit as an introduction to the science and language of cinema.
  —PublishersWeekly.com March 28, 2005

• Endorsement From Patrick McGilligan,
  author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light: Vincent LoBrutto, already distinguished as an oral historian and biographer, has now written a book that for students and professors alike should become a definitive guide to film appreciation. Becoming Film Literate, shrewdly structured as a series of thoughtful essays on favorite works, is at once a primer and a master class for anyone aspiring to become a film know-it-all.
• Endorsement From Robert Koehler,
  film critic (Variety, CinemaScope magazine): By embracing a range of filmmakers from Dreyer to Brakhage, LoBrutto's survey contributes to the argument that creating canons is one of the most vital tasks in today's world cinephilia.

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Non-Linear Storytelling: Amores Perros
• Transformation of the American Comedy: Annie Hall
• Tableau Narrative Structure and Sound Design: Apocalypse Now
• The Body as Cinematic Landscape: L'Avventura
• Editing: Russian Montage: The Battleship Potemkin
• Italian Neorealism: The Bicycle Thief
• Production Design: Blade Runner
• Dream State: Blue Velvet
• The Period Film as Mirror for the Present: Bonnie and Clyde
• Expressionism in Cinema: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• Classical Hollywood Film Style: Cassablanca
• Surrealism in Cinema: Un Chien Andalou
• The Authorial Voice: Citizen Kane
• Shot Structure: The Crowd
• Thematic Unity: The Decalogue
• Mythopoetic Film: Dog Star Man
• Political Objectives through Cinematic Storytelling: Do the Right Thing
• Film Noir: Double Idemnity
• The Personal Film: 8 1/2
• Animation and Music: Fantasia
• An American Musical: 42nd Street
• New York Filmmaking: The French Connection
• Period Comedy: The General
• Parallel Storytelling: Intolerance
• French New Wave: Jules and Jim
• The Epic: Lawrence of Arabia
• The Political Thriller: The Manchurian Candidate
• Self-Referential Cinema: Man with the Movie Camera
• Architecture in Production Design: Metropolis
• Roots of Documentary Film: Nanook of the North
• Multiplot, Multicharacter Narrative: Nashville
• Method Acting: On the Waterfront
• The Close Up: The Passion of Joan of Arc
• Dark Side of American Cinema: Psycho
• Subtext in Personal Expression: Raging Bull
• Multiple Point-of-View Narrative: Rashomon
• Widescreen Filmmaking: Rebel without a Cause
• Camera Movement as Metaphor: LaRonde
• Mise-en-Scene: Rules of the Game
• Direct Cinema: Salesman
• The Freudian Western: The Searchers
• Defining Theme, Metaphor, and Character through Color, Texture, and Environmental Design: Se7en
• Symbolism in the Cinema: The Seventh Seal
• Art of the B-Movie: Shock Corridor
• Digital Filmmaking: Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• Birth of a Nonfiction Film Style: The Thin Blue Line
• Experimental Narrative: 2001: A Space Odyssey
• The Essay Film: Weekend
• Screen Violence as Metaphor: The Wild Bunch
• Independent Filmmaking: A Woman Under the Influence
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index