The Best Books About Film

[jguitar]

This is not strictly a books about film post (though it encompasses that), but does anyone know of online sources for used Japanese books that will ship to the U.S.? I can often find these books in Amazon.jp, but the after market vendors don't usually want to ship outside Japan. Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Mr Sausage]

This is not strictly a books about film post (though it encompasses that), but does anyone know of online sources for used Japanese books that will ship to the U.S.? I can often find these books in Amazon.jp, but the after market vendors don't usually want to ship outside Japan. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Have you tried the Advanced Book Exchange?

[jguitar]

This is not strictly a books about film post (though it encompasses that), but does anyone know of online sources for used Japanese books that will ship to the U.S.? I can often find these books in Amazon.jp, but the after market vendors don't usually want to ship outside Japan. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Have you tried the Advanced Book Exchange?

Yes -- sometimes useful, but like Oliver, I want more.

[Mr Sausage]

Maybe try Alibaba?

[jguitar]

Maybe try Alibaba?

Embarrassingly, I haven't tried that. I'll give it a shot -- thanks!

[Dr Amicus]

For those interested in the history of cinema going, the oral history Enter the Dream-house: Memories of Cinemas in South London from the Twenties to the Sixties edited by Margaret O'Brien and Allen Eyles is fascinating and highly entertaining. Focussing on memories of going to and working in South London cinemas (and occasionally in the West End) as well as the films themselves it gives good first hand examples of how audiences chose and watched films - or in the case of the news cinemas at train stations, wanted a cheaper alternative to a hotel room for an office affair. Common complaints include continuous performances and being told "this is where we came in, time to go" - a feature which my parents (who are of a similar age to the interviewees in the book) don't recall ever happening locally.

On the film side, there seems more interest in film stars more than genres (the western being the dividing line - either loved or hated) - particular favourites quoted more than once include Stewart Granger and Old Mother Riley. One film which does get several mentions for being spectacular and scary (there is little other talk of the main horror films of the thirties and forties) is King Kong, which seems to have been treated as a horror film by the young filmgoers.

Anyway, the book as a whole is very nicely presented (it's the old style MOMI square book for those familiar with the format) with many photos of the cinemas mentioned and comes highly recommended. Seemingly long out of print (it came out in 1993, when I bought my copy even though I've only just read it!) but appears to be easily and cheaply available.

[colinr0380]

I wonder if that is because King Kong (and The Most Dangerous Game under its UK "The Hounds of Zaroff" title) was released as an A whilst others were placed under the more restrictive over 16s only "H" (for Horror) category. I don't know if there is a list anywhere of all the "H" rated titles.

It does sound like a fascinating read Dr Amicus! Would it appeal to someone who enjoyed The Smallest Show On Earth?

[Gregory]

[Coherent_Pause]

That's incredible Gregory, is it just a guide to the art of propaganda? Or does he genuinely have some passion for cinema?

[Cronenfly]

Anyone bought anything from Strange Attractor before? I’m contemplating the second Stephen Thrower Jess Franco book but I’m having trouble using their site. It won’t let me calculate postage or change the number of items in my cart.

[Cronenfly]

Looks like Flowers of Perversion is available now in the UK (Amazon UK, Book Depository, etc) and elsewhere in March.

[colinr0380]

I can confirm that Flowers of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema of Jess Franco Volume Two is available now as my copy has just arrived. Thank you for the heads up Cronenfly as I had honestly forgotten to check when the second volume would be released! It is a bit heftier than the first volume too, at 510 pages against the first volume's 430, but it makes a perfect companion to Murderous Passions (even down to the amusing updating on the back cover from "Stephen Thrower has devoted five years" to "ten years" for Volume Two!)

Both are outstanding volumes for such an overwhelming amount of films. Volume Two takes the Franco filmography from 1974 up to Franco's final post-Lina Romay film in 2013 (Al Pereira vs The Alligator Ladies, which Thrower describes as Franco's best film in 25 years, along with Revenge of the Alligator Ladies, completed by Antonio Mayans as a kind of meta-film from the footage left after Franco's death. There is also an interview with Mayans to cap off the discussion of the films)

Thrower's foreword to this volume is wonderful and quite moving too, and suggests some of the difficulties of the project as well as the need for such a volume for reference even in the age of the internet:

When a filmmaker shoots twelve movies in a single year, arranging them in the correct order is a major challenge; if you're not careful you end up with chaos. This question of accurate sequencing vexes me because it's such a basic biographical requirement: can you imagine a book about Woody Allen putting Love and Death after Annie Hall? Unthinkable! The Franco challenge is uniquely difficult: if you're writing about David Cronenberg, for instance, each film arrives as a discreet temporal entity; with Franco you have to dig deep, looking for fleeting clues to divine the chronology...

...You would perhaps expect me to have cooled towards my subject over the years, but no: I still adore the best of Jess Franco, there's much to enjoy in the middle-to-average work, and even the lowliest titles can exert a weird fascination. In Jess's entire career there are probably only fifteen films I never want to watch again, out of a total of 181!

Having seen all the Franco films it's currently possible to see, I find myself looking back fondly at the days when my tally was less comprehensive. I suppose what I'm saying is, enjoy the sensation of not having seen all of Franco's films. It's precious! If you've seen forty or fifty, you're in a truly luxurious position. You're in the coils of a major obsession and still have so much to see! The dream-continent of Franco stretches before you, with its mist-shrouded valleys, brooding coastlines and hidden tribes. Take time to savour the excitement as you head deeper into unexplored territory, like Lina Romay in Shining Sex, "travelling through the portals of space" to "an unknown shore far, far away". As you venture onwards, may Flowers of Perversion be your trusty guide and companion.

It also perhaps goes without saying that the masses of images within, from the cover onwards, are often eye-poppingly explicit!

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

University of Minnesota Press will release The Eloquent Screen by Gilberto Perez this June.

[Mr Sloane]

Sorry to get too far off topic, but did anyone have any issues with ordering Flowers of Perversion from Amazon.co.uk? I had this pre-ordered for a long, long time at a much lower price and this is the first I've heard of it being released! All records of my having ordered it have been expunged from their website and needless to say if I had missed out on this after such a long wait I would have been livid to say the least! At this point I'm pretty much done with Amazon, now.

P.S. Thanks for the heads up on this!

[colinr0380]

I must admit that I had forgotten to pre-order the book, so my experience getting it from Amazon was picking it up after Cronenfly's comment. I did get a couple of e-mails saying that the book was delayed until March and then that it was suddenly arriving the next day though, which was a nice surprise!

In other book news, Ian Christie was on BBC Radio 4's Film Programme last week to talk about the latest R.W. Paul films that have been uncovered and mentioned that he is working on a book about the filmmaker to come out at the end of the year, which is apparently getting a graphic novel version as well to try and introduce the early filmmaker to a new audience!

[domino harvey]

If anyone is interested in picking up Foster Hirsch’s Film Noir: the Dark Side of the Screen, I just bought a “Very Good” copy from eBay Seller booksfromca that ended up being completely new and only $7.49 shipped. Looks like the seller has four more copies listed in the same condition and price

[Faisal Ahmad]

Apart from the Peary books mentioned way back in the early parts of this thread, are there any books worth buying as an intermediate/advanced guide to cult films?

[knives]

Amos Vogel's is pretty standard reading on the subject though he doesn't look at them in terms of cult relations so much.

[Godot]

Apart from the Peary books mentioned way back in the early parts of this thread, are there any books worth buying as an intermediate/advanced guide to cult films?

My oldest son reads most of my cinema books, and I can attest that among the ones he has open most often are the four Danny Peary's (Cult Movies 1,2,3 and Guide for the Film Fanatic). I also have Olsen's 100 Greatest Cult Films which is good but fairly simple. But now that he's developing a more advanced critical taste, he's been pulling out the BFI 100 Cult Films (Screen Guide series) (edited by Mendik and Mathijs), Philip French's Cult Movies, and Telotte's The Cult Film Experience: Beyond All Reason, which is a selection of more academic essays. And I just picked up Mathijs' and Mendik's The Cult Film Reader used for $10, I'll let you know when it arrives if it slots into rotation; it looks from the table of contents like a wonderful selection of critical essays (I recommend many of the other "...Reader" series).

[ianthemovie]

It only goes up to the early 1980s, and I suppose you could call it "introductory" rather than "intermediate/advanced," but Hoberman and Rosenbaum's Midnight Movies is essential reading on the subject of cult cinema.

[Dr Amicus]

Another Mendik (edited) book worth hunting out is Unruly Pleasures: The Cult Film and its Critics - some great articles in there. Also fun is Jonathan Ross's The Incredibly Strange Film Book - Ross can be a bit of a tit at times, but he knows his cult cinema.

[black&huge]

How is Imogen Sara Smith's In Lonely Places? I only recently discovered her and wanted to check it out.

[Cinephile1]

The three greatest books about cinema as an artform: Raymond Francis Carney, Jr. The Films of John Cassavetes: Pragmatism, Modernism, and the Movies, Cambridge Film Classics, General Editor: Raymond Francis Carney, Jr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Raymond Francis Carney, Jr., ed., Cassavetes on Cassavetes. London: Faber and Faber, 2001; Raymond Francis Carney, Jr. Shadows, British Film Institute Film Classics, Editor: Robert Hanley Gregor White, Series Consultants: Edward Buscombe, Colin Myles Joseph MacCabe, and David Meeker. London: British Film Institute, 2001.

[ianthemovie]

Throwing out another essential cult-movie resource: Michael Weldon's Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film. An eclectic compendium of capsule reviews, many of them hilarious, covering a wide range of cult classics, forgotten B-movies, films maudits, exploitation fare, Eurotrash, etc.

[Lost Highway]

When it comes to cult cinema my favourite book is the Eyeball Compendium, edited by Stephen Thrower, who is my favourite writer on cult cinema. He has a very specific tastes, he goes for more marginal films and those which combine exploitation with art, so he doesn’t write on more mainstream cult movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Harold and Maude.