What are we reading?

[Gold Trumpet]

I'm starting this soon:

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I've always been on the look out for a good historical book on the French New Wave. The description on Amazon makes it sound very enjoyable to read. I'm considering this already purchased with my next paycheck. I'll order it tomorrow.

[children with angels]

I'm starting this soon:

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I've always been on the look out for a good historical book on the French New Wave. The description on Amazon makes it sound very enjoyable to read. I'm considering this already purchased with my next paycheck. I'll order it tomorrow.

It's really good! The best overview I've read of it really. Richard Neupert's a good, down-to-earth-type film critic/theorist. He's also written what is surprsingly the only film studies book ever to be soley about endings ('The End: Narration and Closure in the Cinema') - it formed the theorectical backbone of my undergraduate dissertation, which was all about the happy ending.

[Derek237]

[polkablues]

Really interesting idea, but really not as good as it should be, coming from Alan Moore.

[MacGuffin]

The EW excerpt piqued my interest:

[godardian]

When will my philosophy class EVER be over????



and

[The Perineum Falcon]

So, Heaven was a total snoozefest of astrology and long-dead people I'd rather remain ignorant of than read any more, so I quit The Divine Comedy. Seriously, Hell was SOOOOO much more enjoyable.
A week or so ago I picked up 1984 on appeal of my girlfriend. Now that that's through, I've started on with:
(must be actual size)
while waiting for:
(I hear it's bigger in person).

[matt35mm]

I've been binge reading.  In the past 2 weeks...






(this is actually a book for pre-teens, but it was lying around so I just read it)


This is what I'm currently reading.

[polkablues]

This is what I'm currently reading.

How is it so far?  That sounds really interesting to me.

[matt35mm]

This is what I'm currently reading.

How is it so far?  That sounds really interesting to me.

Quite good.  It's the sort of book that, if it sounds interesting to you, it will be interesting to you.  It's not fluff, but it's easy to absorb.  It's written by a psychologist, with how genetics affects human behavior and thought as the focus.  There are surprisingly few books that are specifically about that (usually genetics and psychology don't acknowledge each other).  It's under 200 pages, you could read it in a few days, so it's definitely worth the read.

[grand theft sparrow]

Finishing up:



Torn between taking this:



or this:



on vacation with me next week.  Any suggestions?

[matt35mm]

Just finished:


Classical music is something that's always been in the fringes of my life (my dad is big into it and has a great collection), but I didn't really ever get into.  This book helps a lot, and I've been listening to a lot of classical music recently.  I've always been interested in classical structure, actually, and knowing that chamber music had a huge influence over Ingmar Bergman's films (thus his sonata approach to character interactions), it was just time that I took a serious listen.  Listening is the most important thing, but like I said, the book helps, and the guy knows his stuff.

Now I am reading this:


Very interesting so far.

[MacGuffin]

To see what all the brouhaha was all about:

[Gold Trumpet]

I'm starting this soon:

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I've always been on the look out for a good historical book on the French New Wave. The description on Amazon makes it sound very enjoyable to read. I'm considering this already purchased with my next paycheck. I'll order it tomorrow.

It's really good! The best overview I've read of it really. Richard Neupert's a good, down-to-earth-type film critic/theorist. He's also written what is surprsingly the only film studies book ever to be soley about endings ('The End: Narration and Closure in the Cinema') - it formed the theorectical backbone of my undergraduate dissertation, which was all about the happy ending.

This book is pleasantly readable, but I also found it to be generally awful.

1.) The book is not a history of the French New Wave. It is an overview of motifs and major directors of the French New Wave.

2.) The book gives analysis of each filmmaker with a small bio plus a film by film analysis. The analysis spends too much time on plot digression and gives criticism that hardly goes beyond general points. Like too many professors of film, Neupert is too in awe of many of the French Wave directors that things he should argue instead become bad rationalizations. Those who care about film should see it as an amateur art still hundreds of years behind the major arts.

3.) The book ignores major identities of the French New Wave. The book gives lip service to the auteur theory that was started in the 1950s. I found that shocking. Of any theory after 1940 to sustain itself, the largest and most successful was by far the auteur theory. The filmmakers of the French New Wave popularized ideas that served as its origins. The theory went to gain importance in the film business and gain evolution in the sad business of university study. I think the major reason for the oversight is that the author knew the original ideas of the auteur theory were ridiculous, amateur and just plain awful. The book chooses to ignore that subject and others and loses credibility that makes it a complete analysis to the highs and lows of the French New Wave.

[grand theft sparrow]

Torn between taking this:



or this:



on vacation with me next week.

Took them both, finished them both, and now: