Lost in the Movies: The Movie Bookshelf

The Movie Bookshelf

A gathering of all the movie books that influenced, enlightened, and excited me, you, and everyone else - a diverse and highly personalized canon.

Six weeks ago I launched a new "meme" (another word I don't particularly enjoy, but which fits), calling it Reading the Movies and inviting you all to respond. There was a great response, and here are the results: a canonical list of, by my count, 364 titles which impacted these particular bloggers. A list of the 37 blogs that participated appears at the end of the post. I hope you will visit these blogs, because this list is only a starting point - many bloggers described their choices in loving detail, some devoting entire posts to a single book. And the discussion continues in the commentary, where many blog-readers have let their own choices be known. If I've missed anyone, please let me know and I'll add your selections as soon as possible. I've also included book covers wherever provided by the blogger.

Finally, if you've yet to participate - if this has been on the back burner for a while, or you've only just discovered the exercise - keep in mind that this is just the beginning. Jump right in, and comment below to let me know that you've joined. That's the nice thing about a virtual bookshelf - no size limits.

*(And, please, when you've read a book on this list for the first time, return to the thread below and let us know what you thought. No time frames on bookshelves either...)




THE BOOKS

Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision [Moon in the Gutter]

Academy Award Winners [me]

Accidental Genius [Surface Noise]

Adventures in the Screen Trade [Cinema Viewfinder] [Bad Lit]

Agee on Film (Part I) [Screen Savour] [Movie Morlocks - Moira Finney]

Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light [Screen Savour]

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho [Filmicability]

Alternate Oscars [Filmicability]

Ambient Television [The Chutry Experiment]

The American Cinema: Directors and Directions [Some Came Running] [Filmicability] [Bright Lights After Dark] [The Listening Ear] [my runners-up]

The American Film Directors [my runners-up]

The American Film Institute [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

The American Film Musical [The Listening Ear]

American Independent Cinema: A Sight & Sound Reader [Radiator Heaven]

The American Movie [Bright Lights After Dark]

American Movie Critics: An Anthology From the Silents Until Now [The Film Doctor] [Screen Savour] [Another Cinema Blog] [The Chutry Experiment] [me]

Anticristo: The Bible of Nasty Nun Sinema & Culture [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

The Art of Alfred Hitchcock [Strictly Vintage Hollywood]

The Art of Noir [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

The Art of the Film [Another Cinema Blog]

The Art of the Hollywood Photographer [Strictly Vintage Hollywood]

Audrey Hepburn: An Intimate Collection [Final Cut]

Awake in the Dark [Cinexcellence]

Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

Backstory 1 Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age [Movie Morlocks - Moira Finney]

The Battle of Brazil [Radiator Heaven]

Beyond the Multiplex [The Chutry Experiment]

BFI Film Classics series [Bright Lights After Dark]

BFI Modern Classics series [Final Cut]

BFI Modern Classics: Crash [Only the Cinema]

BFI Modern Classics: Dead Man [Radiator Heaven]

BFI Modern Classics: The Exorcist [Moon in the Gutter]


BFI Modern Classics: The Right Stuff [Radiator Heaven]

A Biographical Dictionary of Film [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney] [me]

Breaking In: How 20 Film Directors Got Their Start [me]

The Busby Berkeley Book [The Front Row]

By Any Means Necessary [Bad Lit]

Caligari's Cabinet and Other Grand Illusions: A History of Film Design [six martinis and the seventh art]

Cagney by Cagney [Surface Noise]

Cartoons: 100 Years of Animation [Medfly Quarantine]

The Case of Wagner [The Front Row's runners-up]

Catching the Big Fish [Cinema Viewfinder]

Celluloid Mavericks [Cinexcellence]

Celluloid Skylines [The Listening Ear]

A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, 1930 - 1980 [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood's Merry Brand of Pranksters [Moon in the Gutter]

The Chicago Reader's Brief Reviews archives [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney]

Chronicle of the Cinema [me]

Cinema and Spectatorship [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

A Cinema of Loneliness [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

The Cinema of Wim Wenders: From Paris France to Paris Texas [The Moviezzz Blog]

The Cinema, Or The Imaginary Man [Out 1 - James Hansen] [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

The Cinematic Body [The Chutry Experiment]

Cinema 2 [Out 1 - James Hansen]

Cinephilia and History, or The Wind in the Trees [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's [six martinis and the seventh art] [Self-Styled Siren]

The Classical Hollywood Cinema [Man Without a Star]

Classics of the Foreign Film [Bright Lights After Dark runner-up]

Classics of the Silent Screen [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

The "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" Diary [Shadowplay]

The Complete "Greed" [six martinis and the seventh art]

The Complete "Wedding March" of Erich von Stroheim [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

The Contemporary Cinema: 1945 - 1963 [Another Cinema Blog]

Controlling Hollywood: Censorship and Regulation in the Studio Era [Man Without a Star]

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film [The Cooler]

Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age [The Cooler]

Crisis in the Life of an Actress [The Front Row's runners-up]

Cult Movies [Filmicability] [The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle] [Shadowplay]

Daphne du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller [Million Dollar Way]

David O. Selznick's Hollywood [Greenbriar Picture Shows] [Silents Girl]

Days of Thrills and Adventure [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground [Bad Lit]

Defining Moments in Movies: The Greatest Films, Stars, Scenes and Events That Made Movie Magic [Filmicability]

Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies [six martinis and the seventh art]

Directing the Film [my runners-up]

Directors in Action: Selections from Action, The Official Magazine of the Directors Guild of America [Filmicability]

Dogme Uncut [Out 1 - James Hansen]

Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes [Final Cut]

Double Lives and Second Chances [Moon in the Gutter]

Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film [Radiator Heaven]

Each Man in His Time [six martinis and the seventh art]

Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls [Cinema Viewfinder] [Radiator Heaven] [The Cooler]

18 Stories by Heinrich Böll [The Front Row's runners-up]

The Emperor and the Wolf [Surface Noise]

En Attendant Godard [The Front Row]

The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards [Filmicability] [my runners-up]

Entertainment Weekly: The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time [my runners-up]

Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons [Only the Cinema]

European Cinema [Cinexcellence]

Eyewitness Books: Film [my runners-up]

Famous Movie Monsters series [me]

The FBI Story [Movie Morlocks - Richard Harland Smith]

Fellini On Fellini [Surface Noise]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [Million Dollar Way]

The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood [The Front Row's runners-up]

50 Years of the Academy Awards [Filmicability]

Film Art [Medfly Quarantine]

Film as a Subversive Art [Out 1 - James Hansen] [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

Film as Film: Understanding and Judging the Movies [Another Cinema Blog]

Film Comment [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin] [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

Film Comment (1990 - 2000) [Cinema Viewfinder]

The film criticism of Jim Emerson, Roger Ebert, Manohla Dargis, and everyone who has ever written for the Village Voice [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin]

Film Directing Shot by Shot [Medfly Quarantine]

The Film Encyclopedia [Filmicability]

"Film" Europe and "Film" America: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange 1920 - 1939 [Man Without a Star]

Film Form [The Front Row]

Film Forum: Thirty-five Top Filmmakers Discuss Their Craft [Filmicability]

The Film Handbook [Another Cinema Blog]

The Filming of the West [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

Film Noir [Another Cinema Blog]

Film Posters: The Essential Movies of the Decade series [Final Cut]

Films and Feelings [Bright Lights After Dark]

Film Sense [The Front Row]

The Films of... [The Moviezzz Blog]

The Films of Fritz Lang [The Listening Ear]

The Films of Jean-Luc Godard [Surface Noise]

The Films of Laurel & Hardy [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

Film Theory and Criticism [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin]

The Film Till Now: A Survey of World Cinema [six martinis and the seventh art]

Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists [Filmicability]

Finding Oz [Million Dollar Way]

The Five C's of Cinematography [The Film Doctor]

5001 Nights at the Movies [Some Came Running runners-up] [Filmicability]

Flashback: A Brief History of Film [Little Worlds]

Flesh and Blood Compendium: Flesh and Flood [Moon in the Gutter]

Flicker [The Kind of Face You Hate]

Flickers [Some Came Running runners-up]

Forgotten Films to Remember [six martinis and the seventh art]

For Keeps [Only the Cinema] [The Cooler] [me]

Frank Capra [The Listening Ear]

The Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers Book [Strictly Vintage Hollywood]

Fritz Lang in America [Man Without a Star]

From Caligari to Hitler [The Listening Ear]

From the Atelier Tovar [The Listening Ear]

From Reverance to Rape [Self-Styled Siren]

Fun in a Chinese Laundry [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney] [Spinster Aunt]

Future Noir: The Making of "Blade Runner" [Moon in the Gutter]

The Ghouls [Movie Morlocks - Richard Harland Smith]

Gilliam on Gilliam [The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle]

Global Hollywood [The Chutry Experiment]

Godard on Godard [Some Came Running] [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin] [Only the Cinema] [The Listening Ear] [The Front Row]

The Godfather Legacy [my runners-up]

The Golden Turkey Awards [Bad Lit]

The Great Comic Book Heroes [Movie Morlocks - Richard Harland Smith]

The Great Gatsby [Million Dollar Way]

The Great Movies (by William Bayer) [me]

The Great Movies (by Roger Ebert) [Medfly Quarantine] [Cinexcellence]

The Great Movie Shorts [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

The Great Movies II [Cinexcellence]

The Great Romantic Films [Self-Styled Siren]

Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy [Moon in the Gutter]

Guide for the Film Fanatic [Cinema Viewfinder] [Filmicability]

Halliwell's The Filmgoer's Companion [Surface Noise] [The Listening Ear] [Shadowplay]

Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible" [Out 1 - James Hansen] [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Harlan Ellison's Watching [Radiator Heaven]

Heretical Empiricism [The Listening Ear]

Herzog on Herzog [The Listening Ear]

A History of the French New Wave Cinema [The Film Doctor] [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

Hitchcock's Films [Bright Lights After Dark]

Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Hitchcock/Truffaut [Some Came Running runners-up] [Only the Cinema] [Filmicability] [Bright Lights After Dark] [The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle] [The Listening Ear] [Movie Morlocks - Moira Finney] [Man Without a Star]

Hollywood Babylon [Strictly Vintage Hollywood] [The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle] [Silents Girl]

Hollywood Cocktails [Final Cut]

The Hollywood Eye [my runners-up]

Hollywood From Vietnam to Reagan [Some Came Running] [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Hollywood on the Riviera: The Inside Story of the Cannes Film Festival [Filmicability] [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

Hollywood Modernism [Man Without a Star]

The Hollywood Reporter Book of Box Office Hits [my runners-up]

Hollywood Rock [Filmicability]

Hollywood: The Movie Lover's Guide, The Ultimate Insider Tour of Movie L.A. [Little Worlds]

Hong Kong Cinema [The Listening Ear]

Horror Movies: Tales of Terror in the Cinema [Filmicability]


Howard Hawks [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney]

How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime [Shadowplay]

How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, Multimedia: Language, History, Theory [Movie Morlocks - Moira Finney]

Illuminations [The Chutry Experiment]

An Illustrated History of the Horror Film [Some Came Running] [Bright Lights After Dark] [Greenbriar Picture Shows] [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]


I Lost It At the Movies [Cinexcellence]

I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski [Radiator Heaven]

Immoral Tales [Moon in the Gutter]

In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Independent Filmmaking [Bad Lit]

The Ingmar Bergman Archives [Filmicability]

Ingmar Bergman Directs [Surface Noise]

Ingrid Bergman: My Story [Million Dollar Way]

The (Insert Studio) Story [The Moviezzz Blog]

Inside Oscar (1 and 2) [Filmicability]

In the Blink of an Eye [Filmicability] [The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle]

James Cameron's "Titanic" [Little Worlds]

Japanese Film Directors [The Listening Ear]

Jazz in the Movies [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

Jean Renoir [Some Came Running]

Jean Vigo [Some Came Running]

Joan Crawford: My Way of Life [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In [Filmicability]

John Ford [Movie Morlocks - Moira Finney]

John Wayne's America [Little Worlds]

Keaton [Greenbriar Picture Shows] [Silents Girl]

King of the "B's" [Greenbriar Picture Shows] [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang [Filmicability]

Kurosawa [The Listening Ear]

Landmark Films [Another Cinema Blog]

Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide [The Moviezzz Blog] [Filmicability]

The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock [Million Dollar Way]

The Life and Times of the Western Movie [Little Worlds]

LIFE Goes to the Movies [Silents Girl]

The Life of Graham Greene [Million Dollar Way]

A Long Hard Look at 'Psycho' [Bright Lights After Dark runner-up]

Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

The Lord of the Rings [Million Dollar Way]

Louise Brooks [Strictly Vintage Hollywood]

Lulu in Hollywood [Self-Styled Siren]

Lynch on Lynch [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin] [Radiator Heaven]

Mad Magazine movie spoofs [The Film Doctor]

The Magic Hour [Out 1 - James Hansen]

Making Movies [Filmicability] [The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle]

The Making of "Citizen Kane" [Radiator Heaven]

The Making of Kubrick's "2001" [Filmicability]

The Making of "The African Queen": Or How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind [Another Old Movie Blog]

The Making of "The Wizard of Oz" [my runners-up]

Manifestoes of Surrealism [Out 1 - James Hansen]

Marilyn: The Last Take [Silents Girl]

Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark [Moon in the Gutter]

Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York": Making the Movie [Little Worlds]

Mary Astor: A Life on Film [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

Mary Pickford Rediscovered [Silents Girl]

Masculine Feminine [The Front Row]

The Material Ghost [The Front Row's runners-up]

Melville [The Front Row]

Men, Women, and Chain Saws [Out 1 - James Hansen]

Michael Mann [Radiator Heaven]

Midnight Movies [Some Came Running] [Radiator Heaven] [Bad Lit]

Monsters, Maidens, and Mayhem [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

More Than Night: Film Noir and Its Contexts [Another Cinema Blog] [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Most of the Most of S.J. Perelman [The Film Doctor]


Mother Goddam [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

The Motion Picture Guide [Filmicability]

Movie Classics [Final Cut]

The Moviegoer [The Film Doctor] [Movie Morlocks - Moira Finney] [Man Without a Star]

Movie Journal: The Rise of the New American Cinema 1959 - 1971 [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin] [Bad Lit]

Movie-Made America [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

Movie Monsters [Bad Lit]


Movie Mutations [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney]

Movie Reader [Bright Lights After Dark]

The Movies [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

Movies and Methods [me]

Movies as Politics [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

The Movies of My Life [The Chutry Experiment]

My Last Sigh: The Autobiography of Luis Bunuel [Some Came Running]

Nabokov's Dark Cinema [Some Came Running runners-up]

Narration and the Fiction Film [Screen Savour]

Negative Space [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney]

A New History of Documentary Film [Cinexcellence]

The New Wave [Moon in the Gutter]

Nightmare Movies [Radiator Heaven]

Nobody's Perfect [The Film Doctor]

Norma Shearer [Silents Girl]

Notes on the Cinematographer [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin] [The Front Row's runners-up]

Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman [Million Dollar Way]

Objects of Desire [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney]

Off-Hollywood Movies: A Film Lovers Guide [Filmicability]


The 100 Best Films of the Century [my runners-up]

The 100 Best Films to Rent You've Never Heard Of [Cinema Viewfinder]

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die [Little Worlds] [Another Cinema Blog]

1000 Films To Change Your Life [Final Cut]

Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession [Final Cut]

Order of the Exile [Only the Cinema]

The Other Hollywood [Moon in the Gutter]

Out of Africa [Million Dollar Way]

Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema [The Listening Ear] [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney]

A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941 - 1953 [Another Cinema Blog]

The Parade's Gone By [Greenbriar Picture Shows] [Bright Lights After Dark] [Strictly Vintage Hollywood] [Movie Morlocks - Moira Finney] [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

Parallel Tracks [Man Without a Star]

The Paramount Story [Another Old Movie Blog]

The Pat Hobby Stories [The Front Row's runners-up]

Pauline Kael in The New Yorker [Self-Styled Siren]

People Magazine Guide to Movies on Video [The Moviezzz Blog]

People Will Talk [six martinis and the seventh art] [Movie Morlocks - Moira Finney]

The Philosophy of Film Noir [Another Cinema Blog]

A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen [Strictly Vintage Hollywood]

Pictures at a Revolution [Cinema Viewfinder] [The Film Doctor] [Filmicability] [The Chutry Experiment]

Picture Shows: The Life and Films of Peter Bogdanovich [Filmicability]

Placing Movies [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Pride and Prejudice [Million Dollar Way runner-up]

Poetics of Cinema (and everything else by David Bordwell) [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin]

Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

The Power of Film [The Film Doctor]

Production Culture [The Chutry Experiment]

The Psychotronic Video Guide [Some Came Running] [Filmicability] [The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle] [The Moviezzz Blog]

Pursuits of Happiness [The Listening Ear]

The Pyramid Illustrated History of Movies
[The Moviezzz Blog] [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

The Real Tinsel [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

Rediscovering the American Cinema [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

Reel Facts [Filmicability]

Reeling [The Film Doctor]

Renoir, My Father [The Front Row]

RE/Search #10: Incredibly Strange Films [Filmicability]

Roger Ebert's Video Companion:
(1990 edition) - particularly "The Case Against David Lynch" [Out 1 - James Hansen]
(1994 edition) [me]
(1997 edition) [The Cooler]
(any 90s edition) [Bad Lit]

Saint Cinema: Selected Writings (1929 - 1970) [Some Came Running]

Scarlett Fever [Self-Styled Siren]

Scenes from the City: Filmmaking in New York [Filmicability]

Scorsese on Scorsese [Filmicability]

Screen Deco [six martinis and the seventh art]

Screening Sex [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Screenplay [Cinexcellence]

Screen Traffic: Movies, Multiplexes, and Global Culture [The Chutry Experiment]

Screen World series [The Moviezzz Blog]

Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties [Little Worlds]

The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries [Another Old Movie Blog]

Sergei Eisenstein's books [The Listening Ear]

Sexual Politics and Narrative Cinema [A Foreigner's Guide to Film Culture in Korea]

Shock Value [Bad Lit]

A Short History of the Movies [Filmicability] [my runners-up]

The Silent Clowns [Screen Savour] [Greenbriar Picture Shows] [Strictly Vintage Hollywood] [Shadowplay]

Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture [Cinexcellence]

Silent Star [Silents Girl]

Sinema: American Pornographic Movies and the People Who Make Them [Movie Morlocks - Jeff]

Sirk on Sirk [The Front Row]

Son of Famous Monsters [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

Spellbound in Darkness [Strictly Vintage Hollywood]

The Stanley Kubrick Archives [Filmicability]

Stanley Kubrick Directs [Filmicability]

"A Star is Born": The Making of the 1954 Film and its 1983 Restoration [Silents Girl]

Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck [Another Old Movie Blog]

Story [Cinexcellence]

The Story of Film [Another Cinema Blog] [my runners-up]

Straub [The Front Row]

Suspects [Bright Lights After Dark] [my runners-up]

Taking It All In [Filmicability]

Tantivy Press Film Series [six martinis and the seventh art]

Tarkovsky [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin]

Taschen Movie Icons series [Surface Noise]

Ten Bad Dates With De Niro [Final Cut]

Terrence Malick [Out 1 - Brandon Colvin]

Terrors of the Screen [Movie Morlocks - Richard Harland Smith]

Tex Avery: King of Cartoons [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

They Went Thataway [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

The Thin Red Line [Little Worlds]

A Third Face [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney]

This Is Orson Welles [Some Came Running runners-up] [Filmicability] [Surface Noise]

Through a Screen Darkly [Cinexcellence]

A Thousand and One Nights [Strictly Vintage Hollywood]

Time Out Film Guide 2008 [Man Without a Star]

To See the Dream [Another Old Movie Blog]

To the Distant Observer [The Listening Ear]

Transcendental Style in Film [The Listening Ear]

Translating Hollywood: The World of Movie Posters [Final Cut]

Truffaut by Truffaut [Moon in the Gutter]

Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi [The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle]

Val Lewton: The Reality of Terror [The Front Row]

Valley of the Cliffhangers [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

Vanity Fair: Selections from America's Most Memorable Magazine [Self-Styled Siren]

Vanity Fair's Hollywood [Silents Girl]

"Vertigo": The Making of a Hitchcock Classic [Little Worlds]

Video Movie Guide [The Moviezzz Blog]

The Video Watchdog Book [Movie Morlocks - Richard Harland Smith]

The Village Voice Film Guide [my runners-up]

Visual and Other Pleasures [The Chutry Experiment] [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

Whatever Became Of...? [Greenbriar Picture Shows]

What is Cinema? [Out 1 - Chuck Williamson]

What Made Pistachio Nuts? [Spinster Aunt]

The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood [Filmicability]

Who the Devil Made It [Surface Noise] [Movie Morlocks - R. Emmet Sweeney] [Spinster Aunt]

Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern [The Chutry Experiment]

Without Lying Down [Spinster Aunt]

The Women Who Knew Too Much [Man Without a Star]

The work of Nathan Lee [Out 1 - James Hansen]

THE BLOGS

Tony D'Ambra, Another Cinema Blog
Jacqueline T. Lynch, Another Old Movie Blog
Mike Everleth, Bad Lit
C. Jerry Kutner, Bright Lights After Dark (Part One) and Runners-up
Jack Criddle, The Cabinet of Dr. Criddle
Chuck Tryon, The Chutry Experiment: Part I and Part II
Tony Dayoub, Cinema Viewfinder
Joseph Demme, Cinexcellence
Jason Bellamy, The Cooler
MovieMan0283, The Dancing Image
Filmdr, The Film Doctor
Dean Treadway, Filmicability
filmgeek, Final Cut
Marc Raymond, A Foreigner’s Guide to Film Culture in Korea
Richard Brody, The Front Row (@ The New Yorker)
John McElwee, Greenbriar Picture Shows
Bill R., The Kind of Face You Hate
Weepingsam, The Listening Ear
Hokahey, Little Worlds
Ben, Man Without a Star
Ryan Kelly, Medfly Quarantine
Bruce Oksol, Million Dollar Way
Jeremy Richey, Moon in the Gutter
Jeff, Movie Morlocks (@ Turner Classic Movies)
Moira Finnie, Movie Morlocks (@ Turner Classic Movies)
Richard Harland Smith, Movie Morlocks (@ Turner Classic Movies)
R. Emmet Sweeney, Movie Morlocks (@ Turner Classic Movies)
Moviezzz, The Moviezzz Blog
Ed Howard, Only the Cinema
Brandon Colvin, James Hansen, and Chuck Williamson, Out 1
J.D., Radiator Heaven
T.S., Screen Savour
Campaspe, Self-Styled Siren (Part I, Part II - From Reverance to Rape, and Part III - City of Nets)
David Cairns, Shadowplay (Book #1, Book #2, Book #3, and Book #4, Book #5)
Silents Girl, Silents Girl (Her "entry" may have just been a coincidence, but timing is everything so she makes the cut)
Shahn, six martinis and the seventh art
Glenn Kenny, Some Came Running
Andrea Janes, Spinster Aunt
Rudyfan1926, Strictly Vintage Hollywood
Brad Wrolstad, Surface Noise


24 comments:

Dean Treadway said...

Incredible work here! I'll be coming back to this post quite a lot; it's an invaluable guide unto itself. I'm proud to be a small part of it.

Joseph "Jon" Lanthier said...

I have a bad habit of not responding to memes until no one cares anymore. I actually shot a bunch of video of me going through my bookshelf coz I had this ambitious plan to put together a mini-film response, but of course have not had the time to edit it down to anything useful.

Someday, dammit!

Joel Bocko said...

Dean...more than small, you had one of the longest lists!

Jon, thanks...but where's your list? ;)

Joel Bocko said...

Ah, I see you already responded by the time this comment was re-posted. Don't abandon that idea - it sounds great. In fact I almost wish you hadn't spilled the beans on it.

I know editing can take a while (to get to more than to do)...I just spent a year holding the video footage of my friend's wedding only to put it together in five hours the night before the deadline for mailing (lest I miss the first anniversary).

Whenever you get to it, let me know and I'll include it in this post.

By the way, check your inbox - you should have an e-mail from me.

Anonymous said...

Hey MovieMan,

My post is finally complete! Decided to force myself to get it finished when I saw you'd put up your collating post. You'll notice I've put a bit of work into it! I'd love it if you could get my books into this post as soon as possible, so it can get in on the first wave of hits etc.

Btw you've done a great job with collecting the memes together - you've clearly been thinking about how it should best be presented and you got it right I think.. It makes for an interesting way to choose which of your friends' sites to look at too, depending on whether they like books that interest me. All in all a very valid bit of social networking as well as being obviously a great list of books!

Ben.

Joel Bocko said...

Ben,

Put up your titles. Pictures will be up this afternoon.

Mike Everleth said...

Outstanding! It's really incredible how you put this whole thing together. It makes it interesting to see just how diverse the film book world is and how diverse us online film writers' influences are.

Joel Bocko said...

Indeed, it's the gift that keeps on giving - in some cases, I was only able to transcribe the titles and move on but now that the post is up I'm going back through each blog meticulously and reading each and every entry - and I find the bloggers' descriptions of their choices and thought processes to be endlessly fascinating. Hopefully the readers of this list will follow my encouragement and do the same - it's really worth it, as no two lists are the same, nor are any two bloggers' styles.

Richard Bellamy said...

Well done! I will take this list to a used bookstore that has a comprehensive collection of books on film. (Alas, the film sections in Barnes and Noble and Borders are really thin.)

Joel Bocko said...

They most certainly are. I've even noticed at the more independent bookstores the film section is shrinking and shrinking, a far cry from the glory days of my childhood (though perhaps that's just nostalgia speaking). I hope the increasing popularity of TV and the dearth of great new movies aren't slowly killing enthusiasm for film as a mass art form, and hence the film book as an outlet for said enthusiasm.

May this list serve as a corrective!

(P.S. in all seriousness, please return to this thread from time and time and let us know what you've succeeded in finding/reading, and how you liked it. I hope others will do the same - it would be great if this developed into a long-term project for everyone involved. I'll do as much myself.)

T.S. said...

Thanks again for all the work you put into assembling this great list, and congratulations on its success across the Internet. As a student of film who is nevertheless not particularly well read in film literature, I'm thrilled to have numerous recommendations already. I just finished Sarris's The American Cinema a few weeks ago, shortly after the meme took off; thus, on Screen Savour, my summer of silents has had the former-and-unfinished emphasis on Griffith, the current emphasis to the silent films of Lang, the soon-to-be emphasis on Murnau, and the later emphasis (already planned) on Keaton. Kudos and thanks again.

Joel Bocko said...

Thanks, T.S. The vast majority of these books were unread by me - indeed, a great many were completely unfamiliar to me as well.

As I said to Hokahey (and maybe I'll add this to the post itself), I hope that as they read some of these books, people will return to this post/thread and share their thoughts.

How did you like The American Cinema?

TALKING MOVIEzzz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joel Bocko said...

I added a sentence to the intro: basically, encouraging everyone to share their thoughts on books from this list once they've read them. I know threads have a tendency to die off with time in the blogosphere, but I'm trying to run counter to that trend...in this & in my next post too...

Chase said...

Great list ... but no "Rebels on the Backlot" ???

for shame!

Joel Bocko said...

Chase, I see you have a blog: put up a post with "Rebels on the Backlot" and it will be on the list! The exercise is open to all, with no time limits (just let me know here when you've put it up so I can do the link).

Thanks for dropping by!

Daniel said...

Wow, just caught up with this amazing list. Definitely a resource for so many people to enjoy. I can't believe you were able to so fully compile this - congrats!

Joel Bocko said...

Thanks, Daniel - I still hope you'll jump in at some point! The door's always open.

Anonymous said...

Hey there,

Just a note to mention that I added a tenth book to my list a while back that you might want to add here - The Classical Hollywood Cinema. I was pondering over what should be the last on the list and couldn't really leave Bordwell out...

Hope you're well!

Joel Bocko said...

It has been added.

Note to readers: C. Jerry Kutner has also added his runners-up.

JOSEPH CAMPANELLA said...

Movieman-

This is so great. What an incredible listing of some of the great works in film writing.

One doesn't really need to go to film school anymore do they? Just read these books and subscribe to Netflix and you'd be set.....

Joel Bocko said...

Thanks, Joseph.

By the way, how's your movie going? I find I keep getting distracted - both for legitimate and entirely illegitimate reasons - from writing, but I'm still hoping to put something together in the next few months.

Anonymous said...

A work of love.

Joel Bocko said...

Excised from the original post today in an effort to streamline:

First of all, welcome to The Dancing Image if you've never been here before, or if you haven't been in a while. Now is a peculiar time to invite people over, as my posting has been intermittent for a few months and for the next month or so will be suspended altogether. However, I plan to return to form in early August; while I'm "gone," you can catch up with me two places. One is in a post I'll be putting up next week, for the first anniversary of my blog: a directory of all my previous posts with an invitation to explore the past and comment on whatever interests you (I'll take a break from my break to respond to any comments you post).


[The following paragraph, with descriptions of my other writing endeavors, has been deleted as it is now out-of-date. -ed, 1/30]


From now on, most of my more casual or spontaneous reviews, particularly of recent films, will be found on that website, with this blog reserved for "bigger", more focused posts, like a prose/video series on film adaptations starting with the various versions of Wind in the Willows and a long-announced countdown of my 150 favorite great movies (which will span years), with each piece carefully composed before it's unveiled. In the meantime, I hope you'll follow my work elsewhere, not that I have any vested interest in you doing so (cough they pay by the hit cough cough).


And now, the reason you came here:

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