Book

Rosenbaum, Jonathan, 1943-

Essential cinema : on the necessity of film canons / Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, ©2004.

xxi, 445 pages ; 24 cm

"Essential Cinema offers in-depth assessments of an astonishing range of films : established classics such as Rear Window, M, and Creed; ambitious but flawed works like The Thin Red Line and Breaking the Waves; eccentric masterpieces from around the world, including Irma Vep and Archangel; and recent films that have bitterly divided critics and viewers, among them Eyes Wide Shut and A.I. He also explores the careers of such diverse filmmakers as Robert Altman, Raul Ruiz, Frank Tashlin, Elaine May, Sam Fuller, Terence Davies, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Orson Welles. In conclusion, Rosenbaum offers his own film canon of 1,000 key works from the beginning of cinema to the present day. A cogent and provocative argument about the art of film, Essential Cinema is also a fiercely independent reference book of must-see movies for film lovers everywhere."--Jacket.

Motion pictures.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

pt. 1: Classics -- Fables of the reconstruction: the four-hour Greed -- Fascinating rhythms: M -- The color of paradise: Jour de fête -- Backyard ethics: Hitchcock's Rear window -- Songs in the key of everyday life: The umbrellas of Cherbourg -- A tale of the wind: Joris Ivens's last testament -- Kira Muratova's home truths: The asthenic syndrome -- The importance of being sarcastic: Sátántangó -- Blush -- The ceremony -- Thieves -- True grit: Rosetta -- pt. 2: Special problems -- Malick's progress -- Improvisations and interactions in Altmanville, with an afterword: Nashville -- Mixed emotions: Breaking the waves -- Fast, cheap & out of control -- The sweet cheat: Time regained -- James Benning's Four corners -- Overrated solutions: L'humanite -- The sound of German: Straub-Huillet's The death of Empedocles -- Beyond the clouds: Return to beauty -- Reality and history as the apotheosis of southern sleaze: Phil Karlson's The phenix city story -- Is Ozu slow? -- The human touch: Decalogue and Fargo -- pt. 3: Other canons, other canonizers -- Life intimidates art: Irma Vep -- Stanley Kwan's Actress: Writing history in quicksand -- Critical distance: Godard's Contempt -- Remember amnesia? (Guy Maddin's Archangel), with an afterword: Ten years later (please watch carefully: The heart of the world) -- Ragged but right: Rivette's Up down fragile -- Critic with a camera: Marker on Tarkovsky -- Riddles of a sphinx: From the journals of Jean Seberg -- International harvest: National film histories on video -- International sampler: Ghost dog: The way of the Samurai -- Not the same old song and dance: The young girls of Rochefort -- Flaming creatures and Scotch tape -- Ruiz hopping and buried treasures: twelve selected global sites -- Pt 4: Disputable contenders -- Back in style: Bertolucci's Besieged -- The young one: Bunuel's neglected masterpiece -- In dreams begin responsibilities: Kubrick's Eyes wide shut -- The best of both worlds: A.I. artificial intelligence -- Under the chador: The day I became a woman -- Chains of ignorance: Charles Burnett's Nightjohn -- Good vibrations: Waking life -- Hell on wheels: Taxi driver -- Meat, John, Dough: Pretty woman -- Tashlinesque -- Weird and wonderful: Zakeshi Kitano's Kikujiro -- *Corpus callosum -- pt. 5: Filmmakers -- Mann of the west -- Otto Preminger -- Nicholas Ray -- Exiles in modernity: Films by Edward Yang -- Hou Hsiao-hsien: Becoming Taiwanese -- The countercultural histories of Rudy Wurlitzer -- Samuel Fuller: The words of an innocent warrior -- The mysterious Elaine May: hiding in plain sight -- Visionary agitprop: I am Cuba -- The battle over Orson Welles -- License to feel: Distant voices, Still lives and The neon bible -- Death and life: Landscapes of the soul-The cinema of Alexander Dovzhenko -- Appendix: 1,000 Favorites (A Personal Canon).

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2003010640

0801878403

9780801878404

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137033

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791.4309 Rosenbau