Why read How to Read a Film?

Book cover of How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, and Beyond

Book description

Richard Gilman referred to How to Read a Film as simply "the best single work of its kind." And Janet Maslin in The New York Times Book Review marveled at James Monaco's ability to collect "an enormous amount of useful information and assemble it in an exhilaratingly simple and systematic…

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Why read it?

1 author picked How to Read a Film as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Larry A. Brown

Author

This is another seminal text which introduced me to the critical theory of film viewers as “readers.”

Watching a movie is not a passive activity. The mind is very active, constantly shifting through the multiple channels of information, organizing the details into a coherent picture of the fictional world presented in the film.

Monaco examines several ways in which this creative-receptive process works in the viewer’s mind.

From Larry's list on the art of filmmaking.