Description
Book SynopsisHollywood moviemaking is one of the constants of American life, but how much has it changed since the glory days of the big studios? This book argues that the principles of visual storytelling created in the studio era are alive and well.
Trade Review"David Bordwell is our best writer on the cinema. He is deeply informed about films, he loves them, and he writes about them with a clarity and perception that makes the prose itself a joy to read. Because he sees movies so freshly and deeply he isn't deceived by the usual categories and finds excellence and experiment in unexpected places." - Roger Ebert "There is no shortage of scholarly literature on contemporary Hollywood, but none of it lives up to the standards set by Bordwell here. No one else has this range, depth, sophistication or authority. More remarkable still, Bordwell pulls this off with remarkable lightness of touch." - Murray Smith, University of Kent"
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Beyond the Blockbuster part i: a real story 1. Continuing Tradition, by Any Means Necessary 2. Pushing the Premises 3. Subjective Stories and Network Narratives 4. A Certain Amount of Plot: Tentpoles, Locomotives, Blockbusters, Megapictures, and the Action Movie part ii: a stylish style 1. Intensified Continuity: Four Dimensions 2. Some Likely Sources 3. Style, Plain and Fancy 4. What's Missing? Appendix: A Hollywood Timeline, 1960--2004 Bradley Schauer and David Bordwell Notes Index