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The book stops here: Theory, practice, and in between
Tinpis Run (Pengau Nengo, 1991). DB here: Apart from things I’m reading for research (academic monographs, 1940s Hollywood novels, star bios and autobios), the film books I like best are blends. They...
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Pulverizing plots: Into the woods with Sondheim, Shklovsky, and David O. Russell
American Hustle (2013). The different writers, who live in different times, come across the same pattern, the same chain of circumstances, which reveal themselves in different ways in each time. This...
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You and me and every frog we know
Frog TV (2014, N. Joe Myers). DB here: Be patient, the frogs are coming. But first, a bit of film theory. Movies in code Once many film scholars were captivated by the idea that our responses to a...
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Friendly books, books by friends
Moses and Aaron (1974). DB here: When the stack of books by friends threatens to topple off my filing cabinet, I know it’s time to flag them for you. I can’t claim to have read every word in them, but...
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André Bazin, man of the cinema
DB here: André Bazin was born in 1918 and died on 11 November 1958. In his short life he became, without aiming at it, one of the greatest theorists and critics of cinema. A central figure in the...
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Kindest, E.: A memoir of Edward Branigan
Equinox Flower (1958). DB here (but writing for Kristin too): Edward Branigan died on Saturday, 29 June, in Bellingham, Washington. He had fought for a year against Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He was 74....
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Brains, bodies, and movies: Ways of thinking about the psychology of cinema
Summer at Grandpa’s (Hou, 1984). DB here: This is another phantom entry I posted as Private for the seminar I’ve been teaching this term. I’ve opened it up for a wider audience because some readers...
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Can the science of mirror neurons explain the power of camera movement? A...
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). DB here: Over the years we’ve brought you several guest posts from friends whose research we admire. The list includes Matthew Bernstein, Kelley Conway, Leslie Midkiff...
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Learning to watch a film, while watching a film
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). DB here: “Every film trains its spectator,” I wrote a long time ago. In other words: A movie teaches us how to watch it. But how can we give that idea some heft?...
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Movies by the numbers
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Publicity still. DB here: Cinema, Truffaut pointed out, shows us beautiful people who always find the perfect parking space. Mainstream movies cater to us...
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