Screen Writings

Partial Views of a Total Art, Classic to Contemporary

By (author) Bert Cardullo

Publication date:

01 March 2010

Length of book:

246 pages

Publisher

Anthem Press

ISBN-13: 9781843313434

'Screen Writings: Partial Views of a Total Art, Classic to Contemporary' offers close readings of individual films intended to explain how moviemakers use the resources of the medium to pursue complex and significant humanistic goals. It fills the middle ground between vague, simple plot summaries and theoretical pronouncements. As such, this book can be considered a call for the return of practical criticism as the best way to understand and appreciate the work of cinematic artists.

Introduction; Part I. Children and the Cinema; Children of a Lesser God; Death Wish, Child’s Whim, Auteurist Will; War Games; Part II. Literature and Adaptation; 'Outing' Edward, Outfitting Marlowe; Theater and Fiction into Film; Part III. Views and Interviews; Married to the Job; Reflecting Reality—and Mystery; Lower Depths, Higher Planes; The Cinema of Resistance; Part IV: World Enough and Time; The World Is Too Much with Us; Characterizing Space, Configuring Time; As Time Goes By; Bibliography; Index

'Among my contemporaries, the best film critic writing in English in America is Bert Cardullo, and 'Screen Writings' proves why.' —Dan Harper, American film scholar