James Baldwin's 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk, about a young woman trying to clear the name of her boyfriend after he was wrongfully accused of a crime in New York, is an incredible read.

This book breaks cinema down in to different insightful chapters that approach cinema from different lenses.

The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Alice Walker and portrays the problems Black women faced during the early 20th century, including domestic violence, poverty, racism, and sexism. Peppered with observations about friendship, love, and growing up, the books are as funny as the movie. This was my first exposure to the complexity, provocation and sometimes perversity of this French critic, a champion of cinephilic promiscuity and a brilliant expander of small, seemingly inconspicuous details into troubling symptoms. Fortunately, thanks to the gifted Russian-Australian scholar Julia Vassilieva, this project is on the way.

Films and Feelings makes it because its extended chapter on the history of Franco-Anglo-American film criticism, ‘Auteurs and Dream Factories’, has yet to be bettered. Almost 30 years since its inception and with nearly 200 films addressed, the celebrated BFI Film Classics line is launching with a new look in 2020 featuring specially-commissioned cover artwork from leading illustrators, designers and photographers. Cars have been an integral aspect of on-screen storytelling ever since the earliest cameras first rolled, highlighting suspense or humour as they transport characters from scene to scene. The one film book I crammed into my suitcase to keep me company when I went to live abroad for a couple of years; every dip into its pages offered something to think about, wonder at or silently dispute.Packed full of illustrations, the book features over 100 films and is a great way to learn more about the genre and discover new movies to watch. A casual observer might think we have much or most of Eisenstein’s writings in English, but the complete assemblage of his lifelong two-volume project Method has only appeared in Russian (and German) over the past decade. This beautifully produced book, the first and most essential volume in a trilogy on American cinema before the coming of sound, is based entirely on evidence gathered at first hand and mostly illustrated by photographs from the author’s own collection. Geoff Andrew , Michael Atkinson , Peter Biskind , Edward Buscombe , Michael Chanan , Tom Charity , Ian Christie , Michel Ciment , Kieron Corless , Mark Cousins , Paul Cronin , Chris Darke , Maria Delgado , Richard Dyer , Olaf Möller , Christoph Huber , Lizzie Francke , Philip French , Chris Fujiwara , Graham Fuller , Charlotte Garson , Tom Gunning , Philip Horne , Kevin Jackson , Nick James , Kent Jones , Richard T.

A study that manages to say a lot of fascinating, illuminating things about its subject even though it labours under the handicap that when it was published (1975) Hollywood had made almost no films about the Vietnam War. Douglas Sirk’s erudite exchanges with Halliday in 1971 turned his previous reputation as a merchant of lachrymose piffle upside down by revealing he had been a cool ironist all along. From box office hits and cult classics to romcoms and thrillers, this is your go-to guide to movies, directors, genres, styles, and just about anything else cinema.Movie adaptations across all genres exist, and that includes YA Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, and Logan Lerman lead this coming-of-age drama about a shy teenager experiencing the many highs and lows of freshman year of high school. A huge study of independent American horror films of the 1970s and ’80s, this is a rare book that tells me things I didn’t already know. Another Jane Austen movie makes the list because…well, there are just so many good adaptations of her work.