Cinema

It's 35 years out of date. Its coverage of Asian cinema is limited by today's standards. It's relentlessly high minded, and will test your enthusiasm for such observations as, "Whereas the découpage of the tightening ropes and falling statue respected the singleness of viewpoint...while destroying the continuity of temporal flow, the opening of the bridge is filmed and edited from contradictory points of view, so that even the continuity of direction, never rationally in doubt from the action, is constantly challenged on the surface of the screen itself." (Oh gimme that ol' time Soviet montage.) It even manages to misidentify a haunting double-page spread of a still of Fabienne Faberges in "Fantômas" as Musidora in "Les Vampires"! But never mind all that 'cause this is an 1120 page education in cinema (and critical discourse) that's still fascinating even if it is out of date. Released long before home video existed, it's where I've recently turned for information on the work of such directors as Rouben Mamoulian, Jean Epstein, Marcel L'Herbier, and Budd Boetticher. I just had the pleasure of rediscovering a brief, insightful essay on Tex Avery (and "the elaborate cadenzas on sexual hysteria" throughout his work) by Jonathan Rosenbaum, of all people. And I still enjoy the late Richard Roud's sometimes caustic commentary on each of his contributors' essays. "Anglo-Saxons do not take kindly to hypothetical truth," he reminds us. "We are impatient with hypotheses; we are not trained, as are the French, to juggle with contradictory theories." Plus ça change...