One of Europe's most distinguished screenwriters offers a philosophical rumination on his chosen medium, but those led by the title to expect a glimpse into the hidden world of filmmaking will be disappointed. Film is an art that has evolved at a highly accelerated rate. As Carriäre points out, movies have crammed into less than a century the same process of artistic development that led painting from the walls of the caves of Lascaux to the work of the great modern artists. The result, combined with the intense proliferation of television and videotape, is that we are bombarded relentlessly with images. Even film itself is moving faster, he writes, with quick-cutting moving from rock videos to the big screen at an alarming rate. Today, Carriäre argues, visual Muzak surrounds us constantly, and the image is increasingly devalued. Much of the book is taken up with his thoughts on this phenomenon, which he finds quite disturbing. Elsewhere, Carriäre talks about the ways in which film alters our sense of time, the subterfuges by which film editing expands or compresses ``real time'' into reel time. He also offers an essay on the process by which a screenplay becomes a film, but there is little of practical value here. The author is at his most engaging when he recalls his early apprenticeship under Jacques Tati and some moments from his 19-year collaboration with Luis Bu§uel. Unfortunately, his attempt at film history is filled with generalizations that won't stand up to serious scrutiny, repeating stories that have been disproved by the scholarship of people like Charles Musser and John Fell. Despite that, the book is engaging, and Carriäre's tone—witty, self-effacing, and concerned- -manages to be at once disturbing and soothing, a rare combination indeed. Deserves a place on a small shelf alongside such oddities as Bresson's Notes on Cinematography and Tarkovsky's Sculpting in Time, studies in the philosophy of film written by great practitioners of the art.
Pub Date: Sept. 19, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-42116-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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