Books
We can only wonder what Katherine Mansfield might have given us had she lived a normal life span, yet we should cherish what we have, as Claire Harman has done so beautifully.
Anyone who cares deeply about cinema owes Jonas Mekas an abiding debt for all that he did for independent American filmmaking.
Because Mindy Aloff is so deeply personal and idiosyncratic — and so dependent on what was programmed by certain theaters, in certain years — her book distorts the very topic it is intended to illuminate.
Janet Malcolm never brings up the possibility that her powers of memory have dramatically diminished in old age. If that were the case, such an admission would’ve strengthened the book, giving it context. It would have humanized it, too.
In this valuable and necessary book Bill Keller argues that American prisons need to accept that men and women don’t stop being human beings because they’re in the custody of the state.
Big Swiss is effervescent and funny, even if overcooked to some extent.
If historian Thomas Crow’s goal is to explain how these rebels of the counterculture reshaped American art, he is at least partly successful.
Film Commentary: The Books That Shaped My Film Aesthetic
Here’s a personal list of the 25 most important, influential books about American cinema. Only one book per author.
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