Film in Five Seconds

by Matteo Civaschi, H-57

In today's jet-fueled, caffeine-charged, celebrity-a-minute world, who actually has the time to watch a film from start to finish? Let's face it, life's too short. Now, Film in Five Seconds lets you fast-forward to the best bits so you can enjoy all your favorite movie moments in--literally--moments.
Design studio H-57 have taken over 150 iconic films and cut away all the useless details, boiling them down into ingenious pictograms and creating hilarious visual snapshots that are witty, provocative and to the point.
From Batman to Bridget Jones, Grease to The Godfather, King Kong to The King's Speech, via slapstick, sci-fi and superheroes, you'll laugh out loud as you identify some of the greatest screen moments of all time. This is the perfect book for film buffs and anyone with a sense of humor or a short attention span.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Humor, Media Tie In, German Literature, Art

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2013

Reviews

[Kelly (and the Book Boar)]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

Are you a social person who likes to have friends over for fun and frivolity?



Have you found that some of your drunken party games are growing a bit stale?



Or that YOUR new favorite game:



is considered more than a bit “mean-spirited” according to some of your friends?



If so, have no fear. Although Film in Five Seconds is presented to you as a book, trust me when I say it can be an AWESOME trivia game at your next party. You see, each page contains a diagram depicting the most epitomizing moments from a famous film. Guess the movie, get a point, and at the end of the evening the victor gets to pillage the house and claim his/her reward bragging rights. So easy even the booziest of boozehound can play along (at least for a round or two).

Some examples of the provided “clues” include:



and:


(Calm down there Chuckles, they ain’t all so easy)

And this one because it totally made me snort-laugh:


I’m going to Hell.

Highly recommended to all movie buffs!

ARC provided by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Manny]

[Alexandra]

Perfect gift alert! If you have a friend who's really into movies - this one is a perfect gift for them.
This quirky little book challenges you to guess the movie based on a handful of clever drawings — some stick figures reenacting an iconic scene, others cramming key details into a single snapshot. It’s creative, funny, and surprisingly addictive. The best part? Doing it with friends as a challenge — arguing over guesses, spotting hidden clues, and laughing when the “hardest” puzzle turns out to be obvious once you notice that tiny detail that makes you go, “ohhh, I see!” A clever, playful book that’s more a game than a read.

[Jeff Miller]

This is great fun....recommended for any film geek

Best fun is that after enjoying it myself, I can send pictures of pages to mates as a daily challenge...some are just great fun, some are brilliant head scratchers. From Wizard of Oz to Pirates of the Caribbean there's plenty for everyone.

[Mazzy]

Das Ganze hat einen gewissen Unterhaltungswert, sollte aber meines Erachtens nicht als Buch verkauft, sondern als Webcomic publiziert werden.

[reherrma]

Ein Rätselbuch das Spaß macht, insbesondere wenn man Cineast ist.
Wer in den letzten Jahren nicht oft im Kino war und die entsprechenden Filme (es sind meistens die Kult-Filme und Mega-Blockbuster gefragt) nicht kennt, kann damit nichts anfangen.
Es ist kniffelig und macht auf jeden Fall Spaß, es kann auch als Party-Spaß verwendet werden, was ich bei Gelegenheit mal versuchen will...

[Amirsaman]

If you are a cinephile and have cinephile friends, you would certainly enjoy this game!

[Alenka]

Great concept of defining iconic movies with a few images. It can be taken as a personal challenge or as a game of guessing among cinephiles.
Includes some great classics and lesser known ones so you can take a few recommendations out of it.
All in all quite entertaining.

[Elisabeth]

Just the greatest past time there is, if only it could be updated, but can't stop bringing this book everywhere with me 😂.

[Tina]

I should be the target audience for this. I love movies. I love puzzles. And yet nope, I'm not a fan. I have no idea why, either. It isn't that they puzzles are too hard (I can get most of them that I've experienced fairly easily) or that the format stinks. I'm wondering if the film lover in my is rejecting works of art being summarized into something so . . . wee. Seriously, that's the only reason I can come up with here.

[Amelia Elizabeth]

My review in five points:

-->Guess movie titles by decoding the pictures on each page, answers are in the back
-->I thought I knew my movies but so many of them stumped me!
-->Digital book was okay, but I think print book would be the best way to 'read' this book.
-->This would be great as a party game.
-->A must for film buffs!

[Foxaki]

Herrlich herrlich. Ich liebe ja Filme und die Umsetzung von diesen in die Zeichnungen ist einfach sehr gelungen. Ich hatte viel Spaß beim erraten und noch mehr, wenn ich nachschauen musste, weil ich nicht drauf gekommen bin. Für Filmfans echt ein Blick wert und ein prima buch zum verschenken.

[Rob]

Really fun Christmas/Birthday gift idea.

[Maria Wieczorek]

The word I would use to describe this book is “uneven”. The authors decided to picture movies (from classics to blockbusters) with the use of pictograms. The idea was simple and clever, but the effect of their work, not always. Some of the movies are shown through wonderful, smartly chosen symbols, that make for a fun riddle to read. And some are simply not impressive - instead of an interesting simplification they illustrate things so exactly, that the pictograms are no longer symbolic - the alien is the alien and so on.

That’s why the book is uneven - sometimes funny, sometimes cleverly symbolic, sometimes just boring. Overall it’s nice to watch, printed nicely and so on, but more of a “coffee table book” instead of a complete “nice read”. A fun thing to watch, but that’s it I guess.

[Alan Le]

Works perhaps best for people who think symbolically. And love those films. A joy. Pick it up turn to a page. Work out the film. If you don't get it in a flash, say out loud what the symbols mean -if you are more concrete and literal, it will also work. But you need to know some films. Who doesn't. A joy. Remarkable.

[Alyssa]

Absolutely love it. Very entertaining and addictive.

[Kloe Potter]

This is so creative . Can I tape ever page of this book on my wall ??

[David]

Trying to do them all in one go certainly strains the grey cells.

[Maggie_qwerty]

charming, witty, funny and intelligent. Great fun for movie loving geeks. Brilliant to share with friends.

[Podcast bücherreich]

Perfekt fürs gemeinsame Rätseln!

[Mark Green]

Trying to workout film titles by a few symbols. Good fun.

[Jimmy Brown]

Very quick and occasionally clever "read". It's a fun idea but it has zero re-read value, glad I only paid a couple of quid for it, second hand.

[Elizabeth Erickson]

Fun and original. Liked, didn't love.

[AJ]

I received a copy c/o the publisher via Edelweiss .

MINI REVIEW:

SO MUCH FUN. I'm thinking I'm going to need a physical copy soon.
Film in Five Seconds is a series of graphics, where they take the core bits of a film and summarize it in... five seconds.

What made it fun is that you have to guess the film (the solutions are at the back) and I had a good time trying to figure out the different films. Some of them are pretty hilarious.

Hilarious stuff. Everyone should read this, especially if you love films.

Would make a good gift for film buffs!

[Melek]

Long story short, this book is fun.

I'm not very big on movies. In fact, I can live without them just fine, just give me the book and let's get it over with. Or in that case, just give me this book.

If I base the opinion only on the movies I've watched or heard about, they are pretty accurate (not gonna lie, I could guess about just ten of the movies right, though) and entertaining at the same time. I think I may buy the paper copy too.

[Kelly Hager]

This is the perfect present for anyone who loves movies. There are over 150 pictures representing movies (ranging from classics to more recent films) and it's incredibly fun trying to figure out what they are.

Some are incredibly easy and some had me kicking myself later. This book is incredibly fun (except for the ones that made me hate myself for not guessing).

Recommended.

[Dianne]

Thank you to Quercus and Edelweiss for the review copy!

The diagrams were challenging but fun to guess! Even if you've watched the film, some diagrams were hard to answer because everything is stripped down to its core. I also like the minimalist design of the diagrams. I recommend this to film buffs and I think it would be a fun coffee table book.

[ಆದಿತ್ಯ|Aditya]

A nice book. Contains many of my favorite movies like 'The Dark Knight', 'Drive', shown using infographics. Also got to know story of many famous movies with main elements depicted. This was the fastest book I finished. Just like the writers mentioned - in moments.

[Kent District Library]

“This book is a fun, quiz type book about movies. Each page has a series of symbols which represent a title of a movie and you have to try to figure out which movie it is. It’s really fun to play with your friends! How many can you get right?”
—Katie at KDL’s Grandville Branch

[Nick Callebaut]

117 out of 150

Weirdly enough, I wasn't able to guess some of my favourite movies - such as <> or <> and <> - , whilst I did get a few movies I haven't actually seen.

Fun book nonetheless.