Elements of Film

by Lee R. Bobker

Discusses the processes involved in the production of a motion picture and examines the work of the major contemporary directors and critics

Genres: Film

302 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic film book. It finally got me to check out more Vittorio De Sica films, so I am happy. There are also a lot of quality stills from Bergman films (which is why I bought it in the first place).

[Gene Bobker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive.

[John King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in high school in 1971. Great introduction to film as it was (technically) at that time. Also there was a wonderful section on the work of the top international directors, providing me with my first intro to Jean-Luc Godard.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still the best introduction to the way films are put together. Read it in my junior year high school film class--the first offered at my high school--and it's informed the way I engage movies ever since.

Re-reading it as preparation for a seminar on Films of the Sixties and Seventies, I was struck both by the way it raises the right questions about how to watch films and how very much a period piece it is (and no doubt, I am, smile.) Bobker does a very nice job with the relationship between director, cinematography, sound and editing and he has a good section on the differences between stage and film acting. But he's absolutely committed to both the Auteur theory that places the Director in a near-God-like relationship to the interactions and a High Modernist Aesthetic of control, which gives him problems with Godard among others. I still don't know a better introduction (though I haven't made anything resembling a thorough search). Just needs to be read with a bit of critical distance.