Moving On: From Reading Stories to Reading Films

I finally finished reading the twenty stories in Best Short Stories of 1990.  I only liked about six of them, I'm afraid.  The stories I liked were straight forward with a satisfying conclusion and characters who were sympathetic in some way.  Of those I haven't talked about yet, here are the ones I liked: "Nothing to Ask For," by Dennis McFarland, about a man who visits a friend dying from AIDS; "Wigtime," by Alice Munro, about two women friends; and "In a Father's Place," by Christopher Tilghman, about how the catalyst of a son's controlling girlfriend changes a father's relationship with his children and his past.

I'm thinking this is not the way to read these books--all at once, I mean.  In the future, I think I might just pick one out once in a while as a change of pace from reading a novel or a non-fiction book.

In the meantime, I've started reading a new book, How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, Multimedia, by James Monaco.  I have the 2000 edition, but there's a new one out, published in 2009. Both are available on Amazon.com. 

It's intended to be a textbook, apparently, having been written as a result of the author's teaching film at the New School for Social Research in New York City.  It's a very comprehensive discussion of film, including its history and technical aspects.  I've always wanted to learn more about the art and technique of filmmaking, and I figured: why not start now?

So far I've read the first chapter, covering "Film as an Art," and part of Chapter 2, which gets into the technology of film.  Chapter 1 is an interesting overview, but I was particularly struck by James Monaco's idea that abstract painting started in part as a response to the availability of photographic images.  Once people could take a photo, they no longer needed someone to paint the world around them as a way of recording the phenomenon.  Painters were then free to interpret the image rather than merely reproduce it.  It's an interesting idea, although I'm not sure I entirely buy it as an explanation of abstract art. 

Another important point made in Chapter 1 is that paintings and even photographs are static forms, unlike novels or stories, narratives which move forward in time.  Film seems to have features of both media.  Not only is it visual, like a painting, but it is also narrative, like a novel.  Both are important, I think, for a film to be successful, something movie makers occasionally forget, especially these days, when special effects are so popular with audiences.  The second trilogy of the Star Wars series are examples of that mistake.

In Chapter 2, the author gets into talking about image and sound and how those aspects of film can be used to create various effects.  It's interesting and will be helpful in my understanding of how films do what they do.

I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to stick with this book--after all, it's not a narrative and is kind of slow-going, but I'll keep you posted on how I do and share what I learn from it and how well I think it's presenting the material.  I also intend to look at films to see examples of what is being discussed, so I'll probably be talking about those films too.  So stay tuned!