All my life, I have loved
movies. All sorts of them, from comedies to drama, from explosion-heavy action
flicks to artsy foreign films, I can find something to like in pretty much any
genre imaginable. I also love talking about movies. How the movies we create reflect
the culture or place or time period they're made in. At their best, films can
teach us about ourselves and the world we live in, as well as transport us to
somewhere else. Seriously, don’t let me corner you at a party; I can go on
about films in a cultural and sociological context for hours (stay tuned for my
epic post “America, Humanism, and Pop Art in the World of Michael Bay”). Turns
out, there are lots of authors out there who love this stuff as much as I do,
but they have credentials and talent and stuff. So check out some of these
movie books in our Reference section, and see just how important film can be.
Or at least, you can keep up with your hipster film major cousin at the next
family reunion.
Forbidden Films
I am not a fan of
censorship. Are there movies that I think are disgusting, exploitative, and
downright offensive? Oh yeah. But at the same time, people have the right to
make them or watch them if they want to. It is a free country after all. And I
feel like Forbidden Films backs this up. It details the histories of 125 movies that
have been censored for various reasons, and by different people. Some of them,
like the infamous Lolita (banned from
multiple theaters and given a special SUPER hard R for being a movie about the pseudo-
sexual relationship between an old guy and a young girl) are kind of
understandable. However, some of them
are just baffling to me. Like, people trying to ban Schindler's List for being “too disturbing, violent, and sexual”.
Yeah, disturbing images in a movie about the Holocaust. Never could have seen
that one coming. Or the mass protests by Christian groups about Martin
Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ,
a controversy that would have made more sense if the protests had happened
AFTER anyone saw the movie, and realized half the stuff they were protesting
wasn’t even in the film. If this sounds interesting, give this book a try, and
make up your own mind. Plenty more great films are mentioned that someone, somewhere, wanted to keep from the rest of us.
The Rock & Roll Film Encyclopedia
And speaking of people
who hate censorship…rock & roll! Yes, movies and music have gone hand in hand
for ages. Music in movies has been important ever since they were putting
orchestras into silent movie theaters. And eventually, they started to make
movies about that crazy new swing the kids are all grooving to: ROCK! This book
lists a colorful variety of rock related movies, some about actual rock
stars (The Doors, Sid and Nancy), musicals like Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Grease, and movies that have rock as a
major element, like The Commitments,
and American Graffiti. It gives some
information about each film, and talks about the music that each one offers,
and it’s a pretty diverse group. It describes classics like The Beatles' ground
breaking Hard Day’s Night, or the infamous
Mariah Carey bomb Glitter (which not
even the book's writer can help but snark on); there's something for everyone here. So if you love
both the power of rock and the power of film, turn on your favorite Springsteen
song and start reading!
Novels into Film
Remember that blog I
wrote 100 years ago about adaptations? Turns out, we have a whole reference
book about the magical world of book-to-movie adaptations! Where the previous
book I described was about fusing music and movies, this is fusing movies with books. Like
the other reference books, it lists movies from A to Z, flipping through a number of
genres and time periods, as long as they are films that were once books. It
came out in 2005, so it’s a bit out of date, but there are still plenty of movies
to choose from. Even movies that people forgot were adaptations at all.
Did you know The Godfather was a book
first? Or Forrest Gump? This book
discusses the differences
and similarities between a novel and its film adaptation, as well as why certain changes were made in adapting the
source material. Like, did you know that when Francis Ford Coppola was making Apocalypse Now, they had to almost entirely
redo Marlon Brando’s villain role because he had gained so much weight? There
are lots of stories and interesting facts like that in this book to entertain you, especially if
you watch most adaptations screaming “WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE THAT?!?!”!
Adaptations are not easy, but to learn how Hollywood does them, give this book a look (before
it gets its own HBO series).
Like I said at the top, I
love movies. And talking about movies. And writing about them. In fact, we have
even more reference books about movies that I just didn’t have time to talk
about here! There is a lot to say about all these subjects, and if you want to
learn more, check these books out. If you love movies, books, music, or other
issues surrounding those things, get reading. Or just wait until the film
versions come out. With a funky indie soundtrack.
CP
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