Comments for Poetics of Cinema

Poetics of Cinema: 04/03/14

Poetics of Cinema by David Bordwell is a collection of essays that summarize the last twenty five years of his work as a film theorist. Long before I thought about being a librarian or worked as a web designer, I was a film student, on the theory side of things.

The fourth edition of Film Art: an Introduction by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson was my very first film text book. While I didn't end up as a film theorist, I don't regret the years I studied it.

I bought Poetics of Cinema when it was first released, thinking at the time of maybe including some film essays on my blog. Ultimately I settled on doing strictly a book blog. For one reason or another, Poetics sat on my shelf unread for six years. In the meantime, I had started following Bordwell and Thompson's blog, which in this day and age is really the best way to stay current with their work.

Poetics being a series of academic essays isn't something one reads in one go. I spent an hour with each essay, spreading the experience over a few weekends. The reading experience would have been better if I'd had the films on hand being discussed.

Three stars

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