Film As Film : Understanding and Judging Movies

Film making is inevitably based on collaboration and often bogged down by compromise, yet the achievements of the great directors leave no doubt that the cinema is a supreme art form of the 20th century. Detailed analyses of scenes from well-known films, many of them Hollywood classics like "Psycho", show how film makers can tell a story and interpret the events at one and the same time. It is only when we understand the dual role of the camera as a ruthlessly realistic eye and creator of illusions that rational film criticism becomes possible.