The world in a frame: What we see in films by Leo Braudy

by Leo Braudy

"An exciting, entertaining exploration of films. . . . [Braudy] attempts to understand rather than promulgate rules and categories, and somehow to keep the criteria of enjoyment in some meaningful connection with the criteria of judgment."--Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

Hardcover

About the author

Leo Braudy is among America's leading cultural historians and film critics. He currently is University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature at the University of Southern California. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Michael Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent. especially, made me think about the values of bad v good acting

[RC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Braudy makes a big deal about how his book about film has no pictures. It's actually kind of a funny and endearing section of the book. But the lack of pictures doesn't matter. This is a marvelously readable book, and Braudy is especially strong in discussing the power and durability of genre in film, especially Westerns and musicals. He is equally strong in discussing the transition from silent film to sound, and the sea change that brought. The book is dated, and there is a focus on films from the 60s and 70s, but that was a fertile time for film in America, and Braudy makes one nostalgic for the period. A classic work of film criticism.