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Music & Drama » Film & Cinema

Most Recommended Books

Hitchcock by François Truffaut

“This book is an amazing guide to Hitchcock’s thought process.”

Darren Aronofsky, Film Director

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Browse book recommendations:

Music & Drama

  • Classical Music & Opera
  • Film & Cinema
  • Jazz
  • Music
  • Rock
  • Television
  • Theatre

    The best books on Popular Culture, recommended by Susan Bordo

  • Read

    1

    The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael
    by Pauline Kael

  • Read

    2

    Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media
    by Susan J. Douglas

  • Read

    3

    The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America
    by Daniel J. Boorstin

  • Read

    4

    On Photography
    by Susan Sontag

  • Read

    5

    Maus
    by Art Spiegelman

The best books on Popular Culture, recommended by Susan Bordo

Popular culture shapes our fantasies, our expectations and our beliefs about what is real, argues Susan Bordo. She picks five books that shed light on popular culture.

    The best books on Making Movies, recommended by Darren Aronofsky

  • Read

    1

    Making Movies
    by Sidney Lumet

  • Read

    2

    The Writer’s Journey
    by Christopher Vogler

  • Read

    3

    Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
    by Peter Biskind

  • Read

    4

    The Ragman’s Son
    by Kirk Douglas

  • Read

    5

    Hitchcock
    by François Truffaut

The best books on Making Movies, recommended by Darren Aronofsky

The Oscar-nominated director of Black Swan recommends five books on film—and discusses the moviemakers who inspire him

    Woody Allen on The Books that Inspired Him

  • Read

    1

    The Catcher in the Rye
    by J D Salinger

  • Read

    2

    Really the Blues
    by Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe

  • Read

    3

    The World of S J Perelman
    by S J Perelman

  • Read

    4

    Epitaph of a Small Winner
    by Machado de Assis

  • Read

    5

    Elia Kazan
    by Richard Schickel

Woody Allen on The Books that Inspired Him

Film legend Woody Allen talks us through his favourite books, from JD Salinger to Elia Kazan.

    The best books on Filmmaking, recommended by Frank Cottrell Boyce

  • Read

    1

    The Best of Satyajit Ray
    by Satyajit Ray

  • Read

    2

    The Empire Express
    by David Haward Bain

  • Read

    3

    The Thirty-Nine Steps
    by John Buchan

  • Read

    4

    Keaton
    by Rudi Blesh

  • Read

    5

    Karoo
    by Steve Tesich

The best books on Filmmaking, recommended by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Filmmaking involves lots of different disciplines, says the acclaimed English screenwriter and author. And the secret of making good films is to look outward – for instance, by reading the history of railways

    The best books on Film Criticism, recommended by Andrew Sarris

  • Read

    1

    Agee on Film
    by James Agee

  • Read

    2

    The Immediate Experience
    by Robert Warshow, Stanley Cavell and Lionel Trilling

  • Read

    3

    What is Cinema? Volume 1
    by André Bazin

  • Read

    4

    Negative Space
    by Manny Farber

  • Read

    5

    The New Biographical Dictionary of Film
    by David Thomson

The best books on Film Criticism, recommended by Andrew Sarris

The legendary American critic, Andrew Sarris, sounds off on auteurism, his own career and the value of the traditional film-writing canon over internet innovations such as IMDB. He picks the best books on film criticism.

    The best books on Film Noir, recommended by Barry Forshaw

  • Read

    1

    The American Cinema
    by Andrew Sarris

  • Read

    2

    The Rough Guide to Film Noir
    by Alex Ballinger and Danny Graydon

  • Read

    3

    Crime Movies
    by Carlos Clarens

  • Read

    4

    100 Film Noirs
    by Jim Hillier and Alastair Phillips

  • Read

    5

    Film Noir
    by Alain Silver, James Ursini, Elizabeth Ward and Robert Porfino

The best books on Film Noir, recommended by Barry Forshaw

Film writer Barry Forshaw plunges us into a world of dangerous women in ankle bracelets, flawed heroes silhouetted against a dark rain-swept street, smoky jazz scores and very unhappy endings.

    The best books on Indian Film, recommended by Brian Shoesmith

  • Read

    1

    Indian Film
    by Erik Barnouw and S Krishnaswamy

  • Read

    2

    National Identity in Indian Popular Film, 1947-1987
    by Sumita S Chakravarty

  • Read

    3

    Fearless Nadia
    by Dorothee Wenner

  • Read

    4

    Bollywood Cinema
    by Vijay Mishra

  • Read

    5

    Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (Revised Second Edition)
    by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen

The best books on Indian Film, recommended by Brian Shoesmith

Professor Brian Shoesmith chooses five books that celebrate the lavish history of the Indian film industry. He maintains that Bollywood has become a global brand — in Perth, you can even take classes in Bollywood dance.

    The best books on Screenwriting, recommended by Richard Walter

  • Read

    1

    Lew Hunter’s Screenwriting 434
    by Lew Hunter

  • Read

    2

    Write Screenplays That Sell
    by Hal Ackerman

  • Read

    3

    Poetics
    by Aristotle

  • Read

    4

    Plots and Characters
    by Millard Kaufman

  • Read

    5

    Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters
    by Michael Tierno

The best books on Screenwriting, recommended by Richard Walter

The Hollywood screenwriting guru picks the best five books on writing a blockbusting screenplay. Aristotle knew what he was doing. It’s all about the story. Less is more. One word is better than lots of words. Simple really.

    The best books on Film Directing, recommended by Mat Whitecross

  • Read

    1

    Sex & Drugs & Rock’n’Roll
    by Richard Balls

  • Read

    2

    The Shock Doctrine
    by Naomi Klein

  • Read

    3

    Rebel Without a Crew
    by Robert Rodriguez

  • Read

    4

    This is Orson Welles
    by Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich

  • Read

    5

    Hitchcock
    by François Truffaut

The best books on Film Directing, recommended by Mat Whitecross

The young film director of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (about the troubled but brilliant British rock star Ian Dury) talks about the books that inspire his films.

    The best books on Russian Cinema, recommended by Ian Christie

  • Read

    1

    Kino
    by Jay Leyda

  • Read

    2

    Early Cinema in Russia and its Cultural Reception
    by Yuri Tsivian

  • Read

    3

    Sergei Eisenstein
    by Oksana Bulgakowa

  • Read

    4

    Ivan the Terrible
    by Yuri Tsivian

  • Read

    5

    Tarkovsky: Cinema as Poetry
    by Maja Turovskaja

The best books on Russian Cinema, recommended by Ian Christie

From Eisenstein to Tarkovsky, film scholar Ian Christie looks at the titans of Russian cinema and draws attention to the pre-Revolutionary Siberian gold merchant’s daughter who opened a cinema purely for the upper classes.

    The best books on Hollywood, recommended by Marina Hyde

  • Read

    1

    An Empire of Their Own – How the Jews Invented Hollywood
    by Neal Gabler

  • Read

    2

    The Last Tycoon
    by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  • Read

    3

    What Makes Sammy Run?
    by Budd Schulberg

  • Read

    4

    The Genius of the System
    by Thomas Schatz

  • Read

    5

    Final Cut – Dreams and Disaster in the Making of Heaven’s Gate
    by Steven Bach

The best books on Hollywood, recommended by Marina Hyde

‘Smart people went to the ballet and opera, and what the poor and lower middle classes did with their time didn’t matter. But these men in Hollywood had a vision and were creating this product that was loved by everybody of all different backgrounds.’

    The best books on British Cinema, recommended by Brian McFarlane

  • Read

    1

    Realism and Tinsel
    by Robert Murphy

  • Read

    2

    Ealing Studios
    by Charles Barr

  • Read

    3

    David Lean
    by Kevin Brownlow

  • Read

    4

    The Finest Years
    by Charles Drazin

  • Read

    5

    Typical Men
    by Andrew Spicer

The best books on British Cinema, recommended by Brian McFarlane

The editor of the Encyclopaedia of British Film talks about Britain’s cinematic offerings. ‘I love Brief Encounter – I cry from the moment Celia Johnson speaks until the credits come up at the end.’

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