The 12-Hour Film Expert

April 22, 2024
In this slight primer, Noah Charney (The Thefts of the Mona Lisa), an art history professor at the American University of Rome, and his father James (Madness at the Movies), a psychiatry professor at Yale University, deliver by-the-numbers Hollywood history in a vague attempt to help readers watch movies “in a more thoughtful way.” The early chapters are the most successful, tracing the rise of the studio system and the technological and artistic advances that transformed movies from silent black-and-white novelty shorts to colorful popular art. For instance, the authors credit director Edwin Porter for helping establish the “grammar” of film in the early 20th century by opening scenes with establishing shots and progressively cutting to close-ups of the main subjects. Unfortunately, the bulk of the book is devoted to superficial overviews of the action, horror, noir, and western genres, among others. For instance, a chapter on musicals describes the professional partnership between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers and the making of Singing in the Rain before embarking on a mind-numbing chronicle of major musicals that consists almost entirely of plot summary. The little commentary on offer is obvious and regurgitates common knowledge (rom-coms usually feature “meet cutes”; Star Wars had cutting-edge special effects). Readers can skip this.

Starred review from June 1, 2024

Noah Charney (The 12-Hour Art Expert) and his film seminar developer/facilitator father, James (Madness at the Movies), team up to help readers watch films thoughtfully, encouraging a focus on the industry's history and path-breaking productions rather than treating films as passive entertainment. They select movies from the U.S. and abroad and across a variety of genres. Each of the book's 12 chapters is designed to be an hour's worth of reading. Categories include the invention of film, silent movies, classics, Westerns, film noir, comedies, musicals, suspense, horror, action, sci-fi/fantasy, and international auteur-centered art films. That means it leaves out films about war, documentaries, and movies with animation components, but there's a "Movie Playlist" of additional titles at the end. Readers will learn about establishing shots, montages, sight gags, fade-outs, and frontal positioning. Highlight of the book are its insights. For example, silent films are only mum regarding human voices, not music and sound effects; comedies denote happy endings rather than humor; and to maintain an audience's interest, heroes require some imperfections and villains some virtues. VERDICT This gateway book will deepen readers' appreciation of milestone movies. A variety of readers, not just film fans, will want to peruse this engaging title.--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.

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