Talking Pictures

How to Watch Movies

Contributors

By Ann Hornaday

Formats and Prices

Price

$11.99

Price

$15.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $11.99 $15.99 CAD
  2. Trade Paperback $17.99 $22.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 13, 2017. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

A veteran film critic offers a lively, opinionated guide to thinking and talking about movies — from Casablanca to Clueless

Whether we are trying to impress a date after an art house film screening or discussing Oscar nominations among friends, we all need ways to look at and talk about movies. But with so much variety between an Alfred Hitchcock thriller and a Nora Ephron romantic comedy, how can everyday viewers determine what makes a good movie?

In Talking Pictures, veteran film critic Ann Hornaday walks us through the production of a typical movie — from script and casting to final sound edit — and explains how to evaluate each piece of the process. How do we know if a film has been well-written, above and beyond snappy dialogue? What constitutes a great screen performance? What goes into praiseworthy cinematography, editing, and sound design? And what does a director really do? In a new epilogue, Hornaday addresses important questions of representation in film and the industry and how this can, and should, effect a movie-watching experience. Full of engaging anecdotes and interviews with actors and filmmakers, Talking Pictures will help us see movies in a whole new light-not just as fans, but as film critics in our own right.
Request Desk/Exam Copy

Genre:

On Sale
Jun 13, 2017
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465094240

Ann Hornaday

About the Author

Ann Hornaday is a film critic at the Washington Post and was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in criticism. Hornaday lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Learn more about this author