Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons

ESSENTIAL CINEMA: On the Necessity of Film Canons

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How and why this happened is not clear, but the importance of East Asian Cinema, always strong and recognized by the lists, has increased even more in recent years.

In addition, two other Japanese films from the same years, Ugetsu Monogatari and Seven Samurai obtained important positions before. As for , it is surprising to find this cornerstone of cinema in the Top 10 only in , even though it has stayed a favourite of the critics ever since, while the directors only elected it in , with the partial excuse of having chosen Doctor Strangelove ten years before and of appointing now with the second position tied with Citizen Kane!

Finally, The Godfather too figures in the Top 10 four times, but only considering the occasions in which it was coupled with its sequel in Arguably, there is no other film so famous and considered, it represents quintessentially the heart of the contemporary film canon as fundamental point of reference for filmmakers and public alike. This means that even over a period of sixty years the lists remained anchored to the period of the first poll in and indeed the average date of each Top 10 advanced only by a decade, in a fluctuating way, so that the last peak of the list is only 6 years older than the first.

On the contrary, the directors have always prized more recent films, so that the overall age of the top of their polls is and the newest of the total number of films selected by all Top 10s in the magazine, Raging Bull , is exclusively their choice.

Canons, Critical Approaches, and Contexts

Precisely, the total number of films topping the polls in sixty years is 43, with an average date of release in the year , the oldest being Intolerance Of these films, 20 are American, 18 European and 5 East Asian, even though the number of directors is 33, 19 of which have European origins, 10 American and 4 East Asian. In fact, some directors are present with more films, with the best results obtained by Charles Chaplin and Francis Ford Coppola with three films each. Derived from the results, the polls from indicate also the favourite directors, with Hitchcock and Fellini winning respectively in the poll of critics and that of directors, with the former winning even in the combined result.

Indeed, that was his year. The most evident change in both of the last polls in is represented by the defeat of Citizen Kane , a film that reigned for decades. So, what caused this change? First, a very slow advance of more recent films increasingly tends to prize the newer between two challengers, probably even more if this is a colour film recently remastered and the other not.

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But the masterwork of Hitchcock represents also a totally different concept of cinema than the one of Welles. It is, like the title suggests, an unsettling romance, aimed to the emotional side of the viewer and his or her subconscious, while Citizen Kane is far more a moral parable, focusing on the apparent success and hidden desperation of a rich and powerful man.

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It seems like the parallel rise of Tokyo Story would balance the new situation, being another old, ethical film in black and white. Moreover, as stated before, the polls also consider Hitchcock to be the best director ever and Vertigo , usually considered his masterpiece, also serves as a symbol of his much valued work. Social Forces , Oxford University Press, : — Your points will be added to your account once your order is shipped. Click on the cover image above to read some pages of this book!

Film Canon – Film History – Film Education: Remarks on the Polish Film Museum’s Anniversary Poll

In his astute and deeply informed film reviews and essays, Jonathan Rosenbaum regularly provides new and brilliant insights into the cinema as art, entertainment, and commerce. Guided by a personal canon of great films, Rosenbaum sees, in the ongoing hostility toward the idea of a canon shared by many within the field of film studies, a missed opportunity both to shape the discussion about cinema and to help inform and guide casual and serious filmgoers alike.

In Essential Cinema, Rosenbaum forcefully argues that canons of great films are more necessary than ever, given that film culture today is dominated by advertising executives, sixty-second film reviewers, and other players in the Hollywood publicity machine who champion mediocre films at the expense of genuinely imaginative and challenging works. He proposes specific definitions of excellence in film art through the creation a personal canon of both well-known and obscure movies from around the world and suggests ways in which other canons might be similarly constructed.

Essential Cinema offers in-depth assessments of an astonishing range of films: established classics such as Rear Window, M, and Greed; ambitious but flawed works like The Thin Red Line and Breaking the Waves; eccentric masterpieces from around the world, including Irma Vep and Archangel; and recent films that have bitterly divided critics and viewers, among them Eyes Wide Shut and A.

In conclusion, Rosenbaum offers his own film canon of 1, key works from the beginning of cinema to the present day.

The Cine File: Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons by Jonathan Rosenbaum

A cogent and provocative argument about the art of film, Essential Cinema is also a fiercely independent reference book of must-see movies for film lovers everywhere. A virtuoso collection by one of the finest film critics currently active His passions are unusually diverse There's nothing here that won't enrich the reader in some way.

If you have seen the film already, you will see it better. If you haven't seen it, you will want to. The Times of London Rosenbaum's passionate, thoughtful, and richly informed advocacy of the films he cares about earns this book a place on any cinephile's shelf Rosenbaum, an enormously erudite and deeply reflective viewer unbeholden to academic norms and taboos, is ideally positioned to propose a canon of great works An essential guide.

Boston Globe Accessible without being dumbed down Filled with perceptive insights and fascinating juxtapositions A closing list of 1, favorite films is sure to spark debate among cineastes while offering a long checklist of films to watch. Publishers Weekly Every essay demonstrates Rosenbaum's fervent dedication to the cinema and, more important, that he has the knowledge and insight to support his impassioned opinions.

Booklist Jonathan Rosenbaum is one of the most invested voices in writing about movies.

It is not, in the final analysis, any exploration of the nature of the film canon that gives the book its value. No, what makes the book so important is simply that it represents the world's best writer on film at the peak of his art. In an era when American film criticism is splintered into the mainstream review and the dense academic article, the middle ground of accessible but insightful film writing is continually disappearing and Rosenbaum's work represents the most impressive exposition of this middle ground whose continuance is essential in order to maintain an acceptable level of critical film discourse in this country.

What is most impressive about Rosenbaum's writing is his adeptness at handling discussion of all the varied aspects of film. Equally comfortable in aesthetic discussion as he is delineating the social or moral problems posed by a specific work, Rosenbaum is able to effortlessly call on a vast historical knowledge to reinforce his points, but is equally at ease engaging in a casual address to the reader.

Not afraid to insert himself into his reviews, Rosenbaum is also the most honest of film critics. If every critic necessarily brings his own biases to his writing, Rosenbaum argues, it is better for the critic to foreground these biases by taking a candid approach and, rather than pretending to speak objectively, inform the reader of his unique background which has shaped his attitudes towards film.

Active in criticism since the s, Rosenbaum had refined his critical approach by the s, resulting in a perfect mix of academic and popular writing that is not afraid to bring in comparison to literary masters like Faulkner, but is always written in clear, straightforward prose that, even when used in the service of complex arguments, is as easy to follow as the most simplistic of mainstream capsule reviews.

His discussions of individual films bring in a wide variety of historical and extra-textual perspectives and are always filled with perceptive analysis.

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Although well versed in theory, Rosenbaum never allows these analyses to spill over into academic buzzspeak. This refinement of his approach, which filtered out some of the academic indulgences that tended towards overrepresentation in his past writings, marks Essential Cinema as his finest work, a collection of the best of his mature criticism. Among the best pieces in the book is a discussion of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver which considers the contributions of the work's four "auteurs" in shaping the morally problematic film.

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Interestingly, Rosenbaum includes composer Bernard Hermann among these auteurs along with Scorsese, screenwriter Paul Schrader, and star Robert DeNiro , a figure not normally considered an important factor in the film's creation but who, Rosenbaum shows, was as influential as the other four in shaping audience reaction to the work. Rosenbaum's discussion of the film's score is one of the best analyses of film music in recent memory, canny in its understanding of the different threads of Hermann's work and the different effects they have on the viewer's understanding of the film.

Rosenbaum's skilled analyses of four aspects of the cinematic art, composing, directing, acting, and screenwriting and his understanding of how these often contradictory forces contribute to the shaping of the final work, create a unique and unusually perceptive reading of an important, but problematic film. Rosenbaum shows how Paul Schrader's original script, which portrays the Travis Bickle character DeNiro as a highly questionable protagonist is glossed over by the romantic score, the arty direction, and the charismatic star performance which transforms a racist, misogynistic serial killer into a hero.

The film's ending which portrays Bickle in this heroic light may be intended as ironic, but the contributions of Hermann and DeNiro tend to obscure this ironic intention, an irony lost on many viewers who tend to view the charismatic Bickle with admiration.

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