Similar Criticism...

March 22, 2016 9:20 AM

I really enjoyed Robert Sklar's Movie-Made America, but did not enjoy his other book Film. I'd like some suggestions about other cinema criticisms/histories that are similar in tone and concept to Movie-Made America. No need to be USA-centric.
posted by kuanes to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

I don't know if this is precisely what you're looking for, but this documentary on American Zoetrope is an interesting view into how film changed due to a few visionaries.
posted by Candleman at 9:47 AM on March 22, 2016

I feel like it's worth bringing up City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s by Otto Friedrich, which is one of my favorite books on movies. It's been a while since I read Movie-Made America but I remember it as being a little more about the films themselves and their relationship to American culture in comparison to the Friedrich book, which is more of a deep, detailed dive into the behind-the-scenes events and personalities that shaped the movies, but I think it's at least as fascinating as a cultural history of America. The awesome classic-film blogger Self-Styled Siren has a really good post on it.
posted by Mothlight at 11:04 AM on March 22, 2016

I don't know that book, but for cultural surveys you might like Michael Chanan's book on Cuban film.
posted by rhizome at 2:30 PM on March 22, 2016

Pictures at a Revolution is one of my favorite books on film, though I haven't read the Sklar book.

I'll second the wonderful City of Nets.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 4:21 PM on March 22, 2016

The Big Screen by David Thomson is similar. The full title (not on that edition) is The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies and What They Did To Us. I really enjoy his writing.
posted by Polychrome at 6:42 AM on March 23, 2016