Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Movie Podcast Network presents… Considering the Cinema — A Podcast About Movies and Film Criticism by Jason Pyles. My topic for this episode is “Ephraim Katz and The Film Encyclopedia.”

It might sound funny, but if you really want to learn about the movies, there are a few books that are required reading — or at least — required reference materials for the bookshelves of your film library.

For instance, right off the top of your head, you might think about Andre Bazin’s “What Is Cinema?”; or Agee on Film; Andrew Sarris’s “The American Cinema”; Bordwell and Thompson’s “Film Art” (That book truly is essential); Giannetti’s “Understanding Movies” (or maybe “Flashback,” Giannetti’s “Brief History of Film”); and of course there’s Roger Ebert’s “Book of Film,” which Ebert subtitled “the finest writing from a century of film.” For that one, he was the editor who compiled a bunch of interesting film writing from the past century. Continue reading →