Arts & Music Books > Film & TV Arts & Music Books > R

Advantages: Gives extra information and details not included on screen
Disadvantages: Not for people who are not fans of the TV programme

As a fan of the ground breaking TV series I decided to pick up this book from my local library. The book is structured exactly in script form, which makes it a different kind of read to your average novel, and just reading this on it's own as a script, may not have the same effect as maybe a screen play version. What this book does do for fans of the TV show though, is give them an insight into how the finished production differed from that of the ...
...context of word for word and sentence for sentence to what is heard on screen, but what you do get to read are the scenes that were either never recorded, or edited out of the final screen version. This gives a much wider view of the world the characters inhabit, and the direction and focus Russell T Davies author and show producer wanted to take with the TV production Altogether an interesting and worthwhile read for fans of the TV series, though ... Read review

Advantages: a nice companion to the series
Disadvantages: too personalised in some places

The thing about the Carry On Companion is that it is the best way for any self assuming CArry ON fan to really enjoy the series. Written by Robert Ross, who himself is a self confessed CArry ON a holic, it is a witty, detailed and familiar account of the thirty one Carry On films, the countless Carry on Television shows, and the many Carry On Spin Off Stage Shows. As a companion to this, a favorite series of mine, this book cannot be bettered. Sections ...
...characters, trivia, information, best performance; the tv and stage sections; where Ross explains the nature of the shows, how they related back top the original films, and who starred in them; and the detailed Carry On Timeline. As a tool, this companion is very good, as it gives all the information which you would need to find out about the films, and much more. If you want to know when Sid James was born, for instance, when he moved to the Uk, ... Read review

Advantages: A fascinating insight into film making
Disadvantages: Very hard to find

Robert Rodriguez is very much a film maker on the up and has been for a number of years. In 2005, following the release of his film "Sin City"; he was ranked as one of Hollywood's 50 most powerful people by Premiere magazine. In fact, Robert Rodriguez has done so much, having written and directed a number of very successful films, including his "Mariachi" trilogy and the "Spy Kids" trilogy and directed "From Dusk Til Dawn"; it seems strange to think ...
...than fifteen years and is still only in his 30s. But life wasn't always so good and so successful for Rodriguez. In 1991, he was thinking about getting into college to study films and contemplating his first attempt at making a feature film having had some success, if only in his own home town, with some of his short films. Whilst Rodriguez aimed to be making major films in the future, his only aim at this point in time was to make a film and try ... Read review

Advantages: Informative and well written
Disadvantages: Very detailed, assumes some knowledge of british cinema

The sixties produced a great many changes in British society and these were clearly reflected in British filmmaking of the time. Just as in music and the arts cinema was affected by the liberating effects of more permissive attitudes to sex, drugs and morality. Films and filmmakers became more experimental and the boundaries set by the censors were constantly tested. 'Sixties British Cinema' published by the BFI (British Film Institute) and written/edited ...
...the course of the book sixties films are looked at from various aspects. Murphy starts first by looking at the state of British Cinema in the 50's and highlighting the stagnation in ideas and innovation that pervaded the films of the period. The beginnings of change can actually be traced to the 1959 film 'Look Back In Anger' and then the later 'Room At The Top' (1960), which was a forerunner of the later grittier and morally less well-defined British ... Read review

Advantages: Great fun
Disadvantages: Not really any

Are You Being Served seemed dated when it first appeared on the small screen. Mr. Grace with his doddery gait and his broken voice creacking and crackling with age was most amusing as he whispered "You're al doing very well." It was the sort of programme which had stereotypes by the dozen. Mrs. Slocombe with his pink hair, Mr. Humphrey's - Gay as the proverbial Lark and Mr. Lucas the caddish youngster after the ladies. It was pure escapism. The ...
...the sales floor seemed destined to collapse if the doors were opened one more time. All this was part of the charm of the piece however and it worked really well. Feew comedies can take the double entendre to the extent that it was employed in this one. Somehow it all gelled. ... Read review