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

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: 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: 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

Advantages: the insider tips
Disadvantages: the pictures that do not belong in the sections

...the fist being the classic Burlesque side with tips on how to perfect your inner burlesquer. Dita also shows you how to perfect your look depending on where decade you want my personal favorite was from the 40s look with unseen pictures of dita and her personal stories its a must have the other side is called Fetish this is my personal favorite with an insight on how fetishes are a part of everyday life with a picture of her on the cover of playboy ... Read review