Understanding Movies: The Art and History of Film

The Modern Scholar

By: Professor Raphael Shargel

Narrated by: Professor Raphael Shargel

Why does the cinema have the power to move the heart, stimulate the mind, and dazzle the imagination? How did the art of film develop from its origins to the present day?

This course covers the history and aesthetics of the movies. It traces the experiments and innovations that gave rise to the modern cinema, developing a vocabulary that helps explain the variety of choices filmmakers make when they construct shots and edit them together.

In each lecture, Professor Raphael Shargel introduces a period of film history, talks about its importance, covers aspects of cinematic technique, and illustrates his points by analyzing specific movies from the era under discussion. The course thus has both breadth and depth, covering the major movements in film history while at the same time focusing on key pictures worthy of study and enjoyment.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2008 Raphael Shargel (P)2008 Recorded Books,LLC

good book

Its a good book yet the narrator makes this asmr noise i don't like. Its like he's wetting his mouth or drinking something... its weird when i have headphones on.

Educational! But ...the mike's too close!

What about the narrator’s performance did you like?

Mr. Shargel is a passionate and charismatic lecturer, compelling to listen to. But he's a hard swallower, I must admit. But anyway, if you're interested in film studies, don't hesitate to buy it.

As a mini-course: just fine

I think this audio program gets a very bad rap. It's not a book, it's a little course or series of lectures. And as such, it's well recorded, very easy to understand, interesting, and well worth your time if you're interested in the subject.

All of the reviews pointing out the mouth noises, etc. as being "too distracting" or taking stars off because of that, either have ever heard recordings of lectures but how much were found on this, or expecting a professional reader reading a book.

This is not that. it's a very interesting course, put together, and read by the professor himself. It serves it's purpose well, and if you find the subject interesting, you will not have a problem with the so-called "mouth noises" or whatever.

Highly recommended for aficionados, fans, students of film and filmmakers

Understanding Movies

Need the book for an online cinema class. Because I needed this class I endured the reader. The person reading had such a terrible lisp that every S and every F and X were exaggerated. The microphone was an inch from his mouth and you get the full horrible sound of hissssss voices and ssssssufffffer through his affectation or speech impediment. This book probably sells because people like my teacher, who is good, uses this book as a requirement for the class. I wonder if the reader ever listened to himself and no student would dare flirt with a bad grade by suggesting he work on his speech problem. This speech affectation was painful to hear. Hard to just rate this book due to the horrible sound and knowing it was needed for my class.

Very worthwhile

As someone who has watched a lot of movies over the years, it was very insightful to hear this, to think about some of the techniques behind the films, to get an overview of the ark of film history etc. Great for the thinking man…