Understanding Movies: The Art and History of Film

The Modern Scholar

By: Professor Raphael Shargel

Narrated by: Professor Raphael Shargel

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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

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.

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…

Nice Lecture, but noises are just ruining it

Any additional comments?

I agree with all previous reviews, the lecture is pretty interesting, especially if you are a beginner in this topic, BUT these noises, it is SO annoying, he doesn't even shot the mike to take a sip of water... egh.. sounds disgusting (despite the fact that he has very pleasing sound voice)

Amazing Overview of Movie History

Comprehensive Look at Films Taught by a True Film Fan. Left me with an even bigger appreciation of the art form.

I've learned a lot about movies

This book has taught me a lot about movies and different periods in cinema.

I loved the narrator, and style of narration. I got the impression that the narrator consciously knew what he wanted to convey with each lecture, and I found this vastly superior to the ordinary script reading encountered in most audiobooks.

Great info, but author should watch mouth noises

This is great info, and I am learning a lot. But, I have a real pet peeve about mouth noises (saliva or lack thereof), swallowing. The microphone picks up everything and well, it's a little gross, to be honest. Like I said, he's great, but the noises and swallowing are getting in the way of my total enjoyment. It could be remedied with hydration or pulling away from the mic when he pauses to swallow.

He’s analysis is personal and not scholarly.

The performance is not properly edited. You can tell that the reader is not a performer. He left a lot of moments where he swallowed, took a few seconds break, and even drank water rather than edit those moments out.

His views on The Godfather is very personally opinionated and biased, instead of scholarly. He talks about Marlon Brando being the king of Method acting, or even the father of method acting, when he wasn’t. He never wanted to be referred as a method actor because he studied under Stella Adler and not her rival Lee Strasberg, who was actually known as the Method Teacher. He also analyses Micheal Corleone as “satanic”… but that’s a flawed observation since there many listeners who belong to religions who don’t believe in satan and therefore may not know what he means by it. Also, there could be people who don’t believe “Satan” is an evil entity, or similar to Michael Corleone. He should have used adjectives that actually describes what he means that can be understood by a wider group of listeners.