Required Screening: Fifteen Must-See Films for the Art-House Connoisseur, 1924-1980

Written with college and university students in mind, the essays in R. J. Cardullo's Required Screening: Fifteen Must-See Films for the Art-House Connoisseur, 1924-1980 cover some of the central films treated--and central issues raised--in today's cinema courses and provide students with practical models to help them improve their own writing and analytical skills. Required Screening is aimed not only at students, however: it is also directed at teachers and cinephiles with an interest in world cinema in particular and cinema studies in general, as well as at those educated or cultured readers with an interest in the practice of film analysis and criticism. This casebook is geographically diverse, with ten countries represented: Germany, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Japan, India, Cuba, and Australia. Among the films and directors treated are Battleship Potemkin, Rashomon, Truffaut, Fellini, Apocalypse Now, The Blue Angel, Bergman, Satyajit Ray, La notte, Memories of Underdevelopment, Chaplin, and Murnau. Moreover, the essays in Required Screening are clear and readable--that is, sophisticated and meaty yet not overly technical or jargon-heavy. This makes them perfect introductions to their respective films as well as important contributions to the field of film studies in general. In addition, the book's critical apparatus features credits, images, bibliographies for all films discussed as well as a general bibliography, filmographies for all the directors, a glossary of film terms, a guide to film analysis, and a list of topics for writing and discussion, together with a thoroughgoing index.

About the Author :
R. J. Cardullo has had his work appear in such journals as Film Quarterly, Cinema Journal, and the Hudson Review. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including In Search of Cinema: Writings on International Film Art, Playing to the Camera: Film Actors Discuss Their Craft, and Stage and Screen: Adaptation Theory from 1916 to 2000. He is also the chief American translator of the film criticism of Andr� Bazin. He took his master's and doctoral degrees at Yale and taught for four decades at the University of Michigan, Colgate, and NYU, as well as abroad.

Review :
"In this well-researched, carefully reasoned work, the author's lucid counter-arguments to the usual run-of-the-mill accounts scattered about in film histories challenge the assumptions most professors have. One of the author's strengths as a critic is precisely what he or she has to say about major films of the kind found in this book. This work is therefore of special value to filmgoers who truly want to understand the occasionally challenging and puzzling films by some of the greatest cinematic artists in film history. With the consummate skill of a film scholar and historian but also the deft touch of a genuine movie-lover, the author provides immediate and accessible understanding of some often highly demanding material." -- James Fattorusso, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Film and Comparative Literature, American University of Rome, Italia