A Love Of Film: An Intimate Affair with the Poetry and Hardware of Making Movies

Loved the way Mr Muse provides the reader with a expert detail of how and what it takes to make a movie that we will love. Ever wonder why all movies have about a 5 minute scroll of all the people involved in making a film? Mr Muse identifies and explains these in a well written, very informative and enjoyable way. What involvement does the Screenwriter have? Answered and explained in a passionate and clear written description, allowing even the novice movie goer like myself to grasp the immense effort it takes to get a movie onto the screen. Mr Muses' love of the art of film making is infectious and taught me how to really truly enjoy a movie. He offers up his very personal experiences with actors like Orson Welles, Jack Nicholson, and several others that lend a humorous and personal touch to a well written book.Overall a great book that I really enjoyed reading and feel like I have gained a wonderful insight to the Industry Mr Muse spent so much of his life involved with.

I loved it!

If you are a cinephile, Norman Muses’ book, A Love of film is a “must” for your library, and it should be at the top of the pile. Muse presents a Toynbee-esque guide through the history of cinema. Like an accomplished surgeon, he uses his vast knowledge and experience of film-making like a scaple, disecting the separate parts while silmultaneously stitching the individual elements into one vibrant canvas akin to “Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. Muse is a serious intellectual and wordsmith who gives great homage to the inovators and artisans of cinema past. He provides the reader with, a well organized, well thought out, methodical analysis of the elements of the creative process including all of its headware and the contributions from the producer, performer, screenwriter, cinematographer, sound and music maker, editor and finally the the viewer who must co-author the movie to make it a more personal experience. Using over 150 movies as examples, we learn that it is the preeminance of story over style which is the classic tradition of film and that success can be measured by a films ability to make the viewer” willingly suspend disbelief”. At its conclusion, the reader is left with the realization that cinema is one of the highest art forms and like opera, with the cooperation of many, it can enlighten, entertain, amuse and awaken beauty and passion. Through out the text, it is this later element, the author’s passion for movie making, that captures our attention and draws us in closer to the subject matter. His analysis is directed at the soul of cinema revealing the adventure of anticipation, the sense of the unkown that lends romance to his quest and to those moments of explosive interactions that demonstrate with clarity a true love of film.

This book is for those of us who love film, movies, or cinema, (interchangeable terms) but don’t exactly know why.Author Norman Muse tells us why. A student and lover of film. also the former creative director of the Leo Burnett advertising agency who worked with some of the film industry’s major talents, Muse shares his lifelong observations about the art, the business, and the how of making movies. (My preferred term.)With an easy style that invites us to relax and enjoy learning some new things, Muse first takes us through the elusive process of how great movies were—and are---created. He does this via a fascinating series of essays: Presentation, Performance, Screenwriting, Cinematography, Sounds and Music and Editing, treating each element with professional know-how while showing how these elements contributed to the greatness of the memorable movies of our time.Other Muse essays follow: on audience perception, on the enormous, weighted role of directors, and the future of great film-making, before that process disappears completely due to hand-held devices, technology and big business. Note: the essays can be read in any order. Unlike chapters, each essay stands on its own.One more thing. Muse sprinkles intriguing historic nuggets about the film industry throughout the book, i.e. the screenplay of Bonnie and Clyde was written by art editor Robert Benton and writer David Newman, both working at Esquire magazine, who had never seen a movie script before they wrote this one, their first.Caveat: it helps if you’ve seen most of the movies Muse discusses. But if you haven’t, he’ll make you want to see what you’ve missed.The author leaves us with this thought about film: “Film invites us to both escape and explore. To forget and to imagine. …Movies let us leave our separate lives and become lost together in a parallel universe of limitless possibilities without consequence.”All that for the price of a movie ticket.Joan KufrinPhotographs, Notes, Appendices, Bibliography and Index

I love this book! I love art history, but this is not just a dry, matter-of-fact history of the art of film. It is a passionate description of film as an art form, by someone with a deep love for it. The writing is engaging and almost poetic. This book gave me a new understanding of the art of film. I will never watch a “movie” in the same way again. It has opened my eyes to what is involved in the production, creation and the true devotion of the people involved in the making of a film.

A Love of Film is a wonderful book. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the art of movie making. Muse brings an expert's perspective but explains things in layman's terms. As a movie lover, I found the anecdotes and stories about some of the most beloved movies of particular interest. I now have an even better appreciation for what is involved in bringing screenplays to life on the big screen.

A new bible for movie buffs. Informative, well written and beautifully illustrated.

This book was informative and easy to read and I really liked the way the chapters were organized. I did find, however, that some of the information was a bit too technical for me but that wouldn't stop me from recommending it to all of my movie going friends.