Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsEnjoyable and changed how I saw films immediately
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2017
I was interested in the book because I have read the author’s reviews in the “Washington Post” for years and the reviews in both the “Post” and “Time” were positive. However, you never know how these “guides for the lay person” types of books will turn out--with them being slogs often enough.
However I found “Talking Pictures well written and it added dimensions to my understanding of not only movies, but television series and to an extent literature as well. Very readable and it went quickly. The films used to illustrate concepts were well chosen and one benefit of the book has been to see (or re-see) films recommended.
One caveat: many of the descriptive passages were structured along the lines of “it could be either this or that, or this other thing or that other thing, or this or that...it wasn’t annoying but as the book progressed it did have kind of an “ear worm” effect to it.