Manny Farber (1917-2008) was a unique figure among American movie critics. Champion of what he called "termite art" (focused, often eccentric virtuosity as opposed to "white elephant" monumentality), master of a one-of-a- kind prose style whose jazz-like phrasing and incandescent twists and turns made every review an adventure, he has long been revered by his peers. Susan Sontag called him "the liveliest, smartest, most original film critic this country ever produced"; for Peter Bogdanovich, he was "razor-sharp in his perceptions" and "never less than brilliant as a writer."
Farber was an early discoverer of many filmmakers later acclaimed as American masters: Val Lewton, Preston Sturges, Samuel Fuller, Raoul Walsh, Anthony Mann. A prodigiously gifted painter himself, he brought to his writing an artist's eye for what was on the screen. Alert to any filmmaker, no matter how marginal or unsung, who was "doing go-for-broke art and not caring what comes of it," he was uncompromising in his contempt for pretension and trendiness-for, as he put it, directors who "pin the viewer to the wall and slug him with wet towels of artiness and significance."
The excitement of his criticism, however, has less to do with his particular likes and dislikes than with the quality of attention he paid to each film as it unfolds, to the "chains of rapport and intimate knowledge" in its moment-to- moment reality. To transcribe that knowledge he created a prose that, in Robert Polito's words, allows for "oddities, muddles, crises, contradictions, dead ends, multiple alternatives, and divergent vistas." The result is critical essays that are themselves works of art.
Farber on Film contains this extraordinary body of work in its entirety for the first time, from his early and previously uncollected weekly reviews for The New Republic and The Nation to his brilliant later essays (some written in collaboration with his wife Patricia Patterson) on Godard, Fassbinder, Herzog, Scorsese, Altman, and others. Featuring an introduction by editor Robert Polito that examines in detail the stages of Farber's career and his enduring significance as writer and thinker, Farber on Film is a landmark volume that will be a classic in American criticism.
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这本书的封面设计简直是一场视觉盛宴,那种复古的胶片颗粒感和大胆的字体排版,立刻就抓住了我的眼球。拿到手里沉甸甸的质感,更让人觉得这不是一本普通的影评集,而是一部厚重的电影艺术品。我翻开目录时,首先注意到的就是它对经典叙事结构的深度剖析,那种条分缕析的论证方式,让人仿佛置身于一间灯光明亮的学术研讨室。作者显然对早期默片时代的表达手法有着近乎痴迷的研究,尤其是在如何用光影和肢体语言来传达复杂情感这一点上,展现了非凡的洞察力。他不仅仅是在“看”电影,更是在“解构”电影的骨架和灵魂。我尤其欣赏作者对蒙太奇理论的独到见解,那部分内容让我对一些耳熟能详的镜头组合有了全新的理解,仿佛他为我打开了一扇通往导演内心世界的秘密通道。这本书的语言风格是那种沉稳而富有哲理的,读起来需要全神贯注,但每读完一个章节,都会有一种知识被充盈的满足感。它迫使你重新审视你过去所认为的“理所当然”的电影语言。
评分这本书的价值在于它提供的视角是如此独特且难以复制。它似乎是从一个“非电影人”——一个纯粹的哲学家或者美学家的角度,来审视电影这门工业艺术的。作者对于“意象”和“原型”在银幕上的投射有着深刻的洞察,他挖掘的不是故事本身,而是故事背后那些跨越文化和时代的集体潜意识。我尤其赞赏作者在探讨电影中的“空间”概念时所展现的广度,他将建筑学、地理学甚至人类学的理论引入到对银幕空间的解读中,使得每一帧画面都具有了多重解读的可能性。这本书的论述风格充满了对电影作为一种高级艺术形式的敬畏,但同时又毫不留情地揭示其制作过程中的技术与美学上的权衡取舍。它不是一本让你轻松娱乐的书,而是一本需要你投入心力去“破译”的文本,它带来的知识回馈是持久且深刻的,每一次重读都会发现新的层次。
评分坦白说,这本书的阅读体验更像是一场思想上的马拉松,它对读者的背景知识有一定的要求。那些对电影史发展脉络、摄影术语不甚了解的人,可能会在初期感到有些吃力,因为作者很少做冗长的前情提要,而是直接深入到核心的理论层面进行讨论。然而,一旦跨过这道门槛,那种豁然开朗的感觉是无与伦比的。我特别被作者对声音设计在非对白场景中作用的论述所震撼。他论证了环境音如何构建起一个角色的内心世界,以及沉默在特定情境下比任何台词都更具爆发力。这本书的论证逻辑严密得如同精密仪器,每一个论点都有详实的案例和坚实的理论基础支撑,很少出现那种主观臆测的空泛之谈。它更像是一部探讨“视觉语法”的专著,对于想要提升自身电影鉴赏层次的严肃影迷来说,绝对是案头必备的工具书。
评分这本书的排版简直是为深度阅读者量身定制的,那种清晰的字体、恰到好处的留白,让长时间的阅读也变得格外舒适。我最喜欢的是作者对于某些特定场景的“微观”分析,他能从一个极小的镜头切换或者一次演员的面部特写中,挖掘出远超于表层叙事的文化和心理暗示。举例来说,他对某一特定时期欧洲艺术电影中“凝视”手法的探讨,简直是教科书级别的范本,不仅引用了大量的画面作为佐证,还将其置于当时社会思潮的大背景下去解读,这种跨学科的分析能力令人赞叹。这本书的篇章结构设计得非常巧妙,它没有采用线性的时间轴叙事,而是以主题和技法为纲进行辐射状展开,这使得读者可以根据自己的兴趣点随时切入,进行针对性的学习。我感觉自己不是在阅读一本“评论”,而是在跟随一位经验丰富的电影制片人进行一次高强度的实战训练,学习如何从源头上去掌握视觉叙事的精髓。
评分这本书的装帧设计透露着一种低调的奢华感,厚实的纸张带着微微的纹理,即便是随意翻阅,也能感受到制作者的用心良苦。我发现这本书的魅力在于它对“作者论”的批判性继承。作者并非盲目地推崇某一位导演,而是能以一种近乎冷峻的客观态度,去剖析每一位大师作品中的成功与局限。我印象最深的是其中关于叙事节奏控制的章节,它用非常直观的图表和对比分析,解释了节奏如何影响观众的情绪曲线。这种将抽象的艺术感受转化为可量化分析的研究方法,极大地拓宽了我的思路。阅读过程中,我常常需要停下来,在脑海中重构作者所描述的画面,甚至会去翻阅一些旧时的胶片影像资料来对照理解。这本书的文字中蕴含着一种强烈的节奏感,那些长短句的交错运用,本身就在模拟着电影剪辑的韵律,这是一种非常高明的写作技巧。
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