Two Texts on Film Appreciation

The first is Louis D. Gianetti's "Understanding Movies." Divided into chapters on Picture, Movement, Editing, Sound, Drama, Literature, Theory & profusely illustrated (including colour plates), it presents an excellently organised overview of all noteworthy aspects of films.

For example, to impress the importance of constructive editing, it presents 24 stills of the iconic scene from Hitchcock's "Sabotage", where a wife, realising her husband's role in the death of her younger brother, stabs him at the dinner table.

Antonioni, a master of colour, excelled himself in the symbolic use of colour in his "Red Desert", which is illustrated here in 12 typical stills.

"Film Art, An Introduction" by Bordwell & Thompson, also organises it's material in chapters entitled, Work of Film Production, Significance of Film Form, Narrative & Non-narrative Formal Systems, The Shot: Mise-en-Scene, The Shot: Cinematographic Properties, The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing, Sound in the Cinema, Style as a Formal System, Film Criticism: Sample Analyses & Film Form and Film History. This is also profusely illustrated with 16 colour plates to illustrate the creative use of colour. It also has Hitchcock's masterly use of editing in the petrol bunk scene from "The Birds" along with the shooting script.

Books like these, present film appreciation in an organised way to educate film viewers to maximise their understanding & enjoyment of the films they watch.