Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Brian McFarlane, Real and Reel: The Education of a Film Obsessive and Critic (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012), pp. vi + 187, ISBN 978019085956 (pb), £11.95.

Brian McFarlane, Real and Reel: The Education of a Film Obsessive and Critic (Manchester:... BOOK REVIEWS Brian McFarlane, Real and Reel: The Education of a Film Obsessive and Critic (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012), pp. vi + 187, ISBN 978019085956 (pb), £11.95. Film Studies scholars don't generally write their memoirs, so Brian McFarlane's Real and Reel is an unusual book. McFarlane, modest and self-effacing though he might be, has done more for British cinema history than anyone beyond Rachael Low, and the latter's seven drily erudite volumes could not be more different from McFarlane's celebratory Sixty Voices (1992) and his Autobiography of British Cinema (1997). So it is interesting to find out what led him to his lifelong love affair with British films, the main subject of this short but well-packed memoir. It is a truism much favoured by those who don't like to get their hands sullied by parochial matters that the best British films are those made by outsiders: Losey, Polanski, Kubrick, Skolimowski, Antonioni. Appropriately, then, it's an Australian who makes the strongest case for the artistic and cultural significance of intrinsically British cinema. McFarlane's passion ­ weaned as it is on childhood reading of Picturegoer and Picture Show ­ is more intense than that of most writers (myself included) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of British Cinema and Television Edinburgh University Press

Brian McFarlane, Real and Reel: The Education of a Film Obsessive and Critic (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012), pp. vi + 187, ISBN 978019085956 (pb), £11.95.

Journal of British Cinema and Television , Volume 11 (1): 116 – Jan 1, 2014

Loading next page...
 
/lp/edinburgh-university-press/brian-mcfarlane-real-and-reel-the-education-of-a-film-obsessive-and-YCsbvm3NJD

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press 2014
Subject
Book Reviews; Media Studies
ISSN
1743-4521
eISSN
1755-1714
DOI
10.3366/jbctv.2014.0195
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS Brian McFarlane, Real and Reel: The Education of a Film Obsessive and Critic (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012), pp. vi + 187, ISBN 978019085956 (pb), £11.95. Film Studies scholars don't generally write their memoirs, so Brian McFarlane's Real and Reel is an unusual book. McFarlane, modest and self-effacing though he might be, has done more for British cinema history than anyone beyond Rachael Low, and the latter's seven drily erudite volumes could not be more different from McFarlane's celebratory Sixty Voices (1992) and his Autobiography of British Cinema (1997). So it is interesting to find out what led him to his lifelong love affair with British films, the main subject of this short but well-packed memoir. It is a truism much favoured by those who don't like to get their hands sullied by parochial matters that the best British films are those made by outsiders: Losey, Polanski, Kubrick, Skolimowski, Antonioni. Appropriately, then, it's an Australian who makes the strongest case for the artistic and cultural significance of intrinsically British cinema. McFarlane's passion ­ weaned as it is on childhood reading of Picturegoer and Picture Show ­ is more intense than that of most writers (myself included)

Journal

Journal of British Cinema and TelevisionEdinburgh University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2014

There are no references for this article.