Fans pick 100 books like Cinema of Paradox

I like very much the monumental book of Julian Jackson on Vichy and the French Occupation.

Despite its length, Jackson’s book remains engaging throughout. The book delves first into the formative years of Vichy. It sheds light on the political tensions that preceded this period. It elucidates how individuals from various political backgrounds were drawn to this attractive vision of societal rejuvenation. It emphasizes the unclear limits between right and wrong during this challenging era.

The book is very important both for students and researchers.

This book doesn’t deal with veiled representations of Jewish Characters in French theater during German Occupation, but it decrypts subtle political messages in French Drama during this period.

It takes you on a journey into the world of dramatic works produced in Nazi-occupied Paris. It's fascinating how financial support from Vichy led to a revival of theater during that challenging time. You'll find within it well-known classics like Anouilh's Antigone but also hidden gems like Cocteau's The Typewriter.

The book doesn't stop at the past, it concludes with a look at Truffaut's The Last Métro, showing us how the present can reinterpret history. Krauss's meticulous research, including insights from archival materials, gives you a deeper understanding of the intricacies of staging and design. This work isn't just important for scholars; it's a captivating exploration that breathes life into French drama and offers unique insights into the Occupation era.

I enthusiastically recommend Legacies of Anti-Semitism in France, a must-read for those intrigued by the complex interplay of literature, history, and cultural context.

This book provides an insightful exploration of the writings of four influential figures—Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Lacan, Jean Giraudoux, and Andre Gide—in the context of France's pre-World War II history of anti-Jewish thought. Mehlman's essays dive into a range of fascinating topics, from Blanchot's unique conception of literature to Lacan's distinctive style, Giraudoux's connection to Racine, and the intricacies of sexual politics in Gide's work.

I found Mehlman's insights into Giraudoux particularly enlightening. Especially his analysis of The Madwoman of Chaillot broadens our understanding of how historical context shapes literary works, offering invaluable perspectives on the intellectual history of contemporary France.

The banquiers that the Madwoman of Chaillot kills in the 1942 play are openly described as Jews in a 1938 Giraudoux’s text: Pleins Pouvoirs. Don't miss the… show more.

This book is not directly linked with my research, but it shows how financial interests can influence artistic works. It especially shows the critical role of the producer in the messages brought by a film.

The Collaboration reveals a hidden chapter of Hollywood's past. Ben Urwand shows the complex relationship between Hollywood and Nazi Germany during a time when cinema was at its zenith. The book discovers a very disturbing reality. Major Hollywood studios, despite many of them being led by Jewish executives, made secret agreements with Nazi authorities to avoid depicting Germany unfavorably or addressing the persecution of Jews.

Urwand's diligent research, backed by letters, memos, and historical accounts, paints a picture of compromise on the part of Hollywood producers during that period of history, which preferred their financial interests over their moral duties.

Only a small fraction of the millions of Americans in uniform during World War II were engaged in combat operations. Harris’s well-researched account zeroes in on the service of five Hollywood directors, who, like many other professionals, were asked to adapt their civilian skills to wartime needs.

Tacking back and forth between Washington and other stateside locales and posts far afield—from Midway and the Aleutian Islands to North Africa and Italy—the book’s carefully drawn action conveys the far-flung exploits of filmmakers during the war as well as how those experiences impacted their craft.

I should first point out that Tom Doherty has been a mentor of mine for nearly a decade.

Before I met him, however, his book on Pre-Code Hollywood and censorship was pivotal for me understanding the machinations and implications of censorship. Hollywood and Hitler woke me up to the significant influence the film colony has had in both fighting fascism as well as others who turned a blind eye to it. It was Tom who sparked my interest in the relationship between Hollywood and antisemitism.

In fact, it was also Tom who first suggested I write a book on the 1941 Senate Investigation into Hollywood’s anti-Nazi films. Long story short, Hollywood and Hitler is a great book and Tom is a great scholar and even better mentor. Read all his work. 

This book coined the maxim far and away the most quoted in Hollywood to this day: “Nobody knows anything.” I first read it the year before I broke in. My copy is heavily annotated with yellow highlighter and red pen; a black paperclip still marks the second of Goldman’s two capitalized maxims, “Screenplays are structure.” The value of this book to anyone wanting to understand – or survive in – Hollywood is that, ironically, Goldman, one of the most successful screenwriters and novelists in Hollywood history, knew almost everything, not only about screenwriting, but also the psychology, cautious care, and perilous feeding of actors, directors, executives, and the rest of the Hollywood zoo. It’s both a textbook and survival guide, illustrated with a veteran’s vivid stories about life behind the tinsel.

An editor of my book, Brian Neve has written extensively on the Hollywood Left, with many books, articles, and chapters devoted to filmmakers such as Cy Endfield, Elia Kazan, Robert Rossen, and Joseph Losey, or more broadly to politics and American cinema. A useful complement to the Ceplair & Englund volume, this astute, engaging, and empirically-grounded study explores how a generational cohort of radical and liberal creative practitioners—including Kazan, Losey, Rossen, Abraham Polonsky, Jules Dassin, John Huston, and Orson Welles—were energized by the political culture of the Depression era and sought, in different ways, to navigate the industrial and commercial constraints of Hollywood to produce socially-engaged films. This project was brutally stifled by the blacklist, with many filmmakers forced to choose between exile or collaboration. 

We’ll be honest. We don’t really remember the romantic drama Up Close & Personal (1996), starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. But we won’t forget this book by Dunne, who wrote the film with his wife, Joan Didion. This is a forthright look at the writer’s lot in Hollywood. It’s a manual for massaging egos and dealing with conflicting notes, told with bracing honesty.

Sometimes, you take a job because you need health insurance. Sometimes, a movie that starts out based on the tragic true story of newscaster Jessica Savitch becomes a glossy sudser in which she lives. Sometimes, a troubled project becomes a hit despite itself. That’s always show business.

Bordwell is an academic who is encyclopedic on Hollywood.

He has written several definitive works on Hollywood and despite their depth and learnedness, they are very readable and enjoyable to absorb. So when he turned his attention to ‘classical’ Hollywood story telling, I knew it would be a good one, and I was not disappointed. 

Most story theorists have an approach that they are arguing for. Bordwell is analysing from a pure perspective, without ‘skin in the game’, so the result is balanced, critical, and highly enlightening for the aspiring writer.