Making Waves: New Cinemas of the 1960s
"Veteran filmscholar Nowell-Smith (The Oxford History of World Cinema) is indeed 'makingwaves' as he demystifies the new cinemas of the 1960s in Europe andLatin America.Hedoesn't hesitate to point out that a new-wave director's use of a documentarystyle or black and white was because of financial rather than aestheticreasons, or that some of the innovative techniques used (e.g. shaky camera,jump cuts, and strangely accentuated location sounds) actually reflect incompetencein overcoming difficulties in location shooting.Particularly interesting is his analysis ofthe change in British culture and how it affected free cinema in that countryand the contrast between the diversity of new filmmaking inFranceand the corresponding dearth of new waveinItaly...this work distinguishes itself as anall-encompassing text on the subject, unlike others that focus on an individualcountry during the 1960s.Recommendedfor both public and academic libraries."-Library Journal"Its lucid andwell-structured prose makes it a suitable addition to any student's readinglist." -PopMatters.com(Michael Buening)"[A] brisk, sharp-witted primer on one of the most explosively creative periods of filmmaking." —Los Angeles Times(Liz BrownThe L A Times Book Review)"A brisk refresher course for cinephiles: Nowell-Smith,editor of The Oxford History of World Cinema, zeros in on the European NewWave, and the exuberant mavericks - Godard, Antonioni, et al. - who reinventedfilm during the 1960s. Warning: You'll be adding "Breathless,""L'avventura" and "Mamma Roma" to your Netflix queue."—New YorkNewsday(Tom Beer)"The '60s saw an eruption of cine-movements around theglobe.The British Free Cinema, theFrench and Czech New Waves and the Polish School (among others)all jostle for space as Nowell-Smith tries topack their innovations into a small single volume.A lack of snaps and an academic tone don'texactly set the pulse racing, but at least the author admits that the Euro filmbias is there because that's what he knows best." —TotalFilm,UK(Carmen Gray)"Nowell-Smith is exacting with detail and sparing with the flabby bits that often characterize cinematic study." -Empire(UK)"Making Wavesis a vivid reminder of the newness of 1960s cinema anda useful introduction to the passionate debates of a uniquely creative period."—Sight & Sound(UK)"A gratifyingly conciseintroduction to the likes of Bergman, Antonioni and Pasolini." —Daily Telegraph(UK)(Christopher BrayThe Daily Telegraph)This enjoyable survey of the European cinema and otherradical developments in film-making that flourished between the late 1950s andthe early 1970s has clearly been written by someone who knows what he's talkingabout." —BBC History Magazine(UK)