Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History
If you're in search of a thoughtful overview of film and history as rival routes to the past, check out the essays collected inVisions of the Past...Rosenstone nicely reverses the assumption that history exists only on paper, approved and stamped by historians. (Carlin RomanoChicago Tribune)[A] fascinating analysis of the traditional and nontraditional historical film...This is solid scholarship written in a manner that makes it accessible for a wide range of readers. (Choice)The pieces represent work over a wide time span and demonstrate Rosenstone's evolving attitude toward the historical movie...The author knows of his subject from various perspectives...[and] presents his arguments simply and clearly, without drowning the reader in jargon or obtuse references. Well recommended. (Library Journal)In these essays, Rosenstone writes with the fervor of the convert...urging historians to admit that film can often do what books can't...Rosenstone is really rooting for modernist or post-modern cinema--the likes of Alex Cox, Chris Marker and Trinh T. Minh-ha--as the only adequate chroniclers of our fractured sense of the past. (Sight and Sound)