Film International - Volume 4, Issue 2, 2006

In his book Movie Wars (2000), Jonathan Rosenbaum decries the contemporary film-critical landscape, dominated as it is by Hollywood output and the editorial agendas that support it: Symptomatic of the impoverishment of film commentary, is the limited and predictable language associated with film pages seemingly everywhere English is spoken. If I have to wade through gems', rollercoasters', helmers' and, God forbid, zeitgeisty' for much longer, I am going set fire to myself'

Is UK film publishing in some senses unique or privileged? In what ways has it expanded over the last twenty years? What are its strengths? These are some of the questions touched upon below in a piece drawing on twenty years acquaintance with film-book publishing in the United Kingdom

Laura Morris joined Secker and Warburg in 1972, where she edited cinema-related books for fifteen years. In 1987 she moved to Andre Deutsch and continued to publish works such as The Bfi Companion to the Western and Elia Kazan's A Life. In 1993 she became a literary agent and now represents, among others, David Thomson, Peter Cowie and David Robinson. Here, she offers her perspective on thirty years of UK film book publishing.

At the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce a petition has been lodged to rename the junction of North Hayworth Avenue and Sunset Boulevard after novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. F. Scott Fitzgerald is an American icon,' writes petitioner Rodger Jacobs. Fitzgerald spent his last years here in Los Angeles. I don't think a lot of Angelenos know or appreciate that fact' (Jacobs n.d.)

As has been pointed out by various scholars of history and the arts, it is futile or impossible to attempt any narrative that purports to speak about or deal with India'. As Paul Willemen observes, paraphrasing Aijaz Ahmad in his Preface to the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema:

Bringing a new humanism into British film criticism as the Old Left was in decline, Judith Williamson's work was an indignant retort to Thatcherism's assault on the British status quo. It also reiterated the terms for a productive British conversation about film. For Adrian Martin, Williamson's own collection Deadline at Dawn (Marion Boyars, 1993) remains highly influential, while for Sight and Sound critic Jonathan Romney, she was a pioneer and role model' (Romney 1997: vii)

Welles was not only able to show that Kane's life was a veritable jigsaw puzzle, and that no single version of a story is complete, but also that time can be represented in many ways in the unique medium of the cinema.'

The Western: High Noon or Last Sunset? By Michael Coyne

Westerns: Aspects of a Movie Genre Philip French (2005) Manchester: Carcanet Press, 240 pp., ISBN 1857547470 (pbk), 39.95

Horizons West: Directing the Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood Jim Kitses (2004) London: British Film Institute, 342 pp., ISBN 1844570509 (pbk), 28.95, ISBN 1844570193 (hbk), 80.00

Cowboys as Cold Warriors: The Western and US History Stanley Corkin (2004) Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 273 pp., ISBN 1592132545 (pbk), 23.95, ISBN 1592132537 (hbk), 69.50

Rio Bravo (BFI Film Classics) Robin Wood (2003) London: British Film Institute, 96 pp., ISBN 0851709664 (pbk), 14.95

Unforgiven (BFI Modern Classics) Ed. Buscombe (2004) London: British Film Institute, 95 pp., ISBN 1844570339 (pbk), 14.95

The Searchers: Essays & Reflections on John Ford's Classic Western Arthur M. Eckstein & Peter Lehman (2004) Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 440 pp., ISBN 0814330568 (pbk), 29.

John Wayne: A Giant Shadow C. McGivern (2004) Bracknell: Sammon Publishing, 465 pp., ISBN 0954003160 (pbk), 19.99

New Punk Cinema, Nicholas Rombes (ed.) (2005) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 256 pp., ISBN 0748620354 (pbk), 25.00, ISBN 0748620346 (hbk), 75.00

Silent Film Sound, Rick Altman (2005) New York: Columbia University Press, 528 pp., ISBN 0231116624 (hbk), 50.00, 32.50

A Culture of Light: Cinema & Technology in 1920s Germany Frances Guerin (2005) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 314 pp., ISBN 0816642869 (pbk), 24.95, ISBN 0816642850 (hbk), 74.95

Film Genre: Hollywood & Beyond Barry Langford (2005) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 310 pp., ISBN 0748619038 (pbk), 16.99, ISBN 074861902X (hbk), 50.00

If Mark Sinker (2005) London: BFI (BFI Film Classics Series), 88 pp., ISBN 1844570401 (pbk), 14.95

Withnail & I Kevin Jackson (2004) London: BFI (BFI Modern Classics), 95 pp., ISBN 1844570355 (pbk), 14.95

Signs of Life: Medicine & Cinema Graeme Harper and Andrew Moor (2005) London: Wallflower Press, 224 pp., ISBN 1904764169 (pbk), 22.50

Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City Mark Bould (2005) London: Wallflower Press, 144 pp., ISBN 1904764509 (pbk), 20.00

Lee Miller: A Life Carolyn Burke (2005) New York: Knopf, 448 pp., ISBN 0375401474 (hbk), 35.00

The Electronic Emporium: Senses of Cinema

The British Consumer Co-operative Movement and Film, 1890s1960s Alan G. Burton (2005) Manchester: Manchester University Press, 272 pp., ISBN 0719064163 (hbk), 85.00

Transnational Cinema in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition Andrew Nestingen & Trevor G. Elkington (eds) (2005) Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 379 pp., ISBN 0814332439 (pbk), 26.95