Film Studies is a concise and indispensable introduction to the formal study of cinema. Ed Sikov offers a step-by-step curriculum for the appreciation of all types of narrative cinema, detailing the essential elements of film form and systematically training the spectator to be an active reader and critic. He treats a number of fundamental factors in filmmaking, including editing, composition, lighting, the use of color and sound, and narrative. His...

The story of Norma Desmond, an aging film queen, who prepares for her grand comeback to stardom, and of Joe Gillis, a screenwriter who comes to her aid when she takes him in.