Oscar Weekend Special: Top 3 Books (And One Essay) About Movies

As the 2.7 regular readers of this blog know, I love movies. It seems like an odd thing to admit on a book blog, but makes sense if you pull back to medium shot and look at an all-around culture vulture, who just happens to be more obsessive about (and have slightly more to say about) books. I know many hard-core cineastes who hate the Oscars, but I can't help but love them. I loved them when I thought they were the Last Word In Great Film and I love them now that I disagree with half their decisions at least.

This year in honor of the ceremony I'm getting my roommate to teach me to make popcorn over the stove (the taste difference is incredible) and I'll probably burn both hands in the process, so today you get a deluxe edition of books about movies and moviemaking that everyone should read:

William Goldman, ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE 
It could be argued that this book is more about screenwriting than movies themselves, but Goldman has hung around so many sets and been called in on so many ailing projects that his book is more like a memoir-slash-screenwriting handbook. (Among others, he's most famous for writing the book THE PRINCESS BRIDE, and the screenplay for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.") It was from him long ago that I learned the phrase "in turnaround" which I try to work into conversation a lot in non-film contexts.

Peter Biskind, DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES
Get ready to read this history of Miramax in the '90s with your Netflix account open frantically adding all the movies you missed to your queue. Because I was just on the edge of too young (and/or too sheltered) to enjoy the early '90s indie-film renaissance the first time, this book educated me properly so I can argue about whether Daniel Day-Lewis is all that and a summer sausage or not. This book also kindled my love/hate relationship with the Weinsteins. So good for American film... so evil at the same time... My latest love/hate moment is over their decision to edit "The King's Speech" down to PG-13 over the director's objections. If you've seen the movie, you probably know the 1 scene they are editing and why (I think) it is actually an integral part of the plot and shouldn't be taken out. Harvey!!! Why must you torture me like this Harvey!!!

Pauline Kael, KISS KISS BANG BANG
Love her or hate her, Kael undeniably changed the face of movie criticism as we know it. A true contrarian at heart, she's what Armond White goes to bed crying every night that he's not. I wish she were still alive so I could tell her how wrong she was about "The Sound Of Music," and if you read any of her collections you'll probably find your own sacred-cow-slaughtering over which to confront her. But like a classy lady, she still has the last word on a lot of movies; her championing of "Bonnie and Clyde" practically pushed the movie into the mainstream. You have to be lucky to find a copy of any of her books though, as most if not all are out of print.

Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"
If you took a film class in college you're either violently nodding your head or violently banging your head against a wall at this suggestion. Perhaps both! But you need to read this essay in order to argue with anyone, anywhere about movies, and particularly if you want to talk about or dispute how female characters are represented onscreen. (That should be all of you.) Psychoanalytics are out right now but the same techniques she calls Hitchcock out for are still being used constantly and you'd best have an opinion on them.

So, who do you want to win Best Picture? Are you watching the Oscars for anything in particular?