The Moving Picture by Joe Leydon

Joe Leydon’s Guide to Essential Movies You Must See
If You Read, Write About or Make Movies

Here's a different kind of movie guide - a compendium of the movies you must see to intelligently discuss, write about, or make motion pictures. The analysis runs the gamut from Citizen Kane to Pillow Talk, from The 400 Blows to Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Award-winning film critic Joe Leydon takes you on a guided tour through decades of film history, to examine more than 60 movies that have defined genres, influenced filmmakers, and still serve as standards by which other films are measured.

And that's just the beginning. Leydon explains in an entertaining and witty style why these titles are often used as shorthand in pitch meetings and plot synopses - precisely why these are the movie you must see.

"At a time when even some filmmakers seem to believe cinema history began with Star Wars, if not The Matrix, Joe Leydon brings passion, intelligence and a bracing wit to his tour of the films we really must see to call ourselves literate."

Roger Ebert, Film Critic
Chicago Sun-Times

"Whether you want to fill in some gaps in your film knowledge, start from scratch with the basics, or simply be reminded of the movies that made a difference, this guide by one of America's most knowledgeable and fun-to-read critics is indeed essential."

Jack Mathews, Film Critic
New York Daily News

"Leydon’s mission may be to enlighten us about movie history, but he also does a good job of entertaining us along the way. Damn fun!"

Sable Jak, Author
Writing the Fantasy Film

"Joe Leydon's breezy prose takes the 'school' out of film school and makes looking at these classics fun which is as it should be."

Great Film Books on combustiblecelluloid.com
Jeffrey M. Anderson
See full article below

"Does the world need another guide to great movies? If it’s as informative, colorful and well-written as this one, the answer is yes."

Film Books on leonardmaltin.com
Leonard Maltin
See full article below

Partial list of films covered in
Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See:

Birth of a Nation - Stagecoach - Do the Right Thing - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Citizen Kane - Metropolis - Die Hard - Psycho - Seven Samurai - Reservoir Dogs
The Maltese Falcon - Blue Velvet - Plan 9 from Outer Space - Public Enemy - Shane

MICHAEL WIESE PRODUCTIONS
$24.95 / ISBN: 0-941188-92-2

Available now at www.amazon.com

Joe Leydon Interviews:

No Film Left Behind - 'Variety' Critic Joe Leydon's Program for Cinema Literacy on www.austinchronicle.com

"It's not a list of the greatest movies ever made. There are too many books like that. You don't need mine," says award-winning Variety critic Joe Leydon, of his Guide to Essential Movies You Must See. "But when TV Guide references Rashomon to describe an episode of Seinfeld," he continues, "it's a good idea to see Rashoman, right?" So he scanned newspapers and magazines to suss out a list of films with the greatest influence on movies, language, and culture, considering their places in history and their lessons for filmmakers. From Citizen Kane to Plan 9 From Outer Space, the result is an informed and opinionated beginner's phrase book for the lingua franca of cinema. Leydon will discuss the book and sign copies at a special screening of The 400 Blows he is presenting at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Oct. 21.

Austin Chronicle: So what's cinema literacy in the age of Netflix?

Joe Leydon: Well, you should never confuse availability with exposure. It is much easier to see classics today than 10 years ago, so there's no excuse not to have seen a thing or two. Yet I've been shocked to mention certain important titles to some critics, and they don't know what I'm talking about. François Truffaut warned young filmmakers that their work would be judged by reviewers who have never seen anything by F.W. Murnau, but now you must reconcile to critics never having seen The 400 Blows, which is the movie I'm showing at the Alamo.

AC: Why The 400 Blows?

JL: Well, this film was the fruition of an attitude, a theory put forward by Truffaut, that a film should be as direct to the audience as a letter from an intimate friend. It's as autobiographical as films get, and you'd be surprised at the filmmakers over the years who have told me how deeply they've been affected by it. It leaves an enormous lasting impact, an idea that you can make a movie about your life and your own experience, to make it the stuff of art.

AC: But then shouldn't we be looking to life instead of to movies?

JL: Yes, and this is the dark side of film literacy. You see a lot of movies now by people who have seen lots of movies, but not a lot of life. So never mind breakthrough movies, never mind revolutionary movies: How many do you see today that deal in an uncompromising, unromanticized fashion with how we live now? Then again, some things you see – and you realize how they can shape opinions – change the way you think and feel. And maybe it's temporary, but it gets things started. That's what movies can do.

Spencer Parsons - Date: October 22, 2004

Great Film Books on www.combustiblecelluloid.com

I worked with Joe for two years at the San Francisco Examiner. Though he worked from his Texas home, he was the senior critic in charge of major films while I handled the independent releases and foreign films. He has literally been at the movie game since before I was born, reviewing In the Heat of the Night for his high school paper in 1967 (he still counts that film among his personal favorites). I learned a lot from him, and now everyone else can too.

I'm definitely biased when it comes to Joe's work, and I even provided a quote for his book jacket cover, so readers can take this review with a grain of salt. Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed "Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See If You Read, Write About or Make Movies," (Michael Wiese Productions, $24.95) and will not think twice about recommending it to anyone who asks.

My quote reads: "Joe Leydon's breezy prose takes the 'school' out of film school and makes looking at these classics fun which is as it should be." I meant it, and I'm not sure how much further I can go.

I can, however, tell you about the book structure itself. Joe's aim is to provide a basic grammar for film people, talking mostly about the most influential and/or the most copied movies in history. For example, anyone who reviewed Zhang Yimou's recent Hero should have known that it copied the structure of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, as did Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run and many others.

Rashomon is here in a chapter called "Foreign Influences," along with Open City, Seven Samurai, The 400 Blows and Day for Night. Each entry provides a full-length review, written in Joe's eminently readable style, plus "specs," "subjects for further research," i.e. three films that have been influenced by the film in question, plus a "lesson for filmmakers," which usually tells the story of a working filmmaker and what he or she learned in this capacity.

Other chapters look at musicals, silent films, Westerns, crime films, sci-fi, action films and comedies. Alfred Hitchcock gets a chapter all to himself, and another chapter focuses on "Americana," (i.e. Frank Capra, Do the Right Thing, etc.)

Strangely enough, I'm still learning from Joe. Even after writing about films professionally for eight years, this book contains a film that I've never heard of, a war film called Guadalcanal Diary. I guess this kind of work is never done.

Does the world need another guide to great movies? If it’s as informative, colorful and well-written as this one, the answer is yes. Leydon, whose reviews appear regularly in Variety and in Houston Examiner newspapers, manages to write concise, comprehensive, and relevant essays about films that range from Citizen Kane to Plan 9 from Outer Space. His intended audience is the novice or budding movie buff, but I enjoyed comparing notes with him on a number of favorite films including Double Indemnity and Annie Hall.

Following each essay there are sidebar features: Specs (the film’s credits and video availability), Subjects for Further Research (recommendations of other films in the same genre, or by the same director), and a summary called Lesson for Filmmakers that attempts to place the movie into a larger (often more contemporary) context.

This book would make a wonderful gift to any young person who has shown an interest in movies and either wants (or needs) to learn more about them... but it’s enjoyable reading for anyone. How can you not like a book that includes the Flash Gordon serial as well along with the work of Chaplin, Kubrick, and Sergio Leone?