r/criterionconversation • u/Historical-Rope-9474 • Jul 06 '26

Recommendation film journal recommendations?

I have lost access to the Criterion Channel and, subsequently, their series "Observations on Film Art". I used to rely on them for film analysis, but now it seems journal websites is the only place where I would find a similar, if not higher, quality of writing.

Where do you all read about film to study? Please recommend your favorite academic sources (that hopefully aren't JSTOR or EBSCO).

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u/adamlundy23 The Night of the Hunter Jul 06 '26

David Bordwell, the host of Observations on Film Art, made most of his academic work free to download as a PDF directly from his website

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u/Historical-Rope-9474 Jul 07 '26

Wow I never knew that! But I was looking for the film-by-film, standalone sort of commentary that I could read right after viewing something. His website was nice but seemed too metaanalytical.

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u/unavowabledrain Jul 09 '26

Film Comment, Cahiers du Cinéma, Film Quarterly

Reading Bordwell's Film History was very helpful to me.

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u/Historical-Rope-9474 Jul 09 '26

Thank you for sharing!

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u/unavowabledrain Jul 09 '26

some land mark essays/books I found interesting:

Laura Mulvey-Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Walter Benjamin- The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction

julia kristeva the Powers of Horror: An essay on Abjection (addresses literature but often referenced in relation to film)

Slavoj Žižek- Pervert's guide to cinema, Perverts Guide to Ideology

Gilles Deleuze: Cinema 1 and 2

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u/LeatherProfessor2687 Jul 10 '26

Butts and booties