Available sections are:
See also the Kinoeye Archive, Central Europe Review's indispensable index of content-rich Internet resources for Central and East European Film, and the Kinoeye Video Store.
Please note that the two Amazons have different stocks, and not everything available through one will be available through the other.
- Balski, Grzegorz (ed);
Directory of Eastern European Filmmakers and Films 1945-1991
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)If you're really serious about Eastern European cinema, this is clearly the book for you. Be prepared to pay for it, though.
- Slater, J Thomas (ed);
Handbook of Soviet and East European Films and Filmmakers
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Another expensive tome for fanatics.
- Vincendeau, Ginette (ed);
The Encyclopedia of European Cinema
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Covers Central and Eastern Europe adequately. A cheaper alternative to the above.
- Cook, David A;
A History of Narrative Film
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)A remarkable overview of world cinema, with excellent sections on European film. Being an American, Cook tends to subscribe too heavily to the view that US cinema is the centre of it all, but this does not detract from the attention he applies to global film making. Fast becoming the film textbook.
- Richard Taylor, Nancy Wood, Julian Graffy & Dina Iordanova (eds);
The BFI Companion to Eastern European and Russian Cinema
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)A more friendly price than other books devoted to the subject and a more recent perspective. See Daniel Lindvall's review in CER.
- Attwood, Lynne;
Red Women on the Silver Screen
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)A three-part book with Attwood giving a history of Soviet cinema, followed by five essays by female Russian critics and interviews with Russian women working in film. More than a feminist study of Russian cinema, this is a great all-round analysis of the social background to Soviet cinema which is both readable and recommended.
- Condee, Nancy (ed);
Soviet Hieroglyphics
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Egrova, Tatiana;
Soviet Film Music
(from Amazon.co.uk) - Faraday, George;
Revolt of the Film-makers
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Goulding, Daniel J (ed);
Post New Wave Cinema in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)The latter half of the 1970s and the early 1980s might not be the obvious starting point for study of Central European cinema, but this is an excellent volume with some fascinating insights.
- Graffy, Julian;
Bed and Sofa
( from Amazon.co.uk)Monograph on Abram Room's study of the failure of the sexual revolution in 1920s Russia.
- Horton, Andrew, (ed);
Inside Soviet Film Satire: Laughter with a Lash
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Were the directors who made Socialist Realist films for Stalin really serious? Apparently not, as you find out reading this entertaining but overpriced volume.
- Horton, Andrew and Brashinsky, Michael;
The Zero Hour: Glasnost and Soviet Cinema in Transition
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Two critics, one American and one Russian, team up to analyse the cinema in the period leading up to fall of the Soviet Union.
- Kepley, Vance Jr;
In the Service of the State: The Cinema of Alexander Dovzhenko
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Worthy study of this lyrical Ukrainian director whose best films helped make Russian avantgarde film so famous and whose lyricism and poetry have lead him to be seen as a precursor to Tarkovsky and Sokurov.
- Lawton, Anna;
Kinoglasnost: Soviet Cinema in Our Time
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Lawton, Anna;
The Red Screen: Politics, Society, Art in Soviet Cinema
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)As with most collections of essays, this is a bitty and variable affair, but some contributions are excellent.
- Petrie, Graham and Dwyer, Ruth;
Before the Wall Came Down:
Soviet and East European Filmmakers Working in the West
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Roberts, Graham;
Forward Soviet!:
History and Non-Fiction Film in the USSR
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Shlapentokh, Dimitri and Vladimir;
Soviet Cinematography 1918-1991:
Ideological Conflict and Social Reality
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Taubman, Jane;
The Asthenic Syndrome
(from Amazon.co.uk)A short and rather expensive guide to this seminal film. Where else are you going to find 60-odd pages of analysis of this defining piece of cinema?
- Taylor, Richard and Christie, Ian;
The Film Factory:
Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896-1939
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)A scholarly collection of reviews, manifestos, essays, party decrees and photographs from the finest years of Russian cinema. Good value.
- Taylor, Richard and Christie, Ian (eds);
Inside the Film Factory:
New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)This collection of essays on early Russian cinema is not to be confused with the book above and has a totally different format and approach.
- Taylor, Richard;
Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Originally published in the 1970s, this seminal work has been updated and expanded.
- Taylor, Richard and Spring, Derek;
Stalinism and Soviet Cinema
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Tsivian, Yuri;
Early Cinema in Russia and Its Cultural Reception
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)An eye-opening account of how audiences experienced cinema in its earliest days. Very astute analysis and highly enjoyable even for the general reader.
- Tsivian, Yuri and Cherchi Usai Paolo;
Silent Witnesses: Russian Films 1908-1919
(from Amazon.com)This pioneering film-by-film guide to the intense and doom-laden melodramas of pre-revolutionary Russian cinema is only for the well-heeled. Sadly, there is no cheaper alternative for those wishing to read about this fascinating and long-forgotten era of film history.
- Vertov, Dziga;
Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Writings from the director who made Man with a Movie Camera and inspired cinéma vérité and CER's own film column.
- Woll, Josephine;
The Cranes are Flying
(from Amazon.co.uk) - Woll, Josephine;
Real Images
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Youngblood, Denise J;
Movies for the Masses:
Popular Cinema and Soviet Society in the 1920s
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Youngblood, Denise J;
Soviet Cinema in the Silent Era, 1918-1935
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Zorkaya, Neya;
The Illustrated History of the Soviet Cinema
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)
- Bergan, Ronald;
Eisenstein
(from Amazon.co.uk) - Bordwell, David;
The Cinema of Eisenstein
(from Amazon.co.uk) - Goodwin, James;
Eisenstein, Cinema and History
(from Amazon.co.uk) - Neuberger, Joan;
Ivan the Terrible
(from Amazon.co.uk) - Taylor, Richard and Maccabe, Colin (eds);
The Eisenstein Reader
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)No other director has spent more time scribbling down his thoughts and feelings on film. The most important are gathered here.
- Tarkovsky, Andrei;
Collected Screenplays
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Indispensable.
- Turovshaya, Maya;
Tarkovsky: Cinema as Poetry
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Johnson, Vida T;
The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Goulding, Daniel J (ed);
Five Filmmakers: Tarkovsky, Forman, Polanski, Szabo, Makavejev
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)
- Burns, Bryan;
World Cinema: Hungary
(from Amazon.com),An invaluable guide to Hungarian cinema up to 1989. Its only faults are that it does not cover recent Hungarian film and it is a tad expensive. Otherwise, highly recommended.
- Bren, Frank;
World Cinema: Poland
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)This study is now out of print. Messier in presentation than its sister volume on Hungary and with slightly less penetrating analysis, this volume still deserves to be updated and reprinted. Watch this space.
- Goulding, Daniel J;
The Occupation in 26 Pictures
(from Amazon.co.uk)Lordan Zafranovic's classic 1978 film is still banned in his native Croatia, and he is forced to live in exile in Prague. Goulding unravels this complex critique of Croatia's fascist past in this expensive but invaluable guide.
- Goulding, Daniel J (ed);
Post New Wave Cinema in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)The latter half of the 1970s and the early 1980s might not be the obvious starting point for study of Central European cinema, but this is an excellent volume with some fascinating insights.
- Hames, Peter (ed);
Dark Alchemy
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)The first study in English of the surreal Czech animator Jan Švankmajer, known for darkly humorous films such as Alice, Faust and Conspiritors of Pleasure.
- Insdorf, Annette;
Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)The latest biography of the director famous for Decalogue, The Double Life of Veronique and Three Colours: Red, White, Blue.
- Portuges, Catherine;
Screen Memories: The Hungarian Cinema of Marta Meszaros
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)Thoughtful examination of one of Hungary's foremost film-makers, based largely on interviews.
- Škvorecký, Josef;
Jiří Menzel and the History of Closely Watched Trains
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk) - Wajda, Andrzej;
Wajda on Film: A Master's Notes
(from Amazon.com), (from Amazon.co.uk)
Selection by Andrew James Horton
Have a suggestion for our list? Contact us.
