Cinematic Overtures

Leo Braudy, Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature, University of Southern California:
Like a wise guide unveiling mysteries, Annette Insdorf in Cinematic Overtures shows with wit and insight the many ways movies from their first moments teach us how to watch and understand their special worlds.

David Thomson, author of A Biographical Dictionary of Film and Warner Bros: The Story of an American Movie Studio:
We knew it already, but Annette Insdorf has identified the condition: the first moments of a movie are electric, a going into some new world while giving up our safety. With brilliant examples, this short survey of beginnings is one of the best provocations in print to having us see entire movies—the openings that go on forever.

Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films:
In this brief but richly stimulating book on beginnings, Annette Insdorf opens up a treasure chest of insights and sensory delights. The films of Altman, Kaufman, Welles, Bertolucci, Coppola, along with the work of exciting lesser-known foreign auteurs, come alive through her precise descriptions of opening scenes and credit sequences. In examining the interplay of music and image, or the many stylistic choices made by a director, she draws us ever more compellingly into the films themselves, while subtly charting the broader course of movies as they come to reflect a more fragmented and self-questioning world. Like the best critics and teachers, she not only inspires us to track down unknown films, and return to favorites with renewed curiosity, but shows us how to think more alertly and knowledgeably in future movie-watching.