LibGuides: FYS 101: Breaking Bad (Etzler): Film Studies

WorldCat Discovery

What Words do I Use?

If you are interested in books about film, plug in the following Library of Congress Subject Headings in the above WorldCat Discovery search box:

Film Criticism

Film History

Film Adaptations

Film Noir

Film

Motion Picture actors and actresses

Motion Picture audiences

Motion Pictures

Subject Headings List

E-Books on Reading Film

How to Read a Film by James Monaco
ISBN: 9780195028065
Publication Date: 1981-06-11
Sets movies in the contexts of their aesthetic and technological antecedents and reviews all important factors of and issues pertaining to contemporary film and television production and theory.
Cinematic Overtures by Annette Insdorf
ISBN: 9780231544061
Publication Date: 2018-07-31
A great movie's first few minutes provide the key to the rest of the film. In Cinematic Overtures, Annette Insdorf discusses the opening sequence, inviting viewers to turn first impressions into deeper understanding of cinematic technique. She offers a series of revelatory readings of individual films by some of cinema's leading directors.
Film Theory and Criticism by Gerald Mast (Editor); Marshall Cohen (Editor); Leo Braudy (Editor)
ISBN: 9780195063981
Publication Date: 1992-04-09
"Revised and updated to incorporate suggestions from film instructors and critics nationwide, the fourth edition of this classic text is a thorough introduction to the evolving aesthetics and controversies of nearly a century, from the earliest attempts to define the cinema to the most recent efforts to place film in the context of psychology, sociology, and philosophy."

Films through the Decades

These books provide an overview of film through the decades of the 20th & 21st centuries. Previous decades can be accessed through this link to WorldCAT: Screen Decades series.

American Cinema of the 2000s
ISBN: 9780813553238
Publication Date: 2012-04-15
[Select the Title to Access Online]
American Cinema of The 1990s by [Select the Title to Access Online]
ISBN: 9780813545783
Publication Date: 2008-10-11
[Select title to Access Online]
American Cinema of The 1980s by Stephen Prince (Editor)
ISBN: 9780813543024
Publication Date: 2007-04-25
[Select the Title to Access Online]

Databases & Video Sources

Kanopy Streaming This link opens in a new window
A collection of more than 19,000 streaming documentaries and foreign/indie feature films, available on a patron-driven acquisition model (all titles are available to you, Butler University Libraries pays for licenses that hit usage triggers)
Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Films on Demand is a state-of-the-art streaming video platform for a variety of educational media content.
AVON - Academic Video Online (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
AVON: Academic Video Online is a comprehensive multidisciplinary streaming video resource.

Essential Art House: 50 years of Janus Films
Explore the fiftieth anniversary of this world-renowned distribution company by accessing Butler's copies of: Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films, an expansive collectors’ box set featuring fifty classic films on DVD and a lavishly illustrated hardcover book that tells the story of Janus Films through an essay by film historian Peter Cowie, a tribute from Martin Scorsese, and extensive, all-new notes on all fifty films, plus cast and credit listings and U.S. premiere information. Access Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films through Butler Libraries.

Film & Television Literature Index Full Text This link opens in a new window
Film & Television Literature Index Full Text is the definitive online tool for film and television research. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, screenwriting, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews. Variety movie reviews from 1914 to the present and a large number of images from the MPTV Image Archive are also included.
Hollywood, Censorship, and the Motion Picture Production Code, 1927-1968 This link opens in a new window
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration Files collection documents forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry.
Film Literature Index This link opens in a new window
Indexes 150 film and television periodicals from 30 countries cover-to-cover and 200 other periodicals selectively for articles on film and television. The periodicals range from the scholarly to the popular. Coverage is from 1976 to 2001 only.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
This large multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 4,770 journals, including full text for over 4,000 peer-reviewed titles.
Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Communications and Mass Media Complete combines two previous resources related to communication and mass media (CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index). It provides full text for over 200 journals and contains citation coverage for more.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni provides access to the full text of hundreds of major business and legal journals, magazines, and U.S. and international newspapers. Company financial, country, tax, medical, federal and state legal information, and accounting information can also be accessed.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
This group of online indexes provides access to biographies, bibliographies and critical analysis of authors, much of it full-text. The database is searchable by Author Name, Title, Genre, Literary Movement or Literary Themes, or a combination of criteria to create more powerful searches.

Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
An online database of information related to film and TV including lists of actors who appeared in films.
The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)
A large collection of movie scripts - primary source material!
Movie Review Query Engine
One of the largest online databases for movie reviews. Provides a searchable index of published and available movie reviews.
Film Studies Resources: UC Berkeley Library
Includes links and web sites devoted to film history and scholarship; film industry information; film script sites; film festival information; film and video associations.
Reel Classics
A comprehensive site dedicated exclusively to information on classic movies.
MPPDA Digital Archive
Documents from the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America from 1922-1939
Lantern Media History
The search and visualization platform for nearly 2 million pages of digitized books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.

BrowsZine Journals: Film Studies
Use BrowsZine to discover journals related to Film Studies.

Sources for Film Reviews

Film & Television Literature Index Full Text This link opens in a new window
Film & Television Literature Index Full Text is the definitive online tool for film and television research. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, screenwriting, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews. Variety movie reviews from 1914 to the present and a large number of images from the MPTV Image Archive are also included.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
This large multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 4,770 journals, including full text for over 4,000 peer-reviewed titles.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni provides access to the full text of hundreds of major business and legal journals, magazines, and U.S. and international newspapers. Company financial, country, tax, medical, federal and state legal information, and accounting information can also be accessed.
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times (1851-2013) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
This group of online indexes provides access to biographies, bibliographies and critical analysis of authors, much of it full-text. The database is searchable by Author Name, Title, Genre, Literary Movement or Literary Themes, or a combination of criteria to create more powerful searches.

Variety Magazine Film Reviews
An entertainment trade magazine. They post many of their publication's film reviews online for free. For a more complete listing of Variety reviews, search the online Film & Television Literature Index listed above.
Movie Review Query Engine
Free online index of movie reviews from both offline and online sources.
The New York Times Film Reviews 1913-1970
Irwin Library Annex (Basement) PN1995 .N48 1971. This information can also be accessed in the New York Times (Historical) Index listed above.

Primary Source Research

When studying film, primary sources include not only the film itself but analyzing the cultural scene and film artifacts (press releases, media kits) at the time that the film was made. Search the databases below to find magazine, newspaper, and other news/information sources that were published when the film was released.

Readers' Guide Full Text Select This link opens in a new window
This full-text database provides searchable full text for a broad selection of the most popular periodicals.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 This link opens in a new window
Readers’ Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 provides indexing of over three million articles from more than 550 leading magazines, including full coverage of the original print volumes of Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
This large multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 4,770 journals, including full text for over 4,000 peer-reviewed titles.

Cinefiles: The University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Contains scanned images of reviews, press kits, festival and showcase program notes, newspaper articles, and other documents from the PFA Library's extensive collection covering world cinema, past and present.
The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)
A large collection of movie scripts - primary source material!