Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
The Eyes Have It
Cinema and the Reality Effect
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
The Eyes Have It explores those rarified screen moments when viewers are confronted by sights that seem at once impossible and present, artificial and stimulating, illusory and definitive.
Beginning with a penetrating study of five cornfield sequences—including The Wizard of Oz, Arizona Dream, and Signs—Murray Pomerance journeys through a vast array of cinematic moments, technical methods, and laborious collaborations from the 1930s to the 2000s to show how the viewer's experience of "reality" is put in context, challenged, and willfully engaged.
Four meditations deal with “reality effects” from different philosophical and technical angles. “Vivid Rivals” assesses active participation and critical judgment in seeing effects with such works as Defiance, Cloverfield, Knowing, Thelma & Louise, and more. “The Two of Us” considers double placement and doubled experience with such films as The Prestige, Niagara, and A Stolen Life. “Being There” discusses cinematic performance and the problems of believability, highlighting such films as Gran Torino, The Manchurian Candidate, In Harm’s Way, and other films. “Fairy Land” explores the art of scenic backing, focusing on the fictional world of Brigadoon, which borrows from both hard-edged realism and evocative landscape painting.
About the Author:
MURRAY POMERANCE is an independent film scholar in Toronto. Among his many books are Shining in Shadows: Movie Stars of the 2000s, A Little Solitaire: John Frankenheimer and American Film, Johnny Depp Starts Here, and An Eye for Hitchcock, all published by Rutgers University Press.
Press Reviews:
"Pomerance's sound scholarship, provocative readings of classic films, and meticulous archival research make this beautifully written work both pleasurable and illuminating to read."
— Vivian Sobchack
"Real history and technology cling to Pomerance’s boots in his delightful, instructive romp through acres of films in our 'Field of Dreams.' Enjoy this down-to-earth study of illusion."
— Dudley Andrew
"Pomerance explores how the mechanics of cinema create engaging and irrationally persuasive illusions of reality. Thanks to [his] technical expertise and command of historical context, the book is constantly bringing new light to familiar material. Pomerance summons films arty and pop, classic and current, major and forgettable, with a unique combination of tecnical savvy, theory, and analytic sensitivity. It is exciting and delightful to read."
— Choice
"Pomerance's book shows the reality effect in cinema by using our eyes to blend a kind of milkshake of our senses thought pleasurable, complex, artificial, and previously unnoticed film patterns in regard to actors' performances, technological aspects, and scenic design."
— The Journal of American Culture
See the publisher website: Rutgers University Press
> From the same author:
Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town (2025)
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Director > Mervyn LeRoy
The Biggest Thing in Show Business (2024)
Living It Up with Martin & Lewis
by Murray Pomerance and Matthew Solomon
Subject: Actor > Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin
Autism in Film and Television (2022)
On the Island
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Sociology
The Other Hollywood Renaissance (2020)
Dir. Dominic Lennard, R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Countries > United States
The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz (2018)
Dir. R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Director > Michael Curtiz
Close-Up (2018)
Great Cinematic Performances Volume 2: International
Dir. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens
Hamlet Lives in Hollywood (2017)
John Barrymore and the Acting Tradition Onscreen
Dir. Murray Pomerance and Steven Rybin
Subject: Actor > John Barrymore
Moment of Action (2016)
Riddles of Cinematic Performance
Thinking in the Dark (2015)
Cinema, Theory, Practice
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Theory
George Cukor (2015)
Hollywood Master
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Director > George Cukor
Hollywood's Chosen People (2012)
The Jewish Experience in American Cinema
Dir. Daniel Bernardi, Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Countries > United States
Shining in Shadows (2011)
Movie Stars of the 2000s
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: On Films > Per period
A Little Solitaire (2011)
John Frankenheimer and American Film
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: Director > John Frankenheimer
Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue (2011)
Eight Reflections on Cinema
Subject: Director > Michelangelo Antonioni
American Cinema of the 1950s (2005)
Themes and Variations
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: On Films > Per period
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice (2001)
Cinemas of Girlhood
Dir. Frances Gateward and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Sociology
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls (2001)
Gender in Film at the End of the Twentieth Century
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: Sociology
> On a related topic:
Shot on Location (2016)
Postwar American Cinema and the Exploration of Real Place
Subject: Technique > Set Design
What Makes a Film Tick? (2011)
Cinematic Affect, Materiality and Mimetic Innervation
Subject: Sociology
Architecture for the Screen (2012)
A Critical Study of Set Design in Hollywood's Golden Age
Subject: Technique > Set Design
Cinéma, architecture, dispositif (2011)
Dir. Elena Biserna and Precious Brown
(in French and English)
Subject: Technique > Set Design
Back
