Kolker's lucid, accessible style gives this book a pace and energy that sets it apart. Among the many introductory film textbooks, Film, Form, and Culture captures the reader's attention at first glance, and holds it throughout. Robert Burgoyne, Professor of Film Studies, University of St Andrews Film, Form ... Read moreand Culture is a thoughtful, ambitious, and thorough introductory textbook that is also an absolute pleasure to read. Put simply, this richly illustrated book makes it easy to understand how to take film seriously. It is scaled to a manageable size and scope for classroom use, providing a comprehensive set of tools and skills with which to approach the study of film. Kolker introduces his reader to film and art history, theories of representation, genres and international cinemas, and the vocabulary with which to discuss moving images. True to its title, the book provides a framework with which to understand and engage with the way that form and culture interact through the medium of film. Kolker pulls off a rare feat with Film Form and Culture: he has provided teachers at any level with a readable and immensely useful book that is also rigorously intellectual. I have used earlier editions of Film, Form and Culture in my introductory film classes and I'm delighted to now be able to use this updated edition. This is a fantastic introductory book by one of the field's foremost thinkers that will be appreciated by anyone wishing to better understand what makes films tick. Marsha Gordon, Associate Professor, Film Studies, North Carolina State University Robert Kolker is both a brilliant analyst of film and a great teacher. He manages to explain and use complex concepts in limpid prose, and his effortless blend of textual and contextual approaches to cinema is a model to us all. Toby Miller, Professor of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University and Sir Walter Murdoch Professor of Cultural Policy Studies, Murdoch University Robert Kolker's Film, Form, and Culture (4th edition) is a lucidly written textbook for undergraduate students who are beginning their film and media studies programs. Kolker takes the readers on a tantalizing journey in which they will encounter film language, grammar, history, theory and the broader issues of culture and ideology. The book does not get bogged down in jargon and theoretical trapeze walks. Its purpose is to teach students to unpack the artifice of cinema by learning the analytical tools to take the scenes apart and then figuring out how the audience puts them all together. The students will also learn the fact that film developed all over the world, almost at the same time, and form and style have been evolving ever since in different cultural contexts to render a rich body of work for all to see. Manjunath Pendakur, Professor, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, Florida Atlantic University Show Less