How to Watch a Movie

You've been watching movies for most of your life. But often you're not quite sure what you think, or why. Should you see a movie in company or alone? How many times can you see it? What's the difference between watching and seeing? What is a shot, and what is a cut? Are we watching people, characters or actors - or is it all of them at the same time?

Now David Thomson has written a primer with the answers. Thoughtful, provocotive, intelligent, refers to many films, and many of them are models for moviegoing - Rear Window, Citizen Kane, Rebel Without a Cause, Blow Up, Casino. How to Watch a Movie is deeply informed and often comic and, with asides on subjects from Velazquez's Las Meninas to taking a photograph of someone you love, it is a reminder that seeing isn't just for the dark - it is our essential link with life.