Read Instead…in Print

Read instead…in print No. 29

There are many good books about film that I have read, but Cary Grant’s Suit: Nine Movies That Made Me the Wreck I Am Today is by far one of my favourites. It has humour in it. Just like a good film (that is not a comedy) has humour in it (like Hitchcock’s). Just like life (amidst hardships, tragedy, rises and falls) has humour in it. Todd McEwen writes from a very personal point of view. Movies are truly woven into his life and it’s absolutely thrilling to read how he meanders through some of the movies that have marked him in one way or another. He makes you live the movies, make them part of life. A film lover just knows. And the way he writes about, yes, Cary Grant’s suit in North by Northwest, well, it’s the best writing about the most written about suit in the history of film.

Cary Grant’s Suit is also a beautiful book to look at (how could it not be, bearing the title it does?), and beautifully made – a classy Nothing Hill Editions, textile cover and all, released this year. And it so happens that I found it quite by chance in my favourite bookshop in the world (see the quite literal seal of approval on the first page in the image below?). The kind of thing that happens only when you visit bookshops. Or maybe it wasn’t exactly by chance. Vlad knows what his readers want even before they know it themselves.

Read instead… in print is about a good book about cinema or filmmakers. No discursive, pretentious analyses, no verbose scrutiny. Because the idea is to invite you to read the book, not read about it here. But instead of using social media, I use my journal. Back to basics. Take it as a wish to break free of over-reliance on social media (even if it’s just for posting a photo of a good book) for presenting my work, cultural finds and interests. These are things to be enjoyed as stand-alone pieces in a more substantial and meaningful way than showing them in the black hole of Instagram thronged with an audience with a short attention span. This is also a look through my voluminous collection of books about film that I use as research in my adamant decision to rely less and less on the online and more on more on print materials.