FILM RESEARCH AT THE LSU LIBRARIES

Contents: Finding Film Criticism | Finding Movie Reviews | Finding General Information About Films | Finding Books about Film

Finding Film Criticism

The best place to look for critical commentary is in film journals. The LSU Libraries subscribes to several print journals and has access to many others through several online full-text databases. There are hundreds of different film journals and, unfortunately, there is no one single resource that indexes all of them so you will have to look in several places. The following is a list of some online indexes that provide either citations, abstracts, or full-text to articles in film journals.

A. Project Muse (Also accessible off-campus with an LSU student ID): Scope:Full-text film criticism from over 100 academic journals such as Cinema Journal, Wide Angle, Postmodern Culture, American Imago, MLN, Modernism/Modernity, Theatre Journal, etc.; Coverage: Varies with each journal. Approximately the most recent 10 years
B. Academic Search Complete (Also accessible off-campus with an LSU student ID): Scope: Full-text articles from academic journals such as Sight and Sound, Film Comment, Cineaste, Drama Review, Journal of Performance and Art and popular magazines such as Time, People, and Rolling Stone.; Note: Choose "Entertainment Review" from the "Document Type" category.; Coverage: Varies with each journal. Approximately the most recent 10 years
C. MLA (Also accessible off-campus with an LSU student ID): Scope: Citations (no full-text) to film criticism from academic journals such as Literature Film Quarterly,Cinema Journal, Sight and Sound, Cineaste, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Z Filmtidssskrift, Modern Drama, Creative Screenwriting, as well as some books by Bondanella and other film critics; Coverage: 1963-present; Notes: MLA is primarily known as an index to literary criticism but it also indexes many film journals. It is a huge database, however, and the Middleton Library will not necessarily own all of the journals it indexes.

Return to Top

Finding Movie Reviews

Movie reviews are usually very short articles with plot summaries and brief commentary. They can be found in hundreds of different magazines and newspapers. To find them you can check several different indexes:

A. LexisNexis Academic Also accessible: off-campus with an LSU student ID.: Scope: Full-text reviews from major newspapers such as LA Times and NY Times; Coverage: Approximately the most recent 10-20 years; Note: Choose the "News" search form, then either "General News" or "Arts & Sports"
B. Variety Film Reviews: Location: Reference Shelves: PN 1995 V34 1983; Scope: Gives full-text reviews from Variety magazine (no graphics); Coverage: 1907-1986; Organization: Organized by year with an index of titles in volume 16
C. New York Times Film Reviews: Location: Reference Shelves: PN 1995 N4; Scope: Gives full-text of articles of New York Times film reviews with graphics; Coverage: 1913-1976; Organization: Organized by year with indexes in the back of each volume.

Return to Top

Finding General Information about Films

Lists of awards, credits, plots, grosses, etc. can be found in many different places:

A. Motion Picture Guide: Location: Reference Shelves: PN1995 N346 1985; Scope: General info, credits, plot summaries; no reviews; Coverage: 1927-1987; Organization: searchable by title
B. Magill's Cinema Annual: Location: Reference Shelves: PN 1995M3 1981; Scope: General Information; no reviews; Coverage: from the 1980s; Organization: split into three parts: silent films, foreign films, English language films
C. Internet Movie Database: Scope: Information and reviews on over 200,000 movies (and some television titles); Coverage: Concentrates on modern movies but includes some information on films going back to the turn of the century; Organization: Searchable by title, director, producer, actors, quotes, trivia, etc.; Note: The database belongs to Amazon.com. If you want to be able to add your own personal reviews or comments on films you have to become a subscriber.

Return to Top

Finding Books about Film

Because there is no film department at LSU the Middleton Library doesn't spend a lot of its budget on film books. Although our collection is small, however, we do have a good number of books on the most important American and European films.

A. Browsing the shelves: Reference Books: Most of the encyclopedias, directories, and other reference books about film are on the first floor in the reference room in the PN1993-1999 area.; Regular Books: Most (but not all!) of the non-reference books about film are on the fourth floor in the PN1993-1999 and TR899 areas.
B. Searching the online catalog: By Subject: To search by subject, you have to know the predetermined Library of Congress Subject headings. A list of them is available in a set of big red books at the Reference Desk. They are surprisingly difficult to work with. Some examples of LC Subject headings are:; By Keyword: Most people avoid subject searching by doing keyword searches instead. You can type in any word you want to and you can combine as many words as you like. Some examples: