|
The Film Club: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: David Gilmour
Publisher: Twelve
Category: Book
List Price: $21.99
Buy New: $10.00
You Save: $11.99 (55%)
New (44) Used (12) from $10.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 1043
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 044619929X
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780446199292
ASIN: 044619929X
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"I loved David Gilmour's sleek, potent little memoir, The Film Club. It's so, so wise in the ways of fathers and sons, of movies and movie-goers, of love and loss."
--- Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls
"If all sons had dads like David Gilmour, then Oedipus would be a forgotten legend and Father's Day would be a worldwide film festival."
--Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of It All
"David Gilmour is a very unlikely moral guidance counselor: he's broke, more or less unemployed and has two children by two different women. Yet when it looks as though his teenage son is about to go off the rails, he reaches out to him through the only subject he knows anything about: the movies. The result is an object lesson in how fathers should talk to their sons." --Toby Young, author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
At the start of this brilliantly unconventional family memoir, David Gilmour is an unemployed movie critic trying to convince his fifteen-year-old son Jesse to do his homework. When he realizes Jesse is beginning to view learning as a loathsome chore, he offers his son an unconventional deal: Jesse could drop out of school, not work, not pay rent - but he must watch three movies a week of his father's choosing.
Week by week, side by side, father and son watched everything from True Romance to Rosemary's Baby to Showgirls, and films by Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, Billy Wilder, among others. The movies got them talking about Jesse's life and his own romantic dramas, with mercurial girlfriends, heart-wrenching breakups, and the kind of obsessive yearning usually seen only in movies.
Through their film club, father and son discussed girls, music, work, drugs, money, love, and friendship - and their own lives changed in surprising ways.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Wonderful! July 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Written with care. Interesting dance of communication between father and son. Compassionate read and enjoyable.
 Wanted to love it but couldn't June 25, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I awaited the release of this book anxiously from Gilmour's publishers. Since Twelve Publishers banks its existence on 12 books a year, i expected an award winning novel. However, the book is a severe letdown. The author decides to let his son drop out of school only if the son watches classic movies as part of his "home school education". In addition to the son dropping out of school, the author describes his lifestyle in which his wife supports him as he is unable to find himself a job. The author, the book and the story line screams of complete inadequacy. I disliked the book and the author as he made the biggest parenting mistakes of his life. There are many other books that are worth reading but this is not one of them. Sorry Twelve Publishers.
 Saturday Night at the Movies June 22, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an quick and interesting read. This story illustrates the fact that raising children is hard work even on the best days. David Gilmour, the father, saw much about Jessee, his son, that he loved and appreciated, but he also knew that there were serious challenges ahead if he did not connect with him. His approach, while unorthodox is interesting. Being a film critic he chooses to take a path that he has some knowledge of and this seperates his plan from the average person's plan.
Three movies a week and his son can come and go as he pleases, drop out of school and if he is free of drugs he will receive a small allowance. Frankly, I would not have made that deal with my sons. I suspect that Gilmour would not suggest that this should be a normative technique for child raising, though it could certainly be an intentional way to introduce many interesting ideas for discussion.
As I read the book there were times when I honestly felt like this was an illustration of home schooling gone completely off the farm. If you are a film fan or fancy yourself a critic you will enjoy this book for the insights of some clasic movies. If you have labored under the illusion that you control the circumstances of your teen or near adult child this book will likely dispeal that illusion even if you view Gilmour's approach as misguided.
In the end this book is less about movies and more about one father and his son and their journey together during some challenging stretchs of road, dealing with relationships and life choices. In the end, I wanted to know more about Jessee and his life, though I know his is a life that is still in progress. I have this sense that the rest of the story needs to be told as unadorned as this story was told.
Shocking parenting makes for interesting reading June 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I had seen this book reviewed in several different national magazines and the premise intrigued me. I thought it might be particularly interesting for my husband who can quote chapter and verse (director/producer/etc.) from just about every movie ever made. I wasn't prepared to be unable to put it down.
Part of the books appeal is the length and ease of reading. I read the entire book in about 3 hours. Yes I read quickly but the book is very light reading.
I think the other reason I coudln't put it down was simply because I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was convinced that due to Gilmour's shocking parenting decisions that some awful calamity would befall his child. You need to read it to find out if I was right!
I enjoyed this book so much that it just might go on my "Christmas book list" (books I buy to give away to fellow readers for Christmas) but it would have to be a certain kind of reader as there are a lot of drug and sex references and some language in it. Parents may want to vet the book before giving it to kids to read (especially younger teens).
Entertaining book, for sure, but what about the underlying currents? June 20, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
When I saw the inner flap of this book, with its general premise "dad allows teenage son to drop out of high school, with the only condition that son watches 3 movies a week with dad", I was immediately intrigued, being a movie buff myself, and having teenage kids as well.
In "The Film Club" (225 pages), author David Gilmour (not to be confused with the Pink Floyd guitarist of the same name) brings the real life story of how he saw his 16 yr. old son flounder in high school, and decided that it didn't make any further sense to have his son stay in school. Instead, he made a deal with his son: drop out of high school, but watch at least three movies with me (of my choosing) each week. Wow. What a premise. The book plays at several levels: the obvious one is the discussions about the movies dad and son watch together and what lessons, if any, could be learned from it. The other one is the the more troubling one, namely dad's observations of his teenage son's personal life. This is where I cannot connect. The son drinks freely, and has troubling sexual episodes, and it all is tolerated by dad. Maybe I live in a cocoon, but how many of our kids are out of high school, and party it up, with booze and drugs all around, all tolerated by the parent(s)?
"The Film Club" is an enjoyable book to read, in the sense that the pages fly by in no time, but I can't help but wonder about the underlying social context of it all. Sure, in the end, the son decides to wizen up after 3 years of this, and gets his HS diploma, but at what price? Puzzling to me....
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
