#edwardross

By Aaron Potter

As an avid movie goer and film lover, I constantly find myself trying to extend my understanding of the medium. As well as an expressive form of entertainment, I like to believe that the act of sitting down between 90 - 180 minutes and escaping into the world of another person’s life and journey (fictional or not) can have a deeper meaning. Filmish, the new book by cartoonist Edward Ross is one such venture that helps reinforce this sentiment.

Knowingly described as “a graphic journey through film”, Filmish is a book that seeks to explain the impact that film has had upon its viewers, pretty much since its inception. It guides you through film’s history and various techniques, all while using your favourite movies as examples. What’s brilliant about it is that it’s completely accessible to any reader no matter how ‘schooled up’ they are about the subject, largely thanks to its graphic novel style presentation.

Rather than simply reading walls of text that you’d traditionally find when researching the history of film, Edward Ross successfully explores this inventive medium by referencing films we know and telling us things about them that we never knew existed.

Before reading the book I had never considered how the film-makers behind Blade Runner differentiated the replicants between humans by having them engage more with their environment or how in films like High Noon, it’s real-time progression served to reinforce how tense the central character is becoming, with the hope of translating this same sense of hopelessness to viewers.

Filmish is full of these analytical passages that make you understand why you might enjoy certain films such as Aliens, Terminator or Inception even if you didn’t fully realise yourself. The best part is that rather than look elsewhere to research where these various notions originated, Ross does the job for you, inserting quotes from various historians, film-makers and critics.  If you’ve ever wondered why cinema has largely been expressed from the viewpoint of the heterosexual white male or what sets and architecture can tell you about the mind of a character, it’s all here in this book.

Putting it down, I instantly came away feeling more knowledgeable about the thing that I talk about every week on a podcast, seems crazy right? Sometimes people get so swept up into thinking that a film is either good or bad, never considering the efforts that may have actually went into the film-making process or where these processes came from.

When I discovered Filmish sitting there on a lonely Waterstones shelf in-between the colossal stacks of DC and Marvel, I couldn’t believe my luck. It was a graphic novel that analysed, combining my two favourite mediums to result in something that I didn’t know I needed. But believe me I did need it.

If you have any passing interest in film whatsoever and also like to partake in the regular comic every now and then, Filmish is the perfect culmination of everything you love, researched well and conveniently presented to leave you feeling instantly more knowledgeable! Die Hard is the perfect example of how the use of urban space is explored in film? Who knew!