Having used both the Bordwell-Thompson book (Film Art: An Introduction) and the Giannetti book (Understanding Movies), I would suggest the latter. It's been my experience that students find the former dry and hard to relate to, in that it uses films they've never heard of as examples (of camera angles, sound techniques, etc.); the latter uses more current movies (Titanic, etc.) and seems to connect film technique to issues the students care about. While it's important to introduce students to "the classics" in a film *history* class, in a intro to film class different issues are often at center stage. For my money, it's much more effective to use a James Cameron film as an example of a long take than "Magnificent Ambersons", at least to a group of restless freshmen.... Best, Daniel Isaac Humphrey Department of Art & Art History University of Rochester 424 Morey Hall Rochester NY 14627-0456 ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu