Older Films

Access
1975 to date in Perkins Reference Index Area; 1987 to date online (Requires the use of a username: bluedevil and a password: crmenth)
Indexes periodicals not covered by the Reader's Guide such as The Village Voice, Interview, Playboy, and Mother Jones. Covers both foreign and American films. Look up films by title in the subject index; there is a separate author/title index. Access lacks the currency of some other resources, but films released more than several months ago will be included.

Alternative Press Index  
Online version: 1969-1990 ; 1991 to date (Duke Community only)
Print Index in Perkins Reference Area, 1969 to date
An index to "alternative and radical" periodicals like The Advocate, Cineaste, The Nation, and The Utne Reader; covers "mainstream" American films, foreign films, independent films, and documentaries. Search reviews by film title, limited the Article Type Phrase  to "Film Reviews."

Canadian Periodical Index (CPI.Q)  (Duke Community only)  1988 to date.
CPI.Q is the full text version of the Canadian Periodical Index. It provides comprehensive Canadian and International periodical coverage. Select "Subject Guide" from the first screen, then enter "Movie reviews" and the film's title in the search box. Many American films are reviewed and coverage is quite recent (only about a one month lag).

FIAF International Film Archive Database (Duke Community only)  Covers 1972 - present (film) and 1979 - present (t.v.)
Indexes over 300 popular and academic journals focusing on film (motion pictures), video and television. Contains full content of International Index to Film Periodicals and International Index to Television Periodicals. Journals from over 60 countries are included. Provides access to the International Federation of Film Archives film and television periodical indexing and to the work of its commissions. Over 375,000 annotated entries covering the years 1972 to the present comprise the Film and Television periodical indexes. Provides access to entries on film and TV published in more than 200 international journals. A free text search capability allows searches for articles, reviews, interviews, festivals, reports, filmographies, bibliographies, discographies, and obituaries on particular films, TV programs, media personalities and subjects. The disc is updated semiannually.

Film Index International (Duke Community only)  Covers 1930 to date.
Key information on 90,000 international cinema feature films, Hollywood entertainment shorts, documentaries, and television movies compiled by the British Film Institute.  Includes biographical information about more than 40,000 film industry individuals.

Film Literature Index
1976 to date in Lilly Reference Room 113 791.4305 F487
Part 1: Film; Part 2: Television and Video
This source is an index to more than 250 "well-known established film journals and the specialized, exotic or fugitive film publications." Television and video were added in the late 1970s. Look for film reviews under the film's title in Part 1. The Film Literature Index is also an excellent source for reviews for foreign films. The information in this index tends to be about one year behind.  The online version is freely available on the Internet.

Film Review Annual
1981 to date in Perkins Reference Index Area
1993 to date in Lilly Reference 791.4375 F487 R454x
Reprints and provides citations to complete reviews of major feature films released in the United States during the previous year. Reviews are culled from newspapers, magazines, and mainstream scholarly journals. Some foreign films are included. The films for which reviews are reprinted are listed in the front of each volume. This source is very easy to use; however, it does not reprint reviews from the New York Times or Variety and is usually about one to two years out of date.

Film Review Index
Perkins Reference q016.7914375 F487 1986
A selective guide that provides citations to criticism of popular and landmark films, the Film Review Index provides a variety of unique, hard-to-find materials for each individual film listed. Although news and popular magazines are covered, the emphasis is on trade publications like Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Motion Picture Herald Product Digest.

Humanities Abstracts   (Duke Community Only)
Covers 500 journals in the areas of archaeology, classics, art, performing arts, philosophy, history, music, linguistics, literature, and religion, with indexing from 1984 and abstracts from 1994.  Search for films by using the film title as a subject.

Humanities Index
1974 to 1993 in Perkins Reference Index Area
1974 to 1993 in Lilly Room 113 050 H918
Reviews appearing in more scholarly journals of both American and foreign films are listed here under "Moving Picture Reviews -- Single Works." Among the general indexes, the Humanities Index provides some of the best coverage of foreign language films.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers
Perkins Reference 791.4303 I61 2000
Lilly Reference 791.4303 I61 2000
Aims to be a "comprehensive reference source, with bibliographies, to the most widely studied films." Foreign (mostly European) films, American films, silent films, and documentaries can be found here. An extensive list of reviews as well as plot summary and critical commentary is in volume 1. Other volumes cover biographical information and expository essays on directors and filmmakers (vol. 2), actors and actresses (vol. 3), and writers and production artists (vol. 4). Volume 5 is a title index.

Left Index
Print: 1982-1999 in Perkins Reference Index Area. Online: 1990 to date
A quarterly index to the contents of leftist, Marxist, or radical periodicals. American films and foreign films are included as well as documentaries and independent films. When using the print version, look in the cumulated Subject Index  under "Motion Picture Reviews." Citations are listed individually by film title. Numbers following citations refer back to the Author List in the front of each volume. An excellent source for documentaries.

Magill's Survey of Cinema
DIALOG File 299
Contains comprehensive, full-text articles on over 1,800 notable films released since 1902. In addition, the database contains brief entries, consisting of an abstract and credit listing for hundreds of other films. Magill's Survey of Cinema and Magill's Survey of Cinema: Foreign Language Films are the print counterparts to the online database. Full-text listings include: film title, release date, country of origin, extensive cast and credit listings, color or black and white indicator, abstract, critical essay, citations to noteworthy reviews, a list of significant awards, qualitative rating, and running time. The database is updated monthly.

Magill's Survey of Cinema: English Language Films, First Series
Perkins Reference 791.430321 M194 1980
Magill's Survey of Cinema: English Language Films, Second Series
Perkins Reference 791.430321 M194 1981
Lilly Reference 791.430321 M194 1981
These sets provide "in depth analyses stressing the importance of the various elements--production, direction, screenwriting, acting, cinematography, editing--that go into the making of a successful picture." Plot summaries and critical evaluations of well over 1,200 major English language films released between 1927 and 1980. Cumulative indexes are in volume 4 (first series) and volume 6 (second series). This source is also available through DIALOG.

MLA International Bibliography  (Duke community only)  1963 to date.
This is an excellent source for locating scholarly reviews or analyses of noteworthy films that have appeared in humanities journals and monographs. To search for this type of work try to following search statement: 'Film-' in DE and [keywords from the film's title]. For example: 'Film-' in DE and Strangelove.

The Motion Picture Guide
Perkins Reference 791.4375 M918 P611x
Lilly Reference 791.4375 M918 P611x
Provides brief plot summaries and an overview of critical reception and public reaction to American and foreign films and silent films. Look up films by title. Silent films are in volume 10. No documentaries, X-rated, or unrated films are included. Volumes 11 and 12 are an index to films released before 1985. See accompanying annuals for later films.

New Film Index: a Bibliography of Magazine Articles in English
Covers material from 1930-1970.
Lilly Library Reference PN1994 M3126 1975 

New York Times Film Reviews
1913-1982 and 1985/1986
Perkins Reference 792.93 N567
Reprints of 17,000+ full reviews as they appeared in The New York Times. Look up films appearing before 1968 in the Title Index of volume 6. Films appearing from 1969 to 1982 are indexed in the Title Index section in the rear of the appropriate volume. American films, foreign films, documentaries, independent films and experimental films are reviewed. The 1913-1968 edition has an extensive Portrait Gallery with photos of film greats; later editions include photos and stills with the review.

The New York Times
New York times, 1851- (excluding latest 3 years)
Film reviews can be located by choosing "review" as "Article Type," the title of the film as "Citation and Abstract," and "film" as "Citation and Abstract."
New York Times, 1980-
Choose "Arts & Sports News" as the news category and "Book, movie, music, and play reviews" as the news source.

Readers' Guide Retrospective  (Duke Community only)  1890-1982
Print:  1982/83 to date  in Perkins Reference Index Area ; 1900-1992  in Lilly Reference  050 R286
The Guide indexes reviews of both foreign and American films that have appeared in the popular press and news magazines. To search the online version, search "motion picture reviews" as subject, and the title of the film as keyword.

Selected Film Criticism
Lilly 791.4375 S464 1982
Volumes 1-5 and volume 7 comprise an index to reviews of American and foreign films released between 1896 and 1960. Volume 6 is an index to reviews of foreign language films released in the United States from 1930 to 1950. Volume 7 has a cumulative index to all other volumes. The advantage of this source is that it reproduces the selected criticism in its entirety and the author attempts to reprint reviews which are not included in other anthologies.

Variety Film Reviews. Vols. 1(1907/1920)-24 (1995/96) Perkins Reference 791.437505 V299 F487x
Similar to the New York Times Film Reviews in that this work reproduces the film reviews that ran in Variety. As this publication covers films with more limited distributions, Variety is a better source for locating information about obscure films or films screened at international film festivals. Volume 16 is an index to the preceding volumes; each volume after 17 (1981/82) has an index at the end.