Research Guides: Film Studies: Starting your research ...

Start with the online catalog

START with the film title:

A quick way to start your research is to search the online catalog.
Look for your film as a subject. This will find resources ABOUT the film rather than the film itself.
- For example, you want to see what the library has for the "Godfather films." Type "Godfather" as a subject and click on the Submit button. Click here to see results of that search. These are resources about the Godfather films.
Remember, when looking for a foreign language film, use the original language title.

As another example, you want to research Fellini's "8½." The original title in Italian is "Otto e mezzo." That is the title to use for a subject search. Click here to see the results.

But you don't find anything. What should you do next?

LOOK for the director as a subject:

Sticking with the "Godfather films," if we didn't have anything under the films themselves, look for Francis Ford Coppola. Click here for results. The books under "Criticism and Interpretation" should be especially helpful.
Nothing for "Otto e mezzo?" Do a subject search for Federico Fellini. Click here for results.

Still nothing in the online catalog? See WorldCat below.

This box highlights basic catalog searches and some of the more interesting subject headings you can find in the online catalog for film.

motion pictures and ...
This subject heading can look at a group's relationship to movies. For instance, there is "motion pictures and gay men" which looks at how and what they watch rather than their depictions in movies. Take a look at the rest of the list.
... in motion pictures
If you want to see how a theme is handle in movies, you put the word in front of "in motion pictures." An example is "sex in motion pictures."

WorldCat is a union catalog of many library catalogs in the United States and abroad. You can search WorldCat to see the breadth of a particular topic. You don't get articles, but you do get books and other items that could be useful.
If you find something you want to use, you can request the item through Borrow Direct or Interlibrary Loan.
- Both Borrow Direct and Interlibrary Loan uses your Dartmouth credentials for access.
You can search for the "Godfather films" or "Otto e mezzo" or Francis Ford Coppola or Federico Fellini to see how much other research there is out there on these subjects.
There is WorldCat.org and WorldCat.com. The .org version is free to everyone but has less functionality and is less comprehensive than the .com version.
Use the link below for the best results for searching.
Remember, books contain scholarly articles too.