To continue; i agree that Ellot Wilhelm's Videohound's World Cinema is excellent,not at all pretentious.For general reading on World Cinema i'd also recommend:The Oxford History of World Cinema(edited by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith)-this is the best overview i'd say.Time Out Film Guide,Radio Times Film Guide have good coverage of international films.Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide was excellent,still very useful,but last published in '92, i think.i admire David Cook's A History of Narrative Film,Derek Malcolm's A Century of Films,David Thomson's A biographical Dictionary of Film,Geoff Andrew's Film Handbook, and Drectors A-Z.I love Gilbert Adair's "Flickers".The Cinema Book,edited by Pam Cook& Mike Bernink is highly rated,with good coverage of theory.I admire Mark le Fanu's biography of Tarkovsky.The book which opened up a whole new world for me-if only i could relive the excitement of starting the journey of discovery afresh!-was John Kobal's Top 100 Movies, with a poll of international critics.When it came out in the 80's, i'd not heard of many of the entries,set out to see as many as possible,resulting in hopeless addiction.
The British magazine,Sight and Sound,which will be doing its usual once-a-decade poll this year,is the best here, comfortably.MovieMail is a World Cinema Video company,which has interesting Newsletter and Catalogue Articles,written by several prominent critics,(and some by myself,though my efforts are strictly amateurish,more a demonstration of buffery than insight or literary expertise)...