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Title: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film by David Thomson ISBN: 0-375-41128-3 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 08 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.54 (24 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Misleading title; outrageously good book
Comment: If you're looking for a standard reference work, look elsewhere (Katz is probably your best bet). That said, this is one of the finest books I've discovered in years. You can read it from cover to cover and never get bored, which is impossible to say about any other reference book that I know of.
David Thomson is absolutely brilliant. I disagree with about half of what he writes here, but even when I disagree I respect his opinions and greatly admire the way in which he articulates them. Very often in these entries you will find that unexpected beauty and strangeness which is the hallmark of all great literature and all great art in general. Some of the passages are absolutely heartstopping. Here's Thomson on Jean Vigo:
"L'Atalante is about a more profound attitude to love than Gaumont understood. It is love without spoken explanation, unaffected by sentimental songs; but love as a mysterious, passionate affinity between inarticulate human animals."
Have you ever heard a more haunting, uncanny definition of love than this one? I certainly haven't. I read these words and then sat there like a fool in shock for five or six minutes, ruminating on their simple profundity.
Thomson is also not afraid to be nasty, which is refreshing in this age of mindless, frothy hype being spewed in all directions on just about everyone. Here he is on Roberto Benigni:
"Then came the thing called La Vite E Bella. As a matter of fact, I often echo that sentiment myself, but if there is anything likely to mar the bella-ness, it is not so much Hitlerism (I am against it), which is fairly obvious, as Benigni-ism, which walks away with high praise, box office, and Oscars. I despise Life Is Beautiful, especially its warmth, sincerity, and feeling, all of which I belive grow out of stupidity. Few events so surely signaled the decline of the motion picture as the glory piled on that odious and misguided fable."
Sometimes that nastiness reaches the heights of pure poetry. Here is Thomson on Richard Gere:
"There are times when Richard Gere has the warm affect of a wind tunnel at dawn, waiting for work, all sheen, inner curve, and posed emptiness. And those are not his worst times."
Lest you think that Thomson is merely a curmudgeonly old British [man], let me emphasize that in many other places (through most of the book, in fact), he displays a humanity and generosity of spirit that is nothing short of exemplary.
This book is not so much a reference on film as it is a meditation on life and everything in it. In these past hundred years movies have covered exactly that kind of encyclopedic range, both in their subject matter and in the lives of their makers. Thomson simply uses the world of cinema as a vehicle with which to explore the magnificent enigma of life and existence and somehow manages to pack more of that life into its 963 pages than any other book of any genre that I can think of. Opinionated, yes, but then again so is the Bible. A true desert island book. An absolute masterpiece.
Rating: 5
Summary: The New Biographical Dictionary Of Film by David Thomson
Comment: This superb book is an absolute delight to read. I found myself going from subject to subject enthralled. Perhaps I am more easily pleased than some but for me the following passage about Clint Eastwood was alone worth the price of the book: "... For he has become an authentically heroic image, a man cast in Gary Cooper's rock. even if his eyes are still rather more self-satisfied than Cooper's...". I Found the author's opinions very interesting even fascinating. One may not agree with everything
but I found this dlightful book very helpful and full of new insights. This book along with Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video guide was all I needed to get a good grasp of the medium.
Rating: 2
Summary: David Thomson does not love film.
Comment: After reading thid book, it is clear to me that Mr.Thomson does not love film, in fact it has become clear to me that he does not even like film, and I will go as far to say that Mr. Thomson hates film. To Mr. Thomson, film is nothing but a springboard for his disgusting, inconsistent, elitist, cynicism. It is clear to me that Mr. Thomson is a very sad man, and something in his life rendered it impossible for him to create films, se he was cursed to a lifetime of criticism. All I can say is: Sour Grapes.
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Title: Afterglow: A Last Conversation with Pauline Kael by Francis Davis, Pauline Kael ISBN: 0306811928 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Film Encyclopedia, 4th Edition : The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume by Ephraim Katz ISBN: 0062737554 Publisher: HarperResource Pub. Date: 20 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: American Film Institute Desk Reference: The Complete Guide to Everything You Need to Know about the Movies by Melinda Corey, George Ochoa, Clint Eastwood, Dorling Kindersley Publishing ISBN: 0789489341 Publisher: DK Publishing Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 2004 by Leonard Maltin ISBN: 0451209400 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
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Title: Nobody's Perfect : Writings from The New Yorker by Anthony Lane ISBN: 0375714340 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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