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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:The New Biographical Dictionary of Filmby David Thomson
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"A reference book of extraordinary literary merit, this eccentric, audacious, sparkling work returns — revised, updated, and bulging with 300 new entries (including Rin Tin Tin and Graham Greene), which helps to account for its nearly 1,000 closely printed double-column pages. Probably the greatest living film critic and historian, Thomson, an Englishman who lives in San Francisco, writes the most fun and enthralling prose about the movies since Pauline Kael....The book is a marvel." Benjamin Schwartz, Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:For twenty-five years, David Thomson’s Biographical Dictionary of Film has been not merely “the finest reference book ever written about movies” (Graham Fuller, Interview), not merely the “desert island book” of art critic David Sylvester, not merely “a great, crazy masterpiece” (Geoff Dyer, The Guardian), but also “fiendishly seductive” (Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone). Now it returns, with its old entries updated and 300 new ones—from Luc Besson to Reese Witherspoon—making more than 1300 in all, some of them just a pungent paragraph, some of them several thousand words long. In addition to the new “musts,” Thomson has added key figures from film history—lively anatomies of Graham Greene, Eddie Cantor, Pauline Kael, Abbott and Costello, Noël Coward, Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Gish, Rin Tin Tin, and more. Here is a great, rare book, one that encompasses the chaos of art, entertainment, money, vulgarity, and nonsense that we call the movies. Personal, opinionated, funny, daring, provocative, and passionate, it is the one book that every filmmaker and film buff must own. Time Out named it one of the ten best books of the 1990s. Gavin Lambert recognized it as “a work of imagination in its own right.” Now better than ever—a masterwork by the man playwright David Hare called “the most stimulating and thoughtful film critic now writing.” Review:"In the latest edition of his deservedly treasured reference work...Thomson proves anew that he is irreplaceable....His monologue has blossomed into an unlikely, searching dialogue about what to value in the movies — how to love what's come before without nostalgia, and how to find the courage to demand more from the stuff being made right now....One of the most probing accounts ever written of a human being's engagement with the movies." Sarah Kerr, The New York Times Book Review Review:"The massiveness of his erudition and the brisk confidence of his manner — he's an awfully good writer — render Thomson something of a dangerous character....Earlier editions have been my constant companions for decades, consulted almost weekly....I happily welcome this latest revision....May our quarrels never end." Richard Schickel, The Los Angeles Times Review:"Thomson's love for the medium is proprietary, possessive, suffused with an academic's breadth of knowledge and a fan's mad crushes. He is by turns analytical and ardent, dryly appalled and moistly enthralled — and his book deserves a home on whatever flat surface is available between you and your DVD player. (Grade: B+)" Mark Harris, Entertainment Weekly Review:"As grand and eccentric as Samuel Johnson's dictionary, or one of the madder, more imaginary encyclopedias you'll find in the pages of Borges....Mr. Thomson is, I think, the last of the great film writers....He is here to sing the multiplex blues — sitting there, at the back of the cinema, amid the torn velour and spilled Pepsi — but this book is the most beautiful of torch songs, and more than bright enough to light up the gloom." Tom Shone, The New York Observer Review:"Halliwell's remains the first choice for a ready reference in film biography collections. If budget permits, large public libraries and college film collections should consider Thomson's book as a browsing title owing to its trenchant, sometimes witty, prose and its up-to-date coverage." Library Journal About the AuthorDavid Thomson was born in London. He has taught film studies at Dartmouth College, has served on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival, and has been the editor of the Journal of Gastronomy. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times, Film Comment, Movieline, The New Republic, Salon, and The Independent (London). He was the screenwriter on the award-winning documentary The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind. His other books include Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick, Rosebud, and three works of fiction: Suspects, Silver Light, and Warren Beatty and Desert Eyes. David Thomson lives in San Francisco with his wife and their two sons. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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