Post by mikef6 on Jun 17, 2017 18:40:11 GMT
Please tell us about the last book(s) about movies that you have read. To be clear: I am not asking for favorites or essentials, only what you have recently finished – for good or ill. Also, give us at least a couple of sentences (or paragraphs or whatever) of a review of each one.
A few weeks ago, I collected four books off the New Books shelf at my public library:
We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, And Afterlife Of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie by Noah Isenberg. There are plenty of books about the making of Casablanca (mainly Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of "Casablanca" - Bogart, Bergman, and World War II by Aljean Harmetz) but the bulk of the new book has a slightly different focus - immigrants and refugees from war torn Europe coming to the U.S. Not only does Casablanca picture their plight (until the romance plot overwhelms it in the last half of the film) but most of the cast, even extras, were immigrants. Of the 14 credited players, only three were born in the United States: Humphrey Bogart, Dooley Wilson (Sam), and Joy Page. Page played the newlywed Bulgarian who Rick saves from having to have sex with Capt. Renault as payment for an exit visa. She was the step-daughter of Jack L. Warner which may account for the juicy close-ups given her by Michael Curtiz. The book also covers the film’s high regard in other nations, mainly due to the refugee subplot.
Not To Be Missed: 54 Favorites From A Lifetime Of Film by Kenneth Turan. For people who enjoy reading lists of Favorite Movies Of All Time, here is a book length attempt. Turan, film critic for the L.A. Times, chose 54 because his rabbi told him that in Jewish numerology, “18” was an important number, meaning “life” or “living.” 54 is a 3 times multiple of 18. In an appendix we get a second 54 titles Many of the movies in the second 54 are titles I would have had in my Top 50. A fun read.
Keepers: The Greatest Films – And Personal Favorites – Of A Moviegoing Lifetime by Richard Schickel. Veteran critic and film historian Schickel also reveals his personal favorites (which he distinguishes from the Greatest Movies), but in a way that is not structured as tightly as Turan’s book. Generally speaking, Schickel takes a chronological approach with genre considerations within each time period, but mostly it reads almost like stream of consciousness. He briefly talks about what may be hundreds of movies.
Moments That Made The Movies by David Thomson. Thomson’s book is more like what used to be called a “coffee table book” – a large tome with lots of pictures made for browsing. Thomson picks one (occasionally two) scenes from 71 films and writes a couple of pages on each, giving us his often off-beat, if not strange, but frequently insightful comments. Fun for flipping through.
A few weeks ago, I collected four books off the New Books shelf at my public library:
We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, And Afterlife Of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie by Noah Isenberg. There are plenty of books about the making of Casablanca (mainly Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of "Casablanca" - Bogart, Bergman, and World War II by Aljean Harmetz) but the bulk of the new book has a slightly different focus - immigrants and refugees from war torn Europe coming to the U.S. Not only does Casablanca picture their plight (until the romance plot overwhelms it in the last half of the film) but most of the cast, even extras, were immigrants. Of the 14 credited players, only three were born in the United States: Humphrey Bogart, Dooley Wilson (Sam), and Joy Page. Page played the newlywed Bulgarian who Rick saves from having to have sex with Capt. Renault as payment for an exit visa. She was the step-daughter of Jack L. Warner which may account for the juicy close-ups given her by Michael Curtiz. The book also covers the film’s high regard in other nations, mainly due to the refugee subplot.
Not To Be Missed: 54 Favorites From A Lifetime Of Film by Kenneth Turan. For people who enjoy reading lists of Favorite Movies Of All Time, here is a book length attempt. Turan, film critic for the L.A. Times, chose 54 because his rabbi told him that in Jewish numerology, “18” was an important number, meaning “life” or “living.” 54 is a 3 times multiple of 18. In an appendix we get a second 54 titles Many of the movies in the second 54 are titles I would have had in my Top 50. A fun read.
Keepers: The Greatest Films – And Personal Favorites – Of A Moviegoing Lifetime by Richard Schickel. Veteran critic and film historian Schickel also reveals his personal favorites (which he distinguishes from the Greatest Movies), but in a way that is not structured as tightly as Turan’s book. Generally speaking, Schickel takes a chronological approach with genre considerations within each time period, but mostly it reads almost like stream of consciousness. He briefly talks about what may be hundreds of movies.
Moments That Made The Movies by David Thomson. Thomson’s book is more like what used to be called a “coffee table book” – a large tome with lots of pictures made for browsing. Thomson picks one (occasionally two) scenes from 71 films and writes a couple of pages on each, giving us his often off-beat, if not strange, but frequently insightful comments. Fun for flipping through.
