Overview

From cinema's most distinguished historian and critic comes a masterful one volume look at the whole sweep of movie history--perfect for fans of iconic films and modern classics, from Citizen Kane to Anora.There are few greater film lovers than David Thomson who, over the course of fifty years, has built up a reputation as one of the wisest and most penetrating voices on the art form. But Thomson is also very much aware of the dark side of this art that he's devoted his career to and here he makes a full reckoning with it. In a very profound way, he argues in this book, the movies have been a destructive force--responsible for creating an alternate reality and fantasyland that has only deepened the isolation and disconnection of our society over the course of a century. Thomson explores the high and low points of film history with his usual brilliant insight--sharp and arresting readings of movies from Metropolis to Rear Window to Anora can be found in these pages. But he also shows the ways in which our love of voyeurism and villainy, and the passivity which the movies further engender, have led to a coarsening not just of a medium, but of the larger culture, including our political life. A bracing and polemical book, this is a powerful capstone to a distinguished career.

Full Product Details

9781668141731

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

David Thomson is the author of more than twenty books, including biographies of David O. Selznick and Orson Welles, and The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. His writing and his books have been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, Slate, and many more. He lives in San Francisco. Aden Hakimi is a voice-over actor based in Brooklyn. He studied theater performance at Northeastern University in Boston, with adjunct studies at Cambridge University in England and the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin. For over a decade, he has done voice work for audiobooks, commercials, animation, and corporate videos.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available