From one of cinema’s wisest and most penetrating observers, an arresting new perspective on the sweep of film history.David Thomson has been called “the greatest living writer on the movies.” Here is a career capstone of sorts—a one-volume history of film and screens as illuminating and provocative as his classic Biographical Dictionary of Film. In tracing the progress, from the Lumiere Brothers to the Coens, Thomson glories in the great movies, but admits...

A screwball comedy where reality blurs with film fantasy.In David Thomson's Connecticut, a film scholar researching movie kisses finds himself committed to a mental asylum in Connecticut. He encounters eccentric patients who seem to have stepped out of classic films, leading him to question his sanity and the nature of reality. Is he truly ill, or is Connecticut a haven for those who dare to see the world differently?As the lines between reality an...

How many acts of murder have each of us followed on a screen? What does that say about us? Do we remain law-abiding citizens who wouldn't hurt a fly?Film historian David Thomson, known for wit and subversiveness, leads us into this very delicate subject. While unpacking classics such as Seven, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Strangers on a Train, The Conformist, The Godfather, and The Shining, he offers a disconcerting sense of how the form of movies makes us accomplices in this sinister ...

The third novel in David Thomson's series inspired by movie genres - an enchanting yet haunting celebration of screwball romantic comedies.In 1985, with the acclaimed Suspects, and then in 1990 with the exhilarating Silver Light, David Thomson delivered unprecedented fictions in which the characters were figures from film noir and the Western. Now a trilogy is completed with Connecticut.Why Connecticut? Because that lovel...

A 24th-century master criminal and his team of specialist misfits must save humanity from a demonic alien invasion – one heist at a time.

From the celebrated film critic and author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film--an essential work on the preeminent, indispensable movie directors and the ways in which their work has forged, and continues to forge, the landscape of modern film.Directors operate behind the scenes, managing actors, establishing a cohesive creative vision, at times literally guiding our eyes with the eye of the camera. But we are often so dazzled by the visions on-screen ...

A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Joan Didion's Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader.Set in a place beyond good and evil---literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul---it remains more than three decades after its original publicat...

From one of the most admired critics of our time, brilliant insights into the act of watching movies and an enlightening discussion about how to derive more from any film experience.Since first publishing his landmark Biographical Dictionary of Film in 1975 (recently released in its sixth edition), David Thomson has been one of our most provocative authorities on all things cinema. Now he offers his most inventive exploration of the medium yet: guiding us through each elem...

From the celebrated film critic and author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, a fascinating look at some of the cinema’s finest actors and how they approach their craft"Open to any page and you’ll become enthralled by the...tales of forgotten film lore, childhood memories, sexy gossip.”—Philip Kaufman, directorMeryl Streep, Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan. When we watch these remarkable actors in a performan...

This vintage volume contains a guide to growing peaches and nectarines under glass, with information on selecting varieties, common problems, pruning, training, and more. Complete with simple, step-by-step instructions and a plethora of helpful illustrations, this is a guide that will be of considerable utility to those with an interest in growing fruit at home, and it would make for a worthy addition to collections of allied literature. The chapters of this book include: 'Peach-House for ...

"Readers will be carried away on successive waves of pleasure [and] irresistible holistic beauty" in this journey to uncover myths of Selchies (Seamus Heaney, from the introduction).When author David Thomson travelled across the coasts of Scotland and Ireland to seek out the legend of the selchies—mythological creatures who transform from seals into humans—a magical world emerged before him. Thomson was enchanted by tales of men rescued by seals in stormy seas, and ...

For almost thirty 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).This new edition updates the older entries and adds 30 new ones: Darren Aronof...