"Have You Seen . . . ?": A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films
David Thomson
Language: English
Pages: 1024
ISBN: 0375711341
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
More than one thousand pages in the voice of our most provocative contemporary film critic and historian—a generous history of film and an enticing critical appraisal written with as much humor and passion as historical knowledge.
Juxtaposing the fanciful and the fabulous, the old favorites and the forgotten, this sweeping collection presents the films that Thomson offers to answer the question he gets asked most often—“What should I see?” Not content to choose only his own top films, Thomson has created a list that will surprise and delight you—and send you to your DVD player. But he also probes the question: After one hundred years of film, which ones are the best, and why?
“Have You Seen . . . ?” suggests a true canon of cinema and is a must for anyone who loves the silver screen: the perfect confection to dip into for a taste of controversy, little-known facts, and ideas about what to see. You’ll want to return to this volume again and again, like a dear but argumentative friend in the dark at the movies.
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design by Stuart Craig, costumes by Ann Roth, and a score by Gabriel Yared (with inspired use of popular songs). At a key point in film history, David Lean believed that “epic” had to be for everyone, yet his films are hollow. Minghella, it seems to me, has seen that this is a myth: Nothing is for everyone. Works of choice rely on discrimination. But the epic genre—so long as it is founded in love, and probably unhappy love—can be for enough people for the venture to be worthwhile. The playing
well as several other craft awards—eleven nominations and eight Oscars, including a nod for the superb photography of Miroslav Ondricek and a win for the art direction by Patrizia von Brandenstein and Karel Cerný. The cast also includes Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow (who was the London Mozart), Roy Dotrice, Christine Ebersole, and Jeffrey Jones. Amarcord (1974) Americans especially loved Amarcord: In 1974, the Academy gave it Best Foreign Film, and the year after, Fellini was
of them all). From these beginnings, Alton went on to win an Oscar for the entirely different color photography on An American in Paris. That was for M-G-M, where Alton became a celebrated but conventional artistic cameraman. It’s hardly original to say that the two guys had a great time on their five films—the cinematic excitement jumps out at you from every shot, and surely these films had a huge impact on certain French critics (often reliant on the subtitles) in finding beauty at the lowest
person around. Fellini kept his team intact: Otello Martelli doing the camerawork, and Nino Rota writing the music. You might guess this, but the idea of the film is that the brutal strong man dominates and bullies the sweet, good girl but never conquers her spirit. Some find the question more pressing as to why she doesn’t murder him—or why we remain loyal to the dark and this lurid fairy story. It’s my hunch that not many people could endure La Strada today without some numbing potion. But you
real men pass by, like a whore he’s giving a lift to. I should have added that the drama is brought to a head by a barely disguised version of the Black Dahlia murders of 1947—when the parts of a pretty girl were found in a wasteland, cut up but organized artistically. This is the case that Duvall’s detective takes up, and it is what connects so many people in what still seems a small Los Angeles. The period stuff is very warmly done, and Ulu Grosbard shows himself a tactful director of a good