4. Movie Wars: How Hollywood And The Media Limit What Films We Can See
By Jonathan Rosenbaum
Pumped up on passion and ferocious intelligence, the heavyweight Chicago Reader critic’s punchy polemic is a rigorous, readable call-to-battle for moviegoers who believe "movies" mean more than multiplex fodder. This is mettle-grasping movie writing as protest-lit, witty and mustard-keen.
Killer Quote: “How far are we from the prospect of Disney being asked to take over public education?”
3. Arnold: Schwarzenegger and the Movies
By Dave Saunders
Not your typical star biog, this.
Schwarzenegger and the Movies is an intellectual deconstruction of Schwarzenegger’s career, crediting his success to a series of socio-political changes and positioning him as an important an influence on American culture as any President.
Put it this way, you’ll never see a sentence like this written about Vin Diesel.
Killer Quote: “In the post-Marshall Plan climate of American pre-eminence, a number of imperative factors conspired in aiding Schwarzenegger’s preternatural ascent: supply-side morality and the ongoing ‘culture wars’; lingering ignominy thanks to the entwined legacies of Vietnam and Watergate; a revitalised but nonetheless newly absolutist popular conception of the American dream Reagan and Bush Senior’s conservative economic and foreign agendas; widespread anti-liberal backlash after the Great Society’s overselling of reform; and the death-throes of the Cold War.”
2. Pixarpedia
By DK Publishing
This encyclopaedia is targeted directly at kids, communicated in a language they’ll understand and enjoy. Which is no mean feat for a book that contains as much company history as it does character-guides.
Which isn’t to say there isn’t plenty for adults to enjoy too – every element, from the step-by-step chart to making a Pixar film, to behind-the-scenes facts, to the gorgeous pictures and beyooooooond, can be enjoyed equally by parents and children alike.
Just like Pixar movies, then.
Killer Quote: “From talking toys to bungling bugs, over-the-hill superheroes to over-the-top dads, rusty robots to really grumpy old men.”
1. Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon – The Greatest Movie Never Made
Edited by Alison Castle
Originally slated as 2001’s follow-up, Kubrick’s Napoleon was planned as both an intimate character study and expansive epic.
41 years later, we get to glimpse at the immense amount of obsessive research Kubrick was putting into the project right up until the moment he passed.
It’s an amazing, incredible, mesmerising book – actually, it’s more like ten books, with one big hardback housing nine smaller hard and softcover editions.
Each separate book covers an individual area, from picture research (440 pages of every Napoleonic image his assistants could get their hands on), to location scout images, to costume shots, to textual essays, to production documents, to colour-coded index cards featuring info on all the different real-life characters who would have had to appear, to personal correspondence to, best of all, the actual script... It’s the definition of comprehensive.
So, ten books for the price of one? Actually, it’s more like ten books for the price of ten – this book-set will cost you a paycheque draining £400. But for Kubrick geeks there’s literally no better gift this, or any, Christmas.
Killer Quote: "In this film the audience would have been torn between admiration and revulsion for Napoleon, a man full of charisma and charm, but also a reckless, egocentric despot who betrayed the hope and trust of millions throughout Europe.
Lord Holland said to the British House of Lords after Napoleon’s death: “The very people who detested this great man have acknowledged that for ten centuries there has not appeared upon earth a more extraordinary character.”
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Comments
DravenCage
Dec 14th 2009, 23:01
It's a good list of books, a list that surprised myself with how many I actually own already. I second the recommendation on the Batman encyclopedia (it really does cover virtually everything) and, as companion pieces, I'd also extol the virtues of the DC, Marvel and Spider-Man encyclopedias too (with the one on Catwoman rounding out the set if you have the cash - although I picked the latter two up in Poundland for, well, £1 each). I will say that, despite all the good offerings over the 60 titles, I'm disappointed that 'Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th' didn't make the cut. It's one of the most comprehensive reference books I've ever had the pleasure to read and it gives you a whole new appreciation for both the series and what the Sean S. Cunningham did for movies in general.
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peter
Dec 18th 2009, 11:24
Not too sure "devil may care" should be in the list but otherwise a pretty good list. For wannabe filmmakers I would also add: "All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger" by Lloyd Kaufman and James E. Gunn "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime" by Roger Corman "A Siegel Film: An Autobiography" by Don Siegel
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peter
Dec 18th 2009, 11:25
Oh and "Digital Film Making" by Mike Figgis :)
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