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Film

Ayoade on Top

Ayoade on Top

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At last, the definitive book about perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View From the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow. In Ayoade on Top, Richard Ayoade, perhaps one of the most 'insubstantial' people of our age, takes us on a journey from Peckham to Paris by way of Nevada and other places we don't care about. It's a journey deep within, in a way that's respectful and non-invasive; a journey for which we will all pay a heavy price, even if you've waited for the smaller paperback edition. Ayoade argues for the canonisation of this brutal masterpiece, a film that celebrates capitalism in all its victimless glory; one we might imagine Donald Trump himself half-watching on his private jet's gold-plated flat screen while his other puffy eye scans the cabin for fresh, young prey."
Ayoade on Top

Ayoade on Top

$17.00
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At last, the definitive book about perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View From the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
In Ayoade on Top, Richard Ayoade, perhaps one of the most insubstantial people of our age, takes us on a journey from Peckham to Paris by way of Nevada and other places we don't care about. It's a journey deep within, in a way that's respectful and non-invasive; a journey for which we will all pay a heavy price, even if you've waited for the smaller paperback edition.
Ayoade argues for the canonization of this brutal masterpiece, a film that celebrates capitalism in all its victimless glory; one we might imagine Donald Trump himself half-watching on his private jet's gold-plated flat screen while his other puffy eye scans the cabin for fresh, young prey.
Ball of Fire: Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball

Ball of Fire: Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball

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As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, "queen of the B-pluses." But on the small screen she was a superstar-arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy's genius and places it in the context of her conflicted and sometimes bitter personal life.

Ball of Fire gives us Lucy in all her contradictions. Here is the beauty who became a master of knock-down slapstick; the control freak whose comic alter ego thrived on chaos, the worshipful TV housewife whose real marriage ended in public disaster. Here, too, is an intimate view of the dawn of television and of the America that embraced it. Charming, informative, touching. and laugh-out-loud funny, this is the book Lucy's fans have been waiting for.

Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood

Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood

$45.00
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Barbara La Marr's (1896-1926) publicist once confessed: "There was no reason to lie about Barbara La Marr. Everything she said, everything she did was colored with news-value." When La Marr was sixteen, her older half-sister and a male companion reportedly kidnapped her, causing a sensation in the media. One year later, her behavior in Los Angeles nightclubs caused law enforcement to declare her "too beautiful" to be on her own in the city, and she was ordered to leave. When La Marr returned to Hollywood years later, her loveliness and raw talent caught the attention of producers and catapulted her to movie stardom.

In the first full-length biography of the woman known as the "girl who was too beautiful," Sherri Snyder presents a complete portrait of one of the silent era's most infamous screen sirens. In five short years, La Marr appeared in twenty-six films, including The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), Trifling Women (1922), The Eternal City (1923), The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924), and Thy Name Is Woman (1924). Yet by 1925-finding herself beset by numerous scandals, several failed marriages, a hidden pregnancy, and personal prejudice based on her onscreen persona-she fell out of public favor. When she was diagnosed with a fatal lung condition, she continued to work, undeterred, until she collapsed on set. She died at the age of twenty-nine.

Few stars have burned as brightly and as briefly as Barbara La Marr, and her extraordinary life story is one of tempestuous passions as well as perseverance in the face of adversity. Drawing on never-before-released diary entries, correspondence, and creative works, Snyder's biography offers a valuable perspective on her contributions to silent-era Hollywood and the cinematic arts.

Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr

Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr

$29.99
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The Surprising Story of Hedy Lamarr, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"

As a teenage actress in 1920s Austria, performing on the stage and in film in light comedies and musicals, Hedy Kiesler, with her exotic beauty, was heralded across Europe by her mentor, Max Reinhardt. However, it was her nude scene, and surprising dramatic ability, in Ecstasy that made her a star. Ecstasy's notoriety followed her for the rest of her life. She married one of Austria's most successful and wealthy munitions barons, giving up her career for what seemed at first a fairy-tale existence. Instead, as war clouds loomed in the mid-1930s, Hedy discovered that she was trapped in a loveless marriage to a controlling, ruthless man who befriended Mussolini, sold armaments to Hitler, yet hid his own Jewish heritage to become an "honorary Aryan."

She fled her husband and escaped to Hollywood, where M-G-M changed her name to Hedy Lamarr and she became one of film's most glamorous stars. She worked with such renowned directors as King Vidor, Victor Fleming, and Cecil B. DeMille, and appeared opposite such respected actors as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, John Garfield, and James Stewart. But as her career waned, her personal problems and legal wranglings cast lingering shadows over her former image. It wasn't until decades later that the world was stunned to learn of her unexpected role as the inventor of a technology that has become an essential part of everything from military weaponry to cell phones--proof that Hedy Lamarr was far more than merely Delilah to Victor Mature's Samson. She demonstrated a creativity and an intelligence she had always possessed. Stephen Michael Shearer's in-depth and meticulously researched biography, written with the cooperation of Hedy's children, intimate friends, and colleagues, separates the truths from the rumors, the facts from the fables, about Hedy Lamarr, to reveal the life and character of one of classic Hollywood's most beautiful and remarkable women.

Beneath Mulholland

Beneath Mulholland

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"[Thomson is] one of the finest film
critics in the English language."
--philip lopate, the new york times book review

If most film critics write about movies, David Thomson creates their literary counterpart with essays that are as dazzling, haunting, and moving as the pictures they discuss. In this bravura new collection, the Esquire columnist trains his eye on Hollywood's ghosts, exploring their tendency to rise from the grave or descend from the screen to intimately haunt our lives.

Thomson conjures up Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo, Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, and Cary Grant in any of the pictures where he makes every scene look like a lucky accident. With equal aplomb, he imagines a James Dean who survived the car crash and a post-Saturday Night Fever Tony Manero. We learn the "20 Things People Like to Forget About Hollywood" (Number 3: "You Are Their Playthings, Not the Other Way Around"). And on every page of Beneath Mulholland, we are educated, entertained, and enlarged by a book as savvy and incisive as any Hollywood reportage and as lyrical as the best fiction.

"Not just...one of our sharpest
writers-on-film, but...one of our
wisest and best writers, period."
--film comment

Best Actress

Best Actress

$39.95
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Ingrid Bergman. Audrey Hepburn. Elizabeth Taylor. Jane Fonda. Meryl Streep. The list of women who have won the coveted and legendary Academy Award for Best Actress is long and varied. Through this illustrious roster we can trace the history of women in Hollywood, from the rise of Mary Pickford in the early 20th century to the #MeToo and Time's Up movements of today, which have galvanized women across the world to speak out for equal pay, respect, power, and opportunity.

This lavishly illustrated coffee table book offers a vital examination of the first 75 women to have won the Best Actress Oscar over the span of 90 years. From inaugural recipient Janet Gaynor to Frances McDormand's 2018 acceptance speech that assertively brought women to the forefront, Best Actress: The History of Oscar(R)-Winning Women serves to promote a new appreciation for the cinematic roles these women won for, as well as the real-life roles many of them played - and still play - in advancing women's rights and equality. Stories range from Bette Davis' groundbreaking battle against the studio system; to the cutting-edge wardrobes of Katharine Hepburn, Diane Keaton and Cher; to the historical significance of Halle Berry's victory; to the awareness raised around sexual violence by the performances of Jodie Foster, Brie Larson, and others.

Showcasing a dazzling collection of 200 photographs, many of which have never before been seen or published, Best Actress honors the legacies of these revered and extraordinary women while scrutinizing the roadblocks that they continue to overcome.

Best Film You've Never Seen

Best Film You've Never Seen

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In this book, 35 directors champion their favorite overlooked or critically savaged gems. Among these guilty pleasures, almost-masterpieces, and undeniable classics in need of revival are unsung noirs (Murder by Contract), famous flops (Can't Stop the Music, Joe Versus the Volcano), art films (L'ange), theatrical adaptations (The Iceman Cometh), B-movies (Killer Klowns from Outer Space), and even a few Oscar-winners (Some Came Running). In these conversations, the filmmakers defend their choices. These films, they argue, deserve a larger audience and for their place in movie history to be reconsidered. But the conversations' tangents, diversions, and side trips provide as much insight into the directors' own approach to moviemaking as into the film they're discussing. The filmmakers are the perfect hosts, often setting the tone, managing expectations, and giving advice about how you should watch each movie. They're often brutally honest about a film's shortcomings or the reasons why it was lost in the first place. The Best Film You've Never Seen is not only a guide to some badly overlooked movies but a bold attempt to rewrite film history.
Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together

Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together

$20.00
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If a child can watch Barney, can't that same child also enjoy watching Charlie Chaplin or the Marx Brothers? And as they get older, wouldn't they grow to like screwball comedies (His Girl Friday), women's weepies (Imitation of Life), and westerns (The Searchers)? The answer is that they'll follow because they'll have learned that "old" does not necessarily mean "next channel, please."Here is an impassioned and eminently readable guide that introduces the delights of the golden age of movies. Ty Burr has come up with a winning prescription for children brought up on Hollywood junk food. FOR THE LITTLE ONES (Ages 3--6): Fast-paced movies that are simple without being unsophisticated, plainspoken without being dumbed down. Singin' in the Rain and Bringing Up Baby are perfect.FOR THE ONES IN BETWEEN (Ages 7--12): "Killer stories," placing easily grasped characters in situations that start simply and then throw curveballs. The African Queen and Some Like It Hot do the job well.FOR THE OLDER ONES (Ages 13+): Burr recommends relating old movies to teens' contemporary favorites: without Hitchcock, there could be no The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, without Brando, no Johnny Depp.
Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood

Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood

$28.99
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Fifth Avenue, Five A.M. and Fosse comes the revelatory account of the making of a modern American masterpiece

Chinatown

is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making.

In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston. Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage death of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, the scene of the crime, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted. Here is the fevered dealmaking of The Kid Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne's fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written. Wasson for the first time peels off layers of myth to provide the true account of its creation.

Looming over the story of this classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the '70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today. In telling that larger story, The Big Goodbye will take its place alongside classics like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and The Devil's Candy as one of the great movie-world books ever written.

Praise for Sam Wasson:
Wasson is a canny chronicler of old Hollywood and its outsize personalities...More than that, he understands that style matters, and, like his subjects, he has a flair for it. - The New Yorker
Sam Wasson is a fabulous social historian because he finds meaning in situations and stories that would otherwise be forgotten if he didn't sleuth them out, lovingly. - Hilton Als

Big Lebowski

Big Lebowski

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The Big Lebowski is a razor-sharp comedy thriller of mistaken identity, gangsters, bowling, kidnapping, and money gone astray, written by the Coens, directed by Joel Coen, and produced by Ethan Coen. In addition to Jeff Bridges, whose portrayal of The Dude has become iconic, and John Goodman, his bowling buddy, the film stars Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Willem Dafoe, Sam Elliot, and Ben Gazzara. Not given to talking publicly about their work, the Coens gave access to Tricia Cooke and William Preston Robertson to interview the cast and crew. In a prose style that complements the Coens' filmic one, the book discusses the Coens' oeuvre, the themes of their films, their atypical brand of humor, their craft, and their artistic vision. Several scenes of The Big Lebowski are examined closely to see how the movie goes from idea to reality, making this an ideal book for fans, filmmakers, and filmmaking students.
Big Screen: The Story of the Movies

Big Screen: The Story of the Movies

$35.00
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"The Big Screen "tells the enthralling story of the movies: their rise and spread, their remarkable influence over us, and the technology that made the screen smaller now, but ever more ubiquitous as important as the images it carries.

"The Big Screen "is not another history of the movies. Rather, it is a wide-ranging narrative about the movies and their signal role in modern life. At first, film was a waking dream, the gift of appearance delivered for a nickel to huddled masses sitting in the dark. But soon, and abruptly, movies began transforming our societies and our perceptions of the world. The celebrated film authority David Thomson takes us around the globe, through time, and across many media moving from Eadweard Muybridge to Steve Jobs, from "Sunrise "to "I Love Lucy," from John Wayne to George Clooney, from television commercials to streaming video to tell the complex, gripping, paradoxical story of the movies. He tracks the ways we were initially enchanted by movies as imitations of life the stories, the stars, the look and how we allowed them to show us how to live. At the same time, movies, offering a seductive escape from everyday reality and its responsibilities, have made it possible for us to evade life altogether. The entranced audience has become a model for powerless and anxiety-ridden citizens trying to pursue happiness and dodge terror by sitting quietly in a dark room.

Does the big screen take us out into the world, or merely mesmerize us? That is Thomson's question in this grand adventure of a book. Books about the movies are often aimed at film buffs, but this passionate and provocative feat of storytelling is vital to anyone trying to make sense of the age of screens the age that, more than ever, we are living in."

Black Guy Dies First

Black Guy Dies First

$24.99
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A definitive and surprising exploration of the history of Black horror films, after the rising success of Get Out, Candyman, and Lovecraft Country from creators behind the acclaimed documentary, Horror Noire.

The Black Guy Dies First explores the Black journey in modern horror cinema, from the fodder epitomized by Spider Baby to the Oscar-​winning cinematic heights of Get Out and beyond. This eye-opening book delves into the themes, tropes, and traits that have come to characterize Black roles in horror since 1968, a year in which race made national headlines in iconic moments from the enactment of the 1968 Civil Rights Act and Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in April. This timely book is a must-read for cinema and horror fans alike.

Black Panther The Official Movie Companion

Black Panther The Official Movie Companion

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Black Panther: The Official Movie Companion reveals secrets of one of Marvel Studios' biggest movie blockbusters. Discover the world of Wakanda with amazing images and articles. Delve into the origins of one of Marvel's most iconic superheroes. Uncover the story behind the making of Marvel Studio's Black Panther.

With revealing behind the scenes photos from the movie sets, stunning concept art revealing the beautiful, mysterious nation of Wakanda, interviews with the cast and crew of the film, this stunning collector's book is a must-have for all fans of everything Marvel!

Black Panther The Official Movie Special

Black Panther The Official Movie Special

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Black Panther: The Official Movie Special is a complete visual and behind-the-scenes guide to Marvel Studios' highly anticipated next movie.

With exclusive behind the scenes photos from the movie sets, stunning concept art revealing the beautiful, secretive nation of Wakanda, interviews with the stars of the film, including Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman, Forest Whitaker and Danai Gurira, this stunning collector's book is a must-have for all fans of everything Marvel!

Black Panther: Dreams of Wakanda

Black Panther: Dreams of Wakanda

$25.00
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Join creators, writers, and comics legends as they discuss the impact of Marvel Studios' Black Panther in this gorgeously illustrated collection of essays

Marvel Studios' Black Panther has become more than just a movie--it has shaped conversations about art, culture, science fiction, representation, justice, fashion, comics, creativity, and so much more. Celebrate the legacy of the film with this collection of all-new personal essays and reflections that shed light on its monumental impact, including firsthand stories from artists involved in the film, cultural analysis from journalists and academics, and thoughtful insights from writers and comics legends. Each contributor brings their unique expertise and experience to explore the film's genesis and significance from every angle. Complete with gorgeous original illustrations, Dreams of Wakanda brings together a wide array of diverse and multifaceted perspectives that exemplify the many ways the film has impacted cinema, culture, and society.

In this collection:
- Costume designer Ruth E. Carter takes us through her Afrofuturistic designs.
- Writer Tre Johnson discusses the metaphoric qualities of vibranium.
- Author Yona Harvey reflects on how the film has resonated with audiences across the African diaspora.
- Journalist Hannah Giorgis uncovers how the soundtrack fits into sonic portraits of Blackness.

The contributors:
Marlene Allen Ahmed - Aaron C. Allen - Maurice Broaddus - Ruth E. Carter - Hannah Giorgis - Yona Harvey - Tre Johnson - Arvell Jones - Frederick Joseph - Suyi Davies Okungbowa - Dwayne Wong Omowale - Gil Robertson IV - Foreword by Nic Stone - Art by Mateus Manhanini

To celebrate the launch of this book and Black Panther's global impact, Disney and Penguin Random House are donating books to First Book and Books for Africa respectively. Disney is donating books valued at approximately $1,000,000 to support First Book, a leading nonprofit that serves children in underserved communities and addresses the needs of the whole child by supporting their education, basic needs, and wellness--all of which are essential to educational equity. Penguin Random House (PRH) is donating PRH titles valued at approximately $100,000 to Books For Africa. Books For Africa was founded upon a singular mission: to end the book famine in Africa. BFA collects, sorts, and ships books, computers, tablets, and library enhancement materials to every country in Africa.

Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road

Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road

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A full-speed-ahead oral history of the nearly two-decade making of the cultural phenomenon Mad Max: Fury Road--with more than 130 new interviews with key members of the cast and crew, including Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, and director George Miller, from the pop culture reporter for The New York Times, Kyle Buchanan.

It won six Oscars and has been hailed as the greatest action film ever, but it is a miracle Mad Max: Fury Road ever made it to the screen... or that anybody survived the production. The story of this modern classic spanned nearly two decades of wild obstacles as visionary director George Miller tried to mount one of the most difficult shoots in Hollywood history.

Production stalled several times, stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron clashed repeatedly in the brutal Namib Desert, and Miller's crew engineered death-defying action scenes that were among the most dangerous ever committed to film. Even accomplished Hollywood figures are flummoxed by the accomplishment: As the director Steven Soderbergh has said, "I don't understand how they're not still shooting that film, and I don't understand how hundreds of people aren't dead."

Kyle Buchanan takes readers through every step of that moviemaking experience in vivid detail, from Fury Road's unexpected origins through its outlandish casting process to the big-studio battles that nearly mutilated a masterpiece. But he takes the deepest dive in reporting the astonishing facts behind a shoot so unconventional that the film's fantasy world began to bleed into the real lives of its cast and crew. As they fought and endured in a wasteland of their own, the only way forward was to have faith in their director's mad vision. But how could Miller persevere when almost everything seemed to be stacked against him?

With hundreds of exclusive interviews and details about the making of Fury Road, readers will be left with one undeniable conclusion: There has never been a movie so drenched in sweat, so forged by fire, and so epic in scope.

Bogie & Bacall

Bogie & Bacall

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Ever since nineteen-year-old Lauren Bacall seductively taught Humphrey Bogart how to whistle in the most famous scene from 1941's To Have and Have Not, fans have been fascinated by the palpable heat between these two movie legends. Their onscreen passion blossomed into a full-blown off-screen love affair, and culminated in a blissful marriage that lasted twelve years, until Bogart's untimely death in 1957. Bogie & Bacall celebrates their love, with rare photos of the couple, along with tips and anecdotes that will inspire you to ignite your own legendary romance.