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General
Film Criticism, Theory & History
See also: Film > General History
Backlist;
Film > Criticism, Theory and History
(more academic); On Individual Films and Media > Film
Criticism
Bringing Up Oscar
Debra Ann Pawlak
Today, movies are so ingrained in our culture that it is hard to imagine a time when former cowpokes, gold prospectors, vaudevillians and even junk dealers made up the rules of Hollywood. This is the untold story of the innovative pioneers who made movies the preeminent art form of the twentieth-century by founding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Hardcover, 359 pp. $35.00.
 Weird Hollywood
Joe Oesterle
Author Joe Oesterle takes readers on an eccentric tour of Tinseltown in Weird Hollywood. This book is packed with all the stories that your history teacher wouldn't teach you, including: superheroes, hidden Nazi camps, a civilization of underground Lizard People, unusual religious practices, and a healthy dose of UFOs. Hardcover, 237 pp. $23.95.
 Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers
Robert Schnakenberg
With outrageous and uncensored profiles of everyone from D.W. Griffith to Quentin Tarantino, Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers reveals the little known secrets of all your favourite directors. Why did Charlie Chaplin refuse to bathe for weeks at a time? Was Alfred Hitchcock really missing a belly button? Is Walt Disney's corpse preserved in a state of suspended animation? And why on earth did Francis Ford Coppola direct a 3-D pornographic movie? The legends of the silver screen will never be the same. Softcover, 287 pp. $19.95.
 Obscene, Indecent, Immoral, and Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned and Controversial Films
Stephen Tropiano
This entertaining and insightful book is the first popular study of films that have earned a special place in history by pushing the envelope with their handling of provocative subjects and themes. Softcover, 364 pp. $24.95.
 The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History
Jim Piazza & Gail Kinn
You are invited to share eighty years of stars and statues, directors
and presenters, all the winners and losers, and all the glamour and
gossip that is Oscar. Get the full story and all the facts: memorable
images, behind-the-scenes and on-camera anecdotes, and unabridged lists
by year and category of every nominee that has ever heard his or her
name called on the brightest night in Hollywood. Softcover, 359 pp.
$31.50.
 Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre
Tamar Jeffersd McDonald
Romantic Comedy offers an accessible introduction to one of the most popular but generally overlooked film genres. Softcover, 133 pp. $26.95.
 Fantastic Female Filmmakers
Suzanne Simoni
Fantastic Female Filmmakers tells the stories of ten women who are among the most creative and respected directors in the world. Nell Shipman started her own production company in the silent movie days. American actress Ida Lupino was the first woman to direct herself in a film. Academy Award-nominee Deepa Mehta brought the stories of her native India to audiences around the world against all the odds. These directors prove that women can be stars behind the camera as well as on the screen. Softcover, 122 pp. $10.95.
 Ready For My Close-Up!
Edited by Denny Martin Flinn
Ready for My Close-Up! captures the timeless language of so many unforgettable moments in cinema, from Groucho Marx's humorous "I shot an elephant in my pajamas" to Julia Roberts' discontented "Basically I've been hungry for a decade," from Jack Nicholson's contemptuous "Son, we live in a world that has walls" to James Earl Jones' reassuring "People will come, Ray." this book is a must-have for all movie buffs, aspiring screenwriters Softcover, 192 pp. $22.95.
 Silent Cinema
Robert J. Robb
Through a study of the earliest origins of cinema to the stars, comedians and directors who became popular from the late-Victorian era to the end of the 1920s, and including a look at the earliest Hollywood scandals of the time, Silent Cinema will be a handy guide to the art of cinema's silent years in Hollywood and across the globe. Softcover, 159 pp. $24.95.
 Chasing Dragons
David West
Written for both interested filmgoers and established aficionados, Chasing
Dragons is an essential introduction and guide to the martial arts
cinemas of Japan, Hong Kong and Hollywood. Chasing Dragons explores
over fifty key films, their texts, fighting techniques, stars and directors--set
in the distinct cultures producing and forming them. Softcover, 272
pp. $22.95.
 On Location: Cities of the World in Film
Claudia Hellman & Claudine Weber-Hof
Of cinema's various delights, film locations may be the most charming.
An address, a certain city square, or even a particular park bench
can close the gap between the dream world of movies and everyday life,
and the effect is pure magic. On Location: Cities in
the World of Film presents the behind-the-scenes stories from
cities and their locations- both famous and mundane- that have featured
in popular films. This richly illustrated volume presents 18 cities
and their world famous films with a forward by Wim Wenders. Hardcover,
200 pp. $43.50.
 Still
Moving: The Film and Media Collections of the Museum of Modern Art
Steven Higgins
Here, for the first time, is a volume that celebrates the MoMA's remarkable film
archive. With over 500 luminous images drawn from individual films, this book
is a glorious visual narrative of the museum's collection. The lucid introduction,
by Steven Higgins, outlines the history of the collection and gives some insight
into how the museum goes about fulfilling its mandate: acquiring, preserving,
and exhibiting these extraordinary and singular works. Hardcover, 374 pp. $78.00.
 Glorious Technicolor
Fred Basten
This is a full account of the dazzling Technicolor years that turned the
screen from silver to every color of the rainbow. Here in one volume
are the films, the stars, the showmen and all the elements behind
the phemomenon that changed movies forever. Beautiful film stills
and rare behind-the-scenes
photos, many in full colour, taken on the sets of memorable Technicolor
movies highlight the personalities and stories behind the making
of movies.
From the long stuggle to bring perfect colour to motion pictures,
to the restoration of classic features and the evolution to digital
technologies, Technicolor has redefined the movie going experience.
Hardcover, 284 pp. $77.95.
 Silent
Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Charlie
Chaplin
John Bengston
Explore the traces of early Hollywood hidden within Charlie Chaplin's timeless
films. This stunning work of cinematic archeology combines Chaplin's movie images
with archival photographs, vintage maps, and scores of then-and-now comparison
photographs to conjure up the silent movie era from an entirely new perspective.
Softcover, 300 pp. $33.95.
 The X List: The National Society of Film Critics' Guide to Movies
That Turn Us On
Jami Bernard
In The X List, some of today's most celebrated print, broadcast,
and online critics give their passionate take on the films that
quicken the pulse. It's an enterprise both risky and risque --
nothing short of
a tour of the most arousing films the world has ever produced.
Included are profiles of Ecstasy, Body Heat, Y
tu mama tambien,
and several other;
however, since the films reflect the critics' individual tastes,
you can expect more than a few surprise inclusions. Softcover,
330 pp. $23.50.
 Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops
In Fiasco, longtime industry insider and acclaimed Hollywood
historian James Robert Parish goes behind the scenes to tell the
stories of fifteen of the most spectacular megaflops of the past
fifty years. No mere financial disappointments these, each of the
artistic and financial failures covered was of a magnitude to bankrupt
studios, demolish reputations, and, in some cases, totally reconfigure
the Hollywood power structure. With verve and no small measure of
edgy wit, Parish dishes up the gossip, the grosses, and the egregious
battles connected with these disasters. Softcover, 359 pp. $17.99.
 Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession
Dade Hayes & Jonathan Bing
In Open Wide, veteran Hollywood journalists Dade Hayes and Jonathan Bing
illuminate the quest for box office supremacy, shining a bright
light on the inner workings of Hollywood's vast sales and marketing
machine. As the
authors explore how and why box office receipts have evolved from
a closely guarded corporate secret to national obsession, they
bring an acute insight
to an industry that is increasingly devoted to producing the next
big blockbuster that they can "open wide" Softcover, 438 pp. $18.95.
 Rebels and Chicks: A History of the Hollywood Teen Movie
Stephen Tropiano
This book takes both an insightful and humorous look at the evolution
of one of Hollywood's most popular genres and how it has endured and
changed with the times. Readers will take a nostalgic trip through the major
cycles of Hollywood teenpics past and present: the teen horror films
and juvenile-delinquent
dramas of the 1950s; beach-party musicals of the 1960s; sex comedies
of the 1970s; slasher films and John Hughes pictures of the 1980s; and
more recent flicks like Reality Bites, Clueless, American
Pie, and Thirteen.
Softcover, 296 pp. $24.95.
 Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary
Valerie Belletti & Cari Beauchamp
In 1924, Valeria Belletti moved from New York to Los Angeles and landed
a job as Samuel Goldwyn's personal secretary. Now, through a series
of letters sent back east, she provides an insider's view of the
film studios of the 1920s--and the first from a secretary's perspective.
Rich
in gossip,
it is also an eyewitness report of Hollywood in transistion. Valeria
intimately documents her personal journey while giving us a unique
portrait of a fascinating
era.
Softcover, 230 pp. $27.95.
 Uncle John's Bathroom Reader: Plunges into Hollywood
Uncle John
Grab your popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the show. Uncle John focuses on Hollywood
in this latest bathroom reader devoted to the trials, triumphs, and trivia
of tinseltown. Featuring the inside stories, quotes, quizzes, and bits
of lore that Uncle John's readers have come to expect, Plunges into Hollywood
goes behind the scenes to give you the scoop on: Hollywood legends and
landmarks;
discoveries, big breaks, and comebacks; and scandals, secrets, and murder
mysteries. Softcover, 487 pp. $23.95.
 The Big Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood
Edward Jay Epstein
In this unprecedented, all-encompassing, and thoroughly entertaining account
of the movie business, acclaimed writer Edward Jay Epstein reveals
the real magic behind moviemaking: how the studios make their money.
Epstein shows that in Hollywood, the only art that matters is the
art of the deal:
Major films turn huge profits not from the movies themselves but
through myriad other enterprises, from video-game spin-offs and soundtracks
to
fast-food tie-ins and even theme-park rides. Alongside its remarkable
financial revelations and incisive profiles of the pioneers who helped
build Hollywood,
The Big Picture is filled with eye-opening insider stories.
Softcover, 402 pp. $22.95.
 Street Smart: The New York of Lumet, Allen, Scorsese, and Lee
Richard A. Blake
New York City's heterogeneous economic and ethnic districts -- where people
live, work, shop, worship, and go to school -- often bear little
relation to the image of the city created by the movies. In Street
Smart, Richard
A. Blake examines the cultural influences of New York's neighborhoods
on the work of four quintessentially New York filmmakers: Sidney
Lumet, Woody
Allen, Martin Scorsese, and Spike Lee. Hardcover, 335 pp. $50.50.
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Legendary Movies
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Bad Girls: Film Fatales, Sirens, and Molls
Hollywood: The Movie Lover's Guide
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All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards
Tales from Development Hell: Hollywood Filmmaking the Hard Way 
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Fear
Without Frontiers 
The Golden Girls of MGM
Now Showing: Unforgettable Moments from the Movies
A Knight at the Movies: Medieval History on Film
Hammer Films: The Pocket Essential
One Hundred Violent Films that Changed Cinema
Manhattan on Film 2
It Don't Worry Me: Nashville, Jaws, Star Wars and Beyond
