Disappointing, except for some flashes in selected short subjects. (Photos)
A diffuse, uneven take on the American movie experience, rather surprising from the author of the cogent appraisals of US films and filmmakers in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (2002).
Thomson (Nevada, 1999, etc.) continues to nail some topics with great precision: his appraisal of Marlon Brando confronts the actor’s pretentiousness, a trait most of the obituaries overlooked. But often these rather self-indulgent essays swoop through many, many subjects in confusing ways: Los Angeles in its early days was “a paradise,” then “it wasn’t a paradise,” then it was “a semi-paradise.” Some images turn virtually phantasmagoric; the usher in Edward Hopper’s painting New York Movie, Thomson suggests, eventually returns to the screen “where she belongs.” The author draws his title from Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon, suggesting that the Hollywood “equation” includes not just films and directors, but greedy businessmen, stars, artists, and audiences, all of them seeking transformation through celluloid. It’s hardly a novel premise: Robert Sklar’s Movie-Made America and Ethan Mordden’s The Hollywood Studios develop the theme far more coherently. To be sure, Thomson occasionally brings his subject into sharp focus in chapters, for example, on film noir and the validity of the term “golden age” as applied to Hollywood in the 1930s and ’40s. But, overall, the discussions are arguable (“Gone with the Wind is not art, not anywhere near it”), mistaken (Frank Sinatra sang “Love and Marriage” in a TV musical adaptation of Our Town, not in The Tender Trap, as Thomson states), and highly subjective in their choices of subjects. The author’s gaze fixes primarily on Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer, Irene and David Selznick, with some notice taken of other figures like the brothers Warner, D.W. Griffith, Orson Wells, and Darryl F. Zanuck.
Disappointing, except for some flashes in selected short subjects. (Photos)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2004
ISBN: 0-375-40016-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2004
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
