An enjoyable bedside companion for cinephiles of a classic bent, as well as amateurs who want to learn a bit more about the...
Seasoned Time film critic Schickel (Elia Kazan: A Biography, 2005, etc.) devastates a few dozen books about the movie industry, offering his own wittily informative insights in their stead.
Rather than straightforward reviews, this loose collection features detailed mini-essays (most originally published in the Los Angeles Times Book Review) offering pithy, opinionated commentary on the state of film criticism and brief lectures in movie history, each about 1,300 words long. Schickel laments two particularly unsuccessful kinds of movie books: laudatory biographies written by starry-eyed fans posing as critics or historians, which offer no illuminating analysis of the celebrity lives they chronicle; and overly dry, scholarly works by writers he’s not convinced actually watch the movies they dissect. In his little sermons, Schickel tries to fill in these gaps, bemoaning the authors’ foibles and sparing no one’s feelings as he elaborates on what they should have said and known. His reiteration of favorite themes throughout—the contemporary dearth of knowledgeable, sensitive film writers and the rise of the auteur theory—allows his critical animus to shine through, unencumbered by the pesky footnotes that accompany larger works of film criticism. He’s generous to the few gems he finds, among them Andrew Sarris’s “You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet”: The American Talking Film History and Memory 1927–1949 (1998) and Alexander Mackendrick’s On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director (2004). Here, Schickel confines himself to the more restrictive book-review format to explore their merits, even though it provides him less scope for airing his own theories.
An enjoyable bedside companion for cinephiles of a classic bent, as well as amateurs who want to learn a bit more about the history of film without lugging home a library.Pub Date: April 4, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-56663-759-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Ivan Dee/Rowman & Littlefield
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008
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
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