The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated

The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated
by David Thomson

The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated
List Price: $22.95
Our Price: $14.66
You Save: $8.29 (36%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.80 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: David Thomson
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-11-16
ISBN: 0375709401
Number of pages: 1008
Publisher: Knopf

Book Reviews of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated

Book Review: The Big Book of Film
Summary: 5 Stars

Thomson writes the mini-essay like no one else. This book has info aplenty, but more than that it finds resonance in the most unexpected places. Try the entries on Rin-Tin-Tin, or the Lumiere Brothers. Some pieces tend more toward the length of full essay-portraits, but these too are surprises. The longest (I think) is Graham Green, which shows the intersection of life, film, lterature and art (a place full of fascinating wreckage). And where else would Sharon Stone's entry get merged with the one on Frances Farmer?
This is an encyclopedia that lacks as many details as it encompasses, yet it has everything it needs. It's more a way of looking at the movies than a mere listing of data. Along with The People's Almanac of 1975, this is one of the two most readable reference works I've ever experienced. Much of it is worth reading twice.

Summary of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated

For almost thirty years, David Thomson's Biographical Dictionary of Film has been not merely "the finest reference book ever written about movies" (Graham Fuller, Interview), not merely the "desert island book" of art critic David Sylvester, not merely "a great, crazy masterpiece" (Geoff Dyer, The Guardian), but also "fiendishly seductive" (Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone).

This new edition updates the older entries and adds 30 new ones: Darren Aronofsky, Emmanuelle Beart, Jerry Bruckheimer, Larry Clark, Jennifer Connelly, Chris Cooper, Sofia Coppola, Alfonso Cuaron, Richard Curtis, Sir Richard Eyre, Sir Michael Gambon, Christopher Guest, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Spike Jonze, Wong Kar-Wai, Laura Linney, Tobey Maguire, Michael Moore, Samantha Morton, Mike Myers, Christopher Nolan, Dennis Price, Adam Sandler, Kevin Smith, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlize Theron, Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski, Lew Wasserman, Naomi Watts, and Ray Winstone.

In all, the book includes more than 1300 entries, some of them just a pungent paragraph, some of them several thousand words long. In addition to the new "musts," Thomson has added key figures from film history-lively anatomies of Graham Greene, Eddie Cantor, Pauline Kael, Abbott and Costello, No?l Coward, Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Gish, Rin Tin Tin, and more.

Here is a great, rare book, one that encompasses the chaos of art, entertainment, money, vulgarity, and nonsense that we call the movies. Personal, opinionated, funny, daring, provocative, and passionate, it is the one book that every filmmaker and film buff must own. Time Out named it one of the ten best books of the 1990s. Gavin Lambert recognized it as "a work of imagination in its own right." Now better than ever-a masterwork by the man playwright David Hare called "the most stimulating and thoughtful film critic now writing."

Reference & Collections Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Critical list
The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s (Amsterdam University Press - Film Culture in Transition) ImageThe Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s (Amsterdam University Press - Film Culture in Transition)
Amsterdam University Press; Published: 2004-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $34.65
Price in other shops: $41.75
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music ImageA Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music
by George E. Lewis
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2008-05-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.09
Price in other shops: $35.00
Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History ImageMagic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History
by Devin McKinney
Harvard University Press; Published: 2004-10-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.92
Price in other shops: $18.50
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century ImageThe Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
by Alex Ross
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2007-10-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.80
Price in other shops: $30.00
Exile Cinema: Filmmakers at Work Beyond Hollywood (S U N Y Series, Horizons of Cinema) ImageExile Cinema: Filmmakers at Work Beyond Hollywood (S U N Y Series, Horizons of Cinema)
State University of New York Press; Published: 2008-03-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.55
Price in other shops: $24.95
American Movie Critics: From Silents Until Now ImageAmerican Movie Critics: From Silents Until Now
Library of America; Published: 2008-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $19.95
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated ImageThe New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated
by David Thomson
Knopf; Published: 2004-11-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.44
Price in other shops: $22.95
The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History ImageThe Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History
by Angela Carter
Virago UK; Published: 2006-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.64
Price in other shops: $13.95
Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll: Fifth Edition ImageMystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll: Fifth Edition
by Greil Marcus
Plume; Published: 2008-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.74
Price in other shops: $17.00
Essays (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) ImageEssays (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)
by George Orwell
Everyman's Library; Published: 2002-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.78
Price in other shops: $35.00
Similar Books and other products
The Film Snob*s Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Filmological Knowledge ImageThe Film Snob*s Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Filmological Knowledge
by David Kamp, Lawrence Levi
Broadway; Published: 2006-02-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $11.95
The American Cinema: Directors And Directions 1929-1968 ImageThe American Cinema: Directors And Directions 1929-1968
by Andrew Sarris
Da Capo Press; Published: 1996-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.36
Price in other shops: $17.95
Jean Renoir 3-Disc Collector's Edition (Whirlpool of F / Nana / Charleston Parade / La Marseillaise / The Doctor's Horrible Experiment / The Elusive Corporal) ImageJean Renoir 3-Disc Collector's Edition (Whirlpool of F / Nana / Charleston Parade / La Marseillaise / The Doctor's Horrible Experiment / The Elusive Corporal)
Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $17.48
Price in other shops: $29.98
How Fiction Works ImageHow Fiction Works
by James Wood
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2008-07-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops: $24.00
The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, Updated & Revised (Film Critics of the New York Times) ImageThe New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, Updated & Revised (Film Critics of the New York Times)
by The New York Times
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2004-02-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.71
Price in other shops: $24.95
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4 (Act of Violence / Mystery Street / Crime Wave / Decoy / Illegal / The Big Steal / They Live By Night / Side Street / Where Danger Lives / Tension) ImageFilm Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4 (Act of Violence / Mystery Street / Crime Wave / Decoy / Illegal / The Big Steal / They Live By Night / Side Street / Where Danger Lives / Tension)
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-07-31; DVD
Best price: $29.47
Price in other shops: $59.98
American Film Institute Desk Reference: The Complete Guide to Everything You Need to Know about the Movies ImageAmerican Film Institute Desk Reference: The Complete Guide to Everything You Need to Know about the Movies
by Melinda Corey, George Ochoa
DK ADULT; Published: 2002-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.80
Price in other shops: $40.00
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies: The Only Film Guide That Matters (Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies) ImageHalliwell's Who's Who in the Movies: The Only Film Guide That Matters (Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies)
by John Walker
HarperCollins UK; Published: 2006-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.74
Price in other shops: $29.95
The Film Encyclopedia, 4th Edition : The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume (Film Encyclopedia) ImageThe Film Encyclopedia, 4th Edition : The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume (Film Encyclopedia)
by Ephraim Katz
Published: 2001-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.44
Price in other shops: $30.00
The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood ImageThe Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood
by David Thomson
Vintage; Published: 2006-02-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.72
Price in other shops: $15.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories