Read How to Watch a Movie Online
Authors: David Thomson
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book owes a great deal to publishing people in London and New York. It began life in a conversation between my agent Laura Morris and Dan Crewe, who was then at Profile. He left that company very soon after I delivered the first draft of the bookâI'm sure he had other reasons for going. But later at Profile, the book was cared for by Andrew Franklin, Nick Sheerin, and Mike Jones, and above all by Paul Forty, who was of enormous help with the text. But then in New York, an old friend, Jonathan Segal, was able to show me many ways (just short of starting again) in which the book could be improved. Jon's advice and dedication as an editor was out of the ordinary and absolutely essential. In all that effort, I was aided by his assistants, Meghan Houser and Julia Ringo. Kevin Bourke did the superb job of copyediting that he has given me on many books over the years. I am grateful to everyone named in this paragraph for helping to distill a lifetime in the dark into what I hope is a coherent guide book.
Beyond that, going to the movies, and talking about them, has placed me in the company of Kieran Hickey (above all), Richard and Mary Corliss, Andrew Sarris and Molly Haskell, Steven Bach, Bob Gottlieb, Leon Wieseltier, Mark Feeney, Tom Luddy, Michael Ondaatje, Peter Smith, Greil Marcus, Geoff Dyer, Jenny Turner, Antonia Quirke, Michael Barker, Doug McGrath, Paul Sidey, and the best person I have had to talk to, Lucy Gray.
INDEX
3D,
16
12 Years a Slave
,
37
,
205
â
7
,
211
24
,
61
24 Hour Psycho
,
120
Abbott and Costello,
143
academia, film study in,
4
Academy Awards,
54
,
148
,
165
,
166
,
168
,
181
,
195
actors and actresses,
171
â
3
; aging,
199
; star system,
171
â
2
.
See also specific actors and actresses
advertising,
10
,
14
,
22
,
199
,
202
,
222
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
,
212
Air Force
,
57
Aldrich, Robert,
32
Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The
,
130
Alien
,
113
All Is Lost
,
111
,
118
,
146
â
50
,
163
,
174
All the President's Men
,
151
American Hustle
,
203
American in Paris, An
,
32
,
165
â
6
Anatomy of a Murder
,
97
Anderson, Paul Thomas,
37
,
55
,
154
Andrews, Dana,
99
Angel Face
,
161
anthology films,
154
anti-Semitism,
32
Antonioni, Michelangelo,
69
â
83
,
86
,
153
,
192
,
211
Arnaz, Desi,
32
Around the World in Eighty Days
,
32
Artist, The
,
54
Astaire, Fred,
21
,
58
,
151
,
166
â
8
,
218
,
223
At Close Range
,
112
“auteur” theory,
130
Avatar
,
200
Away from Her
,
214
Bacall, Lauren,
31
,
58
,
143
,
156
,
208
Bacon, Francis,
165
Bad and the Beautiful, The
,
31
Bancroft, Anne,
88
Band Wagon, The
,
166
â
7
,
218
,
223
Bara, Theda,
190
Barrymore, Lionel,
36
Battleship Potemkin
,
124
â
5
,
127
Baxter, Anne,
155
Bel Geddes, Barbara,
101
Belle de Jour
,
143
Belmondo, Jean-Paul,
136
,
227
â
8
Bergman, Ingmar,
55
,
192
,
211
,
218
â
19
,
220
â
8
Bergman, Ingrid,
6
Best Years of Our Lives, The
,
30
â
1
Bigelow, Kathryn,
68
Big Love
,
156
Big Sky, The
,
57
Big Sleep, The
,
57
,
58
,
143
,
156
,
208
bin Laden, Osama,
67
Birth of a Nation, The
,
116
,
117
,
121
â
2
,
211
Bitter Victory
,
162
black-and-white films,
75
,
81
,
87
â
8
,
109
,
130
,
167
,
179
Blackmail
,
130
Blonde Venus
,
98
Blue Is the Warmest Color
,
207
â
9
,
211
,
219
,
226
Boardwalk Empire
,
156
Bogart, Humphrey,
6
,
31
,
38
,
44
,
58
,
70
,
143
,
156
,
208
Bonnie and Clyde
,
4
,
58
,
143
,
179
â
80
,
197
Boogie Nights
,
154
Borzage, Frank,
201
Bradbury, Ray, “The Veldt,”
33
,
78
Breaking Bad
,
27
,
37
,
118
,
156
â
7
,
187
Bringing Up Baby
,
138
Brinks Job, The
,
203
British Film Institute,
20
Broadway Melody of 1940
,
58
,
223
â
4
Bullitt
,
83
Bullock, Sandra,
172
Burr, Raymond,
64
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
,
150
,
180
Cameron, James,
200
Campion, Jane,
68
car chases,
83
Carefree
,
167
Carné, Marcel,
8
Carry on Cleo
,
192
Castellano, Richard,
169
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
,
212
Cazale, John,
169
Céline and Julie Go Boating
,
155
Chandor, J. C.,
147
,
149
,
150
,
163
Chaplin, Charlie,
20
,
114
,
135
,
200
Chapman, Michael,
169
Chase, David,
159
Chase, The
,
150
Chevalier, Maurice,
135
Chien Andalou, Un
,
55
,
78
,
118
,
121
Children's Hour, The
,
211
Chimes at Midnight
,
48
Citizen Kane
,
8
,
38
,
46
â
52
,
55
,
74
â
6
,
78
â
9
,
111
,
120
â
2
,
131
,
136
,
150
,
167
,
171
,
175
,
184
,
195
,
200
,
202
Clift, Montgomery,
155
Clooney, George,
172
Colbert, Claudette,
190
Colman, Ronald,
135
Columbia Pictures,
185
Coming Home
,
53
Communism,
31
,
52
,
53
,
63
,
66
â
7
,
152
,
182
; 1950s Hollywood blacklistings,
52
,
54
,
63
concentration camp documentaries,
8
â
9
,
19
,
21
,
71
,
206
,
210
Conversation, The
,
168
Cooper, Gary,
21
,
36
,
49
â
50
,
106
,
160
,
172
,
174
Cooper, Miriam,
117
Coppola, Francis Ford,
168
â
70
,
177
Corey, Wendell,
63
costumes,
197
Cotton, Joseph,
37
Cover Girl
,
141
Cries and Whispers
,
55
Curtis, Tony,
89
DalÃ, Salvador,
118
Dangerous Method, A
,
129
Day-Lewis, Daniel,
105
deep-focus photography,
74
Deer Hunter, The
,
187
Déjà Vu
,
184
Delon, Alain,
73
DeMille, Cecil B.,
190
Demy, Jacques,
109
Dench, Judi,
189
Deneuve, Catherine,
143
De Niro, Robert,
18
,
21
,
23
,
55
â
6
Denis, Claire,
68
Dennehy, Brian,
60
De Palma, Brian,
170
Depp, Johnny,
173
DiCaprio, Leonardo,
203