How to Watch a Movie (21 page)

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 book—I'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
–
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
–
3
; aging,
199
; star system,
171
–
2
.
See also specific actors and actresses

adventure films,
146
–
50

advertising,
10
,
14
,
22
,
199
,
202
,
222

aging,
199
,
224
–
5

Aguirre, the Wrath of God
,
212

Air Force
,
57

Aldrich, Robert,
32

Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The
,
130

Alien
,
113

All About Eve
,
54
,
134
,
155

All Is Lost
,
111
,
118
,
146
–
50
,
163
,
174

All the President's Men
,
151

Altman, Robert,
50
,
86
,
154

Amants, Les
,
178
–
9

American Hustle
,
203

American in Paris, An
,
32
,
165
–
6

Amour
,
4
,
47
,
118
,
176
,
185

Anatomy of a Murder
,
97

Anderson, Paul Thomas,
37
,
55
,
154

Andersson, Bibi,
218
,
219
,
226

Andrews, Dana,
99

Angel Face
,
161

Antarctica,
20
,
149

anthology films,
154

anti-Semitism,
32

Antonioni, Michelangelo,
69
–
83
,
86
,
153
,
192
,
211

Armstrong, Louis,
141
,
142
,
149

Arnaz, Desi,
32

Around the World in Eighty Days
,
32

Artist, The
,
54

Astaire, Fred,
21
,
58
,
151
,
166
–
8
,
218
,
223

At Close Range
,
112

“auteur” theory,
130

Avatar
,
200

Avventura, L'
,
6
,
153

Away from Her
,
214

Bacall, Lauren,
31
,
58
,
143
,
156
,
208

Bacon, Francis,
165

Bad and the Beautiful, The
,
31

Badlands
,
111
–
12

Ball, Lucille,
32
–
3

Bancroft, Anne,
88

Band Wagon, The
,
166
–
7
,
218
,
223

Bara, Theda,
190

Barrymore, Lionel,
36

Battleship Potemkin
,
124
–
5
,
127

Baxter, Anne,
155

Bay of Angels
,
109
–
10

Beatty, Warren,
179
,
197

Bel Geddes, Barbara,
101

Belle de Jour
,
143

Belmondo, Jean-Paul,
136
,
227
–
8

Ben-Hur
,
32
,
191
–
2

Berger, John,
95
–
6

Bergman, Ingmar,
55
,
192
,
211
,
218
–
19
,
220
–
8

Bergman, Ingrid,
6

Berlin,
24
,
26

Best Years of Our Lives, The
,
30
–
1

Bicycle Thieves
,
113
,
210
–
11

Bigelow, Kathryn,
68

Big Heat, The
,
73
,
197

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
–
2
,
211

Bitter Victory
,
162

black-and-white films,
75
,
81
,
87
–
8
,
109
,
130
,
167
,
179

Black Hawk Down
,
186
–
7

Blackmail
,
130

Blonde Venus
,
98

Blow-Up
,
4
,
69
–
73
,
153

Blue Is the Warmest Color
,
207
–
9
,
211
,
219
,
226

Blue Velvet
,
55
,
119
,
137

Boardwalk Empire
,
156

Bogart, Humphrey,
6
,
31
,
38
,
44
,
58
,
70
,
143
,
156
,
208

Bogdanovich, Peter,
170
,
171

Bonnie and Clyde
,
4
,
58
,
143
,
179
–
80
,
197

Boogie Nights
,
154

Borzage, Frank,
201

Bowling for Columbine
,
212
,
213

Bradbury, Ray, “The Veldt,”
33
,
78

Brando, Marlon,
35
,
143
,
169
,
196

Breaking Bad
,
27
,
37
,
118
,
156
–
7
,
187

Breathless
,
120
,
192

Bresson, Robert,
8
,
139
,
149

Bringing Up Baby
,
138

Brinks Job, The
,
203

British Film Institute,
20

Broadway Melody of 1940
,
58
,
223
–
4

Bullitt
,
83

Bullock, Sandra,
172

Buñuel, Luis,
6
,
55
,
78
,
118
,
154

Burns, Ken,
212
,
214

Burr, Raymond,
64

Burton, Richard,
190
,
191

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
,
150
,
180

Caan, James,
143
,
169

Cagney, James,
51
,
136

Cameron, James,
200

Campion, Jane,
68

Capra, Frank,
35
–
7
,
144
,
201

car chases,
83

Carefree
,
167

Carné, Marcel,
8

Carry on Cleo
,
192

Casablanca
,
6
,
30
,
73

Casino
,
55
–
6

Cassavetes, John,
68
,
144
,
192

Castellano, Richard,
169

casting,
100
–
101
,
169

Caught
,
101
–
2

Cave of Forgotten Dreams
,
212

Cazale, John,
169

Céline and Julie Go Boating
,
155

censorship,
27
,
177
–
8

Chandor, J. C.,
147
,
149
,
150
,
163

Chaplin, Charlie,
20
,
114
,
135
,
200

Chapman, Michael,
169

Charisse, Cyd,
167
,
218

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

Chinatown
,
6
,
131
–
3
,
141
,
153

Christie, Julie,
125
–
6
,
214

CinemaScope,
80
–
1
,
84

cinematic information,
77
–
94

Citizen Kane
,
8
,
38
,
46
–
52
,
55
,
74
–
6
,
78
–
9
,
111
,
120
–
2
,
131
,
136
,
150
,
167
,
171
,
175
,
184
,
195
,
200
,
202

City Lights
,
6
,
200

Cleopatra
,
189
–
92
,
194

Clift, Montgomery,
155

Clooney, George,
172

close-ups,
102
,
104
,
112
,
120
–
1

Cobb, Lee J.,
60
,
196

Coen brothers,
37
,
55
,
218

Colbert, Claudette,
190

Colman, Ronald,
135

Columbia Pictures,
185

comedy,
7
,
57
,
114
,
143
,
144
,
202

Coming Home
,
53

Communism,
31
,
52
,
53
,
63
,
66
–
7
,
152
,
182
; 1950s Hollywood blacklistings,
52
,
54
,
63

computers,
9
,
16
,
106
,
137
,
178

concentration camp documentaries,
8
–
9
,
19
,
21
,
71
,
206
,
210

Conspiracy
,
212
–
13

control,
85
–
6
,
92
–
3

Conversation, The
,
168

Cooper, Gary,
21
,
36
,
49
–
50
,
106
,
160
,
172
,
174

Cooper, Miriam,
117

Coppola, Francis Ford,
168
–
70
,
177

Corey, Wendell,
63

costumes,
197

Cotton, Joseph,
37

Cover Girl
,
141

Crawford, Joan,
155
,
198
–
9

credits,
164
,
167

Cries and Whispers
,
55

crime movies,
26
,
31
,
51

Cronenberg, David,
73
–
4

Crosby, Bing,
31
,
135

Crossfire
,
31
,
32

Curtis, Tony,
89

cut,
91
,
108
–
27
; matching,
114

Dalí, Salvador,
118

Danes, Claire,
158
,
159

Dangerous Method, A
,
129

Darwell, Jane,
195
–
6

Davis, Bette,
44
,
155

Day-Lewis, Daniel,
105

Dean, James,
80
–
1
,
84
–
5
,
196

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
–
6

Denis, Claire,
68

Dennehy, Brian,
60

De Palma, Brian,
170

Depp, Johnny,
173

Depression,
134
,
195
–
6
,
201

Detour
,
142
,
161

DiCaprio, Leonardo,
203

Dietrich, Marlene,
98
,
107
,
135