About the Book
The Big Screen tells the enthralling story of the movies: their rise and spread, their remarkable influence over us, and the technology that made the screen smaller now, but ever more ubiquitous as important as the images it carries.
The Big Screen is not another history of the movies. Rather, it is a wide-ranging narrative about the movies and their signal role in modern life. At first, film was a waking dream, the gift of appearance delivered for a nickel to huddled masses sitting in the dark. But soon, and abruptly, movies began transforming our societies and our perceptions of the world. The celebrated film authority David Thomson takes us around the globe, through time, and across many media moving from Eadweard Muybridge to Steve Jobs, from Sunrise to I Love Lucy, from John Wayne to George Clooney, from television commercials to streaming video to tell the complex, gripping, paradoxical story of the movies. He tracks the ways we were initially enchanted by movies as imitations of life the stories, the stars, the look and how we allowed them to show us how to live. At the same time, movies, offering a seductive escape from everyday reality and its responsibilities, have made it possible for us to evade life altogether. The entranced audience has become a model for powerless and anxiety-ridden citizens trying to pursue happiness and dodge terror by sitting quietly in a dark room.
Does the big screen take us out into the world, or merely mesmerize us? That is Thomson's question in this grand adventure of a book. Books about the movies are often aimed at film buffs, but this passionate and provocative feat of storytelling is vital to anyone trying to make sense of the age of screens the age that, more than ever, we are living in.
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About the Author :
David Thomson, renowned as one of the great living authorities on the movies, is the author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, now in its fifth edition. His books include a biography of Nicole Kidman and The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood. Thomson is also the author of the acclaimed "Have You Seen . . . ?": A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films. Born in London in 1941, he now lives in San Francisco.
Review :
David Thomson is, I think, the best writer on film in our time. If Have You Seen . . . ?' was his most succinct and entertaining book, The Big Screen is a large and vivacious map of the screen': beginning with Muybridge and tracing careers ranging from Korda to Renoir to Hawkes to Mizoguchi, to David Lynch and Tarantino, then swerving over to television shows such as I Love Lucy and The Sopranos. Thomson has found and created a marvelous plot for the history of film, with insights and revelations on every page--as well as a few MacGuffins. He is our most argumentative and trustworthy historian of the screen. Michael Ondaatje, author of The Cat's Table
David Thomson has composed a grand aesthetic, spiritual, and moral account of cinema history assembled around the movies and artists that have meant the most to him. As Thomson reconstructs film history, movies bring us close to reality and deliver us into ecstatic dreams. A pungently written, brilliant book. David Denby, author of Snark and film critic at The New Yorker
A great critic cuts both ways--he nudges you into reconsidering the films you love, as well as the ones you dislike. David Thomson's sensual prose has always amplified the imagination of a great critic. In broad outline, The Big Screen is a history of the movies, a wide-ranging task that usually carries with it a certain amount of connect-the-dots tedium. But Thomson's emphases are typically fresh and often ecstatic, even when he's disparaging a film you love. Nobody does it better. Scott Eyman, author of Empire of Dreams and Lion of Hollywood
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David Thomson is, I think, the best writer on film in our time. If " Have You Seen . . . ?' "was his most succinct and entertaining book, "The Big Screen "is a large and vivacious map of the screen': beginning with Muybridge and tracing careers ranging from Korda to Renoir to Hawkes to Mizoguchi, to David Lynch and Tarantino, then swerving over to television shows such as "I Love Lucy "and "The Sopranos." Thomson has found and created a marvelous plot for the history of film, with insights and revelations on every page--as well as a few MacGuffins. He is our most argumentative and trustworthy historian of the screen. "Michael Ondaatje, author of The Cat's Table"
David Thomson has composed a grand aesthetic, spiritual, and moral account of cinema history assembled around the movies and artists that have meant the most to him. As Thomson reconstructs film history, movies bring us close to reality and deliver us into ecstatic dreams. A pungently written, brilliant book. "David Denby, author of Snark and film critic at The New Yorker"
A great critic cuts both ways--he nudges you into reconsidering the films you love, as well as the ones you dislike. David Thomson's sensual prose has always amplified the imagination of a great critic. In broad outline, "The Big Screen "is a history of the movies, a wide-ranging task that usually carries with it a certain amount of connect-the-dots tedium. But Thomson's emphases are typically fresh and often ecstatic, even when he's disparaging a film you love. Nobody does it better. "Scott Eyman, author of Empire of Dreams and Lion of Hollywood""
"David Thomson is, I think, the best writer on film in our time. If "'Have You Seen . . . ?' "was his most succinct and entertaining book, "The Big Screen "is a large and vivacious map of 'the screen' beginning with Muybridge and tracing careers ranging from Korda to Renoir to Hawkes to Mizoguchi, to David Lynch and Tarantino, then swerving over to television shows such as "I Love Lucy "and "The Sopranos." Thomson has found and created a marvelous plot for the history of film, with insights and revelations on every page--as well as a few MacGuffins. He is our most argumentative and trustworthy historian of the screen." --Michael Ondaatje, author of "The Cat's Table"
"David Thomson has composed a grand aesthetic, spiritual, and moral account of cinema history assembled around the movies and artists that have meant the most to him. As Thomson reconstructs film history, movies bring us close to reality and deliver us into ecstatic dreams. A pungently written, brilliant book." --David Denby, author of "Snark "and film critic at "The New Yorker"
"A great critic cuts both ways--he nudges you into reconsidering the films you love, as well as the ones you dislike. David Thomson's sensual prose has always amplified the imagination of a great critic. In broad outline, "The Big Screen "is a history of the movies, a wide-ranging task that usually carries with it a certain amount of connect-the-dots tedium. But Thomson's emphases are typically fresh and often ecstatic, even when he's disparaging a film you love. Nobody does it better." --Scott Eyman, author of "Empire of Dreams "and "Lion of Hollywood"
