Movies (Twentieth Century Classics) [Paperback]

Various (Author), Gilbert Adair (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Twentieth Century Classics | Publication Date: May 1, 2000

Cinema is the quintessential art form of the twentieth century. From the Lumiere brothers' first public film screening at the end of the nineteenth century to the technical wizardry of today, cinema has recorded, created, even revised our history. Its images, icons, follies, and foibles endure as part of our collective consciousness. However, does the end of the century also herald the "end of cinema"? Has mainstream, formulaic, big-budget moviemaking triumphed over other alternatives? Covering a panoramic range of genres and styles, from B-movies and Nazi propaganda films to independent features and animated productions, and with texts by Orson Welles, Francois Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock, Colette, John Updike, Umberto Eco, and other modern visionaries, this eclectic volume is a refreshing look at the ever-fascinating world of the movies and a much-needed corrective to the Hollywood bias.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gilbert Adair is the author of such novels as The Holy Innocents, winner of the Authors' Club First Novel Award, and Love and Death on Long Island. His cinematic credentials include Hollywood's Vietnam, an in-depth look at cinema's portrayal of the Vietnam War, and Flickers, a celebration of the cinema's centenary.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Edition edition (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141180846
• ISBN-13: 978-0141180847
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,403,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

GILBERT ADAIR was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1944 and moved to Paris as a young man, because, as he told an interviewer, "If you were a film buff in the sixties, you went to Paris." Adair later returned to the UK and spent his time writing experimental fiction, as well as film and literary criticism. His works include The Death of the Author, The Holy Innocents, later made into Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Dreamers; The Postmodernist Always Rings Twice, a book of literary criticism; and the novel Love and Death in Long Island. Adair lives in London.