The New Biographical Dictionary of Film cover

The New Biographical Dictionary of Film

by David Thomson

"David Thomson's Biographical Dictionary of Film returns, with its old entries updated and 300 new ones - from Luc Besson to Reese Witherspoon - making more than 1300 in all, 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, Noel Coward, Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Gish, Rin Tin Tin, and more.". "Here is a 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."--BOOK JACKET.

More by David Thomson

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?