Keepers : the greatest films-and personal favorites-of a moviegoing lifetime / Richard Schickel.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Notes toward the definition of an obsession -- Speaking of silence -- Exceptions -- Ironies -- The system -- Men with movie cameras -- A studio's way -- "The son of a gun is nothing but a tailor" -- A touch of Lubitsch -- Two cheers for Mr. Muckle -- Shrieks, freaks, geeks -- What's funny about that? -- Greatness -- Ornaments of the age -- "Up this hero goes" -- Getting serious -- Masterpieces -- Don't you know there's a war on? -- Children of paradise -- Crime waves -- Why we fight -- Muse of fire -- Here's looking at you, kid -- The best years -- Fasten your seat belts -- Don't unfasten those seat belts yet -- Mixed baggage -- To live -- Bergman--at last -- The criminal life -- Clint -- Belle de Jour -- The Apu trilogy -- Fellini -- Strange loves -- Getting started, or, I thought you'd never ask -- The wrath of God--or is it His silence? -- Marty -- Earning it, or, Spielberg's way -- Clint again -- Tarnished gold -- Kubrick again -- The Force is with us -- Losing it -- "No animals were harmed ..." -- We've got to end somewhere -- That wonderful year--1987.

A critic and historian who has been watching cinema for seventy years and has seen almost nineteen thousand films presents a tour of his favorite movies, highlighting forgotten treasures and explaining what makes a film a hit or a flop.