The big screen : the story of the movies /
David Thomson.
- New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.
- viii, 595 p., [16] leaves of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Prologue: Let there be light -- pt. 1. The shining light and the huddled masses : A cheap form of amusement ; The era of Sunrise ; The cinema of winter ; M ; State film, film state ; The extraordinary adventures of Mr. Bolshevik in the West ; 1930s Hollywood ; France ; Renoir ; American ; Ambersons ; Howard Hawks : the "Slim" years ; Films were started ; Brief encounter ; War ; Italian cinema ; Ingrid sees a movie ; Sing a noir song -- pt. 2. Sunset and change -- pt. 3. Film studies -- pt. 4. Dread and desire : Dread and desire ; To own the summer ; Brave new northern California world ; What is a director? ; Silence or Sinatra? ; The numbers and the numbness -- Epilogue: I wake up screening.
"The Big Screen" tells the enthralling story of the movies: their rise and spread, their remarkable influence in the war years, and their long, slow decline to a form that is often richly entertaining but no longer lays claim to our lives the way it once did.
9780374191894 (hbk.)
Cine --Historia--Estados Unidos Motion pictures--Social aspects--United States. Motion pictures--History.--United States Motion pictures.