The Big Screen - The Story of the Movies

by David Thomson

  “About 100 children”: Antonia Quirke to David Thomson, e-mail, August 11, 2011.

  On John Berger, see Ways of Seeing (1972), the book that was derived from the BBC television series.

  “You can’t tell”: Powell, A Life in Movies, p. 563.

  “The only difference”: William Powell in My Man Godfrey (1936).

  On critics’ poll, see Sight & Sound, September 2002.

  “They are taking pictures”: Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985), p. 13.

  On Fear Factor, see Brian Stelter, “It’s Back and Even More Disgusting,” New York Times, December 12, 2011.

  “A certain subgenre”: David Foster Wallace, “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction,” A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, p. 49–50.

  “is not simply a work of appropriation”: “Douglas Gordon: what have i done,” The Guardian, November 16, 2009.

  On Stalker, see Geoff Dyer, Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room (2012).

  including a set of books: Jean-Luc Godard, Histoire(s) du Cinéma (1998).

  “Hitchcock et L’ Art”: Hitchcock et L’ Art: Coïncidences Fatales, ed. Guy Cogeval and Dominique Paini (2000).

  Acknowledgments

  This book owes its genesis to my agent, Steve Wasserman. He conceived the notion of a one-volume history of film and suggested it to me. I was immediately interested, and added to Steve’s framework the need to examine all the complicated effects film and screens have had on us. Equally, Steve was a constant support throughout the project. I have said to him several times that he is an agent who might easily have been a publisher or a writer. In fact, as I completed the book, he became a publisher—though he remains my agent, too. What this mysterious status means for his lucky clients is not just that he is a very effective agent but an exceptional reader and friend.

  Jonathan Galassi at Farrar, Straus and Giroux bought the proposal and proved to be a superb, masterly publisher who handled this author’s loss of confidence as well as its excess, and who briefly employed my son. Paul Elie edited the book itself and did a magnificent job, patient and incredulous, suggesting areas I had not covered, changing the order of some things, and looking at every sentence like a doctor. I was not always as kind or generous to him as I should have been, and I have apologized for that in person. Having edited the book, Paul set off on a new career as a writer, but I was ably cared for by Sarah Crichton, Dan Piepenbring, Mareike Grover, and Karen Maine, who were kind, thoughtful, humorous, and enthusiastic, especially in the matter of illustration and preparing the text. Still, I want to note the great care and skill of Jenna Dolan, the copy editor who saved me from many errors and made suggestions worthy of an editor. Nor should I forget an old friend, Simon Winder, in London, who is the British publisher for the book.

  But most important of all was the careful reading by Mark Feeney, an old friend and a brilliant man, who made a masterful show of barely noticing my vulgarity, lack of education, and aging memory while gently correcting those very things.

  In the film business, more or less, I have to thank the company of several people over the decades: Tom Luddy, most of all; three Selznicks—Irene, Jeffrey, and Danny; Joseph Losey, who allowed me to watch some of The Servant being shot; Nicholas Ray, who once let me think I was feeding him scrambled eggs; Peter Bogdanovich, Bob Rafelson, Stephen Frears, David Hare, Paul Schrader, Michael Powell, Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese, Harry and Mary Jane Ufland, Bertrand Tavernier, Francis Ford Coppola, Walter Murch, Jim Toback, Robert Towne, Tom Sternberg, Saul Zaentz, Anthony Minghella, Michael Fitzgerald, and Philip Kaufman.

  As a freelance writer, I depend on the kindness of editors, and so I thank all of the following for encouragement, ideas, and assignments: above all, Leon Wieseltier at The New Republic; Patrick McGilligan; Tim de Lisle, Laurence Earle, and Jenny Turner—all at The Independent on Sunday; Michael Hann and Andrew Pulver at The Guardian; Scott Foundas, Ann Kolson, Alex Bilmes, Nick James, Geoff Andrew, John McMurtrie, Steve Erickson, Greil Marcus, Andy Olson, Virginia Campbell, Vendela Vida, and Robert Silvers.

  Then there are friends, some of whom know a lot about film, while some are happily unconcerned about it, and none the worse for that: Doug McGrath, Pierre Rissient, Kris Samuels (at Stanford), Edith Kramer, Susan Oxtoby, Judy Bloch and Steve Seid (at the Pacific Film Archive), Meredith Brody, Gary Meyer, Julie Huntzinger, Terry Gelenter, Michael Fox, Ken Connor, Antonia Quirke, Laura Morris, Jamie and Philip Bowles, Bill and Lili Holodnak, Ann Binney, Holly Goldberg Sloan and Gary Rosen, Michael Ondaatje and Linda Spalding, Susan Kakides, Leslee Dart, Geoff Pevere, Hank Lauricella and Mary Pickering, Rainer Rother, and Gerhard Midding. At the San Francisco Film Festival I have benefited from Peter Scarlett, Graham Leggat, and Bingham Ray, the last two dead in less than a year when far too young. In the same city, I am a grateful regular of Le Video, at Ninth and Irving, a stronghold staffed by wonderfully knowledgeable people. Michael Barker is not just a friend and a man who sees many films, he also distributes some of the best. Friendship with Richard and Mary Corliss, Andrew Sarris and Molly Haskell, and Richard Jameson and Kathleen Murphy has been full of insight. I value them all enormously. I also need to thank Darcy Hettrich and the whole operation of Turner Classic Movies.

  Many of the themes in this book were developed in a radio series I wrote for the BBC called Life at 24 Frames a Second, which played in 2011. I am especially grateful to the two people who helped create that show, Mark Burman and Isabel Lloyd.

  There are other friends at other publishers who have taught me so much: Sonny Mehta, Jonathan Segal, Bob Gottlieb, Shelley Wanger, Carol Carson, Katherine Hourigan, and Kathy Zuckerman (all at Knopf), and Will Balliett.

  My special thanks go to David W. Packard (to whom the book is dedicated). He is an astonishing multitasker, but one of his passions is the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, where beautiful 35 mm prints reign, and another is the preservation of film and the collection of related material and archives. He has been very generous to me personally, though he prefers the word “gentlemanly.” I hope this book will encourage him to try more films made after 1960.

  Then there is family, the people with whom I have gone to the movies—Anne, Kate, Mathew, and Rachel. More recently, Lucy, Nicholas, and Zachary, who figure in this book in ways that barely hint at how much I love and depend on them.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  ABC (American Broadcasting Company)

  A Bout de Souffle (1960)

  Abrams, J. J.

  academia, film in

  Académie Française

  Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

  acting

  Actors Studio, The

  Adair, Gilbert

  Addinsell, Richard

  Addio Giovinezza! (1940)

  Adler, Renata

  Adler, Stella

  Adorée, Renée

  A Double Tour (1959)

  Adventures of Davy Crockett, The (TV series)

  Adventures of Tintin, The (2011)

  Advertisements for Myself (Mailer)

  advertising

  Aelita (1924)

  After the Fall (Miller)

  ge d’Or, L’ (1930)

  Agee, James

  agents

  Age of Innocence, The (1993)

  Ager, Cecilia

  A.I. (2001)

  Air Force (1943)

  Airport (1970)

  Aitken, Harry

  Aldo, G. R.

  Aldrich, Robert

  Aldrich and Associates

  Aleksandrov, Grigori

  Alessandrini, Goffredo

  Alexander Nevsky (1938)

  Alexandrina Victoria, Princess of Britain

  Ali, Muhammad

  Alien (19
79)

  All About Eve (1950)

  Allain, Marcel

  Allégret, Yves

  Allen, Dede

  Allen, Gracie

  Allen, Woody

  All in the Family (TV series)

  Alloy Orchestra

  All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

  All That Heaven Allows (1955)

  All the King’s Men (1949)

  All-Union State Institute of Cinematography

  Allyson, June

  Almereyda, Miguel

  Alphaville (1965)

  Altered States (1980)

  Altman, Robert

  Amadeus (1984)

  Amants, Les (1958)

  Amarcord (1973)

  AMC

  America (TV series)

  America, America (1963)

  American Beauty (1999)

  American Cinema, The (Sarris)

  American Film Institute

  American Gigolo (1980)

  American Graffiti (1973)

  American Idol (TV series)

  American in Paris, An (1951)

  American Research Bureau

  American Tragedy, An (Dreiser)

  American Zoetrope

  Ames, Leon

  Amiche, Le (1955)

  Amiel, Jon

  Amore, L’ (1948)

  Amos ’n’ Andy (TV series)

  Amour Fou, L’ (1969)

  Anastasia (1956)

  Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

  Anchors Aweigh (1945)

  Anderson, Gillian

  Anderson, Judith

  Anderson, Lindsay

  Anderson, Maxwell

  Anderson, Michael

  Anderson, Paul Thomas

  Andersson, Bibi

  Andersson, Harriet

  Andress, Ursula

  Andrews, Dana

  And Then There Were None (1945)

  Andy Griffith Show, The (TV series)

  Angel Face (1952)

  Angelopoulos, Theo

  Anges du Peché, Les (1943)

  Animal House (1978)

  Animal Locomotion (Muybridge, E.)

  animation

  Anna Christie (1930)

  Anna Karenina (1935)

  Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

  Annie Get Your Gun (1946)

  Annie Hall (1977)

  À Nous la Liberté (1931)

  Antichrist (2009)

  Antonioni, Michelangelo

  Apache (1954)

  Apatow, Judd

  Apocalypse Now (1979)

  Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)

  Apple

  Apple TV

  À Propos de Nice (1930)

  Arabian Nights (1974)

  Arbor, The (2010)

  Arbuckle, Roscoe “Fatty”

  Arbus, Diane

  Archers, The

  archiving, film

  Arden, Eve

  Arkoff, Samuel

  Arlen, Harold

  Arletty

  Army of Shadows (1969)

  Arnaz, Desi

  Artangel

  Artaud, Antonin

  Arthur, Jean

  Ascent, The (1977)

  Ascent of Man, The (1973)

  Ashby, Hal

  Asher, William

  Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

  Ashkenazy, Baron

  Asnar, Nathalie

  Asphalt Jungle, The (1950)

  Astaire, Fred

  Astruc, Alexandre

  Atalante, L’ (1934)

  Atlantic City (1980)

  Attack! (1956)

  Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

  Aubrey, James

  Auden, W. H.

  audience

  Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)

  Auschwitz

  Au Secours! (1924)

  Austen, Jane

  auteur theory

  Auto Focus (2002)

  Autumn Afternoon, An (1962)

  Autumn Sonata (1978)

  Avatar (2009)

  Aviator, The (2004)

  Avventura, L’ (1960)

  Axelrod, George

  Ayres, Lew

  Aznavour, Charles

  Babes in Arms (1939)

  Baby Doll (1956)

  Bacall, Lauren

  Bach, Steven

  back projection

  Back to the Future (1985)

  Bacon, Francis

  Bad and the Beautiful, The (1952)

  Badlands (1973)

  Bailey, John

  Baker, Stanley

  Balázs, Béla

  Balcon, Michael

  Bale, Christian

  Ball, Alan

  Ball, Lucille

  Ballard, Carroll

  Ballard, J. G.

  Ball of Fire (1941)

  Balzer, Fred

  Bananas (1971)

  Bancroft, Anne

  Bande à Part (1964)

  Band of Brothers (TV series)

  Band Wagon, The (1953)

  Banham, Reyner

  Banks, Leslie

  Banton, Travis

  Bara, Theda

  Barbarians at the Gate (1993)

  Bardot, Brigitte

  Barkleys of Broadway, The (1949)

  Barnard, Clio

  Barnes, Binnie

  Barnes, Howard

  Barnet, Boris

  Barrault, Jean-Louis

  Barrie, Wendy

  Barrow, Clyde

  Barry, John

  Barry Lyndon (1975)

  Barrymore, Ethel

  Barrymore, Lionel

  Bas-Fonds, Les (1936)

  Bassey, Shirley

  Bataille, Sylvia

  bathrooms, as locales

  Bataille du Rail, La (1946)

  Batista y Zaldívar, Fulgencio

  Batman (1989)

  Battlefield 3 (video game)

  Battleground (1949)

  Battle of Midway, The (1942)

  Battleship Potemkin (1925)

  Baxter, Anne

  Baxter, Warner

  Bay, Frances

  Bazin, André

  BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)

  BBS

  Beast from Haunted Cave (1959)

  Beatles, The

  Beatty, Ned

  Beatty, Warren

  Beaumarchais, Pierre

  Beau Serge, Le (1958)

  Becker, Jacques

  Beckett, Samuel

  Beery, Wallace

  Behind the Green Door (1972)

  Belasco, David

  Bellamy, Ralph

  Belle de Jour (1967)

  Belles de Nuit, Les (1952)

  Bellissima (1951)

  Bellocchio, Marco

  Bellow, Saul

  Bells Go Down, The (1943)

  Bells of St. Mary’s, The (1945)

  Belmondo, Jean-Paul

  Benayoun, Robert

  Benchley, Peter

  Benchley, Robert

  Bender, Lawrence

  Bend of the River (1952)

  Ben-Hur (1959)

  Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)

  Bennett, Constance

  Bennett, Joan

  Benny, Jack

  Benson, Sally

  Benton, Robert

  Berger, John

  Bergman, Ingmar

  Bergman, Ingrid

  Berkeley, Busby

  Berlin

  Berlin, Irving

  Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)

  Berlin Film Festival

  Bernanos, Georges

  Bernard, Paul

  Bernhardt, Sarah

  Berry, Halle

  Berto, Juliet

  Bertolucci, Bernardo

  Best of Youth, The (2003)

  Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946)

  Bête Humaine, La (1938)

  Beverly Hillbillies, The (TV series)

  Bewitched (TV series)

  Bezzerides, A. I.

  Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di Biciclette) (1948)

  Bigger T
han Life (1956)

  Big Heat, The (1953)

  Big Love (TV series)

  Big Parade, The (1925)

  Big Sleep, The (1946)

  Big Street, The (1942)

  Billy Liar (1963)

  Bing, Herman

  Binoche, Juliette

  Biograph

  Birds, The (1963)

  Birth (2004)

  Birth of a Nation, The (1915)

  Bitsch, Charles

  Bitter Rice (1948)

  Bitter Tea of General Yen, The (1933)

  Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The (1972)

  Bitter Victory (1957)

  Bitzer, Billy

  Black Hawk Down (2001)

  Black Legion (1937)

  Blackmail (1929)

  Black Narcissus (1947)

  Black Sheep of Whitehall, The (1942)

  Black Shield of Falworth, The (1954)

  Black Stallion, The (1979)

  Blair, Betsy

  Blair Witch Project, The (1999)

  Blane, Ralph

  Blauner, Steve

  Blind Date (1959)

  Blithe Spirit (1945)

  blockbusters

  Blonde (Oates)

  Blonde Venus (1932)

  Blow-Up (1966)

  Blue Angel, The (Der Blaue Engel) (1930)

  Bluebeard (1902)

  Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938)

  Blue Light, The (1932)

  Blue Movie (1969)

  Blue Velvet (1986)

  Bluhdorn, Charles

  Boardman, Eleanor

  Boardwalk Empire (TV series)

  Bob le Flambeur (1956)

  Bochco, Steven

  Bock, Audie

  Body Double (1984)

  Bogarde, Dirk

  Bogart, Humphrey “Bogie”

  Bogdanovich, Peter

  Bohème, La (1926)

  Boleslawski, Richard

  Bolshoi Theatre

  Bonanza (TV series)

  Bond, Edward

  Bonjour Tristesse (1958)

  Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

  Boorman, John

  Booth, John Wilkes

  Borde, Raymond

  Borges, Jorge Luis

  Borgnine, Ernest

  Born Yesterday (1950)

  Bosé, Lucia

  Bottoms, Timothy

  Boudu Sauvé des Eaux (1932)

  Bouquet, Carole

  Bow, Clara

  Boxcar Bertha (1972)

  Box Office Attraction Company

  Boy with Green Hair, The (1948)

  B pictures

  Bracco, Lorraine

  Brackett, Charles

  Brackett, Leigh

  Bradbury, Ray

  Braddon, Russell

  Bradshaw, Peter

  Brady, Ian

  Branagh, Kenneth

  Brando, Marlon

  Brandwashed (Lindstrom, M.)

  Brasseur, Pierre

  Braunberger, Pierre

  Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)