The Best Film You've Never Seen


Book Description

Thirty-five directors reveal which overlooked or critically savaged films they believe deserve a larger audience while offering advice on how to watch each film.




The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen


Book Description

Offbeat movie buffs, discerning video renters, and critical viewers will benefit from this roll call of the best overlooked films of the last 70 years. Richard Crouse, film critic and host of televisions award-winning Reel to Real, details his favorite films, from the sublime Monsoon Wedding to the ridiculous Eegah! The Name Written in Blood. Each movie is featured with a detailed description of plot, notable trivia tidbits, critical reviews, and interviews with actors and filmmakers. Featured interviews include Bill Wyman on a little-known Rolling Stones documentary, schlockmeister Lloyd Kaufman on the history of the Toxic Avenger, reclusive writer and director Hampton Fancher on his film The Minus Man, and B-movie hero Bruce Campbell on playing Elvis Presley in Bubba Ho-Tep. Sidebars feature quirky details, including legal disclaimers and memorable quotes.




Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen


Book Description

What 151 movies have you never seen—but should? What French film could teach Hollywood how to make a smart, sexy romantic comedy? (page 233) Where will you find a female-centric Western with a gender-bending protagonist? (page 10) What film won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and then fell off the radar? (page 261) What farcical comedy includes such real-life characters as Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger? (page 50) In what unsung comedy will you find Michael Douglas giving his all-time best performance? (page 130) What debut film from the director of The Dark Knight creates palpable chills—despite a shoestring budget and a no-name cast? (page 79) What John Wayne movie was out of circulation for thirty years—and still qualifies as a sleeper? (page 121) What terrific Heath Ledger movie was released the same month as Brokeback Mountain—and flopped? (page 26) What clever modern-day film noir was made for just half a million dollars? (page 18) What captivating film stars one of the seminal artists of the twentieth century? (page 203)




The Greatest Movies You'll Never See


Book Description

From Hitchcock and Dali to Peckinpah and Lynch, cinema history is littered with masterpieces that have never seen the light of day. Now, The Greatest Movies You'll Never See unveils the fascinating - and frequently heart-breaking - stories of these projects' faltering steps from green light to movie graveyard. Opening at the dawn of contemporary cinema with Charlie Chaplin's Return from St. Helena, and closing with the collapse of Tony Scott's Potsdamer Platz, following the director's suicide in 2012, this riveting compendium of celluloid 'what ifs' goes behind the scenes of more than fifty 'lost' films to explain exactly why they never made it to the final cut. Discover the meticulous preparations behind Ray Harryhausen's War of the Worlds and Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon; learn why Brazzaville, a sequel to Casablanca, and Night Skies, a science-fiction horror story by Steven Spielberg, fell by the wayside; and read about the unrealized dreams of sometimes ill-fated auteurs Tim Burton and the Coen Brothers. The Greatest Movies You'll Never See details all the obstacles encountered, from unsympathetic studios and preposterous plots to the untimely deaths of stars. Alongside these compelling tales from development hell are script extracts, storyboards, concept artwork and frames of surviving footage. In addition, all the unmade movies are accompanied by original posters from acclaimed modern designers, including Akiko Stehrenberger (Funny Games, Kiss of the Damned) and Heath Killen (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Never Let Me Go). An endlessly absorbing alternative history of the silver screen, The Greatest Movies You'll Never See is an essential read for all true cineastes.




Produced and Abandoned


Book Description

To assemble this guide for film lovers in search of intriguing videos to rent, Sragow, movie critic for the San Francisco Examiner, asked 29 fellow members of the National Society of Film Critics for "strongly argued reviews of movies they had championed, even if that meant going out on a limb.''




The Film That Changed My Life


Book Description

The movie that inspired filmmakers to direct is like the atomic bomb that went off before their eyes. The Film That Changed My Life captures that epiphany. It explores 30 directors' love of a film they saw at a particularly formative moment, how it influenced their own works, and how it made them think differently. Rebel Without a Cause inspired John Woo to comb his hair and talk like James Dean. For Richard Linklater, “something was simmering in me, but Raging Bull brought it to a boil.” Apocalypse Now inspired Danny Boyle to make larger-than-life films. A single line from The Wizard of Oz--“Who could ever have thought a good little girl like you could destroy all my beautiful wickedness?”--had a direct impact on John Waters. “That line inspired my life,” Waters says. “I sometimes say it to myself before I go to sleep, like a prayer.” In this volume, directors as diverse as John Woo, Peter Bogdanovich, Michel Gondry, and Kevin Smith examine classic movies that inspired them to tell stories. Here are 30 inspired and inspiring discussions of classic films that shaped the careers of today's directors and, in turn, cinema history.




Peace


Book Description

Mesmerizing sci-fi from the author the Denver Post calls "one of the literary giants of science fiction." The melancholy memoir of Alden Dennis Weer, an embittered old man living in a small midwestern town, reveals a miraculous dimension. For Weer's imagination has the power to obliterate time and reshape reality, transcending even death itself.




Top Five Regrets of the Dying


Book Description

Revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide with translations in 29 languages. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story. Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live.




Underexposed!


Book Description

The untold stories behind the 50 greatest movies never made, illustrated by 50 new and original posters For most films, it’s a long, strange road from concept to screen, and sometimes those roads lead to dead ends. In Underexposed! The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made, screenwriter and filmmaker Joshua Hull guides readers through development hell. With humor and reverence, Hull details the speed bumps and roadblocks that kept these films from ever reaching the silver screen. From the misguided and rejected, like Stanley Kubrick’s Lord of the Rings starring the Beatles; to films that changed hands and pulled a U-turn in development, like Steven Spielberg’s planned Oldboy adaptation starring Will Smith; to would-be masterpieces that might still see the light of day, like Guillermo del Toro’s In the Mountains of Madness, Hull discusses plotlines, rumored casting, and more. To help bring these lost projects to life, 50 artists from around the world, in association with the online art collective PosterSpy, have contributed original posters that accompany each essay and give a glimpse of what might have been.




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Book Description