Movies Books

Isn't it every true Romantic's dream to meet the man or woman of your dreams, and spend at least one perfect night with your perfect mate? If so, then these screenplays are for you. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset have long been an inspiration to me, as a writer and a dreamer and a hoper, and I'm positive, if you are a writer or just a dreamer and hoper, then you too will love these nearly perfect editions of two nearly perfect love stories.

While it has no photos or interviews or anything, luckily this book is NOT a simple transcript of the two films as released. The book offers the original shooting scripts, and as such, it is a really interesting document for those who dig the films -- there are some deleted scenes and many extended dialogue sequences and things that were ultimately done differently when filmed, especially with SUNRISE (we learn what Jesse's job is on the train, there is a non-verbal scene at a hot dog stand, etc.). There is nothing shocking about this, but it is interesting to see what materials were deleted, shifted, and how the actors add their own bent to the written dialoge, SUNSET has no deleted scenes, but there are many deleted/ altered dialogue passages (apparently, Jesse was thinking of basing his song-based novel on the "Long and Winding Road" in the original draft, although this passage is excised from the film).

Of course, the edits were all the artists choices, whether for pacing or aesthetic reasons, so if you just want to stick with the films, fine. But for fans of these two films, I would likely say that the book will really be enjoyable, as it offers what the movies have, just more of the same!

This book is one of the mysteries on my Top Ten list. I believe it may be the best psychological mystery ever written.

The Hitchcock film Suspicion, made in 1941 with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine, is based on this book. The film is wonderful - romantic, suspenseful, perfectly cast, and an excellent character study. But it disappoints in one crucial respect - the movie studio insisted on a different (and very inferior) ending than the one in the book.

So, read the book!! This book is so beautifully written, it stands as a very fine novel, in addition to its place as a mystery classic. A mood of suspense, fear and dread is maintained throughout.

There has seldom been a more sympathetic and believable portrait of the reluctant spinster/wallflower than that of Lina. Her fascination with a charming self-centered (...), Johnny, is poignant and heartbreaking. Lina is swept off her feet by Johnny and impulsively marries him. As her relationship with Johnny deepens, Lina comes to suspect that her handsome husband may be more than an irresponsible (...). She is haunted by a terrifying question - has she married a murderer?

Get a copy of this book if you can - you will not be disappointed!!

Francis Iles / Anthony Berkeley has always been one of my favourites, because his sense of humour is exactly what I enjoy most. His books are very clever and he's good at misleading - though not like traditional writers like Christie. His way of misleading is his own kind - and his sense of humour is very surprising. This is not haha-comedy, but something else.

'Before the fact' has been filmed at least twice, the first one with Cary Grant as Johnnie ('Suspicion' by Hitchcock), so many may know the story but! both movies I've seen give a very different ending than this book, so be warned!

Lina, the main character of the book is almost 30 years old and sure to end up as a spinster, when he meets charming Johnnie, who belongs to an old family but has a shady reputation. The description of how Johnnie charms Lina and how Lina falls for him has startled me with its psychological accuracy - and I was very worried about myself and thankful I'm not going to inherit 50 000 pounds, because too much of Lina seemed too familiar... Their relationship and Lina's attitude towards Johnnie and their marriage is one of the best things I've ever read - more so, when Iles succeeds to convey Lina's errors without pointing them out, just through Lina's own thoughts. Although Lina, of course, thinks she's right all the time. We know before Lina, just how faithful Johnnie really is, we in fact know Johnnie is a murderer, because in the first sentences the writer conveys: 'Some women give birth to murderers, some women marry them... Lina Aysgarth had been married for nearly 8 years before realizing he had married a murderer.' (Quotation by heart, not exact.) Iles really does it this time: he breaks all the rules of detective stories: he tells us there's a murder and who is the murderer, he lets us know the murder/s but we never really know, if they really are murders, we can just assume, and finally.... The ending is unlike anything in detective stories and left me stunned, laughing out of disbelief and then just laughing and thinking: how marvellous! And after all this it's easy to understand, how moviemakers have chosen another kind of ending - because it's still possible after all this. The options are left open.

This really gives a most delicious, yet subtle, description of Lina and Johnnie. I bet you know people like these. In detective stories there are often amoral, charming men like Johnnie - Christie had several - and they are often described as rotten apples, unable to be anything else but still charming to women. Iles gives a fuller picture through Lina's eyes. Many times you wonder, why Lina stays and lets it all happen, but Iles creates her a personality that clearly can't do much more. She's been hypnotized by her own love, her own pride and who knows what. I'm not nearly as clever as Iles was. You read and find out. But beware of the ending!

Unputdownable! This is the first time I have been this absorbed in a book for a long time. Even if you are not interested in celebrity life or journalism, you will love this book and if you are interested, you are in for a real treat.

Best Actor has it all, interesting characters, a great plot, lots of twists and an amazing ending. The pace is just right and I found myself turning pages at great speed, desperate to keep up with the plot without wanting it to end.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

At last a book about the all-pervading obsession with Celebrity that has wonderful characters and a really great ending! KT Casha skilfully builds up a picture of the complex web of Hollywood power-brokers and lays bare the crude mechanics of the whole money-making enterprise. The story moves forward at a cracking pace and is told in an effortless style which makes for easy reading - I read it in one sitting - but it has great depth too and gets under your skin, so that you'll be thinking of the characters, their lives and what they could have done differently long after you've put it down.

Buy it, read it and tell your friends about it - they'll thank you!

This book is a lot of fun and really enjoyable reading. The Barbra thing is a hoot! This apparently is the first of an annual series - I can't wait till next year!

There are some wonderful essays in here. Two of the best include one about producing by a producer who worked for Robert Redford. Very interesting look at the producing life, which I've rarely seen written about. And another utterly fascinating essay by a homosexual who explains why homosexuals idolize tough, bitchy, ballsy female stars like Madonna and Streisand and Judy Garland. I've always wondered why homosexuals would idolize these type women (why women, they love men?) and this essay is an articluate glimpse into the homosexual mind.

My 3.5 yr old son loves this book. It tells a condensed version of the Finding Nemo story, and his favorite part is the last page where "Nemo loves his dad and his dad loves him." My son gives me (his dad) a special hug.

Our son, age 4.5, loves reading this book. He feels like he's reading a real big boy book! Most of the words are basic, but there are enough words to tell a real story (based on the movie, of course). Many "Level 1 Readers" are really dull for adults and kids quickly outgrow them. This book's engaging pictures and plot keep us reaching for it over and over.

I just recently obtained this book. It is quite fun and most informative. I am choosing to read this book in random order. In other words, I am randomly selecting various years and songs that are most interesting to me, and am reading it in that manner. Mr. Funnell's book really succeeds on two fundamental levels. On the one hand it is a genuinely informative, insightful, and probative study of a vitally importart body of American music. I believe that , in time, it will be regarded as one of the essential books on this topic. Yet, as valuable as the book is to the study of this important sub-genre of the American Songbook, it never bogs down into the pseduo-intellectual type of rhetoric that unfortunately typifies a lot of "serious" works on popular culture. "Best Songs of the Movies" is an engaging and lively book. This is just the sort of book that prompts one to want to curl up in a comfy chair , put on a cd of "That's Entertainment" or other suitable movie musical compilation, and read through the vaious years and songs profiled in the book. By the way, I especially appreciate Appendix 1, which provides brief capsule bios on the songwriters. Of course, we know to expect to see Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, etc. However, it is also nice to see such lesser lights as Ralph Freed, Johnny Marvin, and Allie Wrubel sharing space with the aforementioned luminaries.
In sum, this is one of the best books on American music and American movies to reach publication in quite some time.

`Best Songs of the Movies' is a superbly written reference on popular music. It is full of fascinating, detailed information and insightful comments about the songs nominated for the Oscar in the first 25 years of the award.

I found this `page-turner' very hard to put down. It's wonderful to dip into, and it will settle any argument you may have about the great songs from the movies. It is full of information that, up until now, was not easily accessible. For example, I learned from 'Best Songs' that there were two songs called `Linda'. I was intrigued to learn about the Oscar nominated `other Linda' and the movie in which it appeared. I challenge you to sing this song!

It seems there's not much interest in the Best Song Oscars these days but this book makes it clear that this was not always so. The fascinating introduction shows the historical process by which changes in popular music have led to a decline in the significance of the Best Song Oscar.

It's very clear that the author has meticulously researched the subject. The book has a very attractive design with well-chosen stills from many of the movies discussed. The Appendix, giving biographical details on all the songwriters mentioned in the book, is especially valuable.

'Best Songs of the Movies' is a delight to dip into and an indispensable guide for movie buffs and anyone who has any interest in American popular music. If you want to impress your friends with your comprehensive knowledge of popular music, you should get `Best Songs of the Movies' (but, don't tell them about the book!).

The Wild Thornberrys by Adam Beechen

The part that I like was the animals. I like the beavers the most. I also liked the adventures and characters. The characters are
Eliza, Debby, Donny, Maryanne/Mom, and Nigil/Dad. This is a really long book and movie. It teaches you a lot about animals. This is a really good book. You should read it

I love this book's happy ending. Through a clever plot featuring some adorable beavers, Eliza and the reader discover together how important family is, and how Valentine's Day can extend to include children as well as parents. The poem at the end would warm any woman's heart!

Gene D. Phillips's "Beyong the Epic: The Life & Films of David Lean" comes at a time of renewed interest in David Lean and his films, and puts perhaps the definitive stamp on this filmmaker's achievements. Though it often goes over the same ground as previous books have on Lean--especially the excellent biography by Kevin Brownlow (1996)--Phillips's book has assembled a mass of material from biographical, critical and other sources, including personal interviews with actors, colleagues and filmmakers who knew Lean, and has integrated these materials into an admirable whole, lucidly and painstaikingly evaluating the opus of Lean in its entirety. At last, Phillips offers the Lean devotees--and a broader audience--a remarkable book that places the cinematic achievemnts of David lean into proper perspective, balancing all the elements of a director whose directorial style and methods both attracted and repelled viewers and critics, some of whom still have not accorded Lean the high place he deserves among twentieth century filmmakers. Massive and minutely authenticated, tackling the knottiest problems head on, "Beyond the Epic" redresses critical lapses, and, without being maudlin or worshipful, presents an image of David Lean as, deservedly, one of the greatest narrative film directors of the twentieth century.

The film historian Phillips brings out the person, the immense talent, and the consummate skills of the director about whom one film critic wrote that David Lean's films were "too mammoth in scope and Olympian in style" for moviegoers, even students of the artistic genre, "to get an impression of the man behind the camera." Lean was an extraordinarily ambitious and skilled director who brought his particular, uncompromising touch to any movie he made. Among his movies are the panoramic classics "Dr. Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia"; "Great Expectations" and "Passage to India" adapted from major novels of different centuries; and the war movies "In Which We Serve" and "Bridge on the River Kwai." Lean worked with Alec Guiness, Katherine Hepburn, Omar Sharif, Charles Laughton, and Julie Andrews--all of whom acknowledged his indelible impact on their performances as well as the finished movie even though viewers were not distinctly aware of the director behind it, as they are in a Woody Allen or Alfred Hitchcock film for example. Phillips hones in on Lean's particular style and accomplishments by close readings of many of his 16 films. The author analyzes details of scenes from the films to cast light on Lean's techniques and masterful intentions; and he often notes commentary and critiques by critic, actors, and others for additional perspectives and appreciations of Lean's work. As his major, most memorable films show--"Lawrence of Arabia," for example--Lean was able to create and project romanticism, expansive emotions, genuine characters, and variously the sweep of history or the genius of literature without sensationalism or sentimentality. This is his characteristic, extraordinary, achievement in the world of film.

Stephanie and her two freinds try to fix Joey up on a date.They write a personal ad in a magazine.They get over 1,000 replies from the ad.They went through the mail and picked five dates for Joey to go on.They all had something wrong with them the first one wasa russian woman and she beat joey over the head with her purse.The second one was horrible the date never even happend.And the third went the same way.The fourth date was a man who didnt know it was Joey that was looking for a date.The Last and final date was with some one named Risa.Little did they know that Risa was actually Danny's date Marrisa.She dumped Danny to go out with Joey.That was on Valentines day and Danny and Joey were depressed.Stephanie while all that was going on she was trying to make a valentine for Kyle Sullivan.In the end her and Kyle Went out on a date for valentines.

I loved this book! It was one of the best books I've read in a long time. I would rate this 20 stars if the scoring went that high. Very funny. I'd reccomend this to any Full House fan.

This is an extremely well researched book regarding the African-American film industry, which is a very neglected area of the business. I highly recommend it.

This book chronicles the evolution of Black Film and Black people in films from the racist depiction of Blacks in Griffith's Birth of a Nation through the Black Diaspora to Spike Lee.

A great read