Best of
Film

1977

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Screenplay


Graham Chapman - 1977
    In a series of sketches and animations, the Pythons recount scenes from the Grail legend in which the knights forsake their chorus line can-can dancing in Camelot for a higher aim. Typically, the Pythons set-up a 'historical' tale which is really a take on the modern world. Memorable scenes, like Graham Chapman's King Arthur battling with John Cleese's Black Knight until the latter is reduced limb by limb down to a speaking stump of a torso, capture both the hilarity and grotesque nature of brutality. In scene after scene King Arthur's men are led a merry chase through the countryside, encountering life on many different social levels. This screenplay edition contains just the script and is supplemented by stills from the film.

The Making of the Wizard of Oz: Movie Magic and Studio Power in the Prime of MGM


Aljean Harmetz - 1977
    From this was born The Wizard of Oz, a film that, 60 years later, continues to captivate us. It seems we can never get enough of the dishy inside details, the amazing feats of production that made it such a spectacle, and the personalities both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Now, timed to coincide with the theatrical rerelease -- which will include never-before-seen footage -- this is the book Oz aficionados will turn to for more information on America's favorite movie. A bestselling classic since it was first published in 1977, The Making of The Wizard of Oz is as ageless as the film itself jam-packed with fascinating facts and telling asides.

Das Ornament Der Masse: Essays: Weimar Essays


Siegfried Kracauer - 1977
    In this volume his finest writings on modern society make their long-awaited appearance in English.This book is a celebration of the masses--their tastes, amusements, and everyday lives. Taking up themes of modernity, such as isolation and alienation, urban culture, and the relation between the group and the individual, Kracauer explores a kaleidoscope of topics: shopping arcades, the cinema, bestsellers and their readers, photography, dance, hotel lobbies, Kafka, the Bible, and boredom. For Kracauer, the most revelatory facets of modern life in the West lie on the surface, in the ephemeral and the marginal. Of special fascination to him is the United States, where he eventually settled after fleeing Germany and whose culture he sees as defined almost exclusively by "the ostentatious display of surface."With these essays, written in the 1920s and early 1930s and edited by the author in 1963, Kracauer was the first to demonstrate that studying the everyday world of the masses can bring great rewards. The Mass Ornament today remains a refreshing tribute to popular culture, and its impressively interdisciplinary essays continue to shed light not only on Kracauer's later work but also on the ideas of the Frankfurt School, the genealogy of film theory and cultural studies, Weimar cultural politics, and, not least, the exigencies of intellectual exile.In his introduction, Thomas Levin situates Kracauer in a turbulent age, illuminates the forces that influenced him--including his friendships with Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and other Weimar intellectuals--and provides the context necessary for understanding his ideas. Until now, Kracauer has been known primarily for his writings on the cinema. This volume brings us the full scope of his gifts as one of the most wide-ranging and penetrating interpreters of modern life.

A Postillion Struck by Lightning


Dirk Bogarde - 1977
    Round the cottage was a rickety wooden fence with bits of wire and an old bedstead stuck in it, and some apple trees and the privy with its roof of ivy and honeysuckle'A POSTILLION STRUCK BY LIGHTNING marked Dirk Bogarde's transition from star of stage and screen to a bestselling and internationally acclaimed author.This vivid and engaging memoir traces the first steps of Dirk Bogarde as a young actor before he became world famous as well as his childhood amidst the enchanting beauty of rural Sussex. Here is the delightful harmony of summer days spent fishing with his young sister, a hunt for an escaped tortoise, the discovery of the biggest mushroom in the world, and the quest to win a pet canary at the local fair. Then came the plays he and sister used to put on in their barn, followed by the local amateur dramatic society, all a prelude to his growing desire to join the world of the stage.

The Wolf Man


Ian Thorne - 1977
    Also presents a synopsis of the 1941 film starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and the 1935 film starring Henry Hull.

Conversations with Marilyn: Portrait of Marilyn Monroe


Marilyn Monroe - 1977
    

Andrei Rublev


Andrei Tarkovsky - 1977
    The book is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter.

Mad Scientists


Ian Thorne - 1977
    Presents synopses of several well-known horror films whose plots revolve around the experiments of diabolical scientists.

Frankenstein


Ian Thorne - 1977
    Frankenstein and his creation in films. Also presents a synopsis of the 1931 film starring Boris Karloff.

Pink Floyd - Animals


David Gilmour - 1977
    Songs include: Pigs on the Wing * Dogs * Sheep * Pigs (Three Different Ones) * Pigs on the Wing Part II * and more.

Dracula


Ian Thorne - 1977
    Also presents a synopsis of the 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi.

Movie-Star Portraits of the Forties


John Kobal - 1977
    Do you remember the most famous pinup of them all? Betty Grable smiling at you all through World War II. The original sweater girl, Lana Turner. Rita Hayworth in all her glory. The stunning and statuesque Ava Gardner. A defiant, scantily clad Jane Russell standing near the hay. Bogart, Garfield, Kirk Douglas, Judy Garland. The brooding Robert Mitchum, the brute power of Burt Lancaster, the alienated Montgomery Clift, the animal menace of Marlon Brando. And perhaps the last of the studio pinups, the fragile and beautiful Marilyn Monroe. These flesh and blood fantasies, and many others, are here — 106 stars in 163 full-page glamour photos by 24 leading Hollywood photographers.The pictures these photographic artists took span the period from the outbreak of World War II to the Korean conflict of 1951. As John Kobal writes in his informative introduction. "The Forties were the years of Old Hollywood's last stand, though the people concerned didn't know it." In a lively introduction, illustrated by ten pictures of the stars off the set, Mr. Kobal discusses the people and films of the Forties, the importance of these photos and the photographers who took them, and their magical appeal to movie fans. The captions give the year, photographer, studio, the movies that many of the portraits are associated with, and the costume designer. Originally printed in fan magazines, on posters, and in fashion spreads, these portraits are legendary. They are part of almost everyone's past, part of their dreams and fantasies.

The Story Of Tommy


Richard Barnes - 1977
    

King Lear, The Space of Tragedy: The Diary of a Film Director


Grigori Kozintsev - 1977
    Grigori Kozintsev's powerful film of Lear, first shown in the West in 1972, made a profound impression on all those who saw it, casting a new light on many facets of the play.King Lear: The Space of Tragedy is the diary Kozintsev kept during the shooting of the film, describing the chronological thought process behind the production. There are three strands running through the book. Firstly, there is the theme of Lear and the author's day-to-day meditations on the characters and the play. Secondly, there are the author's reminiscences of the early days of the cinema in Russia in the twenties and Sergei Eisenstein, with constant reference to the development of European theatre and the influence of Meyerhold, Artaud, Gordon Craig and Peter Brook. Finally, there is the story of how the film was actually made, with all the adverse weather conditions, and, last but not least, how Dmitri Shostakovich collaborated to compose the music.There is no single correct interpretation of the play, Kozintsev asserts; each realization must be colored by personal feelings and traditions. His own is deeply Russian, influenced as it is by the legacy of the nineteenth century -- Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and Tolstoy. For him, the play symbolizes man on the edge of catastrophe. Lear, the emotionless despot, renounces his power, and in so doing, becomes a human being. In his wanderings he joins the ranks of humanity, the tramps and beggars, who are caught up on the tide of events which sweeps them inevitably towards ruin and destruction. It is the ultimate irony that Lear, having become human in his poverty, eventually finds happiness in his reunion with Cordelia, only to have it snatched away from him almost immediately.This book will be of great interest to all those concerned with Shakespeare criticism and also to cinema enthusiasts and to the theatre world.

Seeing The Light


James Broughton - 1977
    

The Films of Ronald Colman


Lawrence J. Quirk - 1977
    

Film Biographies


Stan Brakhage - 1977
    Filmmakers discussed include: George Melies, D.W. Griffith, Carl Theodore Dreyer, Sergei Eisenstein, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Jean Vigo, Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, Alexender Dovzhenko, and a special lecture dedicated to "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." Special introductions to the text by Robert Creeley, Edward Dorn, and Guy Davenport.

Film/Cinema/Movie: A Theory of Experience


Gerald Mast - 1977
    

The Western: From Silents to the Seventies


George N. Fenin - 1977
    - back cover

The Most Important Art: Soviet and East European Film After 1945


Mira Liehm - 1977
    

Salt of the Earth


Michael Wilson - 1977
    The film was the unique product of a collaboration between the mining families and blacklisted Hollywood people. The film's narrator and protagonist is a Mexican-American woman who grows in consciousness and effectiveness through her participation in the community struggle. Rosenfelt’s analysis of the background, history, and significance of both the strike and the film includes a discussion of the change in status of the women who took part in this strike.