A storybook retelling of the Disney version of the tale of the young maid who releases a handsome prince from the spell that has turned him into an ugly beast.

    is Vada's best friend. They live near enough to each other to bike ride over and play, or even just hang out. The two are always together, sharing their afternoons, their adventures in the lake, and all of their secrets. Then something terrible happens to Thomas J. and Vada has to learn to fill her days without her best friend around.

    1,091 and dwindling) is eating Gilbert Grape, a twenty-four-year-old grocery clerk who dreams only of leaving. His enormous mother, once the town sweetheart, has been eating nonstop ever since her husband's suicide, and the floor beneath her TV chair is threatening to cave in. Gilbert's long-suffering older sister, Amy, still mourns the death of Elvis, and his knockout younger sister has become hooked on makeup, boys, and Jesus--in that order, but the biggest event on the horizon for all the Grapes is the eighteenth birthday of Gilbert's younger brother, Arnie, who is a living miracle just for having survived so long. As the Grapes gather in Endora, a mysterious beauty glides through town on a bicycle and rides circles around Gilbert, until he begins to see a new vision of his family and himself.

    But beneath the glamour was a real and complicated man - surprisingly vulnerable, unabashedly romantic, often exacting perfectionist who rose above a traumatic childhood and failed marriages to become an incomparable Hollywood legend. In this sublimely truthful and candid portrait, biographer Nancy Nelson draws on interviews with Grant, as well as material from his personal papers, along with loving, revelatory reminiscences from some of his closest friends and loved ones - including Katharine Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Quincy Jones, James Stewart, and many more - to reveal the vaudevillian, actor, lover, and father. With a treasury of both well-loved and rarely seen photographs and a foreword by Grant's wife, Barbara, and daughter, Jennifer, this is the definitive biography of one of the screen's greatest stars.

    How could it lose? But instead Salamon got a front-row seat at the Hollywood disaster of the decade. She shadowed the film from its early stages through the last of the eviscerating reviews, and met everyone from the actors to the technicians to the studio executives. They'd all signed on for a blockbuster, but there was a sense of impending doom from the start--heart-of-gold characters replaced Wolfe's satiric creations; affable Tom Hanks was cast as the patrician heel; Melanie Griffith appeared mid-shoot with new, bigger breasts. With a keen eye and ear, Salamon shows us how the best of intentions turned into a legendary Hollywood debacle.The Devil's Candy joins John Gregory Dunne's The Studio, Steven Bach's Final Cut, and William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade as a classic for anyone interested in the workings of Hollywood. With a new afterword profiling De Palma ten years after the movie's devastating flop (and this book's best-selling publication), Julie Salamon has created a riveting insider's portrait of an industry where art, talent, ego, and money combine and clash on a monumental scale.

    In this first major biography of the composer, Steven C. Smith explores the interrelationships between Herrmann's music and his turbulent personal life, using much previously unpublished information to illustrate Herrmann's often outrageous behavior, his working methods, and why his music has had such lasting impact.From his first film (Citizen Kane) to his last (Taxi Driver), Herrmann was a master of evoking psychological nuance and dramatic tension through music, often using unheard-of instrumental combinations to suit the dramatic needs of a film. His scores are among the most distinguished ever written, ranging from the fantastic (Fahrenheit 451, The Day the Earth Stood Still) to the romantic (Obsession, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) to the terrifying (Psycho).Film was not the only medium in which Herrmann made a powerful mark. His radio broadcasts included Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre on the Air and The War of the Worlds. His concert music was commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic, and he was chief conductor of the CBS Symphony.Almost as celebrated as these achievements are the enduring legends of Herrmann's combativeness and volatility. Smith separates myth from fact and draws upon heretofore unpublished material to illuminate Herrmann's life and influence. Herrmann remains as complex as any character in the films he scored—a creative genius, an indefatigable musicologist, an explosive bully, a generous and compassionate man who desperately sought friendship and love.Films scored by Bernard Herrmann: Citizen Kane, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Vertigo, Psycho, Fahrenheit 451, Taxi Driver, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North By Northwest, The Birds, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Cape Fear, Marnie, Torn Curtain, among others

    The former is a psychological thriller set in the Hollywood of the 1940s, while the latter reinvents the 1930s gangster film.

    The daughter of a Utah federal marshall, she acquired a job as set and costume designer working on the films of her lover, and soon husband, Rudolph Valentino. Splendid vintage photos enhance this remarkable biography. 165 duotones. 15 full-color illustrations.

    In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the fearless archeologist journeys from Nepal to Cairo to the Mediterranean, dodging poisons, traps, and snakes, battling rivals old and new–all in pursuit of an ancient artifact that holds the key to dazzling, invincible power. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom finds our intrepid hero in a remote village in India, where a mysterious old shaman tells him that his arrival has been foreseen–and that he must retrieve a stolen mystical stone. And finally, Indy must face the most challenging and personal endeavor of his life: rescue his estranged father, the eminent professor Dr. Henry Jones, from a Nazi’s lair, and recover the legendary Holy Grail. Yet Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade doesn’t mean the adventure is over. . . .

    

    Based on a combination of "Sammy Johnsin" (a Sambo caricature) and Charlie Chaplin, Felix the Cat was the first cartoon character to exhibit an individual "personality" in moving pictures, preceding Mickey Mouse by a decade. From 1919 to 1933 Felix was internationally celebrated, as popular as Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Felix's producer, Pat Sullivan, a journeyman artist, chronic alcoholic, and convicted rapist, claimed credit for creating and developing Felix. But, as John Canemaker discovered, in truth it was Otto Messmer, Sullivan's brilliant, self-effacing production manager, who conceived, animated, and directed the more than two hundred Felix films during the period of his greatest popularity. And by focusing on Messmer's amazing achievement, Canemaker illuminates the entire world of film animation in the years before Walt Disney.

    He was a quick learner, and he went on to win several Academy Awards and to fashion the scores of such films as "Gigi", "Porgy and Bess" and "My Fair Lady". In this memoir Previn recalls his years in Hollywood in the Golden Age from 1948 to 1964. Andre Previn is the author of "Music Face to Face" and "Andre Previn's Guide to Music".

    "From cover to cover, this openly invites the reader to discover the delights of dinosaurs. The visual appeal is impressive. The text is informative. Fossilization, skeleton reconstruction, and a superb time scale round out a stunning and compelling book. Complete, authoritative, exact, and imaginative, it is sure to survive when other dinosaur books become extinct."--(starred) "Science Books & Films."

    Giving in-depth coverage of each of their 36 feature films from start to finish, this is the only book that has the permission of Abbott and Costello estates to use rare personal materials, many of which have never before been seen by the public.

    Reprint.

    In Tom Stoppard's best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.

    A cultural and social history that places Yiddish-language cinema in the contexts of 20th-century Jewish history, the history of motion pictures and the development of Yiddish secular cuture.

    Aspiring directors, cinematographers, editors, and producers, many of whom are now working professionals, learned the craft of visual storytelling from Shot by Shot, the most com-plete source for preplanning the look of a movie.The book contains over 800 photos and illustrations, and is by far the most comprehensive look at shot design in print, containing storyboards from movies such as Citizen Kane, Blade Runner, Dead-pool, and Moonrise Kingdom. Also introduced is the concept of A, I, and L patterns as a way to sim-plify the hundreds of staging choices facing a director in every scene.Shot by Shot uniquely blends story analysis with compositional strategies, citing examples then il-lustrated with the storyboards used for the actual films. Throughout the book, various visual ap-proaches to short scenes are shown, exposing the directing processes of our most celebrated au-teurs — including a meticulous, lavishly illustrated analysis of Steven Spielberg’s scene design for Empire of the Sun.

    Charlie Chaplin's One-Man Show is a penetrating analysis of the masterpieces which have cast their spell over generation after generation of moviegoers.For the first time a professional mime gives an insider's view of Chaplin's craft, demonstrating how Chaplin transformed his genius at stage mime into a staggering cinematic achievement.Kamin shows how Chaplin's physical virtuosity led him to create the hilarious comedy which brought silent films to their peak. He examines Chaplin's later films, which integrate mime and verbal comedy in inventive ways, and reveals Chaplin's methods for attaining the clarity and immediacy which have made his films timeless. The world of Charlie Chaplin has never been more vividly depicted, making this book a fascinating excursion for Chaplin fans and movie buffs alike.Dan Kamin trained Robert Downey, Jr. for his Oscar-nominated performance in Chaplin and created Johnny Depp's physical comedy routines in Benny and Joon. He performs his own comedy shows in theatres and with symphony orchestras worldwide.

    The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Day of Wrath, Ordet and Gertrud are among the best-known works of this rigorous, austere and powerful film-maker.