November
13
Book Review: "Have You Seen...?"
The long tail prevails. My daughter Nora, 19, is more interested in renting old Kevin Smith comedies and Good Will Hunting than she is in going out to new movies. The perfect book for any cinephile is Biographical Dictionary of Film author David Thomson's latest blue and red tome: "Have You Seen…?” , 1000 one-page reviews (of about 500 words each) of must-see movies, from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to Z. Here's my review.
Based in San Francisco, Thomson considers himself to be an historian more than a film critic, although he's done reviews for Film Comment and Esquire and other publications over the years. He's idiosyncratic, entertaining, erudite and fun to read. Early on, he says, he persuaded Knopf to forgo both illustrations and a rating system. Photos would have made the book too weighty, not to mention expensive. "If I couldn't get what I thought about a film into 500 words..." he says. "This book is all about the text."
Thomson's thinking about changes for the revised version, he says: "I already have second thoughts." He might drop some titles and add new ones, like the 1945 Michael Redgrave horror film Dead At Night or Bette Davis in Dangerous. He admits that he erred on the side of older films rather than more contemporary ones because people need reminding, he says. "There's a tremendous amount of valuable old stuff."
Friends are indignant, he says, that he omitted Danny Boyle's Trainspotting. He left out plenty of Best Picture Oscar winners because "the Oscars serve their purpose, but they are an extremely unreliable reflection of what actually happened. The people awarding the Oscars do not have a laudable record. They've been wrong on more of them than they've been right."
“Have you Seen…?” is a book for anyone with a Netflix queue who seeks more depth than a Rotten Tomatoes score. And it's also available on Kindle.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
I spoke with David when he was in England promoting this book, which is a must read for anyone serious about cinema.
Although his views can provoke strong reactions (both for and against) he was a very charming and amiable guy, with a clear passion for many different kinds of films.
You can listen here: http://www.filmdetail.com/archives/2008/09/25/interview-david-thomson-on-have-you-seen/
Posted by: Ambrose Heron | November 13, 2008 at 08:11 PM