Book Description
A chilled, crystal glass; the purest gin; a touch of dry vermouth--vigorously shaken, not stirred--and a plump, green olive. The martini was and still is more than just a cocktail. Originally mixed in the nineteenth century, it became an American icon in the twentieth, and the favorite drink of such luminaries as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Jack London, and Ernest Hemingway. Bernard De Voto called the martini "the supreme American gift to world culture," while H. L. Mencken declared it "the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet."
The first book of its kind to explore the drink's wide appeal, this volume serves up a fabulous cocktail of martini-inspired art, cartoons, collectibles, advertisements, and film stills that reveal how deeply this classic has permeated every aspect of American culture, from literature and film to politics and high society. Complete with bartending lore, traditional martini recipes, literary excerpts, memorable scenes from James Bond movies, and more, The Martini offers a toast to this intoxicating symbol of the American dream.
Customer Reviews:
Pleasant enough.......2006-01-30
A coffee table book, defined as one where the picture to text ratio is 1:1 or greater. That doesn't diminish the collection of text and images that Barnaby Conrad has put together in this slim volume, but as an exhaustive work on the mixture of gin and vermouth garnished with an olive this is not. Conrad does manage to bring together some things that I hadn't seen or read before in my cocktail explorations, including a very dry (heh heh) bit of humor from Christopher Buckley on a presidential debate between George "Pappy" Bush and Bill Clinton called "The Three Martini Debate," derived from a Tom Brokaw quote in The New York Times that serving the two a martini and having an exchange at his house would be a good alternative format. None of the pictures made my list of favorites, although the old advertisements and movie stills were interesting, and the cartoons, mainly from The New Yorker, were fun. Only two poems, one of which I was already intimately familiar with (the Dorothy Parker), but the other was one which I will endeavor to memorize, Ogden Nash's "A Drink with Something In It."
The single thing that I learned about the cocktail itself from the book was that the original recipe called for orange bitters in a 2:1 gin and vermouth combination. Since I actually have a bottle or orange bitters after having searched for a year for one, I can give this a try.
WELL DONE!.......2003-02-06
This book is great--it has history, humor, and lots of glamorous pictures, and manages to keep the cheese factor very low. A great gift for the drinkers in your life!
Breezy, well-written look at a cultural phenomenon.......2001-11-17
Now HERE is a hip coffee-table book. It's true that it isn't as colorful (or fundamentally healthy in subject) as Drew Kampion's "Stoked: A History of Surf Culture" (ISBN 1575440628). Nor as vividly gothic as David King's "The Commissar Vanishes," containing photographs re-touched during the Stalin regime so that unpersons might become unremembered, while the old women with the thick glasses and awkward sheaves of the forbidden-book registry (updated monthly) made the rounds of the bookshops and libraries to preen the inventory (ISBN 0805052941). Nor again is it as deeply, internationally hip as Conrad's earlier "Absinthe: History in a Bottle" (1988, reprinted 1997, ISBN 0811816508). As a European-émigré acquaintance recalled, for example: "It was 1950, we had just been married, we were driving through this little town in Switzerland. It was a Sunday after church, and the place seemed deserted. But there was a large inn, where we stopped. Most of the town was there, having a glass of wine. There was also a little private room, and the local leaders were there, the mayor, the bishop, the chief of police, and the innkeeper, who had come out to see who we were. While the rest of the people were having a glass of wine, they were off to themselves, having an absinthe, a little furtively. All perfectly illegal, and totally charming. I made a witty remark about this, a little off-color. The bishop laughed heartily, and they welcomed us in and gave us each an absinthe and toasted our marriage." (See also my separate recommendation posted for the Conrad "Absinthe.")
These are all interesting coffee-table books, and they all deal with some kind of history. But none of the others starts with lines like "I must get out of these wet clothes and into a dry Martini." Conrad's Martini book is the most US-pop-culture-hip of this bunch. It is light-hearted and loaded with trivia, from old magazine advertisements to collectible cocktail shakers to an unforgettable movie photo on page 53 of Joan Crawford in high-contrast black-and-white, Martini in one hand, cigarette in the other. It is an instructive history as well as a very funny narrative.
By the late 1970s the Martini was dying out, as Conrad mentions; it was unhip, old-fashioned. By 1990 (Conrad doesn't mention but I do) a character in Eric Kraft's contemporary novel "Reservations Recommended" (ISBN 0517572338) was so out-of-it that he "ordered a martini without irony." You wouldn't have guessed it by the late 1990s when a suburban Crate-and-Barrel store was selling seemingly little else but Martini glasses and 1930s-reproduction cocktail shakers, and the Libbey Glass website offered numerous Martini models including with Z-stems. The Martini did not stay unhip for long.
The quintissential American cocktail, in all it's glory........2000-07-19
This beautiful "coffee table" style book is dedicated to that most beautiful and perfect of cocktails, the inestimable martini.
Conrad's informative text, colorful anecdotes, and lavish illustrations make this book a wonderful addition to the great miracle it celebrates.
Mix yourself a martini, (two olives, shaken -- not stirred) relax in an easy chair, and enjoy this book!
A stirring book--even though I prefer my martinis shaken........2000-05-07
In this PC-infested world, it is refreshing to find an author with not only the audacity but also the innate talent to immortalize one of the greatest contributions to humanity ever devised--the martini. Every serious savorer of that pure clear elixir should read this book, not only for the historical background of the martini, but to reassure himself that his is a noble cause--to prepare the perfect martini.
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Bunuel por Bunuel
Tomas Perez Turrent
Manufacturer: Plot
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ASIN: 8486702208 |
Book Description
Although Luis Buñuel, one of the great filmmakers of the century, was notoriously reluctant to discuss his own work in public, he wrote--and wrote well--on many subjects over the years. This collection proceeds chronologically, from poetry and short stories written in Buñuel's youth in Spain to an essay written in 1980, not long before his death. Newly translated into English, the writings offer startling insights into the filmmaker's life and thought.
The earliest pieces came well before Buñuel joined the Surrealist movement in Paris and created the landmark film Un chien andalou with Salvador Dalí. Yet these and the early Surrealist writings reveal the inventiveness of the mind that would later create such masterpieces of cinema as L'Age d'or, Los olvidados, Viridiana, The Milky Way, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and That Obscure Object of Desire.
Later writings, which include screenplays and reflections on his own and others' films, illuminate many aspects of Buñuel's career, as well as the ways of thinking and perceiving that underlie his unique cinematic style. The final essay by this extraordinary artist sums up his view of the world--still vibrant and full of contradictions--at the end of his life.
Customer Reviews:
Sublime.......2003-06-14
The "return" of the master. Although not as good of a read, imho, as MY LAST SIGH, this is still required reading for Bunuel fans, and still retains all of the great artist's power, humor, and insight. In an era of big bucks and ready-made food, it stands out like a whale among minnows.
Finally, these writings are available.......2000-06-07
This is a wonderful and funny collection of surreal writings from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Many of the earlier, surreal writings by Bunuel, written when he was with the Surrealists in France, are imaginative and funny. There is also the complete collection of poetry originally titled An Andulsian Dog, which is surprisingly strong. The criticisms by Bunuel, along with the autobiographical material, offer insight to his aesthetic beliefs and his thinking. There are also snatches of the last screenplay on which he was working before he died in addition to the original screenplay for Andulsian Dog and a Hollywood treatment for an unrealized film GOYA. Overall, this is a big treasure for those who love Bunuel and who have been anxiously awaiting to read his hard to find pieces. It is a great companion to Bunuel's MY LAST SIGN.
Book Description
Luis Buñuel lived many lives-surrealist, Spanish Civil War propagandist, hedonist, friend of artists and poets, and filmmaker. With surprising candor and wit, Buñuel offers his sometimes scathing opinions on the literati and avant-garde members of his sweeping social circle, including Pablo Picasso, Jorge Luis Borges, Salvador Dalí, and Federico García Lorca. These colorful stories of his nomadic life reveal a man of stunning imagination and influence.
Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) was one of the twentieth century's greatest filmmakers. His many credits include Un Chien andalou (1924), which he conceived with Salvador Dalí, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
Customer Reviews:
The spirit of a creative man.......2005-12-05
An interesting short semi-bio, in whuch Luis speaks about his life and the people he has met.
A beautiful little book.......2003-09-16
Bunuel gave some interviews towards the end of his life discussing his long list of movies. That's why I was delighted to find that his autobiography--which is one of the greatest, if not the greatest by a filmmaker--does not dwell on them. Instead Don Luis chronicles his childhood and upbringing, the relationships he cultivated, and meditates on life, love, death, art, alcohol and cigarettes. Many of the stories from his younger days are even more surreal than his movies. He writes in detail about his stormy friendships with Garcia Lorca and Dali, about his half-hearted attempt to try Hollywood on for size, meetings with Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and others. The book is not somber or sentimental, it's not over-inflated. Bunuel's voice does not intimidate, it soothes. He's a master storyteller, a very gifted and generous writer.
No One Else.......2002-06-04
As a young person, don Luis helped me find my way out of the hormone fog, ... authoritarian adults and their institutions, and equally lost peers. Years later upon reading MY LAST SIGH, I was not surprised at all at the depth of don Luis' humanity and intelligence.
Nevermind the moniker "filmmaker" when talking about don Luis; he is an artist's artist. With his autobio, he only confirms what an equally supreme being he was. I miss him. However, encounter this book and become lit by life itself.
Gracias, Don Luis.......2001-11-22
Writings by film directors tend to resemble their films, and "My Last Sigh" is no exception. Bunuel's films are anarchic, funny, unpredictable, subversive, and often disturbing in a way that's hard to pin down. So is this, his autobiography!
Though he disclaims literary talent, Bunuel turns out to be a wonderful writer, and the book is stuffed with piquant anecdotes and elegant observations. I'm afraid to quote examples, because this review would go on forever. Suffice to say that, if you could choose to live any person's life, Bunuel's would be a hard choice to beat, just for the adventure and entertainment value. This may be my favorite book written by a filmmaker.
This appears to be a slightly shortened version.......2000-08-17
The US edition has curious omissions compared to the French original. In one omitted passage (IIRC) Bunuel mentions a postcard he received from Andrzej Wajda. It would be nice if the fine print for the book included "Portions of the original have been omitted for this edition." The recent Ken Mogg's book on Alfred Hitchcock has also been shortened for the American market. I find it quite annoying.
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A Companion to Luis Buñuel (Monografías A) (Monografías A)
Gwynne Edwards
Manufacturer: Tamesis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 185566108X |
Product Description
Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) was one of the truly great film-makers of the twentieth century, his films invariably included in the critics' lists of the top 100. Born in the Spanish village of Calanda and shaped by a repressive Jesuit education and a bourgeois family background, he reacted against both, escaped to Paris, and was soon embraced by André Breton's official surrealist group. His early films are his most aggressive and shocking, the slicing of the eyeball in Un Chien andalou [1929] one of the most memorable episodes in the history of cinema. Subsequently, Buñuel worked in Mexico where, in spite of tight budgets, he made films as memorable as The Forgotten Ones [1950] and He [1952]. From 1960, greater financial and technical resources allowed him to make, in Spain and France, the films for which he is best known: Viridiana [1961], Belle de jour (1966), Tristana (1970), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [1972], and That Obscure Object of Desire [1977]. Although the French films in particular are less aggressive and more ironic than his early work, they nevertheless reveal Buñuel's continuing preoccupations: sex, bourgeois values, and religion. In this study, Gwynne Edwards analyses Buñuel's films in the context of his personal obsessions and suggests too that, in contrast to many of his fellow artists, he experienced a degree of sexual inhibition surprising in a surrealist.
Book Description
This is a major new study of the films of Luis Bunuel, surrealist scourge of the bourgeoisie and enduring influence on European cinema. Uniquely, the book offers an extended analysis of Bunuel's films in the context of contemporary debates in film studies, focusing in particular on questions of subjectivity and desire. Throughout, Bunuel's films are viewed as both the brilliant, subversive expressions of the director's fantasies and obsessions and as reflections of wider cultural norms and preoccupations. Making use of psychoanalysis and gender theory, Peter Evans explores Bunuel's characteristic thematics of transgression and his status as exile or outsider. The whole range of his work is discussed, from the critically neglected `bread and butter' Mexican melodramas of the 1950s to such classics of European cinema as The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, That Obscure Object of Desire, and Belle de Jour. Accessible, lively, and compelling, The Films of Luis Bunuel provides a much-needed revaluation of one of the world's greatest film-makers.
Customer Reviews:
Thoughtful, useful book for those who want to go deeper.......2005-01-04
This book provides brief but thorough readings of several of Bunuel's major films. This book is especially useful for those of us who never had a formal education in Freudian imagery, which plays such an important part in Bunuel's film language. Although not the only book you'll want to read on Bunuel, this is a good one.
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Figures of Desire: A Theory and Analysis of Surrealist Film
Linda Williams
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0520078969 |
Book Description
Linda Williams examines the theoretical and poetic writings of the Surrealists during the period from 1910 to 1930 and traces the emergence of a poetics of the cinematic image based upon the fluid associations of dreams and the unconscious. Incorporating both Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and Metz's methodology on film and dream rhetoric, she analyzes the structure of unconscious desire in four key Surrealist films by Luis Buñuel: Un chien andalou and l'Âge d'or (both co-scripted by Salvador Dali) and Phantom of Liberty and That Obscure Object of Desire.
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Mi Ultimo Suspiro - Tribuna -
Luis Buñuel
Manufacturer: Plaza & Janes Editores, S.A.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 8401451043 |
Book Description
Luis Buñuel (1900-83) was one of the world's great film-makers. Always controversial, his first film, Un Chien andalou (1928), which he referred to as a 'call to murder', was a savage Surrealist experiment. L'Age d'or (1930), his second, was banned in Paris after its initial screening, which had led to violent disturbances. Thereafter, his films continued to challenge, provoke and subvert social conventions in their searching analyses of human desire.
Luis Buñuel: New Readings ranges widely over key films and moments from all stages of the director's career: the early years in Spain and France, the middle period in Mexico and the USA, and the return to Europe, where he made late masterpieces like Belle de Jour (1966) and Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972).
Twenty years after his death, the time is ripe for a re-evaluation of Buñuel's legacy. Through theoretically informed discussions of individual films and dominant tendencies, as well as through more biographically orientated perspectives (including newly discovered correspondence), this book locates and re-appraises Buñuel's films with particular emphasis on the national cinemas and varied cultures with which he was identified. These new readings show that Buñuel's significance and impact remain undiminished by the passage of time.
Books:
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and Related Tales (Oxford World's Classics)
- The Natural Vision Improvement Kit
- The Nature of Consciousness : The Structure of Reality: Theory of Everything Equation Revealed : Scientific Verification and Proof of Logic God Is
- The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization
- The New Media Reader
- The People and Process of Film and Video Production: From Low Budget to High Budget
- The Return of the Native (Cover to Cover Classics)
- The Sense and Sensibility: Screenplay & Diaries : Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film
- The Sixties
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