Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography

Book Description

An element of drama has always attended Rupert Everett, even before he first rose to fame with his outstanding performance in Another Country. He has spent his life surrounded by extraordinary people, and has witnessed extraordinary events. He was in Moscow during the fall of communism; in Berlin the night the wall came down; and at home in downtown Manhattan on September 11th. By the age of seventeen he was friends with Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger, and since then he has been up close and personal with some of the most famous women in the world: Julia Roberts, Madonna, Sharon Stone, and Donatella Versace. Whether sweeping the stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company or costarring with Faye Dunaway and an orangutan in Dunstan Checks In (they both took ages to get ready), Rupert Everett always brings as much energy and talent to his life as he does to his career. Who else has lived in Paris with Beatrice Dalle, modelled for Versace and Valentino, been possessed by the spirit of Anthony Perkins, and played bridge with Christopher Isherwood? A superb raconteur and a keen observer of human folly (especially his own), Rupert Everett turns his life into a captivating story of love, nostalgia, fame, glamour, gossip, and drama. From the eccentricities of the British upper classes to the madness of Hollywood, from the Russian steppes to an Easter egg hunt in Elizabeth Taylor's garden, Everett reveals himself as a consummate storyteller and a charming guide to life lived in the fast lane.

Customer Reviews:

Good But Not As Exciting As I Thought.......2007-09-22

This book was pitched to me as a scathing tell-all. Actually it reads more like snippets here and there from Everett's life. Certainly he has a way of telling a story and there are a few humorous moments as well. If you've read his novels you should know that his style doesn't change when talking about his own life. It is an interesting read if not completely entertaining.

What a life, so far!.......2007-08-23

Rupert Everett came to me via his movies. Since the first movie I saw him in, he's charmed me completely. He's divine, totally appealing, and adorable beyond belief. Then I read this book. Well, I was taken by surprise to discover how well he writes, given his lack of interest in formal education and shenanigans he's pulled at the expense of education. Yet he also has had the good sense to not only experience what life has to offer, and then some, and then some more, but he seems to have learned something from every experience he's had thusfar, which impressed me. I found his book shocking, funny, sad, unbelievable, fascinating, beautifully worded, and it was a real treat to read. I am even more fascinated by him now than before. To say he is a complex individual would be a gross understatement. His depth and shallowness and understanding and broad-mindedness and ability to experience and digest life is incredible. There may not be enough adjectives to describe Rupert Everett and how he lives his incredible life. This book is a wild ride of fantastic characters and unbelievable situations that requires an open mind and good sense of humor. I loved it and plan to read more from the well-written Rupert!

Is that all there is?.......2007-08-18

To judge from this book, between his occasional acting jobs, Rupert Everett met a lot of famous people, got very drunk, and indulged in anything (or anyone) offered to him. There are enough names dropped to fill several memoirs, and so many of them became "close friends" that I ended up wondering if Everett, like Louis XIV, never spent a single moment alone. He "adores" everyone and they presumably adore him; he finally sums it up himself when he says that in his circle, most friends don't last more than 5 minutes. He seems to have been constantly in motion as he collected all these best friends in far-flung corners of the world, and it's easy to lose track of the who/what/why/when of the book.

Everett is an experienced writer (though his novels barely get a passing mention)and he writes well. His descriptions of people and places are precise, witty and evocative. But the anecdotes are too practiced and embellished, well polished for talk shows and dinner parties, and I didn't believe half the book really happened in such well-formed anecdotes. He is at his best describing the backstage warfare of the theater and the hothouse atmosphere of a film set, but his frequent refrain of "back then" or "in those days" made me think the novelist was at work, painting a world of generations ago, not a decade or two.

The ultimate test of an autobiograpy is the picture that emerges of the author. Everett comes across as glib, self-indulgent, and at times unprofessional. We learn nothing of his inner life. As a member of the "just do it" school, he has nothing to say about the craft of acting, a job he aspired to from childhood, and with a couple of exceptions we don't even learn the names of the people he was intimately attached to, which is to say sleeping with for protracted periods of time. He doesn't dwell much on the loss of friends to AIDS and is at times a little flippant in discussing it. He seems more upset over the demise of the South Beach party scene, and the only time he expresses true human emotion is when his dog dies.

I have nothing against Rupert Everett; in fact, I like him on screen and I respect him for being openly gay even when it hurt his career. But his book simply shows how far good looks, celebrity, and knowing the right people can carry someone in our gossip-crazy world. I thought he was better than this.

Great reading for other reasons than the celeb-gossip.......2007-07-28

I've never had any particular opinion of Rupert Everett. Ok - I admit I bought this book partly because I wanted a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Hollywood lifestyle. But Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins actually has got so much more. To my opinon (with English being my second language) it's very well written with a very developed use of words and language. Sometimes to the extent that I first suspect there has been a ghost writer involved. But as the reading goes on I find that's probably not the case and the suspicion might have more to do with me underestimating the author. Everett brilliantly manages to describe his own life against a background of larger historic events which gives the book an extra dimension that elevates the reading experience considerably. Sometimes it can be hard to believe that he recollects events from ages ago in such detail and hence one suspects there are a few exaggerations here and there. But on the other hand that's common in all storytelling and is sometimes necessary to make the reading more capturing. A few times during the reading I thought he got a bit over-long in his descriptions. But that does not diminish an overall great reading experience. In the end I think the book actually gives a pretty truthful image of the person Rupert Everett and his very interesting life so far.

Will The Real Rupert Everett Please Stand Up............2007-07-07

Fasinating..... Mr. Everett is an author of the top drawer. His story may be true/or not, however it is very interesting and intertaining. A good summer read. I hope he writes more books that are as enjoyable.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Average customer rating:

Going for the Bigger Picture
A fascinating picture
Ian Myles Slater on: A Standard Introduction
Fascinating in the extreme.
Human vs. machine

The Elizabethan World Picture
E. M. W. Tillyard
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0394701623
Release Date: 1959-10-12

Customer Reviews:

Going for the Bigger Picture.......2006-06-25

I must agree with the South Australian with the review entitled: "Onesided and simplistic but enduringly useful." This little volume, along with Lovejoy's more ambitious "The Chain of Being," did wonders in helping me crank out Shakespeare term papers as an undergraduate and graduate student. But now that I've left such training wheels behind, I'm perhaps in a better position to issue a few cautionaries. It's not just Richard III who represents a contradiction that violates Tillyard's blueprint but Henry V who, far from representing the exemplary Shakespearean king, becomes a ruthless imperialist invader and sadistic despot, sacrificing innocent women and children simply to make a point. Moreover, the very spokesperson for the stable Elizabethan world picture, Ulysses ("Troilus and Cressida"), proves a vulgar, hypocritical antithesis to his own rosy view.

Regard Tillyard's representation as, at best, a "freeze frame" of the action occurring in Shakespeare's actual language. Approach it as a useful template, or mere starter, for opening a discussion on Shakespeare's churning, rapidly changing meanings, but resist the temptation to interpret the text through the template (unless you don't mind having your head handed back to you). In fact, the scheme's usefulness may be that it served the poet as an organizing tool or convenient metaphor, an alloy to be disposed of once the text was in place, inviting the reader's participation in the life of the language. At that point, we need to jettison the framework, lest it obscure and even distort our view of a character as non-categorizable, life-like and inexhaustible as Falstaff.

A fascinating picture .......2004-11-11

This work gives a picture of the Elizabethean (1580-1605) world- view which Tillyard underlies the work of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists, Milton and Donne. Tillyard believes that these ideas were widespread in the Age and not the invention of a few great individuals. The fundamental idea of an ordered Chain of Being transformed by Renaissance thought is at the heart of the work.
I do not know enough about Elizabethan history to say how accurate the picture Tillyard draws is. But he gives a fascinating picture of the underlying belief- system of one of the great literary ages of all times.

Ian Myles Slater on: A Standard Introduction.......2003-10-12

Shakespeare and his contemporaries not only wrote in a form of English which is no longer familiar (and may not mean the same thing when it looks familiar), and needs notes on words and grammar to be completely understandable. Like Dante, they lived in a mental world which is now remote and foreign. No matter how universal Shakespeare, or Ben Jonson, or Christopher Marlowe, may seem, it is easy to miss the points of their statements, take the commonplace for the original, the new for the ordinary, and generally impose our own thoughts on their words.

This was in fact the common practice in the eighteenth and nineteenth century (with some honorable exceptions), but some of the great scholars of the Victorian Age began to try to restore the intellectual context of an epoch that was no longer entirely medieval, but not really modern. Their approach gradually filtered down to students through articles and commentaries. Or, as in this case, an independent introduction to the subject.

For well over half of the twentieth century, E.M.W. Tillyard's handy summary of "The Elizabethan World Picture" gave countless undergraduates, and many curious readers, a short introduction to an often unfamiliar world. A world in which your health rested on a proper balance of humours, which were not your reaction to jokes, but substances flowing through your body. A world in which the Four Elements (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water) were part of a hierarchy beginning with God, and including all the ranks of human beings. A world which was beginning to crumble, as the Eternal Truths of Christianity became contingent on political events, and which needed reassurance, even in popular entertainment.

Tillyard was an interesting critic (he had a famous debate on critical theory with C.S. Lewis, published as "The Personal Heresy"). His major works include a full study of Shakespeare's History Plays, in which he worked out in detail their relation to Elizabethan political theory. It is a little ironic that he may be best known for this short textbook, in which he did not set out to say anything particularly new or original. There are longer, more comprehensive, and far better documented books on the subjects he covers in "The Elizabethan World Picture," but it would be hard to find so convenient and focussed an entrance into this particular lost world of the imagination.

Fascinating in the extreme........2002-02-01

I don't know enough about the Elizabethan time to know what this book may have left out, but I found it utterly fascinating.

People today seem so proud of their own scientific views and look down on older ones as so obviously out of date, but they fail to recognize that given what the people of the time had access to, their worldview was just as consistent with the then known facts as 'ours' is today.

Some day the prevalent worldview may become blatantly wrong according to new facts, and maybe some day people will read about it and be as fascinated by 'our'worldview as I am by the Elizabethan.

This book does a wonderful job of describing the fantastically interconnected parts that make up the Elizabethan worldview, and I find it something worth using to understand and read things written at the time and to remember as metaphor for today.

Human vs. machine.......2001-05-12

In response to "Doc's" review: how can anyone say you cannot understand Shakespeare if you haven't read this book? How silly! Do you not get that Shakespeare is timeless? Shakespeare's play are not documentaries. And this idea to label him "conservative" is silly and irrelevant. Shakespeare's work still lives because it speaks to something human that transcends world views, politics, and years. These are relationships playing out their lives in the imagination of an artist, not elitist agendas that normal people with active imaginations may or may not understand.

Germany in Pictures (Visual Geography. Second Series)

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This book was a disappointment...

Germany in Pictures (Visual Geography. Second Series)
Jeffrey Zuehlke
Manufacturer: Lerner Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0822546817

Customer Reviews:

This book was a disappointment..........2007-05-19

... I was expecting a book with large glossy photos of the most beautiful scenery that Germany has to offer, but instead this flimsy small book had a lot of information on Germany with several thumbnail pictures. Its best place is a library, however ifyou're looking for PICTURES and VISUAL like a coffee table type book, this is NOT it.

My Undoing: Love in the Thick of Sex, Drugs, Pornography, and Prostitution

Average customer rating:

A Sad Life
A Porn Star's Story
Aiden Shaw Tells All
It means nothing!
Meandering, but not completely without merit

My Undoing: Love in the Thick of Sex, Drugs, Pornography, and Prostitution
Aiden Shaw
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786717432

Book Description

For the first time, porn legend Aiden Shaw takes fans behind-the-scenes to the gay adult film world that made him a star. My Undoing ventures from locales such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and London, to the sets of premiere studios like Falcon, Catalina, and Studio 200.

Yet, this is not the typical adult film memoir, where stars drop names and titillate readers with explicit moments. Although My Undoing shares in unsparing detail all the hot stories about the sex and drugs that fueled Aiden's life, it more profoundly follows him through a course of rocky and unfulfilling relationships. As Aiden eloquently and often humorously points out, the romantic life of an adult film superstar is sometimes lonely and lacking in love. But not love only in the form of a relationship, rather also love from within himself. The book is equally moving for his revelations about his Irish Catholic family, his Positive HIV status in the sex industry, and his recovery from a near fatal car accident that left him temporarily paralyzed.

Customer Reviews:

A Sad Life.......2007-05-26

I still can't figure out why anyone would lay down in the middle of the road, at night, and let a car run over their head. Next time, try laying in the grass along the side of the road.

A Porn Star's Story.......2007-05-21

One of the most popular gar porn stars of all time shares how sex and drugs ruined his life. You'll gain insight into the meaning of life.

Aiden Shaw Tells All.......2007-01-27

AIDEN SHAW TELLS ALL

LITERARY PRIDE--a gay reading circle

Shaw, Aiden, My Undoing: Love in the Thick of Sex, Drugs, Pornography and Prostitution. Carroll& Graf. 2006.

Ah--the life of a porn star. Those are the men who get paid to do on the screen what so many of us wish we could do and get paid for it. Aiden Shaw, yes, Aiden Shaw, one of the most popular gay porn stars ever tells it all in his book. My Undoing. This is a truthful book, brutally honest to the point that it is sometimes painful, but while it hurts to read, it sheds light on the inside of a world most of us will never have an opportunity to know.

Aiden Shaw has starred in over fifty adult films--showing it all. At the same time as being a male clothing model (I remember seeing him in a JC Crew catalog), he was baring himself on video and he became at icon. His book tells what is behind the icon and the price he paid to achieve this legendary status. Shaw became so popular that his name was used for Carrie's boyfriend on "Sex and the City" and his modeling pictures adorned the finest fashion magazines. In his autobiography he tells for the first time how the real man behind the name rose to such heights and then hit the depths. His personal stories dealing with sex and drugs are not for the faint hearted. His life, fueled by substance abuse in a quest to find love, is not a pretty story but it a realistic telling of that kind of existence. The aura of the porn star bedding the most beautiful men is just that-- an aura. When the shoot is over, so is the romance. Shaw tells how hard is it for one who publicly displays everything to find love and settle down to a regular life style. Herein is the core of the book--the quest for love and acceptance. Here is a "smart...honest glimpse" into a life, a saga that is not easy to put down.

Who would have thought that a porn star could write with such eloquence and insight? Shaw destroys the notion that a porn star is only that--a sex object with nothing between his ears. (The rest of the equipment he needs no testament.) The humor in the book mixes easily with the pain and Shaw emerges as a complex individual with more than an average share of intelligence--his quick wit suffuses his writing and his melancholy style gives it life. Having once been in awe of his physical attributes, I must admit that I am now in awe of his mental attributes as well.

The theme of the book appears to be, as I said before, the quest for love--not just for a significant other, but for love of oneself as well. In his quest for love, Shaw brings into the story the details of his having been raised Roman Catholic, of his HIV-positive status and his return to life from a near fatal accident that left him partially paralyzed for a period. Writing of several relationships that left him unfulfilled as well as several that were not meant to be, Shaw shows us a side of him we would never have imagined--his vulnerability. Here is a man who personified sex with his swagger and who could not find a way to use his charm for a lasting relationship.

Of course, we want a happy ending and whether there is one or not is for you to discover when you read the book. I am not telling. But what I will tell you is that this is a terrific read and should not be missed nor misjudged.

It means nothing!.......2007-01-18

There is no deeper meaning, he warns you from the start so read this book for any other reason! Taste him, feel him, touch him, be him, read about a life you do not have! Maybe do not even want! I like him and I love reading his work. I truly enjoy sensing his music, Whatever! Listen to them late at night in your own personal space!

Meandering, but not completely without merit.......2006-12-06

I like Aiden Shaw, and I was excited when I saw this book advertised on Amazon. Reading this memoir was a disappointment, though. Shaw needed a lot more editorial assistance than he got in constructing this book. It is meandering,overall; Shaw wastes a lot of writing on superfluous details. But once in awhile, you get a glimpse of Shaw's writing potential in a surprisingly moving detail or passage.

The subject matter covers Shaw's life immediately prior to his getting hit by a car and his subsequent recovery. He evades the bigger questions about the widespread use of drugs and unprotected sex among gay men. It is a given in Shaw's world that drugs are widely used and unprotected sex sometimes results in HIV infection, ho hum. I found myself wanting to shake him and say, "But what does it all mean? You must know..."

It is worth reading, if just to see a writer in the process of becoming. Slick it is not, surprisingly, despite Shaw's background in porno and prostitution. Shaw emerges in the book as a likable guy.

Average customer rating:

"Must" reading for all Hitchcock fans!
The master's canon
Excellent presentation, too little room to develop it

The Alfred Hitchcock Story
Ken Mogg
Manufacturer: Taylor Trade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0878331638

Book Description

The authoritative guide to the world's best-loved and most respected film director. The story combines complete stroy synopes, insightful commentary, and a stunning collection of photographs to capture the essence of the acclaimed Master of Suspense.

Customer Reviews:

"Must" reading for all Hitchcock fans!.......2000-03-04

Film director Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense: this survey of his film contributions gathers over 300 photos from throughout his life, providing an excellent collection of revealing images spiced with film reviews and sidebars of facts. Highly recommended for any Hitchcock fan.

The master's canon.......2000-02-26

Interested in the films he directed, or just a hitchcock fan? Either way this book is a must. Not only does it cover every film he directed, but there are nice little extras on the stars he worked with, the writing process and even a look at films he inspired. The book is beautifully laid out, yet if you are looking for close analysis then this is not what you want. It looks at each film and talks about them, but there is no hard depth to this material - this is just a good look at the entire canon.

Excellent presentation, too little room to develop it.......1999-11-09

Reference books make great gifts because they can be pretty useful for years to come. Some of them are even attractive enough to leave out on coffee tables for guests to flip through when conversation drags. by Ken Mogg (Taylor Publishing Company, 1999) is probably the most attractively produced book on that much written about director. It is well organized, each of the Master's films getting anywhere from one to five or six pages, well illustrated, with several specialized items to keep us abreast of trends in Hitch's career. For example, there is a list of all his cameo appearances in his films, a brief examination of his film techniques, his use of famous locations, and so on. Especially welcome are little inserts of trivia, such as the story behind the song the children are singing as The Birds are massing outside in the playground, and a generous number of lobby card reproductions. There is also a good discussion of his television series and even his paperback anthologies. In short, Mr. Mogg does not concentrate entirely on the films, although they do take up the bulk of the volume. By the way, listing Janet Leigh as co-author on this website is misleading: she only wrote a one-page introduction that is quite amusing. My only complaint is that 211 pages are not enough room to handle this wealth of material; and here and there I feel much more of value could have been said had the author been given more space. (Hence the one star less in my rating.) Still such a comment merely shows how much I like this book and many of you will too.

The Beatles Movies (Cassell Film Studies)

Average customer rating:

A well researched academic trawl through visual fabland

The Beatles Movies (Cassell Film Studies)
Bob Neaverson
Manufacturer: Cassell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s

ASIN: 0304337978

Customer Reviews:

A well researched academic trawl through visual fabland.......1999-04-07

Taking the Beatles' incursions into the world of film chapter by chapter, this fascinating and well-researched book uses reminiscences of people who were there to create a thorough and absorbing account of the construction of a uniquely varied visual repertoire. The author's enthusiasm for the material in question is tempered by a willingness to probe deeply and critically into the guts of the Beatles' creative processes. Despite the somewhat dry academic style of this book, I still found myself reading it from cover to cover, almost in one sitting. This is a recommended book on a seminal but often scorned chapter in movie history.

Julie Andrews: A Life on Stage and Screen

Average customer rating:

Couldn't put it down. - Diane
Long-winded and overheard
rawther opiniated, yet still delightful
A Woman of Wonders
GREAT BOOK!

Julie Andrews: A Life on Stage and Screen
Robert Windeler
Manufacturer: Birch Lane Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1559723912

Amazon.com

In this satisfying, straight-ahead biography of the star of My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, and The Sound of Music, Robert Windeler walks a fine line between adulation and gossip. While his admiration for the former singing sensation shines through the text, he grapples earnestly with her parents' alcoholism, her extramarital affair, and the long stretches in her career without a Broadway or Hollywood hit. What emerges is a multidimensional portrait of a former British child star who lost her way in early success and found herself--and an interesting new toughness--through some midlife failures, which lead to her 1995 Broadway comeback in Victor/Victoria and her defiance of the Tony Awards. There's much more in Andrews of the scrappy survivor Victoria Grant (of Victor/Victoria) than any magical nanny.

Customer Reviews:

Couldn't put it down. - Diane.......2005-09-20

A great book with lovely pictures. I just couldn't put it down.
The writer obviously knew her well and shared her amazing story. It was witty, sad and yet it often made you smile. She's also a gutsy lady with a gentle kind nature and very, very talented. Recomend this to anyone..

Long-winded and overheard.......2005-08-24

Julie's a great actor, but this bio isn't as interesting as its subject. An editor is needed for Mr. Windeler's overdrawn overdone prose.

rawther opiniated, yet still delightful.......2003-11-26

What's with the cover picture? I mean, I love Victor/Victoria, but Julie is a beautiful woman... why did he choose this picture? Also, there were times in the book where Windeler's personal opinion was a little offensive to me. I suppose that is alright, because he is allowed his opinion, but it seemed to me like he was bashing the movie "Star!", which happens to be one of my favorites. Other than the difference in opinion that occurred occasionally between the reader and the author... this book was a delightful, yet 'real' holiday about Julie Andrews. It's loaded with anecdotes and great accounts of 'The Adventures of Julie and Carol (Burnett)' (as I call them). Over all, this is a good read for the Julie Fanatic, just keep in mind that you don't always have to agree with what this biographer has to say . ;)

A Woman of Wonders.......2002-03-27

This book about Julie Andrews is extremely interesting. Julie has had many inspiring experiences in her life and continues today to have many more. This book explains how she became what she is today. Also, this book tells the reader many interesting facts about Julie Andrews personal life and career.

GREAT BOOK!.......2002-01-28

Julie Andrews: A Life on Stage and Screen is a great read and I have to say that I found it rather informative. Aside from a few spelling and grammatical errors, it was a good book. Any serious Julie fan should read this!

The Men Who Made the Monsters (Twayne's Filmmakers Series)

Average customer rating:

Excellent for Special Effects/Hammer Fans
Great Book on Special Effects Pioneers

The Men Who Made the Monsters (Twayne's Filmmakers Series)
Paul M. Jensen
Manufacturer: Twayne Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 1 (Black Sunday / Black Sabbath / The Girl Who Knew Too Much / Kill Baby Kill / Knives of the Avenger)

ASIN: 0805793380

Customer Reviews:

Excellent for Special Effects/Hammer Fans.......2006-06-12

This book is well written and researched. It covers five horror film creators: James Whale, Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen, Terrence Fisher and Freddie Francis.

The Whale section is good but covers ground that is equally covered from other sources.

The O'Brien and Harryhausen chapters are possibly the best available sources on the two greatest SPX artists.

The Fisher and Francis sections provide good coverage of these Britsh horror directors. The Freddie Francis chapter is the best source I've read for his wildly uneven career and his IMHO greatly superior to the Wheeler Dixon book on Francis.

Great Book on Special Effects Pioneers.......1998-12-08

There is no better biography of Willis O'Brien the man who brought dinosaurs to life and of his protege Ray Harryhausen who made more dinos move and was largely responsible for the original Mighty Joe Young. In addition, there are fine pieces on James Whale, Terence Fisher, and Freddie Francis who invented and re-invented the modern gothic horror film.

The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock

Average customer rating:

The Champ
Scandal-Ridden Junk
A fascinating insight into the enigma
Extremely informative, interesting
The Man Who Knew Too Little

The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock
Donald Spoto
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0316807230

Amazon.com

How is it possible to paint a portrait of an artist who left behind none of the notebooks and journals that provide most biographers with important personal details? After exhaustive researching and interviewing, Donald Spoto came to the conclusion that "Hitchcock's films were indeed his notebooks and journals ... [they] are astonishingly personal documents." This account of Alfred Hitchcock's life reads the mind of the man through the making of his films. Spoto argues powerfully and convincingly that movies like Notorious, Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho can be appreciated not only as masterpieces of entertainment but also as subtle, revealing autobiography.

Book Description

This is the definitive life story of Alfred Hitchcock, the enigmatic and intensely private director of Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, and more than forty other films. While setting forth every stage of Hitchcock's long life and brilliant career, Donald Spoto also explores the roots of the director's obsessions with blondes, food, murder, and idealized love-and he traces the incomparable, bizarre genius from Hitchcock's English childhood through the golden years of his career in America as one of the greatest directors in the history of filmmaking.

Customer Reviews:

The Champ.......2006-09-18

Nearly 25 years later Donald Spoto's book on Hitchcock, which caused sch a stir when it appeared, is still the champ. You could read it for its salacious details, such as the real reason he wanted Madeleine Carroll in handcuffs. Or you could read it to see him organize Hitchcock's different films into categories, classifying them not only by way of theme but with reference to studio politics. Think of how different Hitchcock's "Warners" films are than his Selznick pictures, even with the understanding that the same auteur created them.

Spoto is unable to make out what was really going through Hitchcock's head while making VERTIGO. Did he really want the insipid Vera Miles to play the part(s) of Judy and Madeline, and then grow impatient with Kim Novak largely because she was no Vera Miles (thank goodness). If he was so furious with Miles, why did he then cast her in THE WRONG MAN, where she's so dreadfully bland one forgets she's in the picture? (And later he used her in his longrunning TV series.) If, as Spoto says, Hitchcock had an erotic fetish for blondes, did it somehow turn itself off when confronted with Kim Novak, one of the most obsessable women in film? I don't believe it!

However Spoto is spot on when it comes to Hitchcock's last passion, for the actress "Tippi" Hedren with whom he made his two best films. Another reviewer here dismisses Ms. Hedren as a "mediocre performer at best who should have been grateful for a great man's attention and adoration," but under Hitchcock's skilled direction, she was able to pull off quite capably two of the most intense and primal roles ever created in the American cinema. People might have been startled by her work at the time, but it just keeps looking better and better where some of the other performances he elicited aren't looking that good any more, for he could make good actors look bad (Olivier, Fonda, Clift, Paul Newman, etc)--like the cattle he thought of them as.

Our views of Hitchcock will continue to evolve, but we will always be grateful to Donald Spoto for expressing a certain biographical turn with great elegance and, almost, wit.

Scandal-Ridden Junk.......2005-09-08

Of course, in 2005 we're accustomed to knowing a lot more about celebrities than we really ought to. When this book was first published twenty years ago, this fixation had not quite gotten to where it is today.

No - instead, on the heels of Spoto's "The Art of Alfred Hitchcock," which gave Spoto free access to the late director and to his archives, Spoto insists that knowing way too much information about Hitch's private life is essential, somehow, to understanding his art.

To a certain extent, that's the case. But some of this stuff is simply gratiutous. How relevant to art is the "Marnie" incident with Tippi Hedren? What possible addition to an important body of knowledge does that story make?

If you want gossip, it's here. If you want to gain some insight into our greatest director's artistic character, it's promised here but maybe not delivered.

A fascinating insight into the enigma.......2005-01-19

"Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in simple, homey places like the kitchen table."

...and here is the Master of Suspense. While Hitchcock happens to be one of the better-known directors of the 20th century, he surely is the only master of enigma. Spoto has done an admirable job in depicting the life of a man always shrouded in mystery.

The book follows Hitch from his childhood. A rather unattractive mother's boy, he was an outcast at public school. It continues his story from humble beginnings, through the discovery of genius, and ends at his death in 1980, at the age of 81. Throughout the pages, Spoto covers Hitchcock's life in detail, including his many quirks, obsessions bizarre sense of humour.

Hitchcock's life was indeed bizarre - his personality and obsessions manifesting themselves in his over-eating and his dry, often macabre sense of humour. However, as the author rightly points out, the director also revealed this side of himself through the images of his movies. This makes a fascinating study once you have read the book and you'll never view Hitch's films at face value again.

Because of her desire to protect her father's privacy, Hitch's daughter, Pat, refused Spoto any assistance in the writing of this book. He went instead to a veritable legion of actors and screenwriters who knew him and worked with him. The result is an extremely revealing and often very dark portrait of a man whose character was as shadowed as his films.

But not all is dark and foreboding. There are several amusing anecdotes, which highlight Hitch's macabre sense of humour. Like the time he had a dummy made in his own likeness and sent it floating on its back down the Thames river as a publicity stunt for his movie "Frenzy" in 1972.

My own personal favourite is the story of a woman who accosted him and complained that the "Psycho" shower scene so frightened her daughter that the girl would no longer shower. His laconic reply was, "Then, Madam, I suggest you have her dry cleaned."

He also did not suffer actors gladly. While he did have his stable of favourites that he worked with, he once claimed that actors were cattle. Later he said, "I didn't say that actors are cattle - I said they should be treated as cattle." Another story says that when an actress asked Hitchcock if her right or left profile was better, he told her, "My dear, you're sitting on your best profile."

Some of Spoto's claims I can't help but treat with a little scepticism. I do know that Hitch had a fascination with murder but the tender way in which he presents it in his films is classic Hitchcock. However, the author's statement that scenes in Hitch's movies reflect kind of voyeurism, I feel that with his trademark camera pans through windows, the director was trying to give the audience a bird's eye view of the scene - no more and no less. It is his way of allowing us to enter the private lives of his characters.

When all is said and done, this is a fascinating book of a fascinating man. A genius in his own time, but also a frustrated enigma, with a taste for the truly macabre. I highly recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in learning about the man behind the mystery, although it is a little heavy at times.

I'll leave the last word to the Master of Suspense himself:

"Television has brought back murder into the home - where it belongs.

Extremely informative, interesting.......2004-07-02

Donald Spoto has done a tremendous work in obtaining first-hand accounts from Hitchcock's friends, colleagues, family, and even Alfred, himself. There is not one iota of information about Hitchcock left out of this monumental work.

He traces the ghosts of psychology that haunted Hitchcock from a very young child on until his pitiful death. Hitch's wants, desires, insecurities, and love affairs (one-sided) are intricately outlined and analyzed in a biography that has few contemporaries. This truly is the ultimate work on Hitchcock's life.

The Man Who Knew Too Little.......2003-10-27

Spoto has done an admirable job at putting together 500 compelling pages of reading. Unfortunately, he mentions the fundamental problem with this book in the very preface...that Hitchcock left few records and let his guard down for few individuals. The Hitchcock most knew was no more personal than what we know from his television persona. So right away, we have a biography that doesn't have much basis. So Spoto tries to compensate by drawing conclusions about Hitchcock based on his films. Kind of silly, really. Spotos analysis of the films could be interesting, but it's very uneven...he'll spend 10 pages on one film, and barely mention the existence of another. And the only revealing passage on anything regarding Hitchcock's life itself is on his Tippi Hedren years.

However, my chief problem with The Dark Side of Genius is Spoto's tendency to excuse Hitchcock when convenient. It's ridiculously facile. EVERY time Spoto reached an unsuccessful Hitchcock film, he explains how Hitchcock was preoccupied, depressed, or altogether uninterested in the that film. Can't we allow that a genius is fallible? His classics were the product of passion; his failures were due do lack of interest. That's way too black and white a stance for any serious biographer or film scholar to promote. He never allows that Hitchcock tried and failed at times. To Spoto, when he failed, it's because he didn't care.

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