Mary Pickford Rediscovered is a wonderful book, for it allows the reader to follow Pickford's career in films both through the text and through the large number of pictures which bring this writing to life. The main body of the book comprises Kevin Brownlow's film-by-film analysis. His description of these films is fair and even-handed. He is obviously a fan of Pickford, but does not allow this to cloud his judgement. His commentary includes criticisms when these are just, but this means that when he does praise a particular film there is a sense that the film has real merit.

Brownlow's balanced opinions contrast rather with those of Robert Cushman, who provides a long introduction to the book. In his justified desire to raise Mary Pickford to the position she deserves in film history, Cushman, at times, goes rather over-the-top in his admiration. But this is a minor criticism for the introduction is, on the whole, thought provoking and informative.

It is to be hoped that more of Pickford's films might soon be available for viewers to see at home. This book makes the reader long to see the films which are described, so that the magnificent still photographs might move. In this way Mary Pickford could be really rediscovered.

The king of silent film historians lends his name to this superb portrait of America's Sweetheart. I've been fortunate enough to have seen over a dozen of Pickford's films and this book is long, long overdue! Wonderful photographs and an excellent introduction for anyone to the greatest star there ever was. One hopes with this book and the upcoming Video box set, Mary will finally get the respect and adoration currently reserved for Keaton, Chaplin and Garbo.

This is the latest book by the leading historian on silent cinema, Kevin Brownlow. Like all of his other works, it is outstanding. Mary Pickford is thought of mostly as the grown up woman who played little girl roles in films that are unwatchable today. However, this is not true. Pickford was an actress of considerable range, not to mention the fact she was a very shrewd businesswoman. She was and is one of the key figures in the history of film. Brownlow, more than any other writer, puts Pickford's career in perspective, and he spends the majority of the book providing detailed commentary about her films. Furthermore, there are many superb stills from her films in this book.

This book is for all lovers of film and should spark renewed interest in Pickford's life and films.

Another awesome achievement by Kevin Brownlow. A fascinating and informative document for everyone who cherishes the silent film era.

This is a fabulous book, covering some of the more risque elements of the silent film era, as well as covering political issues. Loved Mr. Brownlow's coverage of HYPOCRITES (1915), a Lois Weber film which exists but is unfortunately as yet inaccessible on video. Can't wait for his Mary Pickford coffee table book to come out, hopefully in the next few months!

Good reading, not just for film buffs only! Diana Serra Cary gives a rare, revealing glimpse into the world of children in show business.Although it's subject is early child film stars,it's message is very relevant to today's society as well.Well worth the effort!

If you've read Brownlow's other books on the silent film era--or if you haven't but just like silent films--you'll enjoy this book. Although not as detailed in its text as Brownlow's "The Parade's Gone By...", this book is still worth having for its many pictures. For those unfamiliar with the silent film era, this is a good place to start learning.

Just when you thought you had read everything about the Great Stone Face, along comes this remarkable book. "Buster Keaton Remembered" is a revelation -- featuring a treasure trove of never-before-seen photographs and a thoughtful text by Keaton's widow, Eleanor (who, sadly, died before the book's publication). The closing comments by film historian Kevin Brownlow are a nice touch. In all, an affectionate and fitting tribute to a serio-comic genius.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advanced copy of this stunning pictorial tribute to Buster Keaton written by his widow Eleanor Keaton and film historian Jeffrey Vance. Page after page of photos I've never seen before (one of the highlights being a series of pictures of Chaplin and Keaton rehearsing their routine in LIMELIGHT!). I have nearly all the books published in English on Keaton and I've found at least 50 great photos in this book I've never seen before. Rudi Blesh's KEATON used to be my favorite Buster book, now it's Eleanor Keaton's BUSTER KEATON REMEMBERED. I was expecting more text -- I thought it was going to be a biography -- but it is actually an illustrated survey of his life and films. However, the text that the book has is beautifully written. Some of Jeffrey Vance's introduction is worthy of James Agee or Walter Kerr.

The book has a substantial Afterword by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow but why it was placed in the back of the book and not as a Foreword baffles me.

Although I never got to meet Eleanor Keaton in person I'm very glad she was able to write this book before she passed away. Who better to sum up Buster best in book form than his wife Eleanor Keaton?

I, too, have every book written in English about Buster. I've been a fan for 25 years, and worked in Marketing in the 80's for the 16mm distributor of all Buster's films, even chatting a few times with Raymond Rohauer. I've met Buster's grandson and grandaughter, and attended many events in Los Angeles surrounding Buster's 100th birthday. Got all his classic films on tape. And visited his grave at Forest Lawn. So imagine how surprised I was to read so many new personal anecdotes, as well as fresh details about his working methods that shed new light on his creative genius. Not to mention the photos -- dozens I'd never seen before, beautifully reproduced -- including those elusive shots of Buster smiling! Eleanor even demystifies just how Buster made his own porkpie hats. This is truly a love letter from Eleanor to Buster, a tribute by the person who knew him best. Now I've got just as much respect for the woman who brought him lasting happiness as I do for the artist himself.

This is a very satisfying book, and an absolute must-have for any Keaton fan.

John Bengtson has created a whole new genre of books. This book does not just explore the silent comedies of Buster Keaton. It also will allow the silent film fan to explore early Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other early movie locations in California, Arizona, and Oregon. It is amazing how Bengtson has located the buildings that were in the background scenery of Keaton's films. This book is a look at Los Angeles history, as buildings like the College of Dentistry and hotels that were houses of prostitution no longer exist. Now anyone can walk in the steps of the great comedian, Buster Keaton.

John Bengtson's book is the kind of thing film lovers dream about. Every Keaton fan or silent movie buff will want this book, but it also makes a wonderful introduction to the silent era's timeless pleasures, especially the always fresh and exciting comedy of Buster Keaton. And on top of everything else, it's a fascinating detective story! Wow! Can you tell I liked this book?

Buster Keaton was a notorious stickler for detail in all of his film work. Buster's ghost was probably nodding his approval over the shoulder of John Bengtson as he painstakingly researched SILENT ECHOES, a tribute to the Keaton ouevre and a forever-lost Los Angeles. Bengtson juxtaposes stills from Keaton films with photos from modern-day L.A., showing in detail where Keaton filmed, virtually following his trail, from the shorts to the features. This book is a must for both film fans and historians.

Abel Gance's Napoleon was the best film I have ever seen about Napoleon because of its realistic portrayal of this great man.
Albert Dieudonne's portrayal of Napoleon was so impeccable, for a minute, I thought that Dieudonne was Napoleon.
The most unforgettable scene in the whole movie, in my opinion, was Napoleon addressing his troops from high up in the mountains
with Le Chant de Depart, the stirring French revolutionary war song playing in the film's soundtrack. This scene so lifted my spirits up, I felt like enlisting in Napoleon's army and fighting for him.

I am indebted to Carmine Coppola, the composer of this film's soundtrack, for introducing me for the first time some of the most beautiful and inspiring French revolutionary song tunes I've ever heard, Le Chant de Depart, Ah Ca Ira, and La Carmagnole. These melodies together with the world famous La Marseillaise greatly added authenticity to the period which this film realistically portrayed.

Remarkable, engrossing epic that was something of a life work for its inspired director Abel Gance. Re-issued after restoration, with much fanfare, in 1981. The story deals with Napleon's youth and early successes, rather than his Empire days. Indeed the making of this movie was an epic seemingly as long and inspired as its subject. Among a torrent of innovations, Gance had cameras mounted on moving objects such as firing cannon; shot a segment in color and another in a '3-D' process similar to those popular in the 1950s (but in 1927!) but decided that he didn't like these effects after all; and pioneered wide-screen film, with three adjacent cameras making contiguous images, in outdoor segments seen in the later parts of the 1981 release. The hell of it is, this film is not about film technique but rather about the story and the actors. Gance himself appears as the revolutionary leader Louis Antoine de Saint-Just; Albert Dieudonné in the title role is possessed by his character, whom he well mimics in appearance; and you won't forget Robespierre, peering at the world and his colleagues through his sinister dark glasses. Although released on black-and-white film, many scenes are tinted (in, naturally, the Tricolor blue-white-and-red), with some of the three-camera wide-screen segments underscoring this point via simultaneous Tricolor tinting.

Though I don't know this for certain, it would not surprise me if this movie showed up on top-10 lists of many serious film buffs. That is, film buffs who have actually seen a few films besides the latest Tom Cruise, and therefore have basis from which to comment. (...). Film buffs long familiar with major films like Intolerance and Battleship Potemkin and The Red Balloon and the Warners 1940s _films noirs_ and Bondarchuk's War and Peace (the largest feature film ever made, by several measures) and La Ronde and 8 ½ and Shadows of [Our] Forgotten Ancestors and Witness for the Prosecution and All Quiet on the Western Front and Olympia and Grand Illusion and the Powell-Pressburger spy dramas and Green for Danger and Mon Oncle and A Man for All Seasons and It Happened One Night, that sort of thing.

In 1981 before a packed house at Radio City Music Hall this restored classic reappeared after being missing for fifty years. Accompanied by a huge orchestra in the landmark theater, NAPOLEON brough the house to its feet in cheers at the end, as its dying director, Abel Gance listened on the phone from France! And fitting it was. This account of the early life of the great French leader is a monument to moviemaking. The use of the camera, of montages, of all manner of visual techniques is a wonder to behold, not just for the sake of the technical but for building the emotion and drama of the story. The final scenes of Napoleon's invasion of Italy when the screen triples in size and in effect duplicates Cinerama brought gasps from the audience - and can not by experienced except in a theater. The musical score was a marvelous addition to it. This film belongs, literally, on the Top Ten of the Twentieth Century. If you can't see it in a theater watch it on video but try to imagine a full size orchestra and a sixty foot screen as was at Radio City Music Hall. A GREAT film, AND a useful addition to our history of Napoleon as it takes a different view from the usual anti-French British line. SEE IT!

I greatly enjoyed Kevin Brownlow's earlier book on silent era filmaking "Before the Parade Passes By" but was less enthusiastic with this biography of David Lean. The text was diffult to follow with regard to who says what, when. It all takes on a rather who shot John second-hand quality that seems to distance the reader from the subject rather than draw them in. This biography presents an unclear view while it may accurately reflect the basic nature of the subject.

While overlong, (I could do with less of the many sub-plots behind "Breaking the Sound Barrier" and un-fulfilled projects such as "The Bounty"), we get an interesting glimse behind the scenes at the filmaker and his great works. Lean comes off a thin-skinned combination photographer/artist/editor technocrat and generous melagomaniac. Maybe that's what is needed to make an epic.

In any case, the tidbits about the making of the many classic Lean films including: "Brief Encounter", "Great Expectations", "Summertime", "Bridge on the River Kwai", "Laurence of Arabia", "Doctor Zviago" and "Ryan's Daughter" are entertaining and engaging. Patrick W. Brown

Kevin Brownlow touched all bases of David Lean's life, providing insight into the films and his unconventionally fascinating life, making this one of the finest film biographies I have ever read about a cinema giant about whom I had longed to learn more about. Brownlow divides Lean's career into two distinct phases, 1) the British period in which he worked at home and captured the true essence of his people and, 2) the international phase in which the master film craftsman lived in hotels and moved from one country to another in producing a series of internationally spectacular movies such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

Brownlow begins with Lean's roots as a restless youngster in the London suburb of Croydon. His lack of curiosity and penchant for traditional school learning coupled with the stolen hours he spent sitting inside darkened theaters in a state of fascination revealed where his adult years would be spent.

Once that Lean began following his dream he quickly became established as Britain's foremost film editor. In that context Brownlow expunges a canard that was carried all the way to obituaries after the great director's death in 1990 that Noel Coward gave the aspiring director a leg up in teaming up with him to co-direct the brilliantly done war film about the British Navy, "In Which We Serve," in which Coward also starred along with Celia Johnson and John Mills. It turned out that Coward's move proved to his personal benefit as Lean did most of the directing and Coward was concerned mainly about his own scenes, after which he would generally leave the set, entrusting the basic direction of the film to Lean. We also learn that Lean, unlike Sir Carol Reed and other prominent British directors, turned down a chance to begin his directing career on low budget "quota quickies," deciding instead to wait for a major opportunity, which came with "In Which We Serve." Later that same year one of Lean's greatest films, the epic love story "Brief Encounter" with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, hit the screens and the young director's career was away in a flourish.

After achieving prominent worldwide status as a great international director, Lean's sensitivity resulted in overreacting to the criticism of tart New Yorkers at a Round Table session at the Algonquin Hotel. Lean was sharply criticized for "Ryan's Daughter," which American critics such as Richard Schickel and Pauline Kael believed was well below the high standard he established with "Brief Encounter" and continued with other films. According to Brownlow, Lean was sufficiently wounded to take a sabbatical before doing his last film, the highly acclaimed Indian epic "Passage to India" based on the E.M. Forster literary classic.

Brownlow does a superb job of depicting the period and the films from Lean's prolific career. Lean's was a mastery of style and entertainment, enriching story telling with beautiful visual imagery and word economy in the best sense, making the language all the more meaningful. This book does his career justice while enhancing our knowledge of a great man.

Kevin Brownlow has written an interesting and detailed account of David Lean, director. I loved the behind the scenes stories. You will learn a lot about the intensity and weakness in this driven man. He loved films and the making of films. Film producers and film critics had a direct effect on this man. Read it if you are at all interested in David Lean.

April 24, 2003 - I still refer to this book. Often re-read sections of it. It is still 5 out of 5