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This book is for all lovers of film and should spark renewed interest in Pickford's life and films.
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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?
This is a very satisfying book, and an absolute must-have for any Keaton fan.
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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.
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.
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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
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.
April 24, 2003 - I still refer to this book. Often re-read sections of it. It is still 5 out of 5
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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.