Product Details
Hardcover
240 pages
Harry N. Abrams
Published 2004
From Publishers Weekly
This rare glimpse into the photo archives of one of Hollywood’s most formidable and enduring movie studios contains a compendium of images notable for what they reveal about the art of filmmaking. A picture of Gene Tierney on horseback waiting to shoot the scene where she scatters her father’s ashes in Leave Her to Heaven, for example, offers a voyeuristic view of Tierney "in character." "If you study her face," observes director Martin Scorsese, "you can see that her mood uncannily reflects the mood of the scene." The backstage, off-camera moments like this one illuminate this collection and set it apart from other movie-related, coffee-table tomes. Fox’s photo archives date from 1917 and include such memorable movie images as Marilyn Monroe posing, her back to the camera, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Orson Welles and Tyrone Power taking a coffee break on the set of The Black Rose. The organization is haphazard, with old photos facing new ones and different images from the same movie scattered throughout. Sadly, the book is light on text, and those unfamiliar with the Golden Age of filmmaking will wish it contained more in-depth caption information to give some of the obscure images historical context. Ultimately, however, this collection is a heady mix of the old and new, of the classic and the "forgotten," and movie lovers who have a particular interest in films from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s will find it a visual feast.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
There are only two pages of prose in this album of movie stills, so it had better not be just another bunch of glamour-puss mug shots. And it isn't. Oh, sure, several intentionally flattering portraits do appear, but most of these pictures seem to be "candids," taken when their subjects weren't posing or were absorbed in the immediate task, whether a wardrobe check (Shelley Winters, in her Poseidon Adventure duds, holds the ladies' wardrobe board in one hand, and what's that in the other--a brownie? a Chunky?) or a break (Jayne Mansfield rises from a bubble bath in a remarkably subtle one-piece). Cables, lights, mikes, and cameras are often visible, and often the particular movie's sets aren't; perhaps the best Taylor-Burton Cleopatra shot shows a lithe young man airborne in a trampoline-boosted back flip. Among the loveliest images are those of forgotten early-1930s players Boots Mallory and Joyzelle Joyner; among the most intriguing and amusing shots is one of an ecstatic Ava Gardner being crushed by a canvas behemoth. Great stuff! Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
For the better part of a century, Twentieth Century Fox, one of the oldest and most powerful of the great Hollywood studios, has maintained its magnificent archive of still photographs-unit stills, glamorous portraits, screen tests, and other behind-the-scenes coverage of daily life in the dream factory. This collection features the best of these photographs, many previously unpublished. Here is a visual record of The Grapes of Wrath, All About Eve, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cleopatra, and other cherished films of the 20th century, along with memorable shots of the stars, directors, and crews who worked on the Fox lot from the Golden Age of Holly-wood to the present.
Shirley Temple, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Natalie Wood, Montgomery Clift, Robert Redford, and Gregory Peck are just a few of the superstars who are seen here in unexpected and evocative photographs. Martin Scorsese, a leader in film preservation and one of America's most important filmmakers, contributes an essay to this stunning volume, which will be irresistible for film and photography buffs alike. AUTHOR BIO: Tom Rothman is the co-chairman of Twentieth Century Fox. Martin Scorsese is a legendary filmmaker who has directed some of the most important films of the last half-century, including Gangs of New York, Cape Fear, Goodfellas, The King of Comedy, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver. Rob Easterla, Kevin Murphy, and Miles Scott are Fox archivists.
About the Author
Tom Rothman is the co-chairman of Twentieth Century Fox. Martin Scorsese is a legendary filmmaker who has directed some of the most important films of the last half-century, including Gangs of New York, Cape Fear, Goodfellas, The King of Comedy, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver. Rob Easterla, Kevin Murphy, and Miles Scott are Fox archivists. |
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