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The New Biographical Dictionary of Film information


The New Biographical Dictionary of Film
Cover of the 2004 paperback edition, featuring a still from the film To Have and Have Not
AuthorDavid Thomson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreFilm criticism, reference work
PublisherKnopf
Publication date
November 16, 2004
Pages1008
ISBN0-375-70940-1
OCLC57691971
Dewey Decimal
791.4302/8/0922 22
LC ClassPN1998.2 .T49 2004
Preceded byA Biographical Dictionary of Film, Third Edition 
Followed byThe New Biographical Dictionary of Film, Fifth Edition 

The New Biographical Dictionary of Film is a reference book written by film critic David Thomson, originally published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd in 1975 under the title A Biographical Dictionary of Cinema.[1]

Organized by personality, it is an almost exhaustive inventory of those involved in international cinema, whether contemporary or historical, elite or esoteric, "from Abbott and Costello to Crumb's Terry Zwigoff", in the words of critic Richard Corliss. By the fifth edition, Thomson had expanded his scope to include a film composer (Bernard Herrmann), a graphic artist (Saul Bass), a critic (Pauline Kael), a sound designer (Walter Murch), a cinematographer (Gordon Willis) and even an animal actor (Rin Tin Tin) who he thinks are among the best in their fields, as well as writers like James Agee, Graham Greene, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard who have written for or about film. Beyond its scope, the tome is most notable for infusing subjectivity into its fact-based form; the technique may best be described as a playful deconstruction of the "reference book." Thomson's writing is highly personal, as he mixes biography and criticism with his own memories of seeing the films he describes: "The Third Man has one of the most intense atmospheres the screen has ever delivered—seeing it again always brings back the scent of the grandmother who took me to see it."[2] It is currently available in its sixth edition, released in May 2014.[3]

The New Biographical Dictionary of Film has garnered wide acclaim throughout the releases of its various editions; in a 2010 poll by the British Film Institute in Sight & Sound, it was voted the greatest of all books about film.[4] Roger Ebert wrote that "When a great star or a director dies, critics all over the world haul down David Thomson's big Biographical Dictionary of Film, because it does the best job in the fewest words of summing up the essence of its hundreds of subjects", citing Thomson's entry on Robert Mitchum.[5]

  1. ^ Thomson, David (2004). A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema (Hardcover). Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd. ISBN 0-375-70940-1.
  2. ^ Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (5th ed.). Alfred A Knopf.
  3. ^ Thomson, David (2014). The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. ISBN 978-0375711848.
  4. ^ "Sight & Sound's top five film books". British Film Institute. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  5. ^ Ebert, Roger (July 13, 1997). "Darkness and Light". Chicago Sun Times.

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Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick. London: Abacus, 1993. ISBN 978-0-2339-8791-0. Thomson, David. "Wyler, William". The New Biographical Dictionary of Film...

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