The New Biographical Dictionary of Film

August 5, 2002
When this book was first published in 1975, it ignited arguments among many film buffs who disagreed with London-born critic Thomson's strongly opinionated summations. This latest upgrade—which includes 300 new entries—promises to do the same. Thomson retitled it, he says, "because so much is fresh and different." Now that the reference includes talents who've shot to fame during the past decade or so, including Renée Zellweger ("great range") and Ben Affleck ("boring, complacent and criminally lucky to have got away with everything so far"), it is truly massive, running the gamut from Abbott and Costello, who achieve the "lyrical, hysterical and mythic," to Ghost World's Terry Zwigoff, "a rare, individual voice". A critical minimalist, Thomson often nails the essence of a personality or career in less than a dozen words, such as Johnny Weissmuller: "No subsequent Tarzan ever matched him—the loincloth was retired." He deftly distills entire movies down to single sentences, with Internet-like linkages. Since his Haley Joel Osment profile sneaks in a critique of Spielberg's A.I.
("Osment was uncannily good as the robot/puppet coming to life, but ultimately betrayed by the inability of his director to keep control of the very ambitious material"), the hypnotized reader feels compelled to seek his lengthier comments on Spielberg: "Schindler's List
is the most moving film I have ever seen." After the publication of a 1994 edition, the Internet Movie Database became one of the book's major competitors, linking nearly a half million performers with over 260,000 titles, but one still turns to Thomson for witty writing and potent, razor-sharp insights. With an immense passion for pictures, he plunges past the IMDb into the very soul of film. Agent, Laura Morris. (Oct. 11)Forecast:Older readers will want to replace their earlier edition with this one, while an author tour, radio giveaways and advertising in the
New York Times Book Review and
Film Comment will attract a new generation.

May 15, 2014

Film critic Thomson (Have You Seen...?) updates his latest edition with more than 100 new entries. Initially conceived as "a collection of short essays of filmmakers...composed in the spirit of my own movie education," the book doesn't have separate entries for the films themselves. Rather, actors (actress Hanna Schygulla is notably absent), directors, writers, costume and set designers, and others are featured. From the small screen, readers will find information about Ken Burns, Johnny Carson, Lena Dunham, and Tina Fey. Most entries are short profiles, but longer ones cover major figures such as directors Ingmar Bergman and Luis Bunuel. Each entry contains birthdate and birthplace, along with death date, when applicable. Directors have their filmographies at the header while others have their films discussed throughout the text instead of consolidated in a separate list. Film career information can be accessed at many other places now, so the value of this work is that it offers Thomson's perspective and commentary; on Kim Basinger, for example, he asks, "Why did she marry Alec Baldwin?" He sometimes writes off a performance or film with a single word (e.g, "befuddled" for Leonardo DiCaprio's role in The Great Gatsby; "disgrace" for Life Is Beautiful). Bear in mind that books by other critics such as Pauline Kael or Roger Ebert also provide collections of critical essays. VERDICT This standard film reference can update your previous edition. Useful for a critic's opinion when offering DVD advisory (shelve it near your DVD collection), especially for a quick career overview.--Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2014
The first edition of this work was published in 1975 (under the title Biographical Dictionary of Cinema). More than 100 new entries have been added since the last edition, in 2010, including Amy Adams, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joaquin Phoenix, and Robin Wright. Thomson is not shy about broadcasting his very personal views on people involved in filmmaking, among them performers, directors, producers, writers, and translators. (As examples of the highly subjective nature of the work, the entry for Sir Kenneth Branagh includes the line, Nothing suggests that Branagh is either competent or interesting when detached from Shakespeare, while the entry for Jodie Foster sidetracks into an odd commentary on the provenance of her children.) Each person is listed alphabetically by surname, with birth and death dates (where applicable) and place of birth. Director entries contain a chronological list of film titles. Entries range from several paragraphs to a couple of pages. Readers need to come to the text with the awareness that it is less a reference tool than a very readable collection of commentaries on a wide range of motion-picture people and their work. This bookwith its at times very opinionated perspectiveis suitable for most medium-sized and large public libraries, for both reference and circulating collections. Libraries owning older editions will want to replace with this version.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)