Sometimes reading about movies can be just as thrilling as watching them. Whether you’re looking for critical analysis, behind-the-scenes drama, or the creative processes of great filmmakers, here is a selection of new & notable books on film that you can check out using your Livingston Library card. (Descriptions provided by the publishers.)

The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982 by Chris Nashawaty

In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another. E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior changed the careers of some of Hollywood’s now biggest names-altering the art of movie-making to this day. Chris Nashawaty recounts the riotous genesis of these films, featuring an all-star cast of Hollywood luminaries and gadflies alike: Steven Spielberg, at the height of his powers, conceives E.T. as an unlikely family tale, and quietly takes over the troubled production of Poltergeist, a horror film he had been nurturing for years. Ridley Scott, fresh off the success of Alien, tries his hand at an odd Philip K. Dick story that becomes Blade Runner–a box office failure turned cult classic. Similar stories arise for films like Tron, Conan the Barbarian, and The Thing. Taken as a whole, these films show a precarious turning-point in Hollywood history, when baffled film executives finally began to understand the potential of high-concept films with a rabid fanbase, merchandising potential, and endless possible sequels. Expertly researched, energetically told, and written with an unabashed love for the cinema, The Future Was Now is a chronicle of how the revolution sparked in a galaxy far, far away finally took root and changed Hollywood forever.

Moving Pictures: A History of American Animation from Gertie to Pixar and Beyond by Darl Larsen

Darl Larsen playfully lays out the history of American animation as it transitioned from vaudeville sub-feature to craftsman-like artistry to industrial diversion and, ultimately, to theatrical regulars on par with blockbusters. Larsen identifies and discusses the major figures, movements, and studios across the nearly 120 years of animation in the United States. Progressing chronologically, the book follows animation from stage performance through to its use as wartime propaganda, its seven-minute heyday and decamp to television, and finally the years of struggle as cartoons became feature films. Covering everything from the generations preceding Mickey Mouse to recent releases such as Super Mario Bros., Moving Pictures is an essential read for movie fans and a nostalgic revisiting of some of America’s favorite films.

Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey

From grand follies to misunderstood masterpieces, disastrous sequels to catastrophic literary adaptations, Box Office Poison tells a hugely entertaining alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops. What can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public’s appetite–or lack of it–and the circumstances that saw such flops actually made? Away from the canon, this is the definitive take on these ill-fated, but essential celluloid failures. Robey covers a vast century of flops, including: Intolerance; Queen Kelly; Freaks; Sylvia Scarlett; The Magnificent Ambersons; Land of the Pharoahs; Doctor Dolittle; Sorcerer; Dune; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; Nothing But Trouble; The Hudsucker Proxy; Cutthroat Island; Speed 2: Cruise Control; Babe: Pig in the City; Supernova; Rollerball; The Adventures of Pluto Nash; Gigli; Alexander; Catwoman; A Sound of Thunder; Speed Racer; Synecdoche, New York; Pan; and Cats. From Daily Telegraph film critic Tim Robey, this is a brilliantly fun exploration of human nature and stupidity in some of the greatest film flops throughout history.

Through a Noir Lens: Adapting Film Noir Visual Style by Sheri Chinen Biesen

This book historically examines film noir visual style, aesthetic technique, and the technological, industrial, and material production conditions which contributed to the multifaceted evolution of film noir from its 1940s emergence in wartime to its changing nature in the postwar era, through neo-noir’s reimagining of the chiaroscuro imagery of classic noir visual style to its transnational production/reception context in a global digital media streaming convergent culture via Netflix. Noir’s original shadowy visual style was in part a product of the technologies available at the genre’s emergence in the early 1940s, including nitrate film stock. Since then, changes in motion picture technology, film stock, cameras, lenses, cinematography, lighting, color science, projection, digital shooting/compression, and the Netflix streaming revolution have affected the development and evolution of noir visual style, its aesthetic technique, and its legacy of digital darkness. Even among such dramatic shifts in technology, noir as a genre has proven to be remarkably durable, persisting even as the technical basis of its visual style changes or disappears entirely. 

The 12-Hour Film Expert: Everything You Need to Know About Movies by Noah Charney

For anyone who wants to learn more about film and how to truly appreciate what they are watching, but they aren’t sure where to begin. This book guides its readers through a selection of film masterpieces in a variety of genres, from silent films and westerns to dramas and romantic comedies.

A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda by Carrie Rickey

Over the course of her sixty-five-year career, the longest of any female filmmaker, Agnès Varda (1928-2019) wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed films of her era, from her tour de force Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), a classic of modernist cinema, to the beloved documentary The Gleaners and I (2000) four decades later. She helped to define the French New Wave, inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, and was recognized with major awards at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals, as well as an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards. In this lively biography, former Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey explores the “complicated passions” that informed Varda’s charmed life and indelible work. Rickey traces Varda’s three remarkable careers–as still photographer, as filmmaker, and as installation artist. She explains how Varda was a pioneer in blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, using the latest digital technology and carving a path for women in the movie industry. She demonstrates how Varda was years ahead of her time in addressing sexism, abortion, labor exploitation, immigrant rights, and race relations with candor and incisiveness. She makes clear Varda’s impact on contemporary figures like Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig, Barry Jenkins, the Safdie brothers, and Martin Scorsese, who called her one of the Gods of cinema. And she delves into Varda’s incredibly rich social life with figures such as Harrison Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Morrison, Susan Sontag, and Andy Warhol, and her nearly forty-year marriage to the celebrated director Jacques Demy.

Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film by Alonso Duralde

For generations, members of the LGBTQ+ community in Hollywood needed to be discreet about their lives but–make no mistake–they were everywhere, both in front of and behind the camera. On the eve of the twentieth century, in Thomas Edison’s laboratory, one of the earliest attempts at a sound film depicted two men dancing together as a third plays the violin. It’s only a few minutes long, but this cornerstone of early cinema captured a queer moment on film. It would not be the last. With Hollywood Pride, renowned film critic Alonso Duralde presents a history spanning from the dawn of cinema through the “pansy craze” of the 1930s and the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s, all the way up to today. He showcases the hard-working actors, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, art directors, and choreographers whose achievements defined the American film industry and charts the evolution of LGBTQ+ storytelling itself–the way mainstream Hollywood decided it would portray (or erase) their lives and the narratives created by queer filmmakers who fought to tell those stories themselves.

James Bond and the Sixties Spy Craze by Thom Shubilla

Of all the novel cultural confections to appear during the 1960s, one of the more peculiar was the nearly insatiable hunger of audiences for spy stories. Bubbling with sex and violence, and marrying pop-culture cool with a funhouse-mirror vision of Cold War geopolitics, the obsession with spy stories found its most popular and lucrative outlet in the James Bond franchise. But beyond 007, there were a host of competing movies and television programs that ranged from inspired to hopelessly derivative-among them the Flint and Harry Palmer movies, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible, The Avengers, and countless others. James Bond and the Sixties Spy Craze delves into the cultural trends that produced such a flowering of interest in spy stories, from the Cold War and JFK’s enthusiasm for Ian Fleming’s novels to the unexpected success of the five original Bond movies by Eon Productions, all of them starring Sean Connery. Covered here are the cinematic spin-offs and television take-offs on the genre, as well as the explosion of merchandising in the form of toys, comic books, and model kits. The book also features interviews with some of the key players of the sixties spy trend who are still with us, such as Lana Wood, Caroline Munro, Martine Beswick, Madeline Smith, George Lazenby, and others. Packed with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and illuminating insights, this is a loving tribute to a venerable pop-culture genre.

Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You’re Too Scared to Watch by Emily C. Hughes

You don’t have to miss out just because you don’t like to be frightened! Stop trying to read nonsensical Wikipedia plot summaries (we know you’re doing it), and let an expert tell you everything you need to know about the most influential horror films of the past 60 years-without a single jump scare or a drop of gore. With a rundown of the history and significance of horror cinema, explanations of common tropes, and detailed entries on 25 important movies ranging from Night of the Living Dead to The Blair Witch Project to Get Out, Horror for Weenies will turn even the scarediest of cats into a confident connoisseur.

Dorothy Parker in Hollywood by Gail Crowther

The glamorous extravagances and devasting lows of her time in Hollywood are revealed as never before in this fresh new biography of Dorothy Parker–from leaving New York City to work on numerous classic screenplays such as the 1937 A Star Is Born to the devastation of alcoholism, a miscarriage, and her husband’s suicide. Parker’s involvement with anti-fascist and anti-racist groups, which led to her ultimate blacklisting, and her early work in the civil rights movement that inspired her to leave her entire estate to the NAACP are also explored as never before.

–Joe, Adult Services & Acquisitions