a History of Movie Directors by David Thomson. (original) (raw)

Books

A LIGHT IN THE DARK:

A HISTORY OF
MOVIE DIRECTORS

By David Thomson (New York: Knopf, 2021)
Pages 304
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-593-31815-7
$28.00Review by Dr. Kirk Bane,
Central Texas Historical Association

March 1, 2023

"Forty years after his death, Alfred Hitchcock is still the best known film director there ever was, or perhaps will ever be. A time may come when he stands for Movies in the way Attila the Hun bestrides the Dark Ages or Cleopatra signifies Ancient Egypt." So contends noted cinema historian David Thomson in this superb examination of movie directors. Across fifteen witty, perceptive, personal, and opinionated essays, Thomson evaluates such filmmakers as Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, D. W. Griffith, Nick Ray, Spike Lee, Jane Campion, Roman Polanski, David Lean, Jean-Luc Godard, Barbara Loden, and Howard Hawks. Thomson calls the latter, known for such iconic pictures as SCARFACE (1932), BRINGING UP BABY (1938), HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940), THE BIG SLEEP (1946), RED RIVER (1948), GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953), and RIO BRAVO (1959), "an essential American artist, and perhaps the most characteristic of Golden Age directors."

Other chapters in Thomson's study include "In Dreams: Luis Bunuel," "God? Orson Welles," "A Very English Professional: Stephen Frears," "The Kid From the Video Store: Quentin Tarantino," and "The American Auteur," in which he assesses, among others, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman, Michael Cimino, Terrence Malick, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola. The author candidly declares which filmmakers he likes and those he doesn't. Thomson, maintaining that he is "not a fan" of Clint Eastwood, Michael Bay, Tony Richardson, and Lars von Trier, avers that "it's important to keep a pantheon of directors you don't like." He speaks enthusiastically, however, about Paul Thomas Anderson, "an uncompromising auteur, in whom I see great quality." Thomson continues, "I can't say I love all his films: for me something takes THE MASTER off track, and INHERENT VICE makes me realize that I don't inhale. But to think that someone who was born in 1970�has already made BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, and PHANTOM THREAD is a source of wonder."

Thomson has written a host of exceptional books, more than twenty-five in number, including MURDER AND THE MOVIES, SLEEPING WITH STRANGERS: HOW THE MOVIES SHAPED DESIRE, HOW TO WATCH A MOVIE, WARNER BROS: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN MOVIE STUDIO, THE WHOLE EQUATION: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD, and, of course, the indispensable THE NEW BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF FILM, now in its sixth edition. A LIGHT IN THE DARK stands as a worthy addition to Thomson's oeuvre.

Note: Thomson praises director Terrence Malick's BADLANDS, the 1973 picture starring Martin Sheen and Texan Sissy Spacek (born in Quitman), calling it a "sumptuous debut." He also extols the "outstanding" THE THIN RED LINE (1998) and A HIDDEN LIFE (2019), the filmmaker's "great work." Lone Star history buffs may be interested to learn that Malick lived in Waco as a boy and has resided in Austin in recent years.

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