lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on the cinematic art

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45354 Altman, Robert Pret-a-Porter Boxtree Ltd., London, 1995. Quarto; paperback; 192pp., with many monochrome and full-colour illustrations. Minor wear; text block and page edges lightly toned. Very good iin like dustwrapper. Click here to order $18

210817 Attenborough, Richard In Search of Gandhi Bodley Head, London, 1982 First edition: royal octavo; hardcover; red boards with gilt spine titles; 229pp., with many monochrome and full-colour illustrations. Minor wear; binding rolled; well-rubbed board edges and corners; offsetting to endpapers; slightly toned and spotted text block and page edges. Minimal edgewear to dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. "In Search of Gandhi" is the story of the bizarre, humorous, tragic and convoluted events which Richard Attenborough experienced in the years he spent preparing for his lifelong obsession: the making of a film about the life of Mahatma Gandhi. He writes in detail about his meetings with major political figures and about his negotiations with film moguls, distributors and maharajas during numerous endeavours to raise the necessary finance. Then he describes the realization of his dream. A fascinating account supplemented with b/w and colour photographs. Click here to order $20

15395 Bertrand, Ina (ed) Cinema in Australia A Documentary History UNSW Press, Kensington NSW, 1989. Royal octavo; hardcover, full cloth with gilt spine titles; 422pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed and edgeworn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. Click here to order $55

90133 Brownlow, Kevin Napoleon Abel Gance's Classic Film Jonathan Cape Ltd., London, 1983. Octavo; hardcover; black boards with gilt spine-titles; 310pp., with a monochrome photographic portrait frontispiece and many illustrations likewise. Mild wear only; some faint spots to the half-title page. Cinema flyer of original Australian screening laid in. Very good to near fine; wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. When he was fifteen, Kevin Brownlow saw two reels of the 1927 Napoleon, and it changed his life. The film was more daring, both technically and artistically, than anything he had ever seen. How could it have been forgotten? Brownlow got in touch with the film's director and tracked down members of its cast and crew. He discovered that the making of the film was as much of an epic as the film itself. In 1967, he began an attempt to restore Napoleon. The work took years, but eventually Napoleon was presented, with live orchestra, to a new generation, and, as one critic put it, it became "the measure for all other films, forever." This book tells the dramatic story of Napoleon's incredible revival and also serves as a wonderful introduction and companion to the film. Click here to order $40

8653 Da, Lottie and Jan Alexander Bad Girls of the Silver Screen Pandora, London, 1990. Hardcover, quarto, 210pp., monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; spotting to upper text block edges and minor scuffing to black illustrated dustwrapper. Near fine. In this, the first fascinating and lavishly illustrated story of 'bad girls' in the Hollywood cinema, the authors explore the lives and careers of those famous actresses who have slunk and smouldered their way across the screens in the roles of harlots, vamps, courtesans, streetwalkers, gangsters' molls, cheating wives and Park Avenue call girls, from the early days of the silent cinema to 1990. Both entertaining and packed with information, the book tells us how and why 'bad girl' character types were taken up by Hollywood to become big box office, and how screenwriters and directors came to produce audacious films that appealed to mass audiences. The authors use interviews of stars past and present to give us an exciting tribute to Hollywood's fallen angels. Click here to order $27

90135 Eisenstein, Sergei, & Upton Sinclair (Harry M. Geduld & Ronald Gottesman, Eds.) The Making and Unmaking of "Que Viva Mexico!" Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN, 1970. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titles and a blind-stamped upper board decoration; 449pp., with a monochrome photographic portrait frontispiece and 16pp. of plates likewise. Moderate wear; shaken; previous owner's ink inscriptions to the half-title page, the title page and the rear endpapers; text block edges lightly toned; offset and an old price sticker to the endpapers. Dustwrapper is lightly rubbed and sunned; mild edgewear with some chips and associated creasing; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $25

213059 Forester, C.S. The African Queen Penguin Books (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., Ringwood Vic., 1966. Octavo; paperback; 190pp. Moderate wear; slightly rolled; covers lightly rubbed and edgeworn; text block and page edges toned. Very good. Film tie-in cover. Click here to order $10

77315 Fricke, John, et al. (Introduction by Jack Haley, Jr.) The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., Sevenoaks, Kent, UK, 1989. Quarto; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards with gilt spine-titling and a blind-stamped upper board decoration; 246pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Some spotting along the top text block edge and mild wear to tail of dustwrapper spine panel. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Draws extensively on the MGM archives: photographs, studio memos, letters, contracts, and special effects worksheets. Many of the illustrations have never been previously published. Click here to order $30

96178 Gardner, Gerald & Harriet Modell Pictorial History of Gone with the Wind Wings Books/Random House Value Publishing Inc., Avenel NJ, 1996. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 192pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $23

206368 Gott, Ted, & Kathryn Weir (eds.) Kiss of the Beast From the Paris Salon to King Kong Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, South Brisbane Qld., 2005. Square quarto; gatefold paperback; 128pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; a bump to the text block top corner. Very good. Exhibition catalogue. Click here to order $25

15386 Greene, Graham The Pleasure Dome Collected Film Criticism, 1935-40 Oxford University Press, Oxfordshire, UK, 1980. Octavo; paperback; 284pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; text block and page edges lightly toned; some mild creasing to the covers. Very good. Click here to order $15

81678 Gristwood, Sarah Breakfast at Tiffany's The Official 50th Anniversary Companion Macmillan, Sydney, 2010. Quarto hardcover; turquoise boards with white spine titling and silver endpapers; 191pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear only; near fine in like dustwrapper, now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $28

85823 Hamilton, Ian Writers in Hollywood 1915-1951 Harper & Row Publishers Inc., New York NY, 1990. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards with gilt spine-titling and a blind-stamped upper board decoration; 326pp., with 16pp. of monochrome plates. Text block top edge spotted. Dustwrapper very lightly rubbed; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Legend has it that Hollywood lures gifted writers into its service with sunshine and money, only to treat them as glorified typists and plot-mechanics, peripheral to the main business of moviemaking. This is what Ian Hamilton describes as 'the writer-in-chains saga that emerges from any study of Hollywood during its so-called golden years - the period I have marked as running from 1915-1951.' But in this superb account of what befell the likes of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Chandler and Huxley by working for the Dream Factory, Hamilton argues that these writers 'were in the movies by choice: they earned far more money than their colleagues who did not write for films, and in several cases they applied themselves conscientiously to the not-unimportant task at hand. And they had a lot of laughs...' Click here to order $20

15394 Hepburn, Katharine The Making of the African Queen or, How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind Century Hutchinson Ltd., London, 1987. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling, upper board decoration and illustrated endpapers; 129pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; previous owners' ink inscription. Dustwrapper slightly toned. Very good to near fine. The trials, tribulations - and great joys - of making the beloved classic. Click here to order $20

15437 Hirschhorn, Clive The Warner Bros. Story The Complete History of the Great Hollywood Studio. Every Warner Bros. Feature Film Described and Illustrated. Octopus Books Ltd., London, 1979. First edition: quarto; hardcover, with illustrated boards and decorated endpapers; 480pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Very minor wear to dustwrapper edges. Very good to near fine and wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $35

63202 Hirschhorn, Clive (foreword, Gene Kelly) The Hollywood Musical Pyramid Books, London, 1991. Second edition. Folio, hardcover; white boards with black upper board and spine titles, pale yellow endpapers; 480pp., with monochrome photographic images. A few spots on boards with bump on lower spine panel extremity; a few scattered spots on white illustrated dustwrapper and one or two small marks. Very good with wrapper now protected in non-adhesive polypropylene. "The Hollywood Musical" captures the engaging world of musical make-believe and incisively assesses every tinseltown musical made between 1927 and 1990. Every one of the 1,399 films discussed is illustrated, and each account includes a synopsis, cast list, and comprehensive catalogue of the featured songs and musical numbers. Academy award winners are listed, and there are useful notes in the appendixes on fringe musicals and documentaries. With hundreds of b/w photographs. A fully revised and updated edition. Click here to order $32

213322 Jones, Laura An Angel at My Table The Screenplay from the Three-Volume Autobiography of Janet Frame Pandora Press/Allen & Unwin (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., North Sydney NSW, 1990. Quarto; paperback; 93pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; covers lightly rubbed and edgeworn; previous owner's ink inscription to the first page. Very good. Click here to order $18

211296 Kael, Pauline I Lost it at the Movies Jonathan Cape Ltd., London, 1966. First edition. Octavo; hardcover, full cloth with gilt spine titles; 365pp. Moderate wear; cocked; spine extremities softened; text block edges toned and top edge dusted; previous owner's name in ink to the first page. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed and edgeworn; spine panel sunned; a small tear to the bottom of the upper flap-turn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $85

84867 Leff, Leonard & Jerold L Simmons The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship and the Production Code from the 1920s to the 1960s Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1990. Hardcover, octavo; grey boards with red spine titling and mauve endpapers; 350pp., monochrome plates. Minor wear; toned text block edges; mild scuffing and edgewear to dustwrapper. Very good to near fine. An in-depth history of the Production Code and film censorship, focussing on some of Hollywood's most controversial films: from Mae West's early sex comedies and 'Gone with the Wind' to such milestones as 'A Streetcar Named Desire', 'Lolita' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' Funny, insightful and beautifully written, The Dame in the Kimono reveals the Production Code as a not-so-silent partner which strongly influenced screen content for nearly half a century. Click here to order $20

207234 Liehm, Mira Passion and Defiance Film in Italy from 1942 to the Present University of California Press, Berkeley CA, 1984. Octavo; hardcover; 397pp., with a monochrome frontispiece and many illustrations likewise. Minor wear; some minor marks to the text block top edge; a sticker ghost to the flyleaf. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed and edgeworn with a small tear to the top edge of the upper panel; spine sunned; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $22

216870 Mills, John Still Memories Hutchinson, London, 2000. Landscape quarto hardcover; dark red boards with gilt spine titling, dark red endpapers; 208pp., colour & b&w illustrations. Mild edgewear to dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Minor wear; very good. Still Memories is an intimate look at the family of actor John Mills, his wife, Mary Hayley Bell and his three children, Juliet, Hayley and Jonathan. It is also a testament to his prodigious talent as a photographic artist. Sir John Mills may have made his first movie in 1932 but he has an archive of photographs that goes back even further. Nearly eight decades of the last century are contained in this remarkable personal collection. Click here to order $32

7431 Myerscough-Walker, R. Stage and Film Decor Pitman, London, nd. (c.1940). Quarto, hardcover; 192pp, with many monochrome illustrations, plus 11 tipped-in coloured plates. Mild wear; endpapers spotted and text block edges browned with a few scattered spots. Dustwrapper lightly chipped at corners and spine panel head; now professionally protected in archival film with white paper backing. Very good. This beautifully produced work provides a full and expert study of the development of decor from the symbolic simplicity of Greek drama to the complicated structures in use in theatre and cinema up to the early 1940's. Full details are given of the techniques involved in the conception and construction of film and stage sets. The vast collection of illustrations - many of them colour plates tipped in - add a wealth of interest to the already absorbing text. A remarkable historic production. Click here to order $50

99471 Prinzler, Hans Helmut Sirens & Sinners A Visual History of Weimar Film 1918-1933 Thames & Hudson Ltd., London, 2013. Large quarto; hardcover; 308pp., mainly monochrome illustrations. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. Between the First and Second World Wars, Germany under the Weimar Republic was the scene of one of the most creative periods in film history. Through the silent era to the early years of sound, the visual flair and technical innovation of its filmmakers set an international standard for the powerful possibilities of cinema as an art form, with movies such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, and M building a legacy that shaped the world of film. Here is a showcase of more than seventy films, selected to give a wide-ranging overview of Weimar cinema at its finest. Every genre is represented, from escapist comedies and musicals to gritty depictions of contemporary city life, from period dramas to fantastical visions of the future, with themes such as sexuality and social issues tackled by iconic stars like Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks. A wealth of film stills captures the bold vision of great directors like Fritz Lang and Ernst Lubitsch, while the text sets the historical scene and gives intriguing insights into what the films meant to the society that created them. This chapter in movie history was brought to a close by Hitler's rise to power in 1933. Directors, screenwriters and actors found themselves obliged to leave Germany, and brought their talents to Hollywood. Click here to order $70

84032 Sennett, Ted Hollywood's Golden Year, 1939 A Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration St. Martin's Press. New York, NY, USA, 1989. Hardcover; quarto; 270pp., monochrome and colour illustrations. Dustwrapper a little edgeworn (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. The year of Stagecoach, Midnight, Wuthering Heights, Dark Victory, The Wizard of Oz, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, Gone with the Wind, amongst others. Click here to order $30

99394 Silver, Alain & James Ursini The Noir Style Overlook, New York NY, 2013. Quarto; paperback; 248pp., monochrome illustrations. Remainder. New. Click here to order $30

203868 Silver, Alain, & James Ursini (eds.) Film Noir Compendium Key Selections from the Film Noir Reader Series Applause Books, Milwaukee WI, 2016. Quarto paperback; 441pp., monochrome illustrations. Remainder, new. In this essential study of film noir, editors Alain Silver and James Ursini select the most significant and influential articles on the movement from their highly respected Film Noir Reader series and assemble them into a single, convenient, heavily illustrated volume. Still included, of course, are many rare early articles and such seminal essays as Borde and Chaumeton's "Towards a Definition of Film Noir" from Panorama du Film Noir Americain, Paul Schrader's "Notes on Film Noir " and "Paint It Black: the Family Tree of the Film Noir" by Raymond Durgnat. With newer studies such as "Lounge Time" by Vivian Sobchack, "Manufacturing Heroines in Classic Noir Films" by Sheri Chinen Biesen, and "Voices from the Deep: Film Noir as Psychodrama" J. P. Telotte, this collection of over 30 articles probes this most influential American film movement from varying angles: formalist, feminist, structuralist, sociological, and stylistic; narrative-thematic historical, and even from the point of view of a pure aficionado. Click here to order $28

201444 Staggs, Sam All About "All About Eve" The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made St Martin's Press, New York, 2000. Octavo hardcover; red boards with cream spine titling; 388pp., monochrome plates. Mild wear only; near fine in like dustwrapper. Click here to order $20

200021 Syberberg, Hans-Jurgen (Preface by Susan Sontag; Joachim Neugroschel, trans.) Hitler A Film from Germany Carcanet New Press Ltd., Manchester UK, 1982. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards; 268pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; slightly cocked; spine extremities softened; text block edges lightly spotted. Dustwrapper rubbed with some small tears and associated creasing to the top of the lower panel; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $28

84261 Thomson, David The Big Screen The Story of the Movies Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY, USA, 2012 Octavo; hardcover, with metallic blue spine-titling; 595pp., with 16pp. of monochrome plates and many illustrations. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. "David Thomson is, I think, the best writer on film in our time. If 'Have You Seen...?' was his most succinct and entertaining book, The Big Screen is a large and vivacious map of 'the screen': beginning with Muybridge and tracing careers ranging from Korda to Renoir to Hawkes to Mizoguchi, to David Lynch and Tarantino, then swerving over to television shows such as I Love Lucy and The Sopranos. Thomson has found and created a marvelous plot for the history of film, with insights and revelations on every page - as well as a few MacGuffins. He is our most argumentative and trustworthy historian of the screen." - Michael Ondaatje Click here to order $25

214084 Thomson, David A Biographical Dictionary of Film Andre Deutsch, London, 1994. Third, expanded edition. Large octavo hardcover; black boards with silver gilt spine titling; 834pp. Mildly spotted upper text block edge, a few marks and spots on side edge. Mild edgewear to dustwrapper; very good. "This book is both more and less than history, a work of imagination in its own right, a piece of movie literature than turns fact into romance." Click here to order $30

214480 Thomson, David Why Acting Matters yX series Yale University Press, New Haven CT, 2015. Octavo; hardcover; 180pp., untrimmed. Minor wear. Dustwrapper. Near fine. A provocative, highly engaging essay on the art of pretending on the stage, on screen, and in daily life. Does acting matter? David Thomson, one of our most respected and insightful writers on movies and theater, answers this question with intelligence and wit. In this fresh and thought-provoking essay, Thomson tackles this most elusive of subjects, examining the allure of the performing arts for both the artist and the audience member while addressing the paradoxes inherent in acting itself. He reflects on the casting process, on stage versus film acting, and on the cult of celebrity. The art and considerable craft of such gifted artists as Meryl Streep, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Daniel Day-Lewis, and others are scrupulously appraised here, as are notions of "good" and "bad" acting. Thomson's exploration is at once a meditation on and a celebration of a unique and much beloved, often misunderstood, and occasionally derided art form. He argues that acting not only "matters" but is essential and inescapable, as well as dangerous, chronic, transformative, and exhilarating, be it on the theatrical stage, on the movie screen, or as part of our everyday lives. Click here to order $25

97649 Whitlock, Cathy, & The Art Directors Guild Designs on Film A Century of Hollywood Art Direction HarperCollins Publishers, New York NY, 2014. Oblong quarto hardcover; black boards with gilt spine titling and black endpapers; 384pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild rubbing to dustwrapper with slight wear to edges. Very good to near fine. In Designs on Film, journalist and interior designer Cathy Whitlock illuminates the often undercelebrated role of the production designer in the creation of the most memorable moments in film history. Through a lush collection of rare archival photographs, Whitlock narrates the evolving story of art direction over the course of a century - from the massive Roman architecture of Ben-Hur to the infamous Dakota apartment in Rosemary's Baby to the digital CGI wonders of Avatar's Pandora. Drawing on insights from the most prominent Hollywood production designers and the historical knowledge of the venerable Art Directors Guild, Whitlock delves into the detailed process of how sets are imagined, drawn, built, and decorated. Designs on Film is the must-have look book for film lovers, movie buffs, and anyone looking to draw interior design inspiration from the constructions and confections of Hollywood. Whitlock lifts the curtain on movie magic and celebrates the many ways in which art direction and set design allow us to lose ourselves in the diverse worlds showcased on the big screen Click here to order $65