From one of cinema’s wisest and most penetrating observers, an arresting new perspective on the sweep of film history.

David Thomson has been called “the greatest living writer on the movies.” Here is a career capstone of sorts—a one-volume history of film and screens as illuminating and provocative as his classic Biographical Dictionary of Film. In tracing the progress, from the Lumiere Brothers to the Coens, Thomson glories in the great movies, but admits to increasing unease over what the medium has done to us—promoting fantasy, misleading models of sexual identity, the cult of authority, power, and happy endings.

This revisionist history is as alert to technology and business as it is to art and fun in tracing our pursuit of the lifelike instead of life. By turns trenchant, lyrical, and comic, Thomson uncovers our addiction to voyeurism and villainy, and a habit of passivity that has betrayed our political and cultural identity. In a survey that reaches from Metropolis to Rear Window to Anora, this will redirect ideas about film everywhere. As The New York Times has put it, “Thomson proves anew that he is irreplaceable.”

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

KIER-LA JANISSE is an author, critic, film programmer, podcaster, publisher and producer with an emphasis on genre cinema.

Video Watchdog’s Tim Lucas referred to her book House of Psychotic Women as one of the 10 “most vital” horror film books of all time, and Ian MacAllister-McDonald of the LA Review of Books called it “the next step in genre theory, as well as the most frightening and heart-rending memoir I’ve read in years.”

Her book on Monte Hellman's infamous film Cockfighter is stunning. Visit her website here for more on her writing, her films and podcasts.

John Bleasdale's Connery A Novel is available to buy NOW.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Samira Ahmed is a journalist, writer, and BBC broadcaster. She presents Front Row on Radio 4, Newswatch on BBC News, and regularly hosts radio documentaries. In 2020, she was named British Broadcasting Press Guild's Audio Presenter of the Year. Ahmed has written for The Guardian, The Independent, and other publications, and she writes a regular column for New Humanist.

Read her blog here.

Samira Ahmed's BFI Classics: A Hard Days Night is available here.

John Bleasdale's Connery: A Novel is available here.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On the eve of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, I talk to author of Christopher Nolan: The Iconic Filmmaker and his Work.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Scott Feinberg is a veteran reporter of The Hollywood Reporter and hosts the Awards Chatter podcast. His work can be found here.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Norwegian film director Truls Krane Meby and John-Kristian Dalseth, programmer for the Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) and manager of the Verdensteatret Cinemateket join John Bleasdale to talk about the 40th Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna.

John Bleasdale's second novel Connery A Novel is available to buy at Plumeria.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Published to coincide with the 35th anniversary of Michael Lehmann's 1991 infamous "turkey shoot", The Unmaking of Hudson Hawk is an in-depth look at the history and legacy of the film that brought Bruce Willis's career crashing to Earth, from the germ of the idea in 1980s New York to the recent revisionist views of the film by critics and commentators. Featuring interviews with co-creator/composer Robert Kraft, director Michael Lehmann, screenwriters Daniel Waters, Steven de Souza, Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn and many members of the cast and crew, the book is for everyone who looked at Hudson Hawk and wondered what the hell happened. With an introduction by film critic Walter Chaw.

Connery A Novel is also available.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Laura Horak is Professor of Film Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and founder of the award-winning Transgender Media Portal. She is author of Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema.

Trans Cinema Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds is an exciting introduction to cinema by the trans creators who are innovating filmmaking to imagine a more inclusive world.

Order Here.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.