Performing Arts category: 25753 books

Over the last five decades, the films of director Brian De Palma (b. 1940) have been among the biggest successes (The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible) and the most high-profile failures (The Bonfire of the Vanities) in Hollywood history. De Palma helped launch the careers of such prominent actors...

Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy is a biography of Joss Whedon, the wunderkind creator of television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. From Booklist: Writers, actors, and fans often call Joss Whedon a genius. It’s easy to see why. Whedon, who got his start writing for...

A reissued classic that examines the structure and themes of each of Hitchcock’s British feature films.

James Bond entered the world in 1953 with the novel Casino Royale by Ian Fleming. Since then, the British secret agent codenamed 007 has become the biggest media phenomenon of the modern age, surpassing and outlasting previous cultural icons such as Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan and The Saint. Bond...

The first full-scale life of the controversial, greatly admired yet often underrated director/producer who was known as “Otto the Terrible.” Nothing about Otto Preminger was small, trivial, or self-denying, from his privileged upbringing in Vienna as the son of an improbably successful...

Gloria Swanson: Ready for Her Close-Up shows how a talented, self-confident actress negotiated a creative path through seven decades of celebrity. It also illuminates a little-known chapter in American media history: how the powerful women of early Hollywood transformed their remarkable careers after...

The stylistic and bloody excesses of the films of Dario Argento are instantly recognizable—his films lock violent deaths in a twisted embrace with an almost sexual beauty. Narrative and logic are often lost in a constant bombardment of atmosphere, technical mastery, and provocative imagery. Setting...

For the first time, Oscar-winning production designer and director Roger Christian reveals his life story, from his earliest work in the British film industry to his breakthrough contributions on such iconic science fiction masterpieces as Star Wars, Alien and his own rediscovered Black Angel. This...

“Pitiless.” —Le Monde“A damning indictment of the man and the culture that lionizes him. ” —The Washington Post“The most thoroughly demythologizing book yet written on modern Hollywood.” —The Los Angeles TimesWith just one syllable, the man is identified: there...

As he turns eighty, Jack Nicholson can look back on a career that has spanned over six decades. With iconic roles in Easy Rider, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining and The Departed to name but a few, he has exhibited an astonishing range in all and remains arguably our greatest living actor. This...

Anthony Graziano, also known as “TG” Graziano, is a mobster who refused to become a federal government witness. He was born in Staten Island, New York in 1940. He grew up during a time when being a mobster was something most youngsters only dreamed of. He is well known as a Consigliere and Capo...

Hector Pagan, Jr grew up as a street thug in the streets of Brooklyn, New York. Hector had fallen in love with boxing when he was a teenager. He spent most of his time training, and never cared to finish the last five years of school. His promising boxing career came to an abrupt end when he was...

This is the biography of Frank “The German” Schweihs, the deceased father of Nora Schweihs, one of the stars of the VH1 Mob Wives Chicago, a spinoff of VH1 Mob Wives. The German was an alleged La Cosa Nostra hit man for the Chicago Mob known as The Outfit. Frank Schweihs was a killer by nature....

Charlie Chaplin literally fell into the genre of slapstick comedy when he was 18 years old. Long out of work and anxious to secure a part in an upcoming third-rate London production of Casey’s Circus, entering the audition Chaplin slipped, tried to right himself, slipped again, fell on all fours...