Monday, September 30, 2013

Halliwell's Film Guide

Just picked up (thank you Internet and Alibris books) a copy of Halliwell's Film Guide 7th Edition, fabulous.

For those of you who don't know, Leslie Halliwell took it upon himself to create a guide to movie watching, his Filmgoers Companion (of which I am still looking for a good copy of ), which was a quirky and personal review of hundreds of films that he thought were significant, as well as a compendium of actors, director, technicians and other "crafts".

The films in the Companion were just a Halliwell's personal favourites or in some ways significant. The Film Guide however, attempted to be a more complete work.

Not only did the Film Guide contain many more films, but it included more production details - Director, cast etc. This was an astonishing achievement, given that this was pre-internet and there was no easy way to do this - it took a massive effort to collect all of this data together.

What is really marvellous about these books is the opinion that Halliwell had. He pulls no punches and can be very pithy in his comments. A word of warning though, Halliwell died in 1989 and the series was continued by others - with dire consequences. So the Film Guide is only good up to the 7th Edition and the Filmgoers Companion up to the

This means that these are the kind of books that you can dip in and out of, knowing that you will be amused, intrigued and challenged every time you read them. Not only that, you will end up re-appraising some of your favourite films.

Think of them like IMDB with prejudice (in the best way), opinion and an acerbic wit.

A word of warning though, the editions after Halliwell's death are pale imitations and IMHO not worth the paper they are printed on. Go for the 7th Edition of the Film Guide or earlier and Companion up to '77.

I used to have a 6th Edition, I hope Wendy is looking after it and enjoying it.

 


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