Murder and the movies / David Thomson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thomson, David, 1941- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Murder in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 232 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2020]

Summary:

How many acts of murder have each of us followed on a screen? What does that say about us? Do we remain law-abiding citizens who wouldn’t hurt a fly? Film historian David Thomson, known for wit and subversiveness, leads us into this very delicate subject. While unpacking classics such as Seven, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Strangers on a Train, The Conformist, The Godfather, and The Shining, he offers a disconcerting sense of how the form of movies makes us accomplices in this sinister narrative process. By turns seductive and astringent, very serious and suddenly hilarious, Murder and the Movies admits us into what Thomson calls “a warped triangle”: the creator working out a compelling death; the killer doing his and her best; and the entranced reader and spectator trying to cling to life and a proper sense of decency.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

In Ozark

Alone

Red Rum

I Could

It’s Not Fair

What Is an Overlook?

A Nice English Murder

The Good Soldier

We Can Kill Anybody

Cruel Being Kind

A Lark! An Aside

Are Murderers Crazy?

Single-Handed

Femme Fatale

The Woodman’s Bright Axe

Slaughter

The Room I Had to Live In

Solitary Confinement

And Now, Death

Sources and Thanks

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-25628-0

OCLC:

1181833913