- Table View
- List View
Into the Dark Book #1: The Shadow Prince
by Bree DespainHaden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High--a haven for children of the rich and famous--Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race. Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High's prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father's mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn't the only student in Olympus who doesn't quite belong. Haden and Daphne--destined for each other--know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers' lives collide. But Daphne won't be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended--he's fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds. A pulsating romance of epic proportions, Bree Despain's The Shadow Prince will leave her fans breathless for the next book in the Into The Dark series.
The Ultimate: The Great American Arguments Settled Once and for All
by William PoundstoneThe Ultimate is sophisticated fun, literate trivia in the witty, anecdotal and provocative style familiar to Poundstone fans across the country. Here Poundstone establishes objective ways of determining what really is the biggest, the highest, the greatest, and the best.
Mom in the Movies
by Turner Classic Movies, Inc. Richard CorlissWith a foreword written by Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher, and sidebar essays by Eva Marie Saint, Illeana Douglas, Jane Powell, Sam Robards, and Tippi Hedren, this book is packed with an incredible collection of photographs and film stills. Mom in the Movies makes a great gift for any mom--and for anyone with a mother who oughta be in picturesFrom the cozy All-American mom to the terrifying Mommie Dearest or the protective Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, when it comes to mothers on the silver screen, it takes all kinds. Turner Classic Movies and film historian Richard Corliss presents Mom in the Movies, a definitive, fully illustrated book that shares the many ways Hollywood has celebrated, vilified and otherwise memorialized dear old Mom. Here, you will meet the Criminal Moms, like Shelley Winters in Bloody Mama, and the eccentric Showbiz Moms, including those from Gypsy and Postcards from the Edge. You'll also find Great American Moms, as warm and nourishing as apple pie, in movies such as I Remember Mama and Places in the Heart, along with Surrogate Moms, like Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother, Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame, Dianne Wiest in Edward Scissorhands and Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side. And who can forget the baddest mothers of all? No book on movie moms would be complete without Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate.
Dirty Daddy
by Bob SagetBob Saget, the decidedly irreverent stand-up comedian and beloved TV star, delivers uproarious, uncensored, and heartfelt stories from a life in entertainment and beyondMillions of viewers know and love Bob Saget from his role as the sweetly neurotic father on the smash hit Full House, and as the charming wisecracking host of America's Funniest Home Videos. And then there are the legions of fans who can't get enough of his scatological, out-of-his-mind stand-up routines, comedy specials, and outrageously profane performances in such shows as HBO's Entourage and the hit documentary The Aristocrats. In his bold and wildly entertaining publishing debut, Bob continues to embrace his dark side and gives readers the book they have long been waiting for--hilarious and often dirty yet warm and disarmingly sincere. Bob talks about the connection between humor and pain, offering insights into his own life, including the deaths of his beloved sisters. He pays homage to the people who shaped and inspired him: his mom, Dolly; his father, Ben (the comedy influence who instilled his love of "sick silliness"); and the teacher who told him, "You need to make people laugh," as well as legendary comedians such as Richard Pryor, David Letterman, Billy Crystal, and Robin Williams.Bob believes there's a time and a place for filth and immature humor--and for gentle family comedy. Dirty Daddy is packed with both, from his never-before-heard stories of what really went on behind the scenes of two of the most successful family shows of all times, with costars like John Stamos, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Ashley Olsen, to his liberating experience in The Aristocrats, his Comedy Central roast, and his role of playing an extreme version of himself on Entourage. Bob opens up about his career, his reputation for sick humor, his pride and love for Full House, and how he's come to terms with the fame of being DT--"Danny Tanner." Throughout, he shares tales of close friends and colleagues like Rodney Dangerfield and Don Rickles, and recalls his experiences with show business legends, including Johnny Carson and George Carlin. Told with his highly original blend of silliness, vulgarity, wit, and heart, Dirty Daddy reveals Bob Saget as never before--a man who loves being funny and making people laugh above all else.
Life and Def
by Russell SimmonsRussell Simmons, the original and eternal hip-hop mogul, is one of the most innovative and influential figures in modern American business and culture. When no one outside of inner-city New York had even heard of hip-hop, Simmons saw the seeds of a global force that would change the way people talk, dress, listen to music, and choose the heroes they hang on their walls. Today, he oversees a sprawling, multimillion-dollar empire of culture-defining businesses in everything from music to fashion, advertising to film, and media to visual art. At the same time he's broadened his interests and influence and pushed hip-hop to new plateaus of power and relevance. Life and Def is a one-of-a-kind tale that interweaves the remarkable journey of Russell Simmons with the story of the culture he's transformed and been transformed by. In his own brash, compelling voice, Simmons chronicles his numerous business successes and occasional failures. He tells the story of the founding of the legendary Def Jam Records, whose roster stretches from original rap icons like L.L. Cool J, Public Enemy, and the Beastie Boys to today's top stars, including Jay-Z and DMX. He traces the launching of Def Comedy Jam, the long-running hit television series that introduced a new generation of black comedic stars to America, from Martin Lawrence and Bill Bellamy to Bernie Mac and Chris Rock. He spins hilarious tales of his adventures in Hollywood, where he's produced hit movies like Eddie Murphy's The Nutty Professor and worked with quirky geniuses like Abel Ferrara. He also tells the story of Phat Farm, the wildly successful pioneering urban clothing label whose origins lay in Russell's longtime fascination with fashion (and fashion models).Simmons's story is also one of personal transformation, from the driven man who in the heady days of early success indulged himself with drugs, sex, and world-class decadence to the husband and father he is today, a man who has found meaning in activism, philanthropy, and spiritual practice while never losing his passion for the social, political, artistic, and commercial potential of hip-hop.Through it all he relates telling anecdotes about the characters he's dealt with: models and gangsters, street poets and gurus, and major players like Donald Trump, Sean Combs, Jon Peters, and Tupac Shakur. Full of advice, opinions, and behind-the-scenes scoop, Life and Def is the story of the quintessential hip-hop life.From the Hardcover edition.
Norman Mailer: A Double Life
by J. Michael LennonFrom the biographer who knew Norman Mailer for decades comes the definitive, authorized portrait of the eminent novelist, journalist, and controversial public figure, based on extensive interviews and unpublished letters.Norman Mailer was the one of the most famous writers of his generation, a figure as notorious for his stormy romances and quarrels with other writers as he was respected for his numerous bestsellers and literary accolades. In this candid biography, J. Michael Lennon brings a wealth of research informed by his years of personal acquaintance with Mailer, as well as the cooperation of Mailer's family, to reveal the life and work of an American legend. In a career that produced eleven bestsellers, Mailer lived through every great postwar event of the twentieth century and commented on many of them. From his initial success with his World War II novel The Naked and the Dead, through his observations on the convulsive 1960s in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Armies of the Night, to his own quixotic run for mayor of New York City, his life was a reflection of the turbulent times in which he lived. A man of sharp complexities, he was loved and loathed, the most prominent public intellectual of his time, at once an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and the bête noir of the women's rights movement. Lennon explores Mailer's dualities: journalist and activist, devoted family man (he was married six times and was the father of nine children) and notorious philanderer, intellectual and fighter, writer and public figure, all of them evolving through Mailer's self-conscious effort to create a distinctive identity for himself. Capturing this protean life as never before, Norman Mailer: A Double Life gives us the man in full--a remarkable and unique figure, a giant in the context of his time.
Love Life
by Rob LoweROB LOWE IS BACK WITH STORIES HE ONLY TELLS HIS BEST FRIENDS. When Rob Lowe's first book was published in 2011, he received the kind of rapturous reviews that writers dream of and rocketed to the top of the bestseller list. Now, in Love Life, he expands his scope, using stories and observations from his life in a poignant and humorous series of true tales about men and women, art and commerce, fathers and sons, addiction and recovery, and sex and love. In Love Life, you will find stories about: * KISSING UNEXPECTEDLY * THE SECRETS THEY DON'T TEACH YOU IN ACTING SCHOOL * HIS GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT GRANDFATHER'S ROLE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION * PARKS AND RECREATION, BEHIND THE CANDELABRA, AND CALIFORNICATION * TRYING TO COACH A KIDS' BASKETBALL TEAM DOMINATED BY HELICOPTER PARENTS * THE HOT TUB AT THE PLAYBOY MANSION * STARRING IN AND PRODUCING A FLOP TV SERIES * CAMPING AT SEA WORLD * PLAYING SAXOPHONE FOR PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON * THE FIRST JOURNEY TO COLLEGE WITH HIS SON * WARREN BEATTY * THE BENEFITS OF MARRIAGE Throughout this entertaining book, you will find yourself in the presence of a master raconteur, a multi-talented performer whose love for life is as intriguing as his love life.
The Women of Duck Commander
by Jessica Robertson Lisa Robertson Missy Robertson Kay Robertson Korie RobertsonThe wives of the Robertsons all came into the family the same way: they fell in love with one of the Robertson boys. In the Duck Dynasty TV series, the women often come into their own when the whole family gathers around the table together to eat dinner, and fans of the show get a good glimpse into their lives, but that is hardly the whole story, which is why they decided to write this book... In The Women of Duck Commander, the wives show how they have worked together to help one another and to support the family in all its work and its happiness. They are committed to timeless values, and in the book they share the insights, stories and experiences that have made them who they are. The appeal of the Duck Dynasty comes, not because they are showing us anything new, but they are reminding us of the values our culture is in danger of losing.
Thendral: Vol. 14, Issue 05, April 2014
by MadhurabharathiThis issue features an interview with Kalakshetra’s Director Priyadarshini Govind , two short stories, ‘Payanam’ talks about a visit to Marymoor Park in Washington, ‘Samayam’ features Ayirathen Vinayagar temple, an article paying homage to T.K.Sivasankaran and Kushvanth Singh, mouth watering recipes, an article on Achievers featuring Kuralarasi Geetha Arunachalam and a few other young achievers ,an article on the veteran writer Kumuthini along with usual features like Thendral Pesukirathu ,Kathiravanai Kelungal,Nalam Vaazha, Kavithai Pandhal, Pudhinam and important events of last month.
Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics (Fifth Edition)
by Michael Rabiger Mick Hurbis-CherrierThe book is full of practical advice on every stage of production, that covers human, psychological, and technical knowledge that every director needs in the fascinating process of film-making.
Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist
by Charles RosenCharles Rosen is one of the world's most talented pianists -- and one of music's most astute commentators. Known as a performer of Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Elliott Carter, he has also written highly acclaimed criticism for sophisticated students and professionals. In Piano Notes, he writes for a broader audience about an old friend -- the piano itself. Drawing upon a lifetime of wisdom and the accumulated lore of many great performers of the past, Rosen shows why the instrument demands such a stark combination of mental and physical prowess. Readers will gather many little-known insights -- from how pianists vary their posture, to how splicings and microphone placements can ruin recordings, to how the history of composition was dominated by the piano for two centuries. Stories of many great musicians abound. Rosen reveals Nadia Boulanger's favorite way to avoid commenting on the performances of her friends ("You know what I think," spoken with utmost earnestness), why Glenn Gould's recordings suffer from "double-strike" touches, and how even Vladimir Horowitz became enamored of splicing multiple performances into a single recording. Rosen's explanation of the piano's physical pleasures, demands, and discontents will delight and instruct anyone who has ever sat at a keyboard, as well as everyone who loves to listen to the instrument. In the end, he strikes a contemplative note. Western music was built around the piano from the classical era until recently, and for a good part of that time the instrument was an essential acquisition for every middle-class household. Music making was part of the fabric of social life. Yet those days have ended. Fewer people learn the instrument today. The rise of recorded music has homogenized performance styles and greatly reduced the frequency of public concerts. Music will undoubtedly survive, but will the supremely physical experience of playing the piano ever be the same?
Dreaming in the Rain
by David SpanerVancouver is now North America's third largest center for film and television production, recently witnessing the filming of Halle Berry's Catwoman and Will Smith's I, Robot, among others. But Vancouver has been hosting filmmakers for years, coming into its own in the early 1970s when Robert Altman, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie made McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Mike Nichols, Jack Nicholson and Candice Bergen filmed Carnal Knowlege.Dreaming in the Rain tells the story of how Vancouver became North by Northwest, from its early days as a Hollywood studio backlot to its becoming home to a vibrant indigenous scene that is among the most acclaimed, provocative, independent filmmaking communities anywhere.But with Hollywood's growing concern over "runaway" productions, Vancouver's growing filmmaking scene is wrought with controversy. The city's American-based film industry is powerful enough to inspire loathing and threats from Hollywood.Along with tracing the art and commerce of Vancouver filmmaking, Vancouver Province movie critic David Spaner brings to life the flamboyant film personalities who left their marks. From visitors like Errol Flynn and Robert Altman, to local heroes such as The Matrix's Carrie Anne Moss, who grew up in Vancouver, and Kissed star Molly Parker and director Lynne Stopkewich, vital players in the groundbreaking Vancouver indie scene.Includes more than 40 black and white photographs.". . . [Spaner] has . . . scrupulous attention to detail and an obvious curiosity and passion for both Vancouver and its film industry."--Entertainment TodayDavid Spaner is a movie critic for the Vancouver Province.
Trash: A Queer Film Classic
by Jon DaviesTrash, one of three inaugural titles in Arsenal Pulp Press' new film book series Queer Film Classics, delves into the legendary 1970 film that was arguably the greatest collaboration between director Paul Morrissey and producer Andy Warhol.<P> The film Trash is a down-and-out domestic melodrama about a decidedly eccentric couple: Joe, an impotent junkie (played by Warhol film regular Joe Dallesandro), and Holly, Joe's feisty and sexually frustrated girlfriend (played by trans Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn). Joe is the hunky yet passive center around whom proud Holly orbits; while Morrissey intended to show that "there's no difference between a person using drugs and a piece of refuse," Woodlawn's incredible turn reverses his logic: she makes trash as precious as human beings.<P> The book examines the film in the context of Morrissey and Warhol's legendary partnership, with a special focus on Woodlawn's acclaimed performance: a glorious embodiment of "trash" and glamour that was so stunning, director George Cukor led a campaign (albeit unsuccessful) to win her an Oscar nomination.
Gods and Monsters: A Queer Film Classic
by Noah TsikaGods and Monsters, one of three inaugural titles in Arsenal Pulp Press' new film book series Queer Film Classics, deals with the acclaimed 1998 film about openly gay film director James Whale, best known for the Frankenstein films of the 1930s.<P> Written and directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls), Gods and Monsters stars Ian McKellen as Whale in the final days of his life during the 1950s. Moving from the slums of Britain in the early twentieth century to the new era of "talkies" in Hollywood and beyond, Gods and Monsters trains a gay eye on the historical events that helped shape Whale and his films. The result was widely acclaimed, winning an Oscar for Condon's screenplay and nominations for both McKellen and costar Lynn Redgrave.<P> This book examines Gods and Monsters from a variety of perspectives, highlighting the complexity and significance of its achievements, including its fusion of fantasy and biography. It also delves into a history of gay Hollywood during this era, including both its homophobic surface and its queer underpinnings.
Law of Desire: A Queer Film Classic
by José QuirogaLaw of Desire, one of three inaugural titles in Arsenal Pulp Press' new film book series Queer Film Classics, focuses on the 1987 homoerotic melodrama by Pedro Almodóvar, Spain's most successful contemporary film director.<P> The film Law of Desire is a grand tale of love, lust, and amnesia featuring three main characters: a gay film director (played by Eusebio Poncela); his sister, an actress who was once his brother (Carmen Maura); and a repressed, obsessive stalker (a young Antonio Banderas). In the twenty-plus years since its first release, Law of Desire has been acknowledged as redefining the way in which cinema can portray the difficult affective relationships between homosexuality, gender, and sex. Taking his cue from the golden age of Latin American, American, and European melodrama, Almodóvar created a sentimental yet hard-edged film that believes in the utopian possibilities for new relationships that redeem people from their despair. Since its release, Almodóvar has become an Oscar-winning filmmaker who regularly delves into issues of sexuality, gender, and identity.<P> This book examines the political and social context in which Almodóvar created Law of Desire, as well as its impact on LGBT cinema both in Europe and around the world.
Fire
by Shohini GhoshA Queer Film Classic: the 1996 film by Indian-born director Deepa Mehta, about the burgeoning relationship between the wives of two brothers; its unprecedented lesbian themes led to riots outside cinemas in India.
Farewell My Concubine
by Helen Hok-Sze LeungA Queer Film Classic: Chen Kaige's 1992 film about two male Peking opera stars and the woman who comes between them; its treatment of gender performance and homosexuality was unprecedented in Chinese film. Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Montreal Main: A Queer Film Classic
by Thomas Waugh Jason GarrisonA Queer Film Classic: a great Canadian indie film from 1974 that has become a cult classic, about a photographer living among various outcasts in the Montreal neighborhood known as the Main, who becomes obsessed with the teenaged son of friends.
Shoot It!
by David SpanerShoot It! is a revealing history of how Hollywood, with its eye on the bottom line, arguably lost its ability to support the work of creative filmmakers; it is also a passionate portrait of the American independent film scene that has produced some of the best movies of the last two decades and inspired those in other countries to do the same.The book examines the Hollywood studio system over several decades, from the period when moguls like Harry and Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer made quality yet commercially viable films, to today, when studios seem only interested in surefire sequels and comic-book adaptations aimed at a global audience. By the same token, Shoot It! also celebrates today's great movies produced outside of the studio system, chronicling the international independent film movement in seven countries (the United States, Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Romania, and South Korea), from its roots (French New Wave, British kitchen sink, the New York scene) to the revolutionary impact of digital technology. It also features commentary from indie film notables such as Gus Van Sant, Mike Leigh, Claire Denis, Atom Egoyan, Catherine Breillat, Sally Potter, John Sayles, and Ken Loach.While the studios envisage a generic universe, repressing local film cultures along the way, talented independents continue to tell local stories with universal appeal. This book is a celebration of those determined filmmakers who, despite it all, overcome all obstacles and just shoot it.David Spaner is a film critic and freelance journalist in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Death in Venice
by Will AitkenA Queer Film Classic on Luchino Visconti's lyrical and controversial 1971 film based on Thomas Mann's novel about a middle-aged man (played by Dirk Bogarde) vacationing in Venice who becomes obsessed with a youth staying at the same hotel as a wave of cholera descends upon the city. The book analyzes its cultural impact and provides a vivid portrait of the director, an ardent Communist and grand provocateur.Will Aitken's novels include Realia and Terre Haute. Arsenal's Queer Film Classics series cover some of the most important and influential films about and by LGBTQ people.
Word is Out: A Queer Film Classic
by Greg YoumansA Queer Film Classic on the groundbreaking 1977 documentary that profiles the lives of ordinary gay men and lesbians of different ages, races, and backgrounds; it was the first of its kind to do so, and played a role in the then-nascent struggle for gay rights (being released at the same time as Anita Bryant waged her anti-gay campaign in Florida). Greg Youmans is a scholar, maker, and programmer of queer film and video. Arsenal's Queer Film Classics series cover some of the most important and influential films about and by LGBTQ people.
Zero Patience: A Queer Film Classic
by Susan Knabe Wendy Gay PearsonA Queer Film Classic on John Greyson's controversial 1993 film musical about the AIDS crisis which combines experimental, camp musical, and documentary aesthetics while refuting the legend of Patient Zero, the male flight attendant accused in Randy Shilts' book And the Band Played On of bringing the AIDS crisis to North America. Wendy Gay Pearson and Susan Knabe both teach in the women's studies and Feminist Research department at the University of Western Ontario. Arsenal's Queer Film Classics series cover some of the most important and influential films about and by LGBTQ people.
Strangers on a Train: A Queer Film Classic
by Jonathan GoldbergAlfred Hitchcock's 1951 thriller based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith (author of The Talented Mr. Ripley) is about two men who meet on a train: one is a man of high social standing who wishes to divorce his unfaithful wife; the other is an enigmatic bachelor with an overbearing father. Together they enter into a murder plot that binds them to one another, with fatal consequences.<P> This Queer Film Classic delves into the homoerotic energy of the film, especially between the two male characters (played by Farley Granger and Robert Walker). It builds on the question of the sexuality the film puts on view, not to ask whether either character is gay so much as to explore the queer relations between sexuality and murder and the strong antisocial impulses those relations represent. The book also includes a look at the making of the film and the critical controversies over Hitchcock's representations of male homosexuality.<P> QUEER FILM CLASSICS is a critically acclaimed film book series that launched in 2009. It features twenty-one of the most important and influential films about and/or by LGBTQ people, made in eight different countries between 1950 and 2005, and written by leading LGBTQ film scholars and critics.Jonathan Goldberg is a professor at Emory University, where he directs the Studies in Sexualities program. He is the author of many books and editor of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's posthumous 2012 book The Weather in Proust.
No Sale
by Patrick Conrad Jonathan LynnFor Victor Cox, a professor of film history, the Hollywood films noirs of the 1940s and 1950s are more real than his daily life. When his wife is found drowned, Cox is the first murder suspect. He falls in love with a student who looks like the 1920s film star Louise Brooks, but she disappears at a Belgian seaside resort. Smeared in lipstick in their hotel room are the words "No Sale," the same words Elizabeth Taylor wrote on a mirror in Butterfield 8. Subsequently, a series of gruesome killings of young women, all modeled on violent deaths in films that he knows and loves, lead the police back to Cox, who starts to doubt his own sanity and innocence.With its stylish writing, pointed references to cinema classics, and blend of horror and humor, this is a powerful psychological thriller. It won the Diamond Bullet Award, the Edgar Award for Belgium.'We all know about life imitating art, but what about novels imitating film-film noir in particular? Patrick Conrad's No Sale (the words written in lipstick on a mirror by Gloria Wandrous, the Elizabeth Taylor character in Butterfield 8) is only the latest in a short list of crime fiction that draws on film noir for both plot and mood. It makes a peculiar kind of fictional sense that characters obsessed with film noir would find the worlds of the films they adore superimposed upon their personal lives. Make sure your subscription to Netflix is up-to-date before sampling this hypnotic novel.' Booklist'Imagine a metafiction serial-killer thriller written by Paul Auster on speed.When even the investigating cop sees himself as Dirty Harry, this amusing, teasing, film-crazy novel keeps you guessing through every reel.' Crime Time'Surprisingly zippy read which moves at a fair clip, the pace maintained by cinematic scene shifts and splashes of black humour. Who was it said that crime fiction in translation was never fun?That was probably me.' ShotsmagPatrick Conrad, born in 1945 in Antwerp, is a Flemish poet, screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He lives in Provence, in the south of France. Limousine, a previous novel, is being made into a film with Kelsey Grammar, to be released in 2012.
This Great Escape
by Andrew SteinmetzSHORTLISTED FOR THE $60,000 HILARY WESTON WRITERS TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION"What the hell kind of great escape is this? No one escapes!"-L.B. Mayer, on the 1963 filmHe had fifty-seven seconds of screen time in the most lavish POW film Hollywood ever produced. He was blond. A Gestapo agent. Sauntering down the aisles of a speeding train, he speaks in terse German to Richard Attenborough, Gordon Jackson, David McCallum. The film is The Great Escape (by John Sturges, starring Steve McQueen); the actor, though uncredited, is Michael Paryla. He was part Jewish. Shortly after filming he died.In This Great Escape, Andrew Steinmetz tenderly reconstructs the life of a man seen by millions yet recognized by no one, whose history-from childhood flight from Nazism to suspicious death twenty years later-intersects bitterly, ironically, and often movingly with the plot of Sturges's great war film. Splicing together documentary materials with correspondence, diary entries, and Steinmetz's own travel journal, This Great Escape does more than reconstruct the making of a cinema classic: it is a poignant and moving testament to the complexity of human experience, a portrait of a family for whom acting was a matter of survival, and proof that our most anonymous, uncredited, and undocumented moments can brush against the zeitgeist of world history.