Reference

From Lillian Gish in Way Down East (1920) to Rene Zellweger in Nurse Betty (2000), DiLeo takes movie fans on an unpredictable ride through 80 years of film history, showcasing a variety of genres and performing styles, and providing fresh spins on the careers of Hollywood's top stars. In this collection of short, informal essays, the author bypasses mainstream cinema and pays tribute to overlooked performances while bringing a necessary dose of renewed attention to those once-heralded and now forgotten.

This practical reference manual, with its precise, authentic instructions on how to speak in more than 100 dialects, has established itself as the most useful and comprehensive guide to accents available, now increased by a third in this revised printing. As before, the accents range from regional U.S. and British dialects to European accents that include, among others, the Germanic, Slavic and Romance Languages. Completing his around-the-world journey, the author then covers the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Includes two CDs.

Blumenfeld convincingly argues that the basic techniques of acting apply whether the actor is performing onstage or in a sound studio. Numerous practice exercises help the actor to speak the words of a text that can be enhanced by the varying sounds of the human voice.

Childsplay is a very charming and enchanting book - and an important book for children who want to act! Not only can they use this wonderful collection as a guide to the sorts of plays and parts that are available to them, they will discover here how plays ca be read just for pleasure. And they will particularly enjoy the selections written by children themselves. -Julie Harris

A companion guide to one of the bestselling Limelight Edition titles, this book by Asaf Messerer, a founder of what has become known as the Bolshoi School, is one of the most celebrated manuals of classic dance instruction in the world. Messerer has gained an international reputation for his classes in classical technique-models of invention and well-rounded exercise, stressing both precision and fluid artistic control. Nearly 500 photographs of principal Bolshoi dancers illustrate the positions and steps indicated, and an introductory section by Messerer outlines his basic plan and philosophy of teaching.

In 1984, four comedians - Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, and Harry Shearer - unleashed This Is Spinal Tap, the world's first mock-rockumentary and a joke that has lasted into the 21st century and inspired a generation of imitations. Now, award-winning film journalist John Kenneth Muir (An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith) escorts the reader through a quarter-century of heavy metal laughs, offering a detailed history of the film's genesis and an up-close look at the reasons why this beloved rock-and-roll movie comedy has endured for so long, - and even met acceptance in the rock-and-roll culture it lampoons. Features interview material with the cinematographer, editor, and some supporting cast members of This Is Spinal Tap as well as King of Nostalgia Joe Franklin.

Fleeing Nazi persecution, half of Europe's creative talents, including screen legend Greta Garbo and composer Igor Stravinsky, were, in Arnold Schoenberg's words, driven into paradise, settling in Los Angeles. It was the greatest flight of European cultural and intellectual talent in history, and for a time made Los Angeles a cultural capital. Their presence, enabling the evolution of film noir, also changed American movies forever. In Exiles in Hollywood, David Wallace, author of the national bestseller Lost Hollywood and whom columnist Liz Smith has called the maestro of entertainment history, tells their dramatic stories. His profiles of refugees include filmmaker Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann, the screenwriter Salka Viertel and her controversial relationship with Greta Garbo, the deeply conflicted actor Charles Laughton, and many more. The result is a rich, page-turning look at an era, its triumphs and tragedies, its gossip and hidden facts, and its colorful personalities.