{"product_id":"sudden-flicker-of-light-david-thomson-9781668205730","title":"A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom one of cinema's wisest and most penetrating observers, an arresting new perspective on the sweep of film history.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDavid Thomson has been called \"the greatest living writer on the movies.\" Here is a career capstone of sorts--a one-volume history of film and screens as illuminating and provocative as his classic \u003ci\u003eBiographical Dictionary of Film\u003c\/i\u003e. In tracing the progress, from the Lumiere Brothers to the Coens, Thomson glories in the great movies, but admits to increasing unease over what the medium has done to us--promoting fantasy, misleading models of sexual identity, the cult of authority, power, and happy endings. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis revisionist history is as alert to technology and business as it is to art and fun in tracing our pursuit of the lifelike instead of life. By turns trenchant, lyrical, and comic, Thomson uncovers our addiction to voyeurism and villainy, and a habit of passivity that has betrayed our political and cultural identity. In a survey that reaches from \u003ci\u003eMetropolis\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eRear Window\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eAnora\u003c\/i\u003e, this will redirect ideas about film everywhere. As \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e has put it, \"Thomson proves anew that he is irreplaceable.\"","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50060044533953,"sku":"9781668205730","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0781\/5512\/0833\/files\/9781668205730.jpg?v=1773777254","url":"https:\/\/www.porchlightbooks.com\/products\/sudden-flicker-of-light-david-thomson-9781668205730","provider":"Porchlight Book Company","version":"1.0","type":"link"}