Frank T. Thompson

It's October, so I figured that there would be no better time to read about Tim BUrton's crossover holiday movie the Nightmare Before Christmas and I was definitely right! I enjoyed delving into the making of the film so much so that I just had to go and rewatch it. Knowing all the nitty gritty details about how it was made actually made the film even more enjoyable to watch, since I started noticing all the production details and could appreciate the huge amounts of effort put in by the show more crew to make the first feature-length stop-motion animated film. As per usualy with these types of book, I was left wanting more, but Thompson collected an admirable amount of material and presented it in a highly accessible (and readable) manner. show less

We are taken in the Dark Ages as the last Roman legions are withdrawing Britain. There are many interesting tidbits not seen in the film, I especially enjoyed the extended role of Guinevere who takes central stage in Thompson's novelization as opposed to the film in which she is little more than a pretty (albeit, expressionless) face standing in the background, carrying a bow. Arthur and his knights are adequately developed, Cendric the Saxon is an imposing villain, but for me, the real hero show more in the film and in the novelization is Lancelot, the knight who sees further than anyone else and never stops questioning the purpose of a mission of madness.

A well-written novelization of the excellent 2004 film which departed from the popular story and tried to trace the historical figure of the man who became a legend. show less

5/10
A very different take on the Arthurian legend. A warrior Guinevere, no love triangle, no bastard child, and most of the Knights of the Round Table have died before the story begins. The writing style is very descriptive, even somewhat gory, but there is little emotion or passion behind it.

Frank Thompson's "Lost Films", a book about films that have gone missing or have eroded to nothing on nitrate stocks, sadly hasn't stood the test of time itself. While it's a decent enough read, it might be interesting to see how the film preservation process has evolved in the 13 years since Thompson published. Mentions of laser discs and the following passage exemplify just how outdated this reference book has become:

"Systems are being developed," Thompson writes, "that would allow show more archivists to store entire feature films onto digitally recorded computer files, but this technology is costly (about twelve dollars a frame or almost three hundred dollars per foot of film!), and quite unwieldy -- a single 35mm frame requires an entire personal computer's worth of memory to store."

When reading about the 27 silent films (from 1911 to 1929), some may find themselves skipping breezily through the synopses to find the handful of gems about the productions themselves.

Recommended library rental for silent-era film buffs only. show less