The Best Film You’ve Never Seen is both for film buffs as well as those who dig deeper into the thoughts and feelings of the directors who make the movies we love. With Guillermo del Toro on the circuit as of this writing (10/4/13) promoting Pacific Rim’s DVD debut, it is interesting to read his thoughts (along with hearing him – as I got to on NPR this week). The Guillermo excerpt is actually on the late Roger Ebert’s site for you to give the book a “test run” of sorts:
Elder does a superb job of aligning the obscure films and these directors who discuss the works within the compact 35 chapters and 304 pages. The centerfold black and whites actually draw you into the movie discussed, and this work, like Suzanne Vega’s The Passionate Eye, allows you to go to a chapter you want back to front or front to back.
In a forty minute or so interview on Visual Radio, Thursday, October 3, 2013, Elder’s knowledge of film – and enthusiasm for the subject – generates further excitement for these lost classics as he gave insight into this 9 year project. The black and white photos (referenced above) are different in the book from those on the author’s Tumblr account and what is striking is how the Tony Perkins b & w I brought up in the interview (from the book), a truly stunning frozen moment from Orson Welles The Trial is as mesmerizing as the one on Elder’s website.
During my youth it was the Leonard Maltin guides that provided snapshots of the motion pictures people could consider. With tens of thousands of movie guides out there “The Best Film You’ve Never Seen” approaches the appreciation of the art form in a unique and inspiring way. Five stars.
Excerpt from the book: “Ivansxtc is so angry, and there’s nothing commercial about it…It’s like teenage angst, like somebody throwing a temper tantrum, which is fascinating to watch and also really repulsive at the same time. You’re interested but embarrassed.”— Joe Swanberg on Ivansxtc
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
