David Thomson (writer)
David Thomson (born February 18, 1941 in London , England ) is a British writer and film critic .
Life
After graduating from Dulwich College , Thomson studied at the London School of Film Technique . Between 1964 and 1971 he worked for Penguin Books . Between 1971 and 1981 he was professor for “Film Studies” at various colleges in England and the USA.
Since 1981 he has worked as a freelance writer and film critic for various English and American newspapers (including The Guardian , The Independent on Sunday , New York Times ) and film magazines (including Sight & Sound , American Film , Film Comment ). In addition, he was temporarily editor of the "Journal of Gastronomy". A huge sports fan, Thomson also occasionally writes about sports. Thomson has lived in San Francisco since 1977 .
In 2010 Thomson curated the retrospective of the 60th Berlinale , which was titled Play It Again…! was about the history of the festival.
Books
Thomson has published about 20 books since 1967. These include a biography of Laurence Sterne , novels (A Bowl of Eggs, Hungry as Hunters), books on film subjects and collections of essays, and biographies of film personalities such as Warren Beatty , David O. Selznick , Orson Welles , Marlon Brando and Nicole Kidman . Thomson's books Suspects and Silver Light are particularly well-known , in which he spins a fictional plot around well-known film characters.
So far, his Laurence Star biography and the novel The Dream of the Green Years have been translated into German.
The Biographical Dictionary of Film
The Biographical Dictionary of Film , the first edition of which appeared in 1975, had the greatest success . Since the 4th edition (2002) the book has been called The New Biographical Dictionary of Film . In a 2010 survey by Sight & Sound magazine among international film critics, the lexicon was voted the best film book of all time.
In its 5th edition, published in 2010, the encyclopedia contains around 1500 entries on film personalities, especially directors and actors. Cinematographers, composers or scriptwriters are only considered in exceptional cases. There are unexpected entries for this. For example, about the late-night talk legend Johnny Carson , the amateur filmmaker Abraham Zapruder , the German shepherd Rin Tin Tin or British television professionals valued by Thomson such as the director Alan Clarke and the screenwriter Dennis Potter . In recent editions, film critics such as James Agee , André Bazin and Pauline Kael have also been included.
The tone is not neutral and sober, but radically personal and partisan. Celebrated directors like John Ford and Federico Fellini reap complete reviews . Directors like Stanley Kubrick , Martin Scorsese , Lars von Trier and Quentin Tarantino , who, according to Thomson, know a lot about films but little about life, are doing little better. In other articles Thomson talks about personal encounters or only goes into one or two films that are important to him.
literature
- Steadycam (Cologne), No. 43 (spring 2002)
(60-page dossier, longer interview with Thomson, texts by and about Thomson, bibliography)
Web links
- Literature by and about David Thomson in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thomson, David |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British writer and film critic |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 18, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London , England |