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Icons in the Fire: The Decline and Fall of Almost Everybody in the British Film Industry

Icons in the Fire: The Decline and Fall of Almost Everybody in the British Film Industry

by Alexander Walker (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2005

    $3.25
Synopsis

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, NOTTING HILL, THE FULL MONTY, BRIDGET JONES' DIARY - all made in Britain, all huge successes, but none financed by British money...Walker's previous volumes, HOLLYWOOD ENGLAND and NATIONAL HEROES, covered the period until 1984. This final volume tells the inside story right up to date of why a nation that produces actors of the calibre of Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Robert Carlyle, Kate Winslet and directors such as Anthony Minghella, Sam Mendes, Stephen Frears, Neil Jordan, Peter Greenaway, Ken Loach and Guy Ritchie cannot sustain a native film industry. Walker's revelations on the iniquities of National Lottery funding of movies - over 200m to date and hardly a profitable film among those so far produced - have been headline news. Walker relates the extraordinary events of the past two decades years through the individuals, the companies and the studios.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 352
 Edition: illustrated edition
 Publisher: Orion
Published: 15 Sep 2005
ISBN 10: 075286484X
ISBN 13: 9780752864846
Book Overview: Alexander Walker was film critic of the Evening Standard from 1959 until his death in 2003. His judgments are based on more than four decades as Britain's leading film critic, biographer and film historian. Cinema is the most popular form of mass entertainment - and Alex Walker one of our best-known writers on film. On HOLLYWOOD ENGLAND the Sunday Times (Dilys Powell] wrote: 'the first serious, but popular account - one understands properly for the first time why Pinewood and Shepperton have never successfully rivalled Hollywood.' Introduced by the novelist Joseph Connolly. ICONS IN THE FIRE has had widespread review coverage: 'ICONS IN THE FIRE is a fitting tribute to the late Alexander Walker, veteran film critic of the London Evening Standard, whose shrewd and witty commentary is matched by a fine sense of moral outrage' Sunday Times. 'Impeccably researched, written with considerable eloquence and thoroughly provoking ... Required reading if you want to know how the film business works, and how often it doesn't, in Britain' Evening Standard. 'Walker's narrative is clear-eyed and merciless' Telegraph. HOLLLY ENGLAND and NATIONAL HEROES are being reissued simultaneously.

Media Reviews
'Walker was one of the few critics with a recognisable voice. It comes through loud and clear in this, the third part of his trilogy... His knowledge was without parallel.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Discussions of films are sparkily incisive, which also makes the book a great way to remind yourself of all the films you want to see.' GUARDIAN 'Orion's reprinting of three of his books provide an opportunity to appreciate [Walker's] uniqueness... Walker was right far more often than he was wrong.' -- David Hepworth WORD 'It's stuffed with good scoops, awful stats and strange memories. Walker was always a ferocious watchdog, and he's as bristly here as ever.' EVENING STANDARD
Author Bio
Alexander Walker is the author of over twenty books about the cinema and its stars, including bestselling biographies of Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Peter Sellers and Audrey Hepburn. He has also written standard works on the coming of the Talkies, a monograph on Stanley Kubrick, and the fullest account to date of the British film industr from 1960 to 1985. He has been the London Evening Standard's influential film critic since 1960 and has been named Critic of the Year three times in the British Press Awards. A prolific broadcaster on television and radio, he wrote and narrated four series of Film Star for the BBC. Alexander Walker was born in Ireland, and educated there, on the Continent and in the United States.