The Art Book 
A Sudden Flicker of Light
£25.00
There are few greater film lovers than David Thomson who, over fifty years, has built a reputation as one of the wisest and most penetrating voices on the art form. But every flicker of light has its shadow. In this profound reckoning, Thomson confronts the dark side of the movies – responsible for creating an alternate reality and fantasyland that has only deepened the isolation and disconnection of our society over the course of a century. Thomson explores the high and low points of film history with his usual brilliant insight – sharp and arresting readings of movies from Metropolis to Rear Window to The Godfather can be found in these pages. But he also shows the ways in which our love of voyeurism and villainy, and the passivity which the movies further engender, have led to a coarsening not just of a medium, but of the larger culture, including our political life.
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From cinema’s most distinguished and ‘The best writer on film in our time’ (Michael Ondaatje) comes a masterful assessment of the whole sweep of movie history
‘The movies traded on the liberation of secret desires-drive that car as fast as you can; turn your humble abode into a palace; conquer all the mean spirits in the world; be as free and winsome as the Tramp yet as rich as Charlie … Every lowlife can be a Corleone.’
Every flicker of light has its shadow. In this masterful reassessment of the whole arc of movie history, David Thomson, film’s wisest and most penetrating critic, shows us how cinema has entranced and transported us, but also profoundly changed us.
From the earliest days of the first picture shows to the screens of today, Thomson glories in the great movies. Sharp, arresting readings of films from Metropolis to Rear Window, The Godfather to Anora can be found in these pages. Yet there is unease, too, at how cinema suckered us into a fantasy neverland that only looks like life. Hungry for spectacle and happy endings, submitting to voyeurism and villainy, we have let films change the way we experience reality; a habit of passivity that may have even betrayed our culture and our politics.
As Thomson says, ‘This is our history, and our show.’ The result of a lifetime of immersion and reflection, this book is a reckoning and a testament from a writer who sees like no other.
| Weight | 0.57 kg |
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| Dimensions | 24.2 × 16.4 × 3.3 cm |
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| Cover | Hardback |
| Pages | 384 |
| Language | English |
| Edition | |
| Dewey | 791.4309 (edition:23) |
| Readership | General – Trade / Code: K |
