Hollywood: A Celebration!

For a pictorial stroll down Hollywood's memory lane, cinema enthusiasts will love Hollywood: A Celebration, by David Thomson (Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick), a contributor to the New Republic, the New York Times and other publications. With pictures and brief, informed, sometimes wry commentary, Thomson covers all the highlights and some of the lowlights: the silents of the 1910s and '20s (The Phantom of the Opera; Flesh and the Devil), screwballs of the 1930s (Trouble in Paradise; The Awful Truth), the introduction of sound and then color, the first Oscar, the noir standouts of the 1940s (Crossfire; The Lady from Shanghai), epics from the 1950s (The Ten Commandments; Ben-Hur), sex, drugs and road trips of the 1960s (Easy Rider; Midnight Cowboy), 1970s-style violence (The French Connection, The Godfather; Taxi Driver), 1980s sci-fi (Blade Runner; Tron), Matrix-inspired special effects of the '90s and everything in between. (Oct.)