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Title details for Cecil B. DeMille by Cecilia de Mille Presley - Available

Cecil B. DeMille

The Art of the Hollywood Epic

by Cecilia de Mille Presley
Mark A. Vieira
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Colossal. Stupendous. Epic. These adjectives, used by movie companies to hawk their wares, became clichélong ago. When used to describe the films of one director, they are accurate. More than any filmmaker in the history of the medium, Cecil B. DeMille mastered the art of the spectacle. In the process, he became a filmland founder. One hundred years ago, he made the first feature film ever shot in Hollywood and went on to become the most commercially successful producer-director in history.
DeMille told his cinematic tales with painterly, extravagant images. The parting of the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments was only one of these. There were train wrecks (The Greatest Show on Earth); orgies (Manslaughter); battles (The Buccaneer); Ancient Rome (The Sign of the Cross); Ancient Egypt (Cleopatra); and the Holy Land (The Crusades). The best of these images are showcased here, in Cecil B. DeMille: The Art of the Hollywood Epic.
This lavish volume opens the King Tut's tomb of cinematic treasures that is the Cecil B. DeMille Archives, presenting storyboard art, concept paintings, and an array of photographic imagery. Historian Mark A. Vieira writes an illuminating text to accompany these scenes. Cecilia de Mille Presley relates her grandfather's thoughts on his various films, and recalls her visits to his sets, including the Egyptian expedition to film The Ten Commandments.
Like the director's works, Cecil B. DeMille: The Art of the Hollywood Epic is a panorama of magnificence-celebrating a legendary filmmaker and the remarkable history of Hollywood.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 16, 2014

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780762455379
      • File size: 87886 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780762455379
      • File size: 87886 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2015

      Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959), Hollywood's "director-general," is best known for his sin-and-spectacle epics and as the director of "Norma Desmond's" (Gloria Swanson) famous close-up in the 1950 Billy Wilder film Sunset Blvd. However, what is missing from that shallow view is DeMille the film pioneer and artist. This volume opens the vault to reveal the man who has been subsumed by popular culture and brings the director-as-artist to the forefront. Coauthors Presley (DeMille's granddaughter and vice chairman, the National Film Preservation Fdn.) and photographer/author Vieira (George Hurrell's Hollywood; Majestic Hollywood) have compiled a gorgeous treasure trove of film stills, portraits, sketches, costumes, and props and interlaced them with Vieira's well-written text and Presley's family histories. VERDICT For anyone interested in early film, costume design, set design, or the history of Hollywood epics, this is an exciting find. For DeMille fans, it is a must-have.--Teri Shiel, Univ. of Connecticut Health Ctr. Lib., Farmington

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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