Stating at the outset that he is uncomfortable with the new title of "the" rather than "a" biographical dictionary, Thomson encourages his readers to compose their own responses.

Unlike most "making of" film books, Pure Imagination, is straight from the maker's mouth, offering the intimacy of a director's own viewpoint.

As this Taschen volume makes clear, the Master of Suspense remains appealing to cineastes young and old, with 50-plus features underscoring his timeless ingenuity.

Author Gwenda Young makes the case that from the silent era to the golden age, Clarence Brown deserves a place among the giants.

Director Ernst Lubitsch, who was idolized by Wilder and Welles, is brought into sharp focus.

The making of George Stevens' Texas-sized epic is recounted in Don Graham's meticulously chronicled book.

As the newly scaled down yet no less comprehensive Taschen book Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made demonstrates, Kubrick was nothing if not a completist.