Focusing on the improvisatory manner in which Disney and his partners turned a fledgling filmic entertainment into a global industry, Barrier's biography ultimately finds Disney an elusive figure beneath his workaholic tendencies and relentless optimism.

Written in readable, jargon-free prose, Naremore's On Kubrick is the state of the art in deep Kubrick appreciation.

Clocking in under 200 pages, Falk's succinct biography displays deft command of the material, delivering a compressed tour through the life and work of the owner of the most recognizble silhouette in film.

This posthumous memoir from the industry's dapper head of the MPAA details Valenti's eventful life, including his poor childhood in Texas, his time in the White House advising LBJ, and his stewardship of the (in)famous ratings association.

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.